The New York herald., 1922-05-24
c. E. VAN VLECK, JR.,
WINS IN BRITAIN
Parson and Chapman Elimi-
mated in First Round for
Championship Golf Play.
BY BERNARD DARWIN.

Special Gable 10 The New York HERALD.
Copyright 1899, By THE New YORK HERALD.
PREsTwIcK, Scotland. May 23GThis
has been rather a dull days golf,
whether from an American or a Brit
ish point of view. The big men steered
clear OF one another and there have
been no great surprises nor wonderful
finishes. c. z. Van Week, Jr, Garden
City. led off with victory for America.
He played quite steadily and we'll. or
his opponent, Aldridge, know nothing
In particular. There are, indeed, a
great many In this championship OF
whom I must say the same.
John d. Chapman. Greenwich. another
American. had hard match with II. Il.
Taylor, who was in the final OF the
championship In 1908 and belongs to
the great golfing vintage OF the year OF
1859. which produced Hilton, Freddie
TAFT. Johnny Low and Sidney Fry.
think his play is very good. but 1t was
very closeand the pair ended all square.
The first hole at Prestwick makes the
least pleasant OF all. The drive is very
narrow. between the railway line on the
rightand some rough, heathery ground
on the left and there Is a cross bunker
guarding the green. whereas a nervous,
agitated player always prefers to have
nothing In the way. The hole proved
too much for poor Chapman. who put
two balls In succession over the stone
wall into the railway and so allowed
Taylor to take things easily and safely.
Two matches took the crowd Those
In which Roger Wethered and Willie
Hunter respectively engaged. Wethered
had an easy passage against the un-
known Capt. Young. He began badly
and pushed his first drive over the wall,
but Young played properly in 4. and
people began prematurely to wonder
whether what happened to Tolley yes
terday was going to happen to Wethered
to-day. They did not need to worry
themselves. for Wethered settled down
not only to beautiful long game but
to deadly short game. He holed all
reasonable puts. was out in SO and
won at his ease by and g.
Willis Hunter had what was for a
while an uncomfortably close match
against L. E. Fleming Shepherd. Shep-
herd hasn't the nip and forcefulness of
the very best players. but he is straight.
of sufficient length and an admirable
putter,and on an easy day of little
wind these three qualities may carry a
man far. There was but one thing
against 1t. and that was Hunter He
played extremely we'll. full of pugnacity
and confidence, and when he reached the
turn in 36 and was 4 up, the match
seemed as good as over. Then came one
OF those unexpected turns of fortune s
wheel which makes golf so fascinating.
Hunter made one mistake. He lost
one hole: made the second. and another
hole was gone. yet the third and fourth
holes dwindled down to one and the
match was full of life again after SEEM
ing to be dead done. Shepherd was 60
tAfr
by his enemy's errors. and Hunter had
struck temporary bad spell. Shepherd
holed cruelty long and curly putt to
halve the thirteenth. and then quite un-
expectedly broke down just when 1t
seemed he might catch the champion.
Having had all the best of the drives
to the fourteenth, he bunkered his ap-
proach and that was virtually the end.
Shepherd continued to drop strokes and
take fives. Hunter quickly reasserted
himself and won In the end. and p
quite O comfortable win on paper but !
fancy there were moments when he felt
quite uncomfortable
At the very end of the day this was
really a fine and exciting achievement.
Harold Hilton. playing golf reminiscent
of his best days. beat Gordon Simpson,
Who is one of the best Scotsmen, by 4
and 8. He played all his shots beauti-
fully. was out in 36, and, in short,
completely outplayed his adversary.
Whether he can keep it up I don't
know, but hope so.