New-York tribune., 1919-06-12
Battle Bet,ueen Honaebreds Brings Thrills
To Fiue Thousand on B1ue Burn Links
Golden Winged Butterfly
Costs Brady Victory; Play
Off Is Set for To-day
By Grantland Rice

Michael King Brady, a black-faired,
ihome-bred, with the breath Of Ireland
in his name, had just turned in a
score Of 3O1 for the 72 holes Of open
championship playing. Standing on
the final tee of the final round, after
a magnificent dash up to this point,
Walter Hagen, another powerful home
bred, needed a to tie and to win.
His score here was 297 strokes for II
holes
The eighteenth hole at Brae Burn is
400 yards long, winding out through a
valley uphill to sloping green. To-
day, as Hagen stood on the last tee,
it was doubly fringed with the Brae
Burn oaks and naples and fringed with
over 5000 people, who formed two
compact walls from the tee to the
green.
Then Hagen crashed into his tee shot.
He tore into it like a Jimmy Braid
battling for the honor of Scotland's
thistle against the English rose. For
250 yards the ball carried as straight
for the pin as if Tennessee rifeman
had been firing the shot. With this
start under way Hagen then followed
with wonderful iron that almost lost
itself against the late June sky before
it dropped with terrific backspin ex
| actly ten feet from the cup. The
mighty cheer that followed might have
been welcoming the winning run in
world series.
Scrambles Through Crowd
AS Hagen came up to the green for
his bid to win the crowd surged
around in such proportions that he
could barely scramble through. One
ten-foot putt and he had achieved the
miraculous feat Of overhauling five
stroke lead, rather Of playing the last
six difficult Brae Burn holes in two un-
der As.
AS Hagen stepped upon the green an
other vocalistic salvo greeted his two
tine shots, and when he saw his ball
but ten feet away he turned and asked:
"Oh, where is Mike?" He hit the putt
firmly and it ran straight for the cup,
struck the back of the tin with thud
and then popped out. 1t is for this
reason that Mike Brady and Walter
hagen play off an eighteen hole battle
tomorrow morning to decide who will
be the next open champion of America
in place of Chick Evans, who now holds
but one section of his double title.
To-day's draw is the seventh tie for
the open title since Alex Smith and
Willie Anderson were knotted together
some eighteen years ago. And it was
one of the most spectacular of them all.
in view of the mighty bid that Hagen
made after he had hooked his tee shot
out of bounds in the afternoon at the
twelfth hole. This mistake had ap-
parently left him in a hopeless posi-
tion, but the 1914 winner, in place of
weakening, girded himself up for an
extra powered assault that carried him
safely through to even terms.
The afternoon was replete with June
sunlight, but it was full of shadow and
sorrow for Mike Brady.
Mike, by returning fine 73 in the
morning round, led Hagen and the field
by five we'll earned strokes. Hagen had
taken rs. So, starting the afternoon
trudge over hills and hollows. Bradv's
count was 221 for the first fifty-four
holes, against 226 for Hagen, his most
formidable rival.
Mike Begins to Slip
With final eighteen holes to 20 and
five strokes to the good, Mike soon be-
gan to slip and skid under the pace-set-
ting strain. You can rave all YOU want
to about coming from behind. But it
is front running that tears hardest into
the nerves.
Mike began his las trip of the day
by taking three puts on the first green
tor 8. On the third he plunked his
second short to trap, Clipped five feet
away and got his par through the fine
recovery.
II Mike should lose tomorrow he can
attribute the extra stroke he needed
this afternoon to golden winged but
terf1y. He had made a fine second to
the green, and his approach putt left
HIM eighteen inches from the pin.
Then, just as he settled to tap the ball
IN, with the putter on the upward
swing, the aforementioned butterfly lit
gently on top of the ball, acting in the
belief that it had discovered a white
blossom on the green
Mike checked his stroke, chased the
intruder away, and then, beginning all
over, missed the putt. That eighteen
inch hutterAyed putt kept him from
being open champion tonight. He had
the next two holes in par through
steady golf. but slipped at the seventh,
with his iron triAe short, and slipped
agalc a. the ninth, where he topped his !
tee shot. He was ont in 80, still safe !
enough with steady golf coming home.
The 490-yard tenth was a harricade
of disaster. His second shot caught a
trap, he failed to get out with his
n:blick try. emerged on his fourth shot
and finally needed z for this hole,
hcart-breaking starter on the decisive
journey 20-foot putt saved a topped !
second at the eleventh, but he took
three puts again at the thirteenth and
fifteenth greens.
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