YOUTH TRIUMPHS IN GOLF FINAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18189, 23 June 1927, Page 14

YOUTH TRIUMPHS IN GOLF FINAL.

PERKINS HAD UPHILL FIGHT TO VICTORY. LONDON, May 10. T. P. Perkins, of Castle Bromwich, scored a triumph for youth in the thir-ty-six holes final of the English amateur golf championship at Little Aston on Saturday, when, after standing one down at the end of the morning round, he beat J. B. Beddard, of South Staffordshire, by two up and one to lay. Ignorant strangers in the crowd who referred to Perkins as a “ little known ” player, were merely asking for contradiction. The winner may have been just a youth of twenty-two taking part in first national championship, but

(New Amateur Champion.) every midland watcher of the final knew him for a good golfer, a member of the Warwickshire team, and the holder of a fine record in open competitions. And such was his personal popularity that all the spectators referred to him affectionately as “ T.P. ” or “ Phil.” The game on Saturday suggested the old analogy of boxer against fighter. Beddard a seasoned golfer in the middle thirties, stood for the boxer—a neat, workmanlike layer, the better man in pure stroke production for three parts of the game, but a little lacking in

“ punch,” and inclined to falter at a crisis. Perkins, if less artistic, was more effective when it came to a fight. Time and again he seemed to be ** in the cart,” but just as often he saved himself Ly pulling out some truly great shot. Three such strokes can be mentioned by way of illustration. He cut his drive ridiculously wide of the line at the 330 yards eleventh hole in the morning, but laid a magnificent iron shot on the green, and got a well-da-served half in four. He missed his drive at the 3d3 yard* sixteenth hole, and was left with a long shot across a valley off a hanging lie, yet, taking a spoon, was able to reach the green in two and actually win the hole. He was again in trouble at the sixteenth.in the afternoon, but, though nearly stymied by a tree, once more placed his ball near the flag, and halved the hole with Beddard, who had steered the straighter course all the But it was putting which decided the match. Beddard, playing rather the better golf, stood two up at the turn in the afternoon. Then, after halves at the next two holes, Beddard was bunkered off bis second shot to the twelfth, and weak at the 6hort game. That started Perkins, who gave the tuscle an amazingly unexpected turn by w'r.rr'ng the .twelfth and the next three holes r!l in a row, ard halving the sixteenth and seventeenth for the match. Injudicious Che ice. * Beddard contributed to the loss of the fifteenth by injudiciously taking a wooden club to play out of long, thick grass, and missing the ball altogether, but otherwise Perkins chiefly beat him in the “rur. home” because the younger man had the ability and confidence to sink putts of six feet and a little under--a problematical distance on any course, and, at Little Aston, extremely difficult. Beddard tried hard, but could not match his rival at that phrase of the game. Perkins has the pluck to carry him far in “ big ” golf. lie is a tall, spectacled, boyish-looking player, who on Saturday wore a large brown cap, a brown cardigan over a white sweater, grey flannel trousers, and shoes of soft grey-brown leather. He has few mannersims. Lui does not hesitate to make his hands thoroughly dirty by rubbing them m the dust to ensure a firm grip of his clubs. He has a rather crouching round-back-ed stance with the right knee slightly knuckled in. His waggle is mildly Sandy Herd-like, and he drives a very long hall, with a full, quick sw r ing. an emphatic “ click ” and a free follow through. It is just possible that the speed of the swing might cause troublo on a “ bad ” day, but. as he plaved on Saturday, “ Phil ” Perkins boyish, quietly conquering hi 3 early nervousness and pursuing an uphill game to victory, is no unworthy winner cf th* English championship There has been better golf in a final. There has seldom been a better or mors sporting fight, nor one watched by a more sporting crowd.