IRISH GOLF WONDER

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 159, 8 July 1938, Page 11

IRISH GOLF WONDER

JAMES BRUEN’S FORM PLAYED HIMSELF INTO WALKER CUP NOW AIMS AT BRITISH OPEN. Jame? Bruen, the Irish lad who sensationally played himself into the British Walker Cup team, has the British open as his goal—as an amateur. Bruen was set a stiff task in being matched against the British amateur championship winner, C. R. Yates, in the Welker Cup, and he did well to take his American rival to the 35th hole before being beaten 2 and a. P. B. Lucas writes of Bruen as fellows : He stands just over sft. lOin. and weighs close on 14st., but they call him “Small Jim” because his father’s name also happens to be Jimmy. In all these years of going the rounds of the tournaments, amateur and professional, both in this country and America, I never saw a player so clearly stamped with class at so early an age as this young scion of an Irish family in Cork. Looking out of the Grand Hotel across the 18th fairway on the old course at St. Andrew’s, James Bruen, golf’s ambitious young history-maker, told me something about himself and his ideas for the future. No Lessons. “I started to play golf at Cork when I was about 12,” he said. “Although I was born in Belfast, the family soon went to live in Cork. I did not have any lessons, but started in to learn the game myself rather than have people telling me what to do and what not to do. “At school I did not play a lot of golf—only on Wednesday afternoons and on Saturdays and Sundays. “I don’t drink or smoke in tne ordinary way, although if I do well in a tournament, maybe I’ll have a glass or two of champagne. ... It does you good, and it certainly makes you feel good. “I play off a handicap of plus 4 at home, and I can tell you that with all these 18 handicap players about who play to something nearer 12 it »s no easy matter to win our monthly medals. If I am to win I have to do something around 68 to 70. Best Bounds. “Actually I have had a 64 at Cork Golf Club and a 65 at Muskerry, which are my best rounds. No, I would not turn professional unless I thought it would be worth my while to do so; and I’d have to win an open champiorschip before that. “What I think of mainly when I am playing or practising is my left land. If lam using that hand well I can be pretty sure that my game will be fairly good, but as soon as I start getting my left hand too much over the shaft, and pulling it in instead of letting it go out after the ball, I knov. I will go wrong. “I am going to concentrate on the Walker Cup match here in June, and 1 shall not be competing in the amateur championship at Troon. If I did well in it I would be dead tired for the Walker Cup match, which comes on immediately after the championship. “I would not be able to give my best, and what is the good of playing for your country if you do not give yourself up to do all you can to reach your peak when the match comes along? “I shall go for the open championship at Sandwich, the Irish open amateur and probably the Irish open championship as well.” Bradman His Own Secretary. The perpetual building up of big scores is only one of Bradman’s jobs, says a London sports writer. He receives so many letters and Invitations that, crushed down, there would be a 2ft. stack within a week. He feels it essential to answer the majority personally, and works at a typewriter until his fingers are sore. He certainly needs a secretary, and it is hard to understand why he is not provided with one when he must be both social lion and cricketer.