GOLF

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 9

GOLF

THE BRITISH OPEN NOTES ON THE PLAYERS (Writteen for "The Post" by Donald Grant.) In the British amateur golf championship over 250 golfers |>lay against each other by matches of 18 holes.. A few matches are played in the first round in order to arrange for 128 matches m the second round, which is the real commencement of the event. So lavge a number o£ matches among first-class players is always likely to provide a number of surprises. Ine very first cable that has reached us about the present championship contains a surprise and a disappointment. The surprise is the defeat in. the first round of Cyril Tolley', amateur champion of 1920, when he defeated the American Robert Gardner in the final at the thirty-seventh hole. Since that year Talley has been one ; of the best known figures in the golfing world. -Now he has been beaten in the first-round by a young ■ player,- A. K. M'Callum, from the Midlands of England, beaten by 5 and 4. This is the third year in succession that Tolley has disappointed his supporters in the championship. Last year he was beaten in the third round by the young and comparatively unknown American Haley, and in 1926 he went down in the first round to the Oxford University golfer Nail Cain. We begin to ask whether Tolley is: as good as he was a few years ago. His conqueror, M'Callum, as I say, comes from the Midlands. Indeed, he 'is a clubmate of last year's English champion, T. P. Perkins, whose name we shall also notice, I expect, in later cables. Knowing this fact about M'Callum, we shall follow his progress in" the 'championship with the greater interest. Dr. Tweddell, amateur champion of 1927, also a Midlander, was beaten in the second round by Major C. O. Hezlet. This, is no surprise, for Hezlet is good enough to beat anyone, and he had a very successful season last year, but it is a disappointment, because I think most golfers wanted to see more of Tweddell's play. Hezlet has been Irish open and amateur champion, runner-up in the British amateur (1914), and holds other titles. He represented Britain against America in the Walker Cup match in 1924 and 1926. In his duel at St. Andrews in this match with George yon Elm in 1926 he wag 4 down at the eighteenth, but finished allsquare at the thirty-sixth hole. He is an Irishman. , Gunson, the New Zealander, .hailing from' Auckland, has done .well to have beaten the Hon. Denys Scott at the twentieth hole. Denys Scott is one of three well-known golfing brothers, Michael being the best known. Michael was formerly amateur champion of Australia, and I remember when the third brother, Osmund, was runner-up in the British amateur. Denys Scott has twice been champion of Italy, and 1920 saw him champion of the West-of England. It is a worthy achievement to have ousted so fine ~a golfer, i SECOND AND THIRD ROUNDS. J. M'Hugh won the amateur championship of California last October in a field that comprised all the leading amateurs on the Pacific coast, including George yon Elm and Chandler Egan, both former national champions, and Prank Dolp, Californian champion. M'Hugh was previ- • ously champion of California in 1923, co that he is np newcomer to championship golf. Recently he has been touring in Europe with his millionaire employer, and had the two British championships on his programme. It is good to see Holderness playing up to his i usual Prestwick form.' It was at Prestwick in 1922 that he won his first amateur title. After beating M'Hugh he is sure.to bo one of the favourites once again. Lang, who has .defeated Hezlett, the conqueror of Tweddell % is a young Glasgow player about 20 years of age. Last year he won the. Glasgow championship with two fine medal rounds; but, like Andrew Jamieson, when he be&t Bobby Jones in 1926 at Muirfield/he is hardly known in England. . One is glad to'see that Wethered ii «till m at the expense of Oppenheimer, the Oxford golf captain. . The New Zealander Gunson met a sterling golfer m E. Cant, of Carnioustie, the home of Macdonald Smith and of other famous golfers. He has had the satisfaction, however, of reaching the third round oi the championship.