THE GAME OF GOLF

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 250, 18 July 1933, Page 6

THE GAME OF GOLF

America’s Open Winner GOODMAN’S TRIUMPH Strain of Big Match Play (Notes by “Niblick.”) Johnny Goodman, the 23-year-old Omaha amateur, won the .American open championship last month by getting home by one stroke from Ralph Guldahl, the lanky’ 21-year-old Texan, who made such a gallant fight in the fourth round. He had played himself out to a finish, and was too tired to lift a hand. “If the gallery only knew what it means under these conditions,” Walter Hagen said later, “to face a fairway that hardly looks to be a yard wide—to face a green that seems to be about the size of a napkin. I know there have been times I was afraid I wouldn’t even hit the ball at all. This open championship golf is the toughest mental strain or nerve strain that sport knows.” “That goes double,” remarked Bobby Jones. “It was more than I wanted to face any longer. Even-the -reward or thrill of 'winning doesn’t pay for the.suffering.” ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ~ Johnny Goodman is the lad who achieved fame four years ago by eliminating Bobby Jones from the U.S.A, open championship. ‘Last year he was runner-up in the U.S.A, amateur championship, and he is looked upon as the natural successor to Bobby Jones. " 1 ; A Rally Call;

When Johnny. Goodman passed the third hole in the final round he know at this spot he was at least 8 strokes in front of Ralph Guldahl and 9 strokes beyond Craig Wood, his closest pursuers, writes-Grantland Rice. On top of a healthy lead, that opening blast of 4-3-2-a par, an eagles and a birdie, had apparently wrecked all competition. It was only natural from the human side, under these conditions, that Johnny should shift from offence to defence. His main idea at this point was not to throw away a crown he had already won. It was this switch that came near costing the Omaha entry his chance for the title. For after that first brilliant dash he then played the next six holes in even s’s and lost most of his lead before he left the ninth green. From a matter of 3 under par for the first three holes he moved to 6 over par for the next six holes. He saw strokes melting faster than snowflakes under a summer sun. It was Mac Smith’s rally call, Come bn, kid, let’s play some golf,” that helped to check the rapid descent, and after that Goodman met the challenge of the stretch with fine golf and fine courage. He caught himself just in time with Guldahl, Wood, Hagen and Armour, pounding out’their pars and birdies over a hot trail. Goodman has a sound, compact ewing, a trifle on the fast side. He is a firstclass iron player, with a crisp, firm smack. But his chip shots and his’ putting were the factors that carried him thrnng-h. He has a knack of stepping .up and hitting his - chip shots without any wasted time—and this also goes for his putting, He has a. smooth, firm touch, denoting amazing confidence in his abilify to get the ball, dead or hole, any putt under seven or eight feet. . ' Hagen’s Great Challenge. ’ Tommy Armour played one of the greatest rounds of any championship with his 68 in a high wind. Goodman turned on even more steam with his spectacular 66, to lead the field at 54 holes. But it was Walter Hagen’s final 66 that had the big crowd buzzing for hours. For Hagen’s 66 might just as well have been a 63. He just missed a 4ft. putt on the ninth to be out in 31. His out-of- ", bounds on the seventeenth came largely from pressing against the wind to have a chance for a 3. To face two penalty stroke and distance —at this point and then finish with a 66 is proof enough that Hagen is still there. Walter’s deepest pleasure came in beating Gene Sarazen 11 strokes, especially after Gene had suggested irr an earlier article that Hagen should be sitting in a rocking chair looking on. It was for this reason that Hagen paid a boy five'dollars to deliver a rocking chair to Sarazen as he came' up to the eighteenth green, far out of the running. Oraig Wood played the steadiest golf in the field. He stuck with par through almost the entire route, making few mistakes, just missing putts for birdies that would not quite drop. He had fewer recovery shots to play than any of the leaders, but the luck of the green was against him. , . Goodman won with an. aggregate of 257 for'the four rounds,‘and Guldahl played so finely in the fourth round that he only wanted a four-Toot..putt to .tie, but the ball refused to go down. World’s Longest Driver.

Cyril Tolley, the famous British amateur, who has been in America for some years, is considered by English writers to be by far the longest driver in the world, and, better than that, he is straight and steady. Imrd Castlerofse, in a London Sunday newspaper, states that he recently played a round with Tolley and James Braid on the old course at Walton Heath. Off the ninth tee in that round Tollev hit a drive of 340 yards, and at the thirteenth, with no wind behind him, he carried the bunker guarding the green, a carry of just on 300 yards. “Will I get. in-the bunker guarding the green?” Tolley asked Braid on the last tee. Braid replied that no man had ever done that, even’nnder the best conditions. Tolley drove, and his ball finished a yard from the’ bunker—3so yards. Tolley gets his abnormal length by a tremendous arc of swing, controlled till, the very last second entirely by the left hand ; then, at the moment of impact, in comes the right.