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Otago Daily Times, Issue 22607, 26 June 1935, Page 7

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FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND SMITH IN BRILLIANT FORM (United Press Association.)' (Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON. June 24. In the open championship Macdonald Smith leads the first qualifying ronnd with 66, beating the Gullane course record, and Saynor is next with 68. Other scores include Lacey, Alliss, Mahon 70, Padgham, Oke, Brews, Kenyon, Hartley, Davies, J. J. Busson, R. Whitcombe 71, Ball (America) 72, Hodson, Holland, Denny, Easterbrook, Ezar 73, J. H. Busson 74. On the Muirfield course Burton (70) leads, with Lees, Cotton 71, Kirkwood 72, Compson 73, E. A. Whitcombe, M'Lean, Boomer, King 74, Dailey 75, Nolan, Gadd, Jarman 76, Mitchell, Pickard (America) 77, Little 78, Herd 80, E. R. Whitcombe,. Garnett 82. Half the field plajed on Gullane and the remainder on the Muirfield courses. This will be reversed to-morrojv, after which the first 100 nd all tieing for the 100th place will participate in the competition proper, which will be begun at Muirfield on June 26. Gullane measures 660<tyds, and bogey is 74. Muirfield measures 6800yds, and bogey is 78. The American, Macdonald Smith, who has knocked at the door of the British Open Championship for the past 10 years, had the most brilliant first qualifying round. His 66 was 10 under the scratch score. His driving and approaching were so accurate that he only twice faced a long putt. He had only two s's, one 2, and six 3's, and the rest were 4's. ' The 70 of Alliss was convincing, as it was attained despite several visits to the rough. Lawson Little drove a terrific distance. Nevertheless, he had to work hard to keep below 80. He runs some risk of not qualifying. _ , Burton, who leaped from obscurity to fame in a single season, is a purely selfmade Lancashire golfer, who began as a caddie, and is now one of the longest and most accurate hitters in first-class golf. He had the best score over the actual championship course.

Cotton gave an impressive display. He was only one stroke behind, along with Lee, the Yorkshire champion.