GREATEST AMATEUR GOLFER

Evening Star, Issue 18714, 16 August 1924, Page 13

GREATEST AMATEUR GOLFER

A TffIEUTE TO HO JOHN BALI. [Written by Harry Vaedon, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] Amid all the excitement of the; open championship on the Royal Liverpool links at Hoylake, one episode has made its appeal to tlio imagination as no other could do. Mr John Ball has appeared for tho last time in a first-class tournament. Everybody who knows anything at all about tho history of the game must have felt a sentimental interest in this situation, which' may truly be said to mark a milestone in golf. Of recent years Mr Ball has more or less fallen out of the classic contests, although not long ago he proved good enough to win his 93rd gold scratch medal in tho Royal Liverpool Club—93 firsts in one club!—and last season ho took part in tho Welsh championship. I believe that he had an idea of bidding farewell to the great events m which his name has become so famous by competing in the amateur championsliip at St. Andrew’s a month ago. However, his sister was ill at the time, and so he waited to play this week at Hoylake—the course on which he learnt his golf, and on the fringe of which ho was born. How great a player was Mr Ball at his best can be judged by the single process of referring to records._ He secured tho amateur championship eight times—an amazing performance when one considers the accidents of form that are possible in matches of eighteen holes. He was tho first amateur to won the open championship, and here one may interpolate the remark that professionals have always remembered with esteem that, although an amateur who could achieve success then had the right to take the value of the first prize in plate, Mr Ball declined the privilege. Ho asked that the prize should go in money to the leading professional. , Mr Ball scoured the _ St. George s Challenge Cup at Sandwich four times in succession in the early days_ of the event—a record that nohodv is ever likely to equal—and he captured the Irish open championship three times. One could go on for a very long while adding to tho list. In his capacity to win at anv form of the game and in every variety of circumstances he was incomparable in amateur golf. I do not mean to suggest that as a scientific nlaver of shots he was better than Mr Harold Hilton, but his power to conquer was extraordinary. THE PERFECT PARTNER.

As a professional whose life work it has been to study golfing, methods, I should like to pay my tribute to Mr Ball’s skill, apart altogether from the proof of it which is to be found in his performances, I have a particularly happy memory of a foursome in which we were partners at Ganton, in Yorkshire, just twenty-five years ago. Our opponents were the late Lieutenant F. G. Tait and Willie Park, tho match taking place immediately after thfe 72-holes homc-and-home single, in which I was lucky enough to beat Park, my challenger, bv tho comfortable margin of 11 up and 10 to play. Mr Ball was simply magnificent in that foursome. We won bv 5 and 4, and I remember especially the power and control and accuracy with which he hit hisiron shots. It was inspiring to see him take a cleek in liis hand. One knew immediately that a master stroke was about to he made.

His grip was of the kind that people now consider old-fashioned. He had the club deeply in the palm of the right hand, with the knuckles of that hand pointing to the ground, tho left hand adjoining it; hut he was never to be tempted into trying the overlapping, grip. A curious feature of his hold was that he kept the right forefinger off the shaft. If one saw a pupil gripping like tins nowadays one might spend much time coaxing and coaching him to make his grip more in accordance with tho times; but Mr Ball most certainly never needed to alter his principle. To the end ho has remained faithful to it. NO NIBLICK. Another detail in which he was something of a law unto himself was in tho circumstance that he would not carry a niblick. Truth to tell, however, I also had this little peculiarity for a long while—indeed, until I look 9 for a short hole at Musselburgh through getting into a bunker just past the green, and not getting out of it very quickly. In the ordinary way, however, a mashio usually served the purpose very well. The niblick in those days was a rather coarse club, and the article of artistic design known as the mashieniblick, now invaluable for short approaches, had not been conceived. Mr Ball and Mr Hilton were great rivals during a long era. As a scientific shot player I am not sure that Mr Hilton ever had an equal in amateur golf, and the fact that he won two open championships—and very nearly a third—will live in the history of the game. He also secured the amateur championship four times. Still, for sheer constancy of success, Mr Ball was incomparable. Tho situation recalls what my father used to say of ray brother Tom and me: “Tom plays the golf, but Harry wins.” I did not at all agree with him that Tom “played tho golf” any better than his younger brother;, but one cannot argue these points with a father. At any rate, Tom was less successful than Harry, just as Mr Hilton was less successful in amateur championships than his, Hoylake companion, Mr Ball. Now, at the age of sixty-one, Mr Ball lias retired from first-class golf. His has been a wonderful golfing life.