The New York herald., 1921-05-28
Wins by II Up and IL to Play,
Setting Record for
Championship.
BY BERNARD DARWIN.

Special Gable to THE New YORK HERALD.
Copyright. 1921, by THE New York HERALD.
HoYLAKE, May 27.-To-day's hnai in
the British amateur golf championship
was rather in the nature of an anti
climax. w. /. Hunter beat Allan Gra-
ham by the, huge margin of IL up and
IL to play. He played some magnificent
golf and we could not have a better
man for our champion. but we should
have liked just little more thrill. and
there was none at all. Hunter plays
what Horace Hutchinson once called
professionally moulded" game. He has
the punch and crispness OF a good pro-
fessional and very great deal OF
steadiness as well.
Writing as one OF the unfortunate Sc
lection of the British team in the inter-
national match last Saturday. we GER
tainly made the saddest possible mis-
take In leaving him out Of It. He had
been In the last eight last year. but
otherwise he had not played much in
public and. moreover. he has come up
by leaps and bounds. He played the
same fine game right through the tour
nament and In none OF his matches did
he have to go past the sixteenth. hole
Graham does not profess to be in the
same class with him. There is little
sting about his game. but there Is
usually good deal Of steadiness and he
is a difficult man for any opponent to
beat. He plays a really good game. He
was born and bred at Hoylake and IS
usually an admirable putter. but this
invaluable art forsook him to-day.
He is the only good player l ever saw
who puts with gunmetal putter
club, which is usually a sure badge OF
hrov
pent Of his proved treacherous friend
right from start to finish and the match
was melancholy procession.
| feel tempted to make one remark
about this championship. Hunier
played well enough to have beaten any
one. but for the rest / think we only
muddled through In the traditional Brit
ish manner. Certainly we dealt whh
your champions very effectively and We
are well pleased to have done so, but
| think that on the whole we must have
had luck running with us to do SO.
American Golfers Sound.
On the whole your players struck me
as sounder and more methodical than
ours They seem to do more thoroughly
the things the books tell us to do--to
keep the eye on the ball. to keep the
body still. to keep the left arm straight.
and so on--and these possibly pedestrian
virtues tell In the end. / don't want to
be mock modest or to belittle our own
players, but / am sure we have some
thing to learn from you.
One Of your players asked me to-day
whether I thought American amateur
golf had improved since / saw it in
America in 1918. ! answered that 1t
certainly had. ! don't know II CHI rles
Evans. Jr., and Francis Ouimet are ma
terially better now than they were then.
1t would be difficult to be much better
than they were, but now you have Bob
by Jones as well.
Moreover. your next best players ap-
near't to me to be distinctly stronger than
were the Immediate followers Of the big
men of 1913. Take such golfers as Fred
J. Wright Jr.. for instance. whose play
made p ~-cat impression here. Take
for Il matter Jesse Guilford or Dr.
Paul Hunter. There were no. In 1919
such players as they are, or. at least, |
think not. There We're the "big guns
and then there was very perceptible
interval. Now these next best ones are
very nearly as good as the best.
Oulmet said 70 me to-day that our
players are more careful than yours in
that they took longer to study the line.
think we do play slower and this Is
IN odd transformation, because n few
years ago Il was your men who played
slower and took practice swings, Now
American golfers. although they have
clearly taken great pains over learning
the game. don't play as laboriously. but
at a good round pace. which adds an
attraction to their game.
Tomorrow most of them go to Turn
berry TO see the great match between
Miss Cecil Leitch. the British woman
champion. and Miss Alexa Stirling. the
American woman champion, and / Will
see them there again.