The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-08-22

GOLF
Some Characteristics of British Omen
Champion. =.

some CHARACTERISTICS OF British Open
Champion. .
y. H Taylor. the, British open
champion. like other great men, has
always been something Of a phrase
maker" writes Horace Hutchinson in
the London Telegraph. With regard
to modern conditions of the open
championship he is responsible for
two such phrases. and it is singular
how eminently he %justifes them in.
his latest gallant win of that great
title. One, which believe he con.
tributed to the obiter dicta of golf
long ago. is that the way to win a
championship is to win it easily" He
did that this year for he had eight
strokes to play about with as a credit
balance He has also illustrated hts
which he Won by leading all his field
on the first round and by going stead
lily further ahead of them with each
round they played.
1T seemed that they had only to
go on playing long enough for him
to be out of sight of the rest alto
gether. And another dictum which
he made quite lately. and with refer
ence to this last championship of all,
is that "it is easier to win the cham
pionship than to qualify" He illus
trated that seeming paradox again
very strikingly. If he had only strick-
en- the ball once more before getting
it into the last Mole in the prelimin-
airy rounds at Hoylake. he would not
have been.a starter for the actual
championship at ALL.
II suppose We may take it that this
splendid win Of TaYlor's fifth. cham
pionship was achieved chiefly by vir-
tue of his wonderful power of con-
trolling the ball in a cross wind, and
of driving low to bore into a wind;
aboveall, perhaps. by his faculty of
playing his approach shots, heavily
cut, yet with a low trajectory. I re-
member very we'll the first time I
ever played a match against Taylor,
and I think it was the first match,
except against his mates in the viii
iage club at Northam, that he ever
did play. The Royal North Devon
club played the village club. I was
immensely struck, even then, by Tay-
ior.s stroke as something. that we
had not seer before. The ball went
away so low that it had the look of
prise to see how it held it's way
through the air and the distance Of
its carry.
"of course Taylor-he was scarcely
more than a boy-was nothing like
the player that he is now. and if 1
had played my best I ought to have
beaten him. But l did not, inc he
beat me, after a close match. An
other thing that struck me. besides
his long, low carry, a that at one
point, near the end Of: the match,
laid him a stirny. He had the. shot for
the hole-two for the half-and was
one up at the time. Ninety-nine men
out of a hundred would have putted
round the other ball for q half. Not
SO with Taylor. With his front was
before the age of mashies-he played
for a loft and nearly, but not quite,
holed his ball.
"He did hole the putt back. but had
to work to do it: remember say
ing that he would not have played
for that loft II he had had a little
more experience. A. little. more ex-
perience Of Taylor. however, showed
that he had such a power Of stopping
the ball off a loft that he could safe
ly play for a loft. even in such cir
cumstances, and be safe not to run
himself out of holing. It is true THAI
was with the guilty" ball, which
would stop more quickly, but even
80
Straight Drive.