GOLF.

Southland Times, Issue 20526, 30 June 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

GOLF.

(By

“Cleek.”

Aug. 30—Britain v. America, Walker cup International, Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, 111. Sept. 10—American Amateur Championship, Brae Burn Country Club, West Newton, Mass. Sept. 24—American Ladies’ Open Championship, Virginia Hot Springs, Va. Oct. 10—20—N.Z. Open and Amateur Championships, Balmacewan, Dunedin.

An off-day at Otatara to-day. Club championships looming up Bogey match on Queen’s Park to-day. Ladies’ L.G.U. matches on Monday and Thursday next.

An eclectic match was played by the Queen’s Park ladies on Monday, Mrs Clow, with a nett 79, being the winner.

C. H. Fawcett, formerly of Melbourne, is the new amateur champion of New South Wales. He has been playing brilliantly in Sydney for some months past. R. K. Lee Brown, who was runner-up, played No. 1 for New South Wales in the Kirk-Windeyer Cup singles at Miramar last February and gave the New Zealand amateur champion, Sloan Morpeth, a severe drubbing. We have had a good deal of rain during the past fortnight, and local courses are fairly wet but not nearly so bad as many in the north. In Wellington, for instance, many fairways on the courses are so waterlogged that players are teeing up for shots through the green. Rufus Stewart, open champion of Australia, competed in the American open championship at Chicago last week, but did not get beyond the first *wo rounds. The rules of the championship provide that after two rounds have been played all but the first 60 must retire. Stewart did not score quite well enough in the first two rounds to get a place in the first sixty and dropped out by the operation of the rule. Another who was compelled to retire for the same reason was Archie Compston, the British professional who has been much in the limelight, recently. Walter Hagen did some remarkable “hustling” after the British open championship at Sandwich. He played a match at Richmond (London) and next day was playing at Dublin. On the following day he was back at Gooden Beach (Sussex), having travelled a thousand miles in the three days. Then he went to Paris to play Aubrey Boomer, and on to Berlin to play Percy Alliss, the British professional, who is now attached to the big Berlin golf club and who did so well in this year’s open championship. From Berlin Hagen went on to Vienna, where he gave the Austrian golfers an exhibition of his skill. He was still travelling when the last mail left Home, engaged, evidently, on a lightning tour of the principal European capitals. The great Walter is “some hustler.” As usual, bogey was well beaten in the four-ball match played at Otatara last Saturday. The results were:— J. E. Cuthill and J. A. Doig ... 6 up. A. E. Smith and H. Smith ... 4 up. R. J. Gilmour and T. S. Tomlinson 4 up. D. Cochrane and W. Yates . . . 4 up. G. Tangney and J. K. Garrett . . 4 up. As is also usual, nearly all the pairs thought they should have done better, and in so thinking some of them were probably right. The old Colonel, steady as he is, has no chance when he is required to play the better of two balls to each of which he concedes full handicap. The four-ball bogey is not a match in the real sense, but it is a very pleasant relaxation and it brings seniors and juniors together. Cuthill found Doig a very useful partner. Doig made good use of his strokes and holed a mashie pitch or two that staggered “the Colonel” rather badly. Doig has not yet succeeded in playing a stroke round good enough to reduce his long handicap, but in match play, owing to the number of strokes he is entitled to on the card, he has plenty of opportunities. The American open championship this year led to another of those titanic conflicts with a professional of which Bobby Jones has fought so many. This time his opponent was Johnny Farrell, a handsome Irishman, and one of the greatest players and most consistent winners in the States. Farrell has been due for the championship any time the last five or six years. This year the event was decided on one of the courses of the Olympia Fields country club at Chicago and at the end of the 72 holes of the championship Bobby Jones and Farrell were equal with a score of 294. The rules of the championship provide that in the event of a tie another 18 holes must be played, but at the end of this additional round Jones and Farrell must still have been equal and another 18 holes were played. At the conclusion of this round the advantage lay with Farrell by a single stroke, the score being: Farrell 143, Jones 144. This was the great struggle of 1925 over again. In that year Jones tied with Willie Macfarlane at Worcester with a score of 291. They played an extra round and each finished in 75. Another round was necessary and Macfarlane completed the 18 holes in 72 to Jones’s 73. Bobby Jones also played off a tie with R. A. Cruickshank at Inwood in 1923, but 18 holes settled it, Jones winning in 76 to 78. The point about these championships is, of course, that while Cruickshank appears in 1923, Macfarlane in 1925 and Farrell in 1928, Jones is there all the time. Since 1922 Bobby Jones’s record in the American open is: 1922 .... Second 1923 .... First 1924 .... Second 1925 .... Equal First 1926 .... First 1927 .... Eleventh 1928 .... Equal First In these years he also competed twice for the British open championship and won both times, in 1926 at Lytham and St. Annes with 291, a score that had been done only once before, and in 1927 at St. Andrews with 285, which broke all records and is likely to stand for many years. No other player has a championship record to be compared to this. Hagen's is a long way behind, and, as Archie Compston says in an article in the latest issue of the Golf Monthly, Bobby Jones is in a class by himself as a score player. However, more of the American open, Bobby Jones and Johnny Farrell next week. BRITISH LADIES’ OPEN. MDLLE LE BLAN’S VICTORY. A PLUCKY FRENCH GIRL. The British ladies’ open championship at Hunstanton followed hard on the heels of the British open at Sandwich. There was a great entry, including the holder, Mdlle. Simone Thion de la Chaume, Miss Glen-na Collett, the American star, and the leading British ladies with the exception of Miss Joyce Wethered and Miss Cecil Leitch, who do not now take part in the open championship. From France also came Mdlle. Manette le Blan, and, though she had reached the semi-finals last year, nobody paid much attention to her or included her among the probable winners—at least not till the championship rounds were well advanced. By the worst of bad luck the draw brought Miss Collett and Mdlle. de la Chaume together in the first round, and despite a bitterly cold wind a big gallery followed the match. The holder of the title opening the proceedings by holing her chip shot for a birdie 3 at the first hole, but Miss Collett took the second and the third was halved. A 3 at the fourth put the Fren«x girl one up again. Then followed two halves. A win in 4 at the seventh squared the match for Miss Collett, and though she lost the eighth (whfere she took a calamitous 9) she won the ninth and the match turned square. At the tenth Miss Collett got the lead for the first time and increased it to two at the twelfth. Mdlle. de la Chaume won the thirteenth, but the American was 2 up again at the fourteenth and 3 up at the fifteenth. Miss Collett took 4 to the sixteenth and lost it. but won the seventeenth and the match 3 and 1. It was a good match, but Miss

