Evening star., 1912-09-04
HILTON IS BEATEN
Amateur Golf Championship
Passes Out of English Hands.
WALDO is HIS CONQUEROR
Britisher Loses Advantage on the
Sixth Green-His Score Was
2 Down, to Play.

WHEATON. H.. September 4.-Harold
Hilton went down to defeat yesterday in
the first match round for the national
golf championship. c. Gilbert Waldo of
Bridgeport, Conn.,, and entered from the
Brooklawn Golf Club, was the American
who squelched the Englishman's hopes of
keeping the Havemeyer cup on the other
side of the Atlantic. Two years ago young
Waldo made his first appearance on the
Yale golf team. Last year he won the
Connecticut championship and was sue
cessful in retaining that title this sum-
mer. He was graduated from Yale last
June. and since he left the varsity team
has been seen but little in competition.
When he set out with Hilton yesterday
morning practically none of the gallery
knew who he was, but by noon, when he
came in with a five-hole lead on the
champion, every one at least knew his
name, and by nightfall, when he had won
by . up and l to play, he was the most
famous golfer on the course. 1t was al
twelve-hour rise to glory that has sell
dom been equaled in the history of
American golf.
Though Waldo showed a GOODNESS and
nerve that did him credit and enabled
him to seize his opportunities, Hilton
really OWeu Ills ueIedL 10 his own poor
play. He was not the Hilton of year
ago at Apawamis. There he was straight
down the course from every tee. but to-
day he was slicing one minute and pull
ing the next. An instance of his wild
play is the fact that not one of his first
seven drives in the afternoon stopped in
the fairway. and with his driving way off
it was small wonder that the rest of his
game was also weak. Toward the end of
the round he rallied a bit and gradually
cut down Waldo's lead, but the lead was
too big to overcome.
From the outset the Englishman was in
trouble. He saved himself after sliced
tee shots on the first two holes by eXcep-
uonal recoveries. The first four were
halved, and at the fifth Hilton took the
lead for what proved to be the only time
during the day, as Waldo topped his drive
into a bunker. Three puts on the sixth
green cost Hilton his lead and as he
drove out of bounds on the seventh he
found himself l down. Again on the
eighth his putting was awry, and when
Waldo played over the pond dead to the
hole and made his on the short ninth
he completed a string of four straight
holes. This left Hilton down at the
turn, and the crowd that was waiting
around the ninth green to see the matches
heard the news and the gallery was
doubled.
Coming in, Hilton picked up a hole
when Waldo overplayed the tenth green,
but after halving the eleventh lost the
twelfth, as Waldo holed a long put Two
more halved holes followed, and then
Hilton became very wild once more
Waldo took three in a row and faced the
home hole up. He played the eight
eenth badly and lost it, but his lead of
five holes looked all too big for Hilton s
chances The cards:
Waldo
fs........:..... Out I 3 ! ) 8 sssss4s "a
In............ ) ! ) 5 5 4
1t was the same story in the afternoon
for the first half of the journey, and at
the fourth Waldo instead of falling back
had increased his advantage to I up.
AT the fifth Waldo was bunkered and the
Englishman got back a hole and made up
another at the seventh, although his
drives were still finding the rough A
poor put by Waldo gave Hilton the ninth.
md the next three were halved in perfect
figures, the Connecticut boy saving him
self on the eleventh by downing thirty
foot put.
At this stage Hilton had abandoned the
heavy American-made driver he had been
using, but he went back to it later on.
He won the twelfth when Waldo took
three puts, and the latter was in
trouble again at the next hole, Hilton
took that also, and was only two down.
A beautiful approach dead to the pin
gave Waldo and the mole al the four
teenth and he was 3 up once more. He
was weak on the next green, Hilton win
ming the hole. and as the sixteenth was
halved in Waldo was , up. The final
hole of the match was poorly played.
Both failed to get the green in :, and
Waldo's approach putt was about four
feet short, while Hilton's stopped three
feet from him.
The Brooklawn players missed the putt
that would have clinched the match. but
Hilton followed suit by missing his short
er putt with a shot fully six inches off
the line, and the match was over.
The cards:
Waldo
Out ...... 5 s 4 o-i6
In............. ) 4 5-3S-I4
Hilton
Out......:.... 80 s $50
n. y D 4 D 4 D 4-oJ-sS
Bye hole not played.
The defeat of the champion overshad-
owed the other matches, but with Hilton
out a sudden interest was manifested in
the doings of those who were still in the
race.
AS a result of the days play nine west
ern golfers survive. six from the east will
play in the second round, and the remain
ing one is Norman r. Hunter of the Hon.
orable Company of Edinburgh Golfers,
who may still keep the championship in
Great Britain. He advanced yesterday at