The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-21
VARD0N AND RAY
WIN Sc, LOSE 81
British Golf Experts Also
Halved Four Matches Dur
ing Recent Tour.
GAME HERE IMPROVES
During Visit to America in
1913 Visitors Lost Only
One of Their Contests.
BY KERR y. PETRIE.

When Harry Vardon and Edward Ray.
the British professional golfers. toured
the United States in 1918 they suffered
only one reverse In their best ball con-
tests. This year they have had their
colors lowered no less than twenty-one
times either in eighteen or thirty-siX
hole matches.
Notwithstanding that seven years ago
no such ambitious schedule was at
tempted as that undertaken by the
Britons IN this year of grace, there can
be no gainsaying the fact that American
golf has improved out of all knowing in
the interval. The figures speak for
themselves for allowing that during
their recent trip Vardon and Ray played
eighty-one matches. they must have had
at least half of that number in 1913.
And yet only one defeat was chalked
against them.
One interesting feature of the tour
was the play in the matches which
brought Walter Hagen and Jim Barnes
against Vardon and Ray no less than
four times. Barnes and Hagen while
abroad had taken the measure of George
Duncan and Abe Mitchell in a thirty-six
hole contest decided in the London dis
trict around the time OF the British open
championship. In this series between
the Americans and the two veteran men,
btio VI DIlllSu pIOLtsSlOHdi ldHhoi
however. there was an even break. Var
don and Ray won the first encounter at
Shennecossett July &c by Up, then the
American pair squared accounts at Hol-
lywood, y. j.. on August l. when they
won by and 2. At Sunset Hill, st.
Louis. Barnes's home links, on September
S, the British pair won by and g. but
once again. on October II. at Fairview.
Hagen and Barnes evened it up on a
3 and 2 score.
First Defeat Mt Greenwich.
The two British stalwarts of the links
tasted their first defeat when j. Doug
las Edgar of Atlanta and Tom kerrigan
OF Siwanoy beat they by 3 and 2 at
Greenwich Country Club. This was in
an eighteen hole match, Edgar having
taken the place of Jim Barnes, who.
owing to a railroad tieup was forced
to leave his train at Rye and finish his
journey by taxicab. In the afternoon
contest Vardon and Ray atoned in some
measure Tor that defeat by winning
from Barnes and Kerrigan by and 3.
1t was little while after this that Jack
Bowling of Scarsdale and Tom Nc
Namra of Siwanoy treated the English
men to their first thirty-siX hole de-
feat. The match was played at Scars
dale, and the margin in favor of the
homebreds was to 5.
It was not until along abaut the sec
ond week in September. at which time
they had played about fifty games, with
the loss of less than ten, that Vardon
and Ray ran into anything like a regu-
lar storm. This was after the open
championship had been played at Toledo
and won by Ray, with Vardon In tie
for second place. Amateurs and pro-
fessionals may have entered into a con-
spiracy with the idea of making life
as unpleasant as possible for the all
conquering Britons, or Ray and Vardon
may have begun by this time TO show
the effects of overwork. In any event.
out of their next ten matches they lost
nine, and during that same period also
suffered their worst defeat of the tour,
that being when the amateurs, Charles
Evans Jr., of Chicago, national cham
pion. and Bobby Jones of Atlanta, beat
them by 10 and at Morris County.
Jones Much in Evidence.
Jones also helped to overthrow Harry
and Ted on the last two of these ten
matches at Englewoot in an eighteen
hole contest on the morning of Septem-
Der 10, with Cyril Walker. the profess
sional. as his partner. and in the after
noon OF the same day, when coupled
with Oswald Kirkby. After getting set
tied down In the East again, however
the British experts dld better, roiIihS Wy
n string of nine consecutive victories and
not losing until they encountered Jim
Barnes and Jack Hutchinson at Garden
City.
From first TO last of their tour Ray
and Vardon participated in eighty-one
matches together, winning h1ty-
six and losing twenty -one' whlie
four were halved. Considering the tre-
nlendous strain which they were under
In playing thirty-six holes almost every
day for more than three months, with
overnight trips in Pullman cars, their
record Is a fine one. Nevertheless there
~ cause for congratulation In the TWEEN
ty-one games taken by the home talent
and especially in the fine showing made
by some of the amateurs. That Ray
and vardon still are far from easy pick
ing they showed conclusively by their
work in the national open champion
ship.