Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-08
English Amateur International.
lAll Rights Reserved.(

consider the CONDITIONS under WHICH tHe
two real golf championships are played.
and whether or no some alterations might
not tend to improve both.
The rank and file of golfers throughout
! England have probably little idea of
either the history or the present manage
ment of their two important events. The
open championship dates back to 1850.
when w. Park of Musselburgh won the
champion belt as it was then called.
! This belt was provided by the Prestwlck
| Club and was open to all golfers, both
amateur and professional, and it had TO
| be played for over the Prestwick links.
! One of the conditions was that 1t should
become the property of any one VINO
should win it three times in succession.
| For the first eight years Tom Morris. sr.-
our dear old friend odd Tom OF the
| present day-W. Park and on one occa-
sion, A. Strath divided the honors be-
| tween them In 1868 Tom Morris, jr., the
great Young Tommy" arrived on the
| scene, and he made short work Of the
| champion belt, which, in 1870, became his
| property. He must have been grand
| player-how good one can only guess, nut
probably of the same class as Br4tn, Tay-
! lor, Vardon and Massey.
| In those days the clubs and balls were
greatly inferior to what they now are,
| and the courses. especially st. Andrews.
| kept so well, but there was some COM
| pensation in the fact that the rules al
| lowed the player to smooth down kind
| of gutter from ball to hole with the sole
| of his wooden putter. Further there was
no tin in the hole, and the fagstick gen.
| orally had sharp edges, and the action of
| the wind often caused the hole to be con-
siderably more than IA inches in di-
ameter. Still young Tommy's scores were
distinctly good, and his last winning
score of 143 for SO holes over Prestwick
| links was fine work.
! In 1871 there was no competition, but
in 1872 Prestwick, ST. Andrews and Mus
| selburgh together provided a cup, which
was to be played for alternately over
! these three greens, and was never to
| become the property Of any player, no
matter how often he might win it. This
| is the cup which is now the champion
| cup. The conditions have been varied
several times. and two English greens,
Hoylake and Sandwich. have been added.
Championship Management.
The championship is managed by a COM
mittee of delegates. who are appointed by
the five aforementioned clubs, and they
| appoint an honorary secretary. The dele
| gates practically manage the event them
| selves, and seldom give reports to their
clubs The large number of entries of
| late years made some changes in the con-
| dltlons necessary, and new plan has
| DeeH urea WHICH proved d Inc
| players We're nrSt diVlued into halves,
| and partners were drawn for. One hall,
| "a, played Sc holes Tuesday, and the
| other, b a similar number Wednesday.
| the best thirty scores in each day, plus
all ties for the 5Oth place, were drawn
| to play for the championship proper
| Thursday and Friday. The advantage of
| being drawn Tuesday to play for the
| qualifying rounds will be at once ap
parent. AS matter of fact on this occa-
| Tuesday
Wednesday, and those who rested on the
| latter day were better able to contend
| against the vile weather of Thursday
Another fact was also apparent, and
that was that the class Of the players
was higher Wednesday than Tuesday. No
| doubt before another year the powers
| that be will make an obvious change for
| the better viz, let lot a. play Is noles
| Tuesday morning. and lot b is holes
| that afternoon. Wednesday let lot "B'
play Is holes in the morning, and lot ca
| Is holes in the afternoon. All players
| would then be put on an equality.
The amateur championship is due to the
| initiative of the Royal Liverpool Club,
| and especially to Mr.. Potter, who was in
| 1885 its honorary secretary. In that year
| the club offered a prize to all amateur
| match-play conditions. The winner was
my old friend, A. f. Macfie. For some
| unknown reason this win does not count
| as a championship, and 1t was not until
son beat all corners at st. Andrews and
| was hailed first amateur champion. He
| won at Hoylake the following year, and
| has been prominent player in the event
ever since.
| This competition Is managed by COM
| mittee composed Of delegates appointed by
| twenty-one clubs, with an honorary Sec
rotary and is quite a distinct body from
! the committee which guides the affairs OF
| the open championship.
! In both CHAMPIONSHIPS the number of
| entries has become SO large as to be very
| difficult to manage, and in the amateur
| event luck in the draw has large say in
| the prospects of any particular player. 1t
is open to question whether both events
| would not benefit by adopting part of the
| others methods. Thus the open cham
pionship would be far more interesting If
we could watch the greatest players of the
day, playing against each other by holes
in the final stages; and on the other hand
it would be far farer If the amateurs
were to play 80 holes by medal play. and
the best b were then to play off by
matches for the championship.
After all, match play Ia the game of golf,
and medal play is only d poor substitute
and a method of allowing large number
If players to arrive at a conclusion as to
who is the best player in q shorter time
han by match play. In match play the
personal and fighting element comes in,
Vhila in medal play 1t is absent. Some
lay | trust both these events will be car
fleQ ont on similar lines, anu by one con-
trolling body.
"reminiscences.
Some championships are much more in
teresting than others, or at any rate they
have SO struck me. The one that remains
in my mind most wildly was the 1904
amateur event when Walter Travis came
over from America and beat all our men
that he had TO meet. There were severall
interesting incidents in that great strug
gle. In one of his early rounds he was
2 down and to play with one of the
best Irish players, and although he only
played the last four holes in par figures
he won them all and the match by .
up! l wonder what the odds were against
such thing happening ut Sandwich. The
fifteenth hole is an easy five, the six
teenth. seventeenth and eighteenth easy
tours, and yet the Irishmen lost them all.
In another match one of the Hoylake
players grounded his club in grassy hol- |
low, and Travis claimed the hole. He was
perfectly within his rights. as the Sand |
witch committee had stupidity allowed a
local rule to remain in force, which was |
to the effect that there was no permanent
grass in any of their hazards. Travis. |
who left something to chance, had found |
out all the places where this rulC held |
good, but his opponent had not bothered |
about local rules, and so lost a hole he |
might have won, and probably also the |
match.
In this championship I was playing very