Collett’s length gave her a marked advantage. How well Miss Collett can hit may be judged from the fact that at a 500-yard hole she was up to the green in two strokes. At the fourteenth (221 yards) Miss Collett was in the middle of the green with her tee shot. Though she was obviously tired in the afternoon Miss Collett had little trouble in defeating Miss Shirley Lamplough 7 and 6. In the first and second rounds there were some hard matches but no surprises, except the defeat of Miss Maude Hunnewell, who was expected to go far, by Mrs A. G. Johnston (London) runner-up in the French championship last year. On the second day Miss Collett defeated Mrs Temple Dobell, who as Miss Gladys Ravenscroft, won both the British and the American ladies’ open championship some years ago. Mrs Dobell is now more interested in what she calls her mixed foursome, two little boys and two little girls, than in golf but still plays a good game. Miss Collett won 4 up and 2 to play, after doing the nine holes out in 37. In the fourth round Miss Collett went down to Miss Mabel Wragg (Sheffield). It was a dreadful day. The players had to contend not only with an • icy gale but also with drenching rain. They were soon soaked through and chilled to the bone. The conditions were altogether too much for the American, while Miss Wragg showed an admirable indifference to personal discomfort and the difficulties caused by the hurricane. The score showed what the weather was. Miss Collett took 48 to the turn, with three sixes and an eight in the tally. Mss Wragg’s score was 47, with five sixes. Miss Wragg won 3 and 2 and that was the end of America’s “hope.” Completely beaten by the frightful weather, Miss Collett took her defeat cheerfully and said that she would return and try again. The fourth and fifth rounds also saw the disappearance of other bright stars whose chances of winning were considered favourably. Miss Enid Wilson (ex-girl champion) beat Miss Doris R. Fowler (Westward Ho) one of England’s finest players. Miss Joy Winn put out Miss Molley Gourlay, who was the favourite of the

field, particularly after the elimination of Mdlle. de la Chaume. Mrs Dorothy Campbell Hurd beat Miss Doris Chambers (exopen champion) 6 and 5. And just about this time people began to notice that little Manette le Blan was winning her matches by consistently good golf, in which her capacity to get a long way with two shots was very much marked—and on the Hunstanton course ability to hit two long consecutive shots was a great asset. In the fifth round the French girl beat Miss Joy Winn 5 and 4; Miss E. Wilson beat Miss Corlett 3 and 2; Miss S. Marshall (Sandy Ixidge) beat Miss M. Wragg (Miss Colle:: s conqueror) 5 and 3; and Miss J. Fowl r beat Mrs Dorothy Campbell Hurd (U.S.A.) 3 and 2.

