MONEY MATCHES AT GOLF

Evening Star, Issue 19197, 13 March 1926, Page 23

MONEY MATCHES AT GOLF

TOR DECLINE. ARD SOME REFLECTIONS [Written by Harry Vardon, for tho ‘ Evening Star.’] What had premised to bo very interesting money matches at goii: are likely to be cancelled owing to the decision of Archie Compston to stayin America, and the impending departure of Percy. Allis to take up a post as professional at Berlin. Compston and Arthur Havers wore to have met any two British golfers —preferably Abe Mitchell and George Duncan—for £250 a-side, while _ Mitchell hod agreed to oppose Allis in a single for £IOO a-siae. It is a pity that these battles for “blood and iron ” —as I heard somebody describe the struggles for staked sums—should be checked by the insistent call abroad for so much that is good in home golf. Tho money match is splendid training for a young and ambitious professional.

I shall never cease to regard ps the most important event of my career the seventy- two holes match for £IOO a-side which I contested with Willie Park jun., over the North Berwick and Ganton courses in 1899. I had beaten Park by a stroke in _ the open championship of the previous season at Prestwick (ho had missed a putt of 4ft on the last green to tie with me), and ho was soon out with a challenge. It took us the best part of a year to agree upon terms; wo were both aching for the match, but Park wanted part of it to be played at Musselburgh, the home of his famous family, and I did not relish that idea. S had always been treated in a Bporting <■ way by the Musselburgh Siwcl, hut its reputation in cormecn with money matches in which a local golfer was engaged was such that one could not take the risk that seemed to me to be involved. When old Ton] Morris met Willie Park son., there in 1855, the spectators interfered so frequently with Morris’s ball that the referee had to stop the match. . The many miners and others m the neighborhood are intensely enthusiastic golfers, but they are partisans to the backbone, and the visiting golfer wild opposes a local favorite in a big mati h* stands a very considerable chance of being worried completely off h is game. A LUCKY HORSESHOE. Well, we agreed at last to play at North .Berwick—a links which Park knew well—and Ganton. I shall 1 never forget the condition of pent-up ; hope and expectancy in which I ap-i preached that contest. For days be-1 fore it began people seemed to be | talking of nothing' but the golf match, and the limit of embarrassment was reached when, on the evening preceding the start, I went for a walk with my brother Tom. “Big” Crawford, one of the best known of North Berwick caddies, and a rare character in his way, suddenly ap-

peared round a corner and hurled a huge horseshoe at mo. I dodged and just missed it; if it had hit my head, as it looked like doing, I am not sure that there would hare been any match at all. He exE Joined excitedly that ho hod put all is money on me, and wanted to bring mo luck. That, at any rate, was a consolation which subdued wrath. For long-drawn-out • tension, I remember nothing quite like the first hour and a-quartor of that contest. Wo began by hairing ten holes in succession; each of us was on tenterhooks all the while, wondering who would he the first to take the lead. At the eleventh hole, where the spell was broken, a curious tiling happened. Park had the honor, and when I drove my ball pitched plumb on top of his and knocked it forward. We did not see the incident from the tee, but the fore-caddies witnessed it and reported it directly wo arrived on the scene. I had tho next shot and missed it. Then ho replaced his ball in the spot that it had originally occupied, and played the like. Parle won the hole, nut after a terrific struggle I was two up at the end of thirty-six holes. At Ganton, in the second half of the match, I had a kind of joy-day. I could not fail at a putt, nor do anything badly. It was just one of those happy periods whicn every golfer strikes occasionally. I won by eleven and ten—a far more easy victory than ever I expected to gain. A FINE FOURSOME. For capacity to stir the emotions, the second greatest match in which I over engaged was the foursome in which Taylor and I met James Braid and Alexander Herd over four greens —St. Andrew’s Troon, Lytham, and Deal—in 1905. That event also aroused endless discussion, and the crowd at St Andrew’s w'here wo started, was almost aweinspiring. There must have been 10,000 people present. That, at any rate, was tne popular estimate. , What j remember chiefly about that contest concerns the desperatenoss of tho struggle in the first thirty-six holes, and the strength of the partisan spirit that prevailed. At one point, when the English ball began to roll down a slope towards a bunker, there wore cheers from the Scottish supporters in the crowd, followed by groans when the ball stopped 2ft short of tho hazard. Taylor and I were two down at the end of that day, but at Troon we wero in such mood to hit Nio ball divinely that we finished this stage of the contest twelve up—having gained fourteen holes on the day. After that the rest was not difficult. Cannot there be more matches such as these?