AMATEUR GOLFER'S RECORD

Evening Star, Issue 18808, 5 December 1924, Page 4

AMATEUR GOLFER'S RECORD

BEST OF THE YEA*. [Written by Harry Vardon, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] One of the best performances of which I'ihave read or heard for a long while was the score of 68 which Mr Douglas Grant accomplished the other day at the autumn meeting of the Royal St. Georges Giub at Sandwich. During a long experience I have never wavered in the opinion that Sandwich is the fairest and best test of golf in the country. It is so because no half-scuffled shot ever gains an undue reward here, as it has a chance of doing almost everywhere else in these days of the particularly lively rubber-cored balls. To achieve success every shot has to bo played as it is meant to "be played. There are people who complain that the Sandwich sandhills in places shut out the view of the spot at which one is aiming. It is always good to be able to seo tho objective, and a course of many blind holes is apt to be tantalising; but there are so few blind shots up to the pin at Sandwich that criticism of it in this respect is somewhat finical. And’ the dunes and other natural features have the quality of punishing an indifferent or bad shot in accordance with what it deserves. A really bad stroke hardly ever escapes, as it does so often nowadays on championship links as well osiers famous courses.

It, is this latter fact which is causing modern players, even of the front, rank, to neglect the scientific accomplishment of strokes which once prevailed in the higher walks of the game, ami to substitute for it a pastime of neck-or-nothing hitting and the taking of chances, some of which come off trumps. ■ • j You rannot successfully play this kind of golf at Sandwich. You have to keep straight, or suffer punishment to the extent of at least hall a stroke in the bents or the sandy wastes. There are no pleasant places off the correct path ; you cannot misdirect yonr ball so fortunately as to finish on the fairway of another hole, as at St. Andrews,

You have to hit the shots up so as to carry the tracts of sand and’ sea grass. A half-topped shot has no chance of avoiding its proper fate. Indeed, I do not know anv place where the reward for good play is so consistent, and where the penalties for faulty shots are graduated and administered by Nature with such equity, as at Sandwich. A CHAMPIONSHIP EXPERIENCE.

Consequently we may fairly say that it is the event of a decade which Air Grant has achieved in going round this course in a scoring competition in 68. It is more than that, (or I gather that the record which he equalled was set up by Air Everard Martin Smith thirteen years ago. Air Martin Smith did his score when winning the St. George's Cup competition, which is always decided from the. back tecs. These back tees, which are also used in championships at Sandwich, make the course very long, and I am not sure that they are ever utilised for club meetings or other events. Still, even from the ordinary medal tees the course is long enough for most mortals—the homeward half is almost back-breaking in. its demand for full shots at this time of the year—and Air Grant’s score stands out, perhaps, as the best medal round played by an amateur during 1924. He reached the turn in thirty-two strokes. I happened to do the same in the laat round of the open championship at Sandwich two years ago, and so am in a position to afford testimony to the fairly obvious fact that a man has to be hitting the ball as well as he knows how to hit it in order to accomplish such figures. Personally, 1 set out with some move or less crazy idea that, by playing all the shots perfectly, I might catch, the Americans, who were leading the field at the end of three rounds, and I began with two os—a useful start at holes measuring respectively 440yds and 525yds. The third was my only bad hole going out. Nevertheless, I always feel that it is one of the best holes on the course, although it is blind.

It measures 247yds; consequently it is a ful bang from the lee. There is a guide flag to show you the line, and once you know it it has a charm of its own ajnoug blind holes. There is a big bank imniedifltely beyond the green, so that, as you hit with all your might, you know that you will be safe so long as you keep the ball straight. The bank will prevent it from going too far. All the way to the green is a wild expanse of sand and bents and hills. There are no bunkers round the green, so that unless you are too far off the Hue you have o good chance of testing your putter, even at a range of 50yds. Personally, I did not place ray tee shot near enough, and the hole cost me 4. An outward half of 52 gave me, as events proved, 56 strokes coming home with which to equal Hagen, the ultimate winner. That would' have meant a round of 63. However, somebody come along at this juncture and insisted mi. having a long talk with me at hole after hole, and. my concentration broken, I finished seven strokes behind Hagen. DUNCAN’S GLORIOUS FAILURE.

These facts are mentioned more particularly to show that one may rise to considerable heights when there is a big job to be done, and to emphasise the fact that Mr Grant, with no particular stimulus at the start, did a very fine thing in reaching the turn in 52. Ho began with two pur 4's, and started to get his s’s at the third hole. He had four of them going out, and three more coming home. Clenrly he had a glorious chance of creating a, hairraising record. Ho needed to do the, last two holes in ordinary 4’s .to finish in 66, but took s's, which made his score 68. It was a 5 at the last hole that prevented George Duncan from tieing with Hagen for that championship two years ago. Duncan had gone out in 54. Ho needed to come home also in 54 to tic. It looked impossible, but it camo within the range of possibility when he obtained a 2 at the short sixteenth by laying his tee shot a few feet from the pin. A 4 at the seventeenth left him with 4 for the last hole to equal Hagen’s aggregate. And then his trusted spoon failed him. His second shot to this hole finished on the left of the green; he did not chip dead, and a great effort was frustrated in the last gasp. Similarly it was frustrated when Mr Grant needed a 4 the other day to beat all Sandwich records.