In the semi-finals the matches were gruelling. Mdlle de Blan was opposed to Miss E. Wilson, and the English girl played so well that she was 3 up with only 6 to go. Then she began to falter, and the French girl, seizing her chances, squared the match at the seventeenth and then finished it off with two magnificent shots to the eighteenth green, where a 4 gave her a win and the match one up. Miss Marshall also won her match one up, and, like Mdlle. de Blan, distinguished herself by hitting her second right home to the green at the eighteenth. Thus the final was narrowed down to England and France, but in the persons of two ladies whom very few would have picked at the beginning to reach the final. None the lees both had earned their honours and earned them well, and in the final they fought out a ding-dong battle over a wind-swept

The morning round was nip and tuck, but both girls obviously were somewhat suffering from stage fright as they missed i a number of short putts. However, they j finished all square at the end of the eighteenth hole. Mdlle. le Blan won the first I hole of the afternoon round, but the turn , ing point came at the sixth, where she holed a fifteen-yarder to become 2 up, and I this spark released a flash of brilliance that j resulted in scores of 3,3, 5,4, 5, and left ' her 5 up. Here Miss Marshall rallied bravely and fought her way back, to become only 2 down at the sixteenth. At this point the gallery became frantic with excitement and rooted hard for Miss Marshall to even up the score, but she had used herself up and badly sliced her drive at the sixteenth to lose the hole and the championship. Mdle. le Blan’s victorious march through the tournament was all the more admirable in view of the fact that she lives in Lille and has little opportunity to compete against high calibre players like most English girl players. Mdlle. le Blan, who is a pupil of Arnaud Massey, Is a vivacious girl who strides after her ball vigorously and whacks it hard. She is email and light, but so good is her swing that, she gets great distance, and she won her match in a tempest of wind and rain by good golf. She was a popular successor to Mdlle. Simone Thion de la Chaume, who was on hand to congratulate Manette when she sank the winning putt. THE BRITISH OPEN. WALTER HAGEN’S TRIUMPH. COURAGE AND DETERMINATION WIN. London papers to hand during the week contain full reports of the British open championship played at Sandwich on May 9, 10 and 11. The cabled reports were very meagre, and we may begin now by giving the list and scores of those who finished in 310 or better:—

In the end it was Hagen’s championship, but at the start the central figure was Jose Jurado, from the Argentine. Jurado is one of the smallest men in the front rank of golf, possessing neither stature yf weight. He has a perfect swing, however, and even the strong and bitterly cold northerly that blew over the St. George’s course when the first round was pleved failed to upset him and he retained both the length and accuracy he had shown m the qualifying rounds, which he headed with scores of 69 and 75. In the championship he followed up a fine 74 in the first round with a superb 71 in the second. This gave him 145 for the two rounds and he was three strokes ahead of W’alter Hagen, who began with a 75 and followed it up with a 73. In the third round Jurado showed signs of unsteadiness, and at the 18th took four strokes from the edge of the green to finish in 76 when he should have had 73 or 74. In the fourth round he broke down. He got under his tee shots and lost his putting touch, and after his exhibition of brilliant golf in the earlier stages his 80 in the last round was really pathetic and everybody felt sorry for him. His collapse was another illustration of the terrific strain entailed in playing four stroke rounds on a severe course for the world's big prizes. Jurado cracked under it, as many others had cracked before him and will crack again in years to come.

