GOLF

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

GOLF

LONG-LOST GOLF TITLE. AMERICAN SUPREMACY. i (By Harry Vardon.—-Special To News.), Upon one point in. ..connection with the open golf championship,’everybody is agreed. It is high time that a British player won. Nine years ago there came to St. Andrews a party of about a dozen professionals from the United States, their expenses paid by public subscription in that country.-. If ever tho lion wagged hi*. tail confidently and complacently at the approach of challengers, he did so on that occasion. Only twelve months previously British veterans in the- persons of Edward Bay and 1 had gained first and second places in the United States open championship at Toledo, Ohio. America might have produced some very find amateur golfers, but’ the best of the world's >professional players flourished here. : >S.o, at least, we Thought. The> result’ was an. eye-opener—in some respects the most startling the game has ; ever known. Jock Hutchison took the cup to Chicago after a tie with Roger H. Wethercd, the only British golfer who stood tip -to the invaders till the, last ditch. Another American, Tom Kerrigan, came.next in the list. Walter Hagen, of Detroit, and James ■Barnes, of New York, were. equal with of- France, Australia, :J£hgiaiid aiid Scotland for sixth place; . Hhere-?ci>uld' be 'nd.-.blinking the discom-ifiture'-bf the home forces. i The one’ grain ’of consolation was ; that,, if Hutchison had been a naturalised Afnerican fop- ten years :or more, and developed most of his golf in the United States, he belonged by birth to Scotland. .His father —a caddie at St. Andrews;-, weather-beaten in tire-service of the■'•■linkh;’ : :sSh^.<?with"that': touch of unsophistication which.' has a soul above naturalisation papers—saw. Jock win; ;and when somebody asked him as to nationality, of his son, he replied ‘‘Jfe’s'a Scots laddie. What else could lie be?” Tlie fact remains, however, that the cup went with all due pomp, and .circumstance to America, "taken, thitlier by an American citizen. ; STRAIGHT FROM BROADWAY. Only once between that year and this ha<s the title been secured by a player born and resident in Britain. Tliat was when Arthur Havers won in 1923. Four times has Walter Hagen beeii the victor. It needs no Solomon to decide which country has the right to claim Hagen has her child. He is the very embodiment of American character and sentiment. His modulated drawl, his colloquialisms, his drese, his , smile, his /teeth—they afc all straight from -Broadway. He was born in New .York ■State, and learnt the whole of his golf there.

In the absence of Hagen, there could be only one man to make favourite for this season's championship —Bobby Jones. I have not the slightest; doubt that in the scientific accomplishment of •shots, tlie sty le/’hi which Lilley . . ate struck, and the temperament that governs the individual —surely the three cardinal factors in successful golf— Jones is the greatest player in the world to-day. At the same time, he has shown that he is fallible.

In 1927, it. may be recalled, be lost the open championship of the United States badly for him, since he only tied for eighth place —eight strokes behind the winner. This was his worst performance in the event since, as a youth of twenty, he began to gain recognition as a power in classic competitions. It was certainly a remarkably good worst; the average player, even of the ; front rank, would not be ashamed of it. * In the six successive years prior to that meeting, Jones had been successful twice, runner-up three times, and fifth on the other occasion, ile has since gained another victory (the third) and been runner-up for the fourth time —a wonderful record,' He has confessed that, after taking three strokes to recover from one of the rain-hodden and machine-furrowed bunkers in the first round at Oakmont, Pennsylvania, in 1927, he was afraid to go for any shot, which may be accepted as the crowning evidence that mortal will never master golf, no matter how wondrous his genius. HIGH TIME FDR A CHANGE. It is certain that, if Jones wins the British championship for the third time nobody in this country will begrudge him the success, for his personality and the spirit in which he pursues the gimc, even more than the skill with which he plays it, have made him just about the best-liked enemy that ever came from abroad. This feeling is as marked among the professionals as where the amateurs are concerned. Nevertheless, the sentiment is strong that it is high time for the title to return to the nation which bestows it. I fear that we have no aniateur capable of stopping him. Roger’ Wethered could do it if he were to concentrate,, on the task. He. has natural gifts, especially in the hitting of iron shots, which would make him the .equal of anybody in the universe if he cared to develop them to the full. Unfortunately he does not seem-to-bother a lot, about strenuously competitive, golf once the amateur championship is ‘’decided, and I am not sure that -he bothers very much about that. I? or the rest, the British amateurs do Hot look good enough for the task. Of the professionals, Charles Whitconi be,’ Abo Mitchell and Archie Compston. appear at the moment to be the best. Compston is unmistakably a man for big occasions. He hats the personality as well as fhe shot-playing ability that ought to succeed,.and he won the big scoring test of four rounds at Southport last month. Still,'the essence of it all is that Bobby Jones is going to be a desperately difficult man to oend empty away.