A "Fierce Business”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 205, 13 August 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

A "Fierce Business”

World’s Most Notable Golf Contests

SARAZEN ’S ASTOUNDING PERFORMANCE IN BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP.,

Astounding was the achievement of Gene Sarazen when, in in winning the British open golf championship, he broke by two strokes, on the Prince’s course, which is stretched to nearly 7000 yards, Bobby Jones’s championship record score of 285, made at St. Andrews five years ago (says a writer in the Lon-

don “Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News’’). Another interesting statistical fact is that, including the two qualifying rounds, Sarazen completed the 108 holes of the championship in level fours, and without having a solitary six on his card.

I wonder if' the ordinary golfer is able to appreciate what this means. For five consecutive days in varying con-' ditions, mostly favourable, I am bound to say, the new champion battled round this giant’s course, and in the end the average figure for each hole played was precisely four. I remember Jones once telling me that the player who can keep to this magical figure will win any honour, feut events at Prince’s indicate that thia standard is scarcely good enough, for Macdonald Smith kept to fours throughout the four rounds of the championship proper, and was beaten by five shots. A Fierce Business. In the light of Saracen’s victory it would seem that the man aspiring to become a champion will require to revise his estimate of the standard of play necessary to be sueessful. Modern championship golf is so fierce a business—at least Sarazen made it appear so—that none but the player of the highest skill, and of proved physical fitness, has the slightest chance. As regards the new champion’s skill there ean be no question, and as te his physical attainments it is only necessary to glance at his powerful frame to be convinced on this score.

Nature has endowed him with great strength, a gift taxed to the full in the last stretch df the championship. In these vital nine holes, Sarazen palpably weakened, and it was only by making a supreme effort of will that he struggled through without a definite break. “I had begun to wobble, there is no question about that,” he confessed to me afterward.

"None who has not experienced the position,” Sarazen went on, "is able properly to appreciate the terrible strain of holding on to a lead with the pack pounding at your heels. For three days I held on to it grimly, picking up a shot here and there to compensate for those which had gone astray. Jast as I was driving off at the tenth for the last time came the news that Havers, in accomplishing a marvellous 68, had jumped to within three strokes of me. Jnst imagine my feelings; it was then that a curious sinking feeling came over me, and with a couple of quick hooks, and then three putts, I collected three fives, which, in different circumstances, would have been fours. But that previous two at the fourteenth was a godsend, because I saw daylight once again.”

After a pause, Sarazen added, "I never want to go through that experience again; in the past I have always eome up from behind instead of, as at Prince’s, setting the pace and becoming frightened to death lest some of the fellows in hot pursuit may catch you.” When Sarazen flopped into a chair after all was over, his first words were. "Give me a drink: a strong drink.”

The Heavy Strain of It. To the non golfer who imagines that, there ean be no physical or mental strain in strolling pleasantly round a course hitting a ball, these references

to the great strain and a partial collapse will come as a big surprise to

him. But if he had seen Bobby Jones after his last round at Hoylake the hon-golfer would have understood what championship golf means. "It is a torture of mind and body which

I do pot propose again to undergo,” said Jones, and he has kept his word. Circumstances do not permit of Saracen’s adopting this Jcffly attitude; he is a professional, and golf being his living he has to go on whether he likes it or not, though I suspect that, as with Hagen, the glamour surrounding a champion’s career is too intoxicating to be dismissed lightly. Besides, there is a market value attaching to the title of champion which is not to be sneezed at. Some fantastic stories have been put in circulation as to the spoils, in terms of cash, coming to Sarazen by reason of his victory. I should say that £lO,OOO will be the outside figure, a sum which Hagen mentioned to me was what the British championship was worth to him. Financially, things are terribly bad in America, and golf, being in the nature of a luxury, has suffered more than most things. Many people have given up golf because they cannot afford to play, and the gladiators of the game have suffered no less than other folk.

Sarazen has not come through the slump scatheless, but he has managed to save something from the wreckage. There is no doubt •that American champions are in a position to exploit their success in a way denied the British golfer. They receive

large fees for playing with particular types of clubs and balls; they syndicate newspaper articles written by “'’ghosts”?, they give radio talks and make films; they condescend to give lessons not for a miserable 7/6 an hour, but for a fee equal to that of the British professional’s weekly earnings.