New-York tribune., 1908-08-29
SMITH AND M'LEOD TIED
GREaT FINISH ON LINKS.
Riuul Professionals to Play off tor
Omen Title To-day.
NV Teiee.rnoa 70 S,hA Tribune


.y-two hole totals OF g22. VIII Smith. OF MEXICO
CITY and Fred Mcleod. Of the Midlothian Country
Club tied for first place In the fourteenth national
open golr championship tournament on the links OF
the Myopia Hunt Club to-day BY oroer OF tne
United States Golf Association executive commit
tee the leaders viii play OF the tie In an eisn-
teea-hole round tomorrow
I Owing 10 an error Of the scorer Gilbert Nichols
of Tedesoo who tied with John Jones for NTH
place wes disqualified the officials decided that
he was not at fault and commended his action in
noting the error by giving him ss6. which he would
have
VIII Smith who the national open title At
Baltimore In 1899. should he be successful tonor-
row will win $500. A purse of $3.50 goes to the
second man. The other prize winners and their
Alex Smith, Nassau 327, s1oe; Willie
Anderson. Onwentsia. $780, $50; John Jones Ny
cpia s31. $40; Jack Hobens. Englewood. 3S3, s55; {;
Peter Robertson Oakmont, 33s, 500; Jack Hutchn-
eon st. Andrews. s3s. s35: Peter Barrett, Toronto
x3s. ss5; Richard KinlbaI, New Bedford 33s, $40;
Tom Mcnamara, Wollaston. 33e, $40
: Hobens and Robertson divided sixth and seventh
and gimhan and Mcnamara split up the tenth prize
OF $40.
Lieutenan. General Nelson A Miles, l. S. A Ge-
tired onlooker to-day He is q golfer. and
received his first lessons at Chevy Chase six years
ago.
This makes third time that the national open
championship has ended IN a tie. II first happened
here Myopia In 1901. when VIII Anderson and
Alec Smith finished with s31 Two years later. at
Baltusrol. Anderson and old David Brown headed
the list with 30. Both play-ons resulted favorsoiy
TO Anderson.
A comparison Of scores returned in the present
competition with those when the open was last
held here would indicate falling of rather
than improvement in the resident professionals
On the previous occasion Anderson showed the
way with A4 eight strokes better than the total
claimed by Smith and Mcleod In defence OF the
present field OF golfers, however, IT may be SAID
that the Myopa course has been maoe cohsoer-
ably harder during the last two or three years.
aouetlling like hundred new traps having been
added.
Then aeain the conditions were none too faTor-
shle to-day. There nearly as much vino as
yesterday, and this made IL next to imposslpie
for the players TO keep out OF trouble They also
found the greens completely dried out from
Wednesdays rain and as fast lightning. This
necessitated the careful work to avoid over
running the holes
By apparent careIessness VIII Smith dropped
several strokes Had any one OF these been saved
his claim TO the title would now be undisputed
Ee began hi. morning round with four missing
q put for q three the ball Tipping the cup lie mao
q capital three however, at the Punch Bowl oi
third hole. fives at the fifth, sixth ac se'eill'
and a six at the long eighth prevented MIN from
going out better than Al.
Luck turned completely against him coming
home his every shot having TO be forced To make
matters worse the Mexican representative topped
his drive 70 the tenth and fooled mash1e shot
going to the fourteenth mistakes that cost him
four valuable strokes His short game also went
wrong for on seven greens he required three puts
Even at that Re came home in a. which gave q
total Of 6 for the round This gave him total OF
~ fer the ffty-four holes
The great contest between Smith and Mcleod vas
The feature of the championship and proved vastly
exciting especially in the afternoon, when the TWO
men although some distance away from each other
an the course were never more than stroke OF
two apart in their scores. McLeods great uphill
dght which began the start in the morning
when Smith five strokes ahead OF him. and
ended with their being terms late IN the
afternoon will have a niche by itself in solfing
annals Despite the knowledge that they were very
close in their and that the slightest error
might be disastrous the players drove steadily,
approached surely and putted with precision that
resulted in OF the best scores of the champion
ship The cards follow: