GREAT GOLFERS

Evening Star, Issue 18239, 2 April 1923, Page 5

GREAT GOLFERS

VARDON’S TWENTY YEARS AT SOUTH HERTS. TRIUMVIRATE BOWS TO YOUTH. Tho fact that Harry Vardon has just completed twenty years’ service as professional to the youth Herts Club, Totteridge, marks an epoch in golfing history (writes a correspondent of the London ‘Observer’). It signifies, no matter how much \vc may regret it, the passing from a paramount position of three of the world’s most famous players—Vardon, Taylor, and Braid—whose prowess at Die game will bo handed down from generation to generation, ami for just so long as men go on wielding a golf club.* There never lias been, and I do not suppose there ever will be again, three men who dominated the game of golf so completely as these men did. Competition is now too fierce; there lias boon a levelling up of tho standard of play, with the result that champions are dethroned with much the same frequency and ease as monarchs. Besides, the game is now universal, and more men are struggling for a share of tiie spoils. It is little short of marvellous that these throe men should, for a period of twenty years, have kept the hall at their feet. From time to time there have been onslaughts from many' quarters, but always have they' been beaten off, leaving the throe masters in a more impregnable position than ever. But the day has now arrived when these contemporaneous giants recognise that age must give way' to youth, and they' have reluctantly 7 surrendered their stronghold to the new 7 experts who have .arisen not only 7 in this country but in America as well.

They have not capitulated without a struggle. As late as last, year’s championship at Royal St. George’s both Vardon and Taydor made a superhuman eliort to revive the claims of the past. But the pace killed, and, in racing language, they failed to slay the course. Braid, in fact, fell at the, first fence, for lie missed qualifying by 7 a single stroke. That was a bitter disappointment, not only 7 to Braid himself, but to the triumvirate as a body. At one stage, with Vardon and Taylor playing with all their old genius, wc had visions of past triumphs. But they (haltered only In deceive. Taylor reached the eighth hole in phenomenal figures, only to collapse at the ninth, a process he continued for the next five holes. ’ Ho had shot his bolt. Yard.m went out in tho hist round fully determined to make a courageous bid for victory. He got one hole further than Taylor, but the story of the end was the same. Vardon‘s score for the nine holes was four under 4’s, which no one had equalled during tho whole of the championship. But the acid test came in the play 7 of those fatal last nine holes. The strain was too much ; the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. One thing was clearly proved : that whatever happens to the, human frame one’s skill suffers but little deterioration. STANDARD OF PLAY.

This brings me to the point upon which there is much disagreement—whether the, standard of golf as exhibited to-day by the recognised experts is as high as that displayed by Vardon, Taylor, and Braid when ‘at the zenith of their fame. Personally, I should say that it is not. It is an impossible matter to determine, but I am of opinion that if the present-day champions of the game were compelled to perform with the old gultie hall there would be a marked difference between the results as compared wilh those obtained by Vardon and his like when there was no other typo of ball to hit. In those days Ja miss-bit was properly punished; now, with the ball that is wonderfully responsive, a miss-hit is often ns good as a better. In other words, there were fewer bad shots played than there aro now. 1 have morn than once heard Vardon say, in no ungenerous spirit, when watching the golf of others, some whoso fame was perhaps ephemeral : “By Jove, if that had been a gallic it wouldn’t have gone twenty yards!” Instead of which, a halfsmothered, badly-timed, wholly indifferent shot lias covered a space of 200yds in the right direction. There is no doubt that the rubber-cored ball has helped to bridge the gap between genius on the one side and plodding mediocrity on the other. Whore is the golfer who can play those long iron shots with the unerring accuracy of Vardon when ho was at his prime, or the man who can pitch with such deadly effect as Taylor once did? At their own particular department of the game they were wizards. There is no such sustained brilliance, extending over a period of years, among the golfers of to-day; maybe an occasional phenomenal round, and then the drift back lo normal conditions. 1 would say that the golf of these three great men, when at the pinnacle of their careers, cannot be excelled, and certainly nothing comparable to it, has been witnessed since the toll of years began to make their'infallible mark. * Duncan, Mitchell, Barnes, Hagen, Hutchison, Ray, Sarazen, and Kirkwood are all wonderful golfers in their way; but most of them trill be forgotten when the names of Vardon, Braid, and Taylor arc still evergreen. And Vardon, the “primus inter pares," will go down to posterity as the most graceful golfer of all time, whose poise of body and rhythm of swing were a perfect joy to behold. PAGE BOV AND CROW-SCARER. The story of Vardon's career as a golfer roads like a romance. He did not, like nearly all firstclass golfers, start life as a caddie, all hough he did carry clubs occasionally at bis home in Granville, Jersey. His first veal job in life was as a page boy at one of the big houses in the island. Then lie went on the land in tile capacity of crow-scarer, and, in order to make the work a little more entertaining, he planned a course of four holes, one at each corner of the field. In the intervals of frightening away the thieving birds he played round the course, with implements illsuited to the purpose, all day and every day, endeavoring lo establish a new and wonderful record for these said four holes. Gradually he developed that glorious natural swing that millions of golfers have in vain tried lo copy. In those early days Vardon had no preconceived notions about golf us a means of livelihood, and the only occasion in which he look the game at all seriously was during the four public holidays of the year, when ho played in local competitions. It was only when his brother Tom went to England and won the stupendous sum of £5 that Harry’s ambition to become a golfer was tired. Ho became a professional at tlie age of twenty, being appointed to the Ripoa Club, where he found so little to do in i the way of golf that he occupied his time in going on shooting expeditions with the i local gamekeepers. Six years later he I started upon his victorious career ot boating everybody and winning everything. Because of Hie inability to keep up with him lie became known among his brother professionals as the “ Greyhound.” It was an apt alias, because for 1 two years—lß9B-99—playing almost every! day, his golf was so phenomenal that he never made a bad shot and scarcely an indifferent one. Before he went lo Tol.teridge, presumably his permanent home, lie had won three championships, and lie has won three since. In latter years one | phase of the game has troubled him severely —the putting. Old Tom Morris was I known as “ the misser of short putts,” but j Vardon surely will share with him a title that recalls many painful memories. In l Vardon’s case the trouble was psycbological rather than physiological—a fear that, he could not hole the putt. How many > hundreds of strokes that mental attitude \ to the short putt has cost him it would be | hard lo say. But every one must have produced an agony of mind that is un-1 imaginable. It is a wonderful thing that I so *real a personality in Hie world of golf should have beet) identified with South i Herts for two decades, especially when it, is considered that Vardon has received many templing offers. I