BOBBY JONES' GOLF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19717, 17 August 1927, Page 15

BOBBY JONES' GOLF.

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP.

REMARKABLE DISPLAY GIVEN.

"THE COURSE SEEMED KIND."

The victory of Bobby Jones in the British open golf championship was a memorable one and was outstanding for a remarkable 68 on the first day of play. " The weather conditions wero very good to-day. with soft ground and no wind, and the field seems to be taking full advantage of the favourable break," wrote the winner to an English paper after his great opening performance. "My round to-day was most useful for ine, and it left me wondering what will happen to mo in the rounds to come. I have played now in 11 national open championships, and to-day was the first time I have ever broken 70. The Old Course seemed so kind to me to-day that I know something will happen to-morrow. "That golf is a queer game was demonstrated to me conclusively to-day. On Monday and Tuesday I was exceptionally well pleased with my play from tee (o green, but I could hot, score well to-day. I always felt uncomfortable when driving or playing an iron shot., but my lucky putting saved me at the second hole. Holing of Long Putts. "I drove into a bunker and failed on the first shot, but finally holed a 10-yard putt for live. After that things seemed to break well for me. "A long one that went in on the fifth was the longest putt 1 have ever holed. 1 should really have been very thankful to get down in two from where I was. When it went in there was nothing I fould do about it, but it was lucky. "On the thirteenth I played a miserable second shot, and a 10-yarder found the cup for four when I might have been much worse. "It seems that on some days mistakes do not involve penalties, and on others (he least error will be ruinous." Jones' Round of 68. Low scores were as plentiful as blackberries in autumn on the Old Course here to-day, when the 108 golfers who had survived the qualifying stage played their first round, wrote an English critic at the conclusion of the first day's play. The most beautiful berry was provided, very appropriately, by the holder and favourite for the title, Bobby Jones, the famous American amateur, who put in a marvellous round of 63, and in doing so tied with the record for the course set up by George Duncan in the £I2OO tournament in 1922. ,

One could go into superlatives over Jones' golf. His was one of the best rounds ever played at St. Andrews, and certainly the best ever played by Jones himself on a British course. Admittedly, the condi tions were easy, the wind being negligible and the greens, slowed by recent rain and carrying a good coat, all in favour of bold putting. But, even so, Jones' golf was wonderful, sheer magic at times, so easy and effortless to look at, so commanding in execution. Surely there has never been such a marvellous "streak" of golf as Jones produced for the last five holes of the outward half. Five holes reeled oft in 15 strokes, or five strokes under the par total, and this on one of the world's most testing courses. Play in the Second Bound. Bobby Jones continued to be a cruel pacemaker on the Old Course in the second round, said the same writei the following day. The rules governing the tournament decreed that all players 15 strokes or more behind the leader at the end of 36 holes this evening would be eliminated, and as Jones followed his score of 68 yesterday with a 72 this afternoon, for a half-time total of 140, he doomed many great golfers to a sojourn ii tin shadows Bobby failed by four strokes to reach his wonderful 68 of yesterday but that was scarcely to be wondered at consider ing the occasion, the faster greens, and the fact that 6000 occasionally unmanageable spectators followed him all the way, and that the numbers must have been swelled to fully 10,000 by the time he reached the eighteenth hole. The multitude who saw the finish of Jones resembled the crowd watching a football match.