Even while Jurado was monopolizing the attention of the gallery in the first and second rounds there were skilful observers who scented danger from Walter Hagen. The golf correspondent of the London Times, who is Mr Bernard Darwin, veteran British amateur and Walker Cup player,

was deeply impressed with Hagen in the qualifying rounds. ‘lf there be a more dangerous man in the field I do not know his name.” wrote Mr Darwin. “He seems very confident, without exuberance, and he is hitting the ball beautifully. He is playing the brand of golf that only a very few men can play for four rounds of a big course, and he is playing it easily and comfortably.” With 75 on the first day and 73 on the second, Hagen lay 3 strokes behind Jurado when the third day began, and now the third and fourth rounds had to be played on the one day. The struggle had reached the crisis. With Hagen on the 148 mark was hi.-, compatriot, Gene Sarazen, while Archie Compston, who had thrashed Hagen unmercifully in a 72-hole match a few days before, was one stroke behind with 75, 74—149. It was generally recognized that the championship lay with these four and that Compston was the only British ’hope.” In the morning round Hagen showed in the highest degree the qualities which have made him famous in the world of golf. “He was looking particularly solemn, resolute and almost dour,” wrote Mr Darwin, “a mien that presaged infinite danger to everybody else.” He was out in 33 When he turned for home he made some mistakes, but in most instances recovered with characteristic boldness and finished “like a lion” in 3,4, 4, for a great 72. Jurado, as already stated, needed 76 for the third round. Compston met disaster at the second hole. It is a tolerably easy 4, but when he was bunkered from the tee Crompston essayed to get the green instead of making sure of getting out. He hit the ball hard into the face of the bunker and paid the penalty. The hole cost him 7, and it was only great golf, magnificent golf after such a nerve-shaking experience, that enabled him to finish in 73. Sarazen also was round in 73 after taking 6 for the first hole, and so with three rounds played the position of the leaders was:— Hagen 220 Jurado 221 Sarazen 221 Compston 222 In the fourth round Jurado crashed apd the crowd raced after Hagen. The American did nothing sensational when he played the first seven holes in 4,4, 4,5, 4,4, 5, but he sank a good putt for 2 at the eighth and was down in 4 at the ninth so that he was out in 36. He was now set. There was a possibility of trouble at the fifteenth where his second left him under the face of a bunker. He made a ‘Hagen recovery,” dropping a mashie-niblick shot within four yards of the hole and banging the putt in. A 3 at the sixteenth, a 4 at the seventeenth (very nearly a 3i and a 4 at the eighteenth finished what Mr Darwin described as ‘‘a great round greatly played,” and Hagen added another 72 to his tally, giving him 292. Compston and Sarazen played great rounds of 73 each, but Hagen’s 72 gave them little chance. Compston made heroic efforts for the cause of British golf and showed grit and nerve all through, but Hagen was not to be denied. And the American’s manner of winning won the admiration of all. Mr Darwin’s comment was: “It was a very great win and showed what amazing courage, vitality and recuperative power Hagen possesses. Any other man would have been at least temporarily crushed by that fearful beating from Compston only a short while ago. To Hagen it only acted as the spur. There are other golfers as good as he is, and one perhaps better; but as a fighter he is in a little class all by himself.” That is a great tribute from a writer who weighs his words. The reference to the “better golfer” is, of course, to Bobby Jones. In the Daily Telegraph Mr George W. Grenwood wro*e:—"This is Hagen’s third triumph in the championship, the first being obtained on the same links six years ago, and the other at Hoylake in 1924. But in view of his wholesale defeat in the recent match with Compston, the memory of which can never be altogether effaced, today’s victory must be regarded as the most wonderful in Hagen’s remarkable career in world golf. The laugh is now with Hagen, more especially when, in certain quarters, it was prophesied that he was no longer the great personality in international contests, and that his golf had lost its magic touch. W e have seen all the old magic come back, even supposing that it had ever been lost, and as regards pluck and courage in fight ing through desperate situations such as we have witnessed in this championship, he is the same Hagen, indomitable of spirit and will.” Hagen received the championship trophy from the hands of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the captain of the Royal St. George’s Club. The Prince had followed the play throughout the greater part of the day as one of the gallery. “Overseas entries have . added keen competition to our open cham- I pionships,” said the Prince, in presenting I the cup. “We are getting a little jealous, but always want the best man to win. We 1 hope the overseas golfers will continue to come until, as the” sa z : n America, we arc able to ‘put one c on them.” In response to calls of ‘Speech! Speech!” Hagen said that he “had been lucky to win, very lucky indeed,” and for his part, “he would certainly return and compete again.” NOTES. In the last eight years Americans have won the British open championship seven times. Walter Hagen has three wins: 19‘22, 1924 and 1928; Bobby Jones two: 1926 and 1927; Jock Hutchison won in 1921 ■ and Jim Barnes in 1925. The only British : winner was Arthur Havers (1923/.’ Hagen j tied for sixth place in 1921, won in 1922, was second in 1923, won again in 1924, did not compete in 1925, was third to Bobby Jones in 1926, did not compete in 1927. and won in 1928. It is a remarkable record. Hagen, in fact, has been a good deal more successful in the British than in the American open championship. Taking the two together his record is not to be compared to that of Bobby Jones, who easily outshines all others.

