Evening star., 1926-04-09

Walter Hagen, too. was anxious to
make try for the big prize. AS win
ner of our championship the preced-
ing year, he still was the title holder
when the British open came on, so
the two of us. with the well wishes OF
thousands of American golfers,
started on the first of q series OF
drives for the British title. which.
have proved extraordinarily success
full.
This was not the first time that
players from this side had gone over
to try their skill. Back before the
war, Jack McDermott, Mike Brady,
Tom Mcnamara and possibly one or
two others had made one or more
trims over But none of them had
Jared very we'll. In those days the
British professionals. and British
golfers generally, felt little concern
over the entry of players from this
side Britain was historically the
outstanding figure in the golf world.
and the idea that America could pro-
duce players to challenge them on
their own grounds appeared to them
little short of ridiculous.
Conditions Now Different.
Things have changed in this respect
now, however, and one common topic
of conversation in golfing matters
over there just now is, Why are
American golfers better than British
golfers?
The championship was played that
year at Deal. We arrived some time
before the. event was to start and
our appearance created no little at
tention. Golf writer's for the paD3rs
especially took occasion to interview
and sound us out on all sorts of lines.
and in some instances they misinter-
preted the things we said. At any
rate they quoted us as making state
ments that certainly did not gibe with
our views and sentiments.
We played several practice rounds
prior to the qualifying rounds for
the championship, and while neither
of us broke any course records, we
both seemed TO he hitting the ball
we'll enough, and the British players
came to feel, before the start OF play.
that we might have to be reckoned
with before the fun was over
AS matters actually turned out they
had little to fear, as neither. of us
seriously threatened to win. | even
tually finished in sixth place, six
strokes hack of George Duncan, who
won with 300. My best round of the
four was a "a, and twice I took 10.
But at that I was the only player in
the field to break so on each start.
The trouble was, l was not able to
get in one or two real lowscoring
rounds.
Hagen Had More Trouble.
Hagen had even more trouble. /,
was his first experience on genuine
| = Il
play were typical of all this means
There was a strong wind sweeping
over the links during a good part Of
the play. and it made control of the
ball exceedingly difficult. both as te
direction and as to judgment of the
amount of force necessary to make
the carries. The wind was changing
it's direction from time to time, anC
a shot that would call for a mashie IL
the forenoon might require a spoor
| in the afternoon. 4
Deal is typical of all of the wei
known seaside courses in the British
Isles. They are much more natura
| than the courses which we have or
| this side, most of which, of course
are inland courses. There Is very
little artificiality about these British
| layouts. Bumps and hummock
| the greens are rarely built up as W.
| find them over here. Furthermore
our green's are watered far more thar
the ones over there, and so are mucl
! easier to pitch onto and make thu
ball hold. In fact, the greens at Dea
and some of the other courses are, a
rule, quite level with the fairwa.
which forms the approach to them
and it is practically impossible t.
! pitch a ball on to them and hold ii
Then again the rough, alongside TIL
fairways, Is very rugged, and a playe
| is frequently lucky even to get hi
ball back onto the fairway. much les
get any distance on the shot.
| These conditions We're mostly ney
\ to Hagen, and his game was no
adapted to meeting them. Also H.
knew that as champion of the Unite
States, he was being closely watched