The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-06-15
Hagen's Score Thursday Is
Only One Stroke Behind Best
Despite Worry OF An Enor-
nous Gallery Which Fol-
lowed Over Course

TROON, Scotland, June 14.-Walter
Hagen, the American who took the
British open golf championship
year ago, may be the first repeat
err" on successive years since 1909
6, when James Braid, the Scotsman,
won the highest honors. Hagen led
all the five surviving Americans
around the first 36 holes of cham
pionship action Thursday and fin
ished with an aggregate for the
morning and afternoon rounds of 147.
just one stroke worse than the best
scores of the day, which were turned
in by two k-horse Britons, A. q.
Havers and C. A. Whitcomb.
Joe Kirkwood, the Australian. who
travels with the American team, was
the next man in the group from the
u. S. A., with ISL. Next came Johnny
Farrell with 1852, and after him,
Macdonald Smith, the Californian
who was born in Scotland, with 1913.
Leo Diegel, informal goif tutor or
President Harding on the Florida
golf vacation tour last winter.
whacked his ball out of the run
ming for the title when he took 100
strokes, and George Aulbach of Bos-
ton. an amateur year ago, was
hopeless, with a card of ia.
LocIxhart Second.
The next man after Hagen was
Lockhart, a Briton, with Lac. X.
Scott, Jr., polled $50 and Joe Kirk-
woods ISL was matched by two Brit
ish golfers. Walton and Fernie.
George Duncan, Ted Ray and Abe
Mitchell, the British veteran pros,
had 1874 apiece. Cyril Tolley turned
In total of 156 and Sandy Herd,
one of the old guard, 157.
Hagen's reputation, regalia and ex-
cellent golf brought him the ems
barassing attendance of the larg-
est gallery on the course and the
police had to take charge of him
at times and help clear way for
him through the press of onlook-
ers. Hagen was one OF several VINO
had miserable fortune with apparent
ly easy puts. He took three on the
eighteenth green after being bunk
cred. One of those that missed
was less than a foot long.
Ted Ray also missed short one
and Ockenden missed two-inch
nudge, which he undertook to sink
with one hand.
Diegel TemperamentaI.
Diegel's temperament blew ms cap
off and he failed the ground with his
driver, trying to awaken that impie-
ment to a finer sense of It's grave
responsibilities, after 1t had driven
his ball into bunker on the seventh.
Whitcombes 20 for the morning
round equaled the record for the old
course and this card was the second
superlative document he had turned
in since the meet began. He was
the one who broke the municipal
course record with a So in Tuesdays
second qualifying round.
Hagen's score for the morning
round was IS and for the after
noon II. His afternoon round was
great display. for his score was only
one above the record and he was
playing with fine nerve, accuracy and
power. On the eighteenth hole of
the afternoon round he scored three
by landing on the green six feet from
the hole with his second shot. The
distance was $40 yards.
Gene Sarazen. American open
champion. eliminated in the qualify
ing rounds, could not bear to remain
here as a mere looker-on and hoped
a train to London. He did not say
whether he expected to return for
Fridays final.
For once in a Scottish touinamen.
the players had fair weather and a
gentle coddling breeze out of the
northwest to improve their humor
and their game.