GOLF.

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1924, Page 11 (Supplement)

GOLF.

LONG DRIVING TEST.

I , The long- driving test at Hoylake, on the "off" day of the British open championship competition, was won by John A. Smith, a young amateur who is a member of the working men's golf club at Forest Bow, in Sussex, where lie works as a gardener. By this success he established himself almost indisputably as the most powerful hitter of a golf ball in Great Britain, for lie also secured the event at Sandwich two years ago. He did not compete last season. Each eom- | petitor was allowed four drives, three i of which counted on the condition that they finished on a course 50 yards wide. Smith was one of the comparatively few players who kept all four of his shots within the limited course, ; and his three counting shots measured J respectively 247 yds. 2ft., 244 yds. I lft. and 236 yds. Oft. 2ip., giving an ' aggregate of 728 yds.' ancr 2in. Smith is a slimly-built golfer of about 9stone, whom nobody would expect to be capable of out-driving the giants, but he does it. On this occasion, too, lie drove when the wind had risen fairly strongly against the players. He has never played in a first-class tournament. J. W. Harrison, of Tredegar Park, was second with an aggregate of 720 yds. and oin. and Archie Compston, of N"orth Manchester, who drove when. the head wind was strongest, was third with 716 yds. 2ft. E. H. Wethered, last year's winner, and Cyril Tolley, each had only one drive within bounds, but Tolley's was a very long one—viz., 257 yds lft. This was the second best • individual hit of the day, the longest being 263yd5., by Michael Bingham an Irishman from Killarney. Bingham's three other drives were out of bounds. Walter Hagen, James Barnes, and Gilbert JSTichella, of the American par,ty, competed at the end of the day, but the longest drive by any of them was Hagen's 221 yds.