BRITISH GOLF.

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 8

BRITISH GOLF.

'['here was a time —prior to the Great War —when the supremacy of British golfers was never seriously challenged by invaders from across the Atlantic or elsewhere. From the late ’nineties on till 1914 the British open golf championship—recognised by general consent as a world championship—was won time and time again by some member or other of the great triumvirate—H. Vardon, James Braid, and J. H. Taylor. There were one or two breaks in their string of successes, but the only foreigner to win the title during this period was A. Massy, a Frenchman, who found Hoylake very much to his liking in 1907. After the war came a great change. The only British golfers (still attached to a British club) to annex the title during the period of over a decade in which the Americans took charge were that mercurial Scot, George Duncan, in 1920, and A. Havers in 1923. The golfing world learned with something like awe of the marvellous performances of a machine-like type of golfer, who, fortified with “ matched ” irons and a cool, calculating mien, applied themselves to the task of winning the trophy for the western side of the Atlantic. These victors were not all American-born. At least two were British. But nevertheless one and all appeared to have developed that mathematical precision which has come to be recognised as the outstanding feature of American post-war golf.

After 1923 the Americans won ten championships in succession, and British golfers began to take stock of themselves. True, they were not unduly perturbed about their position at the losing end in a mere game, but it was realised that if a new technique was entering into golf they might as well learn it. The British professional, who hitherto had been shackled by his duties as club-maker and coach, was given more freedom to participate in competitive play against his equals. He followed the American lead of becoming less of a tradesman and more of a player. However, it is doubtful if the British golfer has yet attained the standard of showmanship practised by his American rival. He is not forever touring the country taking part in exhibition matches. An element of domesticity remains in his golf and in his life generally. It is particularly pleasing, therefore, that, for the second year in succession, the British open gplf championship has been won by a man of the Homo Country. Following Henry Cotton’s record-equalling performance at Sandwich in 1934, A. Perry’s recent win in the same figure must give pleasure to all golfers throughout the Empire. Prom the British point of view, the championship has been all the more gratifying because of the fact that a trio of British golfers headed the list and because (if we may read between the lines of the cabled reports) victory was not won altogether by a system of mathematical calculation. Individual brilliance and courage in adversity have been two factors which completed thp triumph.'