The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-13
Hagen Tells
 How He Beat
 Chick Evans
Wins Open Championship At Midlothian On Twenty
 First Birthday
(Copyrigh 1924. United states. Canada and Great Britain, by North American Newspaper Alliance. for The Age
 Herald. All rights reserved)
Br WALTER HAGEN


 and Great Britain, by North American
 Newspaper Alliance. for The Age
 Herald. All rights reserved.)
 By WALTER HAGEN
 Former American, British and French
 open champion, twice American ttir
 holder. and present holder of the North
 and South open, and the Florida open
 and Texas open.
 Keeping your head in an emergency requires practice. These heroes you read about in the newspapers, who pull off daring stunts requiring an eX- traordinary amount of nerve, usually have nerves trained by previous experi- cnce. The rule Is peculiarly adaptable to sport. In a critical moment it is the man who has trained himself for emer gencies who will come out ahead. When they told me that afternoon at Brook line that I was leading the field, with just nine holes to go, and that. with a good inward journey, I could win the national open, it simply knocked the pins out from under me.
 There was no event in my brief pre- vious experience to give the confidence I needed. I had never before been in such predicament and 1t overwhelmed me. My game began to wabble. l figures I needed to beat out the leading scorers. Few golfers, even the most experienced. can play their best under such conditions. The importance of every shot asserts itself every time one hits the ball. Many players. Jim Barnes among them. prefer not to know where they stand. They figures that they will play the best they can any way, and let 1t go at that.
 I began to have all sorts of trouble coming home that afternoon. One thing after another went wrong. Twice l drove off into the rough and lost sev- eral precious shots to reach the green. My hands began to perspire with nerv- ousness and made 1t difficult to grasp my clubs. Briefly, finished those last nine holes on an average of four strokes behind all the others I had played. But 1t landed me ip fourth position at that, which was quite feather in my cap.
 Midlothian and the Big Try
 The Brookline championship was a great educator for me. I had made the acquaintance of some of the play CTS and talked golf to them whenever the occasion allowed. They had more to say to me after that. Jim Barnes was particularly sociable, and 1t was there that our long friendship began. Jim and I have since played as part ners and opponents in many a hard fought battle on the links.
 l returned to Rochester feeling pretty well satisfied with myself. My success at Brookline encouraged me to believe that the title was not as far off as I had supposed. It seemed to me if I could finish fourth in my first tryout. had a good chance of winning the open the following year at Midlothian. Every spare moment l spent in perfect ing my shots. l took part with Barnes in a couple of small tournaments, and the following fall, 1914. packed my duds and left for Chicago, fully de- termined to make a fight for 1t. Stellar Talent Entered
 There was big field of stellar tall ent entered for that national open. Mac Donald Smith, after his remarkable showing in the metropolitan open at Scarsdale, where he had made a record of 27S for tournament play over the 72-hole route, was a favorite to win the title, and another important contender was Johnny McDermott, who was, un- fortunately, soon to take part in his last tournament. McDermott made a gallant stand in this event, but his health, which had never been good, be- gan to affect his playing, and shortly after that he dropped out of the game entirely. He was grand little golfer who came to the front like a flash in 1910, tied in one championship, won the next two, and then faded away as quickly as he had risen to fame.
 Another star who was regarded as almost certain to land a place among the first three was Francis Ouimet, then title holder, and considered danger ous contender in any championship. Francis failed to live up to his repu- tation at Midlothian, although he won the amateur title a short time after ward.
 \ Title on the Cups Rim
 The tournament was held in August. had practtced early and late and i'm proved my game considerably over the former year. I had learned to play that high mashie pitch from watching Vardon and Ray, and it was a big help to me. The course I found well suited to my game, as at that time I was driving them a mile, so to speak, and there was little penalty for being on the rough, for what grass there was had been burned out by the hot sum- mer sun.
 got off to a good start and held my pace. A fine round of 68 helped me to Keep ahead of the field. and, al- though in later championships I have used totally different method of play -preferring to remain a little behind ana nose out my rivals at the end during that tournament I kept consist ently in front. The golfer who gave me the most concern was Chick Evans. Try as l would, Chick was always du- pltcating my best shots and hanging on Just behind me. I made good use then of what previous experience I had had in keeping a level head.
 We came down the home stretch neck and neck. At the last hole, with a big gallery gathered about us, all looking silent and curious. made a long curl ing putt of 12 feet that seemed to hes ltate on the brink of the cup as though undecided whether or not to drop in. The moment would have been even more thrilling had known, as after wards proved the case, that one shot was needed to win.
 The ball plopped into the cup and my friends rushed up to congratulate me, but l reminded them that Chick Sthi had chance. We all turned to watch him, breezing down the stretch like house afire. He was reeling off pars and an occasional birdie as though