Hagen got through the four championship rounds without a single six on his card. He said himself that he won because he took no risks while the other fellows did. “After the Moor Park match I did a lot of thinking.” Hagen said, “and I resolved during this championship whenever I got into trouble I’d take a shot to get out and go on. I determined to take no long chances, but play my game well within myself, and I stuck to it.” Apart from Compston none of the British competitors ever looked like having a winning chance. George Duncan never did anything brilliant and took 80 for the fourth round. Abe Mitchell was even less in the picture. A 78 and a 75 did not give him much of a start, and an 82 in the third round relega f ed him to the ruck. The high position taken by Mr. T. P. Parkins deserves notice. He was first amateur, thanks to a magnificent 72 for *he last round. Perkins had just been runner-up in the English close championship and he went on to Prestwick to win the amateur championship. In the light of those performances he must be regarded as the best amateur player in England today, and he should be first selection for the Walker Cup team to play America in August. If he plays No. 1 he will be opposed to Bobby Jones. The status of Australian golf and the relative difficulty of the championship courses there and in Britain are in a

measure indicated by the position of Rufus Stewart, open champion of Australia, in the championship list. His scores were 79, 75, 82, 79—315, and he tied for 37th place. He was eight strokes, or tw r o strokes a round, worse than the British amateur champion, and badly as Abe Mitchell played he still led the Australian champion by four strokes. In Australia Rufus Stewart is a first class player, but the St. George’s course at Sandwich is very testing and the open championship of Britain is a terrible ordeal. No Australian has done as well as Kirkwood, who tied for sixth place at his first attempt at St. Andrew’s in 1921, was fourth in 1923 at Troon (where he slipped at the end of the fourth round when he had the championship won) and last year was a brilliant fourth at St. Andrew’s, when Bobby Jones completely outdistanced the field to win with 285—six strokes better than the previous best aggregate. E. S. Douglas, who won the N.Z. open championship in 1913, 1914, 1919 and 1921, and afterwards went Home, put up his best performance in the British open at Lytham and St. Annes in 1926, when his score was: 79, 78, 75, 78—310. The winner was Bobby Jones, whose rounds

were: 72, 72, 73, 74—291. Douglas tied for twenty-fourth place. Measured by open championship standards there is no golfer of the first class in New Zealand or Australia at the present time.

Walter Hagen, U.S.A. 75 73 72 72—292 Gene Sarazen, U.S.A 72 76 73 73—294 Archie Compston, unattached 75 74 73 73—295 Percy Allis. Wannsee (Berlin) 75 76 75 72—298 Fred Robson. Cooden Beach .. 79 73 73 73—298 Jose Jurado, Argentine (Hu. Aires) 74 71 76 80-301 Jim Barites, New Rochelle (U.S.A.) M 73 76 71—301 Aubrey Boomer, St. Cloud (France) 79 73 77 72—301 W. Mehlhorn, U.S.A 71 78 76 77—302 W. H. Davies, Brenton .. .. 78 74 79 73—304 Fred Taggart, Wflmslow .. .. 76 74 77 78—305 A. E. Whiting, Royal St. George's 78 76 76 75—305 Jack Smith, North Middlesex 79 77 76 74—306 Mr. T. P. Perkins, Castle Bromwich 80 79 7 6 W. T. Twine, Bromley and Bick ley 79 75 77 76-307 Stewart Burns. Cruden Ray .. 76 74 75 83—308 S. Wingate, Templenewsam .. 75 82 75 76—808 Maj. C. O. Hezlet, Royal Portrush 79 76 78 76—309 T. H. Cotton. Langley Park .. 77 75 83 75—310 George Duncan, Wentworth .. 75 77 78 80-310 Duncan McCulloch, Troon .. .. 78 78 78 76—310