BRITISH GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 22362, 29 June 1934, Page 7

BRITISH GOLF

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP GREAT SCORE BY COTTON FIRST ROUND RESULTS ; (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, June 27. The first round of the British open golf championship was played on the Royal St. George’s course, Sandwich, to-day and quickly yielded a surprise. Rain fell in torrents half the morning and was succeeded by a high wind. A feature of the day was the unexpected strength of the challenge which a number of the lesser known young British professionals offered to the Americans. Henry Cotton, who was round in 67, gave a truly wonderful display. He was out in 31 and back in 36, a total of 11 under bogey. Cotton drove colossal distances and he made only two slight mistakes during his machine-like performance. He was bunkered at the 11th and pushed his tee shot into the rough at the 18th, but played a spoon shot brilliantly to the middle of the green. Shute’s driving was erratic, but he made splendid recoveries. Fred Taggart, the 28-year-old Wilmslow (Cheshire) professional, provided a real surprise. He started by holing a chip shot. Kirkwood was erratic, making several very short putts. MacDonald Smith could not find the greens. Later, despite the difficult wind, there came quite a run of fine rounds, mostly by young and little known British players. There were six 71’s, five 72’s and eight 73’s, ahead of all the Americans, except the holder, Shute. Finally as a climax Cotton arrived after a wonderful 67, equalling Hagen’s record for the course. Sarazen went out early, being partnered by Hodgins, of London, taking all the spectators willing to face a drenching. Sarazen failed to live up to his normal automatic perfection and dropped a stroke here and there. He took 37 to the turn and even had a six on the homeward journey. Only a great finish of 4,3, 4,4, gave him a reasonable round of 75, while his partner, whose efforts were generally ignored by the gallery, had a 71. Then came news that a little known Manchester professional, Taggart, had registered a round of 70, including only 21 putts. The leading scores include the following :— T. H. Cotton 67 F. Taggart 70 A. H. Padgham 71 B. Hodson 71 C. Whitcombe 71 M. Dallemagne (France) 71 D. Shute (America) 71 — Laidlaw 71 — Denny 71 E. Whitcombe 72 — Mahon 72 — Good 72 W. T. Twine 72 W. Nolan 73 P. Alliss 73 — Collings 73 H. C. Jolly 73 J. H. Kirkwood (America) 74 A. Dailey 74 G. Sarzen (America) 75 A. Mitchell 75 Leslie Cotton 75 R. Whitcombe 75 B. Gadd . 75 F. Robson 75 A. Perry 76 W. H. Davies 76 S. Easterbrook 77 J. McLean 77 MacDonald Smith (America) 77 M. Seymour 78 — Branch 78 A. Boomer 82 The Royal St. George’s course measures C77G yards, as follows:—

Length Length Hole yards Hole yards 1 441 10 380 9 370 11 384 3 238 12 343 4 460 13 443 5 451 14 520 6 193 15 454 7 493 16 163 8 183 17 423 9 396 18 441 3225 3551 Total 6776.