AMERICA’S “MYSTERY” MAN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20780, 15 July 1937, Page 5

AMERICA’S “MYSTERY” MAN

MONTAGUE SNUBS CHALLLENGE The Mystery Man of U.S, golf, John Montague (he supposedly knocked a sparrow off a telephone wire with a 400-yard drive), snubbed a challenge recently that he show a tournament gallery his collection of fabulous strokes. In the first public statement of his career, mysterious John (he reportedly smashed a course record to smithereens, but picked up on the last hole) explained he prefers to play in private because it is "more fun.” Montague’s silence during a nationwide whispering campaign regarding his prowess was broken by an "open letter” from a sports magazine, inviting him to give golfers "a fair opportunity to judge the merits of his game.” "Golf, to me,” said the Paul Bunyan of the links, “is the greatest game in the world. I enjoy it as a game and will never permit an ‘open letter’ or an inaccurate ’goading’ article to toward golf. “I live to play golf—for fun—and if I thought I could get more fun out of playing in tournaments than I get playing my friends I would play in tournaments. “I am sorry that all of these stories about me are going the rounds. Most of them are true. Some are not. But any one who expects me or any one else to perform miracle golf shots on demand is asking too much.” At Lakeside Country Club, Los Angeles, where he plays with Bing Crosby and other film companions, legend has it that he once beat Crosby on a hole by driving with a base-ball bat and putting with a garden rake.