AMAZING GOLFER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23048, 27 May 1938, Page 8

AMAZING GOLFER

IRISH BOY OF 17 $ BRUEN AT ST. ANDREWrJI ELECTRIFYING ROUNp '? | FBOM OUR OWN CORErSPOXBjxt i t " LONDON, May V James Bruen, an Irish boy of 17 fr o ' Cork, was the hero of the Walker team trial matches which were begy! on the Championship course at'%|l Andrews to-day, writes Mr. Geoh? Greenwood in the Daily Telegraph; fci accomplished an electrifying rounder 68, which equals Bobby Jones' amatol record for the course and is one stroke more than the professional record of'(JJ standing, curiously enough, in' : name of another Irishman, W. NdUa of Portmarnock. • ~ , f Bruen is the greatest discovery* ofmodern times in British golf, and M selection for the team to meet America in the international match at.giv Andrews next month is now an absolute certainty. No golfer of his age has e y« played for either country. Even Bobb* Jones was 19 when he first caine to England to play for America. Weighing nearly list., and sft. lOiin, tall, Bruen is as much a gelling gemm as either Jones or Henry Cotton, and it would not be surprising if the l|a| youth, in his quest for fame, achieved a similar measure of success. '

One of the longest hitters in game. Bruen, who plays for aslwh» "draw" on his shots, plateau green at the long fifth (530 yards) with a drive and a No. 3 ir<in% The ball finished 12ft. from the and when he holed the putt for a B eagle 3 i was reminded of Bobby Jones' 3 at the same hole during the 182; Open Championship, which he won, but Jones' putt from the front edge of vast double green was over 100 ft; 1 know, because 1 took the trouble* tr measure it. .

Drove the Tenth Green Bruen drove the tenth green yards) and had another three. In fact from the eighth to the 11th, inclug? e he had four consecutive threes,. but is my view his most spectacular three was at the 17th, the dreaded "road-holp," where you can run up a score of double figures as easily as falling out of & tree Hitting a colossal drive over the corner of the railway sheds, Bruen waj at the foot of the green with a No; f iron, but dangerously near the strategic bunker which, in play through the csn turies, has wrecked many an aspiring champion. Over a veritable switchback Bruen holed the putt for another eaglf three —the bravest and perhaps the luckiest shot I have ever seen played at this heart-breaking hole since George Duncan, in the unofficial championship of 1919, which he won, hit the top'ol the bunker with a full-blooded spoon shot and finished a foot from the flag Carried '-'Hell Bunker" For the past 20 years 1 have seen tfat world's greatest golfers attack the Old course at St Andrews, but none ha> ever made the task look so supreme!) easy as Bruen, who. with the exception of the fifth and I4th holes, never tool a club stronger than a mashie for tbtsecond shot. At the 14th (527 yards) against a strong northerly wind, ht carried the notorious "hell bunker' and the outlying '.'devil's kitchen" trjtli a full brassie shot and finished pin-higl on the right. The run up was a littlf too strong, and h had to be conten 1 with a five. ' ■ . Playing with such, su|>erb confident* and hitting the second shots gr accurately, there seemed no reason wbBruen should not get a three at ever.' hole. There should have been six of thai in a row but for a slip at the J2tli Here he went boldly for a putt af-Seiri?i yards, ran four feet past, and the return —the one mistake"'J ofa* otherwise glorious round. His figiinwere: — SiilP& Out: 44453443 3—& In. 335 3 o 4 4 3 4—34. >