MITCHELL’S GOLF CHALLENGE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3308, 31 March 1926, Page 13

MITCHELL’S GOLF CHALLENGE

WILL HAGEN ACCEPT? (By Harry Vardon, Six Times Open Champion.) It is disappointing to find that there is no acceptance, so far, of the challenge issued several weeks agoj on behalf of Abo Mitchell, who ex-j pressed his readiness to meet any; American golfer in a 72 hole match| over two courses in this country fori £SOO a side. It was generally sup-j posed that several L'nitod States professionals who arc coming over to take part in the British open championship in June would jump at the opportunity of tackling Mitchell in such a duel. Personally, I never felt particularly optimistic on the point. Very likely the match wifi yet be arranged, but the fact is that the American professionals visit our shores for the solo purpose of winning the championship, success in which means a great deal to anybody in the United States. They do not expect to make money here; they are out primarily to gain a title which, with all its traditions, represents the pinnacle of golfing fame. They remark —and obviously in perfect truth —that every one of them spends from £2OO to £4OO on the expedition. They cannot recover this sum while they are here. The first prize in the British open champion- 1 ship is £75, and I have heard it told how Walter Hagen, when he secured his second triumph at Hoylake two years ago, gave his caddie £6O. The assets are realised when the conqueror returns to America. He is the golfing lion of the year in a land that has over a million players and a plenitude of dollars. Still, it is quite possible that arrangements will bo made for a meeting of Mitchell and one of the invaders. American golfers are very generous in the support of their professionals, and no doubt Hagen—to take one example—could obtain plenty of backing for the proposed match.

Gene Sarazen has already offered an acceptance, but he wants the first half of the contest to take place at Miami, in Florida —a place. I remember well because my caddie there insisted on catching snakes for me in the adjoining woods, and leaving mo at frequent intervals to carry on with the business of carrying the clubs. Mitchell, having recently entered into a private engagement, cannot! go to America, and so he is stickingj to the terms of his challenge; that the match shall take place in Britain. Climatic Considerations. This is net necessarily a handicap to the Americans. When they come here every year in June, they find conditions very like those that prevail at the pleasantest time of the

your in America —at any rate, from a golfing- point of view. Britishers who play in the United States in the summer arc —owing to the intense heat —at a much greater disadvantage than Americans who play here then. , It is perhaps sufficient Evidence Vhat our chief rivals do not suffer much from our climate that they have secured four of the last fivecontests for the open championship. 1 Indeed, I know some good judges of (the game, including ex-champions, i who believe that if Hagen takes up ; this challenge, ho will win. He is a I very sound judge as to the best thing to do in an affair of business, but I should not be surprised to see him enter into the fray. With all his long-headedness, ho has in his : character that touch of imagination which welcomes the sporting ithancc, and if he feels fit for the ,fight .no doubt he will undertake it with the backing of which he is assured as America’s greatest native-born professional. i It would be something in the nature of a return- match to that in which Hagen engaged in America j three years ago. Hagen won on that occasion by 2 and 1 after having fought an uphill fight all day. He stood four down with nine to play, but served six of the next eight holes, i Still, it was not a satisfactory test. Its history has never been explain- - ed, but, as I understand it from first hand information, the original condli tion was that the players should meet over 72 holes —36 at West-chester-Biltmore, New York, and 36 holes on the Chicago course. At the last moment, the Chicago “leg” of the match had to bo abandoned, and so the whole affair went off at i Westchester-Biltmore tn that way which is known as “half cock." Players of Parts. A meeting of these giants of match-play golf on proper terms would be full of Interest. They did meet in an International team match at Gleneagles in 1921. That was a game of eighteen holes, and they halved, so that it proved nothing. A little while ago, a responsible critic described Hagen as "the worst golfer who had won the British championship for many years.” This is frankly nonsense. It is true that Hagen made a good many bad shots when he achieved his success atHoylake in 1924 —Providence only knows what he would have done if he had not holed a long putt for a 5 at the ninth hole in his last round —but it is my considered opinion that a golfer with a more effective manner i of swinging the club has never been I seen in this country. It may not be the essence of grace and poetry on the links, but it is as true as steel. Pew people could £ave played the mashie-lron shot which Hagen played to the seventeenth green at Hoylake—it finished three yards from the pin on a green encircled with horrors —for It demanded consummate skill as well as supreme confidence. And he knew that a slip would be fatal. Still, we have an immensity of faith in Mitchell. He has -lost only two 36 holes matches in this coun-try’-—to George Duncan and Archie Compston, both at Gleneagles. In contests of such measure he has beaten James Barnes, Joseph Kirkwood, Edward Ray, C. A. 'Whltfcombo, Joshua Taylor and Duncan. No American champion has ever lowered his colours here, although he has met three —Hagen, Barnes and Jack Hutchinson. He is well justified of his challenge.