The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-06-18
Armour Now
King of u. S.
Open Golfers
Fifty-Foot Putt on Fifteenth
Paves Way to Title for
War Veteran.

OAKMONT COUNTRY CLUB,
HUTTON, Pa, June ia fighting
golfer who wouldn't admit defeat
has been crowned open golf cham
pion of 1927.
Tommy Armour of Rockville, Md,
who came from behind to beat
Light Horse Harry" Cooper, Los
Angeles, by three strokes in a pulse
stirring play-off over the most diff
cult of the country's golf courses,
won the championship on fighting
spirit as much as by the all-around
supremacy of his play.
Not only in the thrilling duel with
Cooper, which was witnessed by
$4,000 stampeding spectators, but in
the seventy-two holes of the cham
pionship itself, the tall Scottish
professional overcame early diff
culties to snatch victory at the
eleventh hour.
There's no greater all-around
SHOEMAKER playing today" said
Bobby Jones of Atlanta, who for the
first time of his golflng career was
a spectator at a play-off for the ma
tional championship.
Over the links which had turned
back the golf1ng efforts of the great
est field that ever contested an open
championship, the new title-holder
won out because he refused to adj
nit that the course was too diff
cult for him.
tits the hardest and fairest of
courses" said Tommy when it was
all over. Il was in trouble too much
to suit me, and Harry was playing
great golf. But I just decided I
must get out and up to the pin and
1 was lucky enough to do So"
This modest statement, character
istic of the man who won, by no
means the story, however.
The short game, most trying to
golfer under championship condi-
lions, was mastered by the tall
champion. If his tee shots were
bit inaccurate, and often they were,
he came cody bursting out of sand
or rough to get back on even terms
with his nervous young opponent.
Those who know Tommy Armour
OF old, Bobby CruickShank, the
diminutive Scot of Purchase, N. Y,
and other great golfers and golf
followers, say that he can see from
only one eye. Service with the
Kilties in France during the World
War cost him the sight of an eye.
his friends declare. Tommy him
self turns away and will not talk
of it. If it is true, it has not i'm
paired his golfing vision, for there
is no one in the country so accurate
as he.
This play-off was the more sensa-
t1onal because of the desperate
nature of the struggle between two
highly nervous golfers.
First one would win a hole and
then the other. OF the entire eight
cen holes played, only four were
halved. On the entire eighteen only
three brides were registered, two by
Armour and one by Cooper. For
the rest it was give-and- take. like
two desperate boxers each bent upon
delivering the knockout blow.
1t was at the long fifteenth,
which lies ATS yards over hill and
dale, that the championship of 1927
really was won, according to Armour
himself.
Both were trapped on their second
shots, and both pitched to the
green, Cooper 40 feet from the pin
and Armour so feet away.
Tommys long putt curled up to
the cup, hung an instant on the
lip, and disappeared into the hole.
A tremendous cheer went up.
Cooper tried to duplicate Tommy's
feat, and missed by inches.
Fright then and there" said
Tommy afterward, IT knew I was
going to win"
That 50-foot putt squared the
match. At the short sixteenth,
Tommy picked up two strokes on
his faltering opponent and Harry's
dream OF golfing greatness faced.
AT the seventeenth, the last straw
was applied to the camels back.
Both had made good drives, and
Cooper, slightly away, laid a high
pitch within a foot of the cup for
a sure birdie three.
II Armour had played safe, he
would have been but one stroke
ahead going to the eighteenth. But
Tommy was not that sort of golfer.
After a moments study, he played
a pitch to within six inches of the
cup, and the match was over.
They played the eighteenth, of
course, but here Cooper only
succeeded in getting into a trap and
losing another stroke.
Then Tommy Armour was called
to the green lawn and the cup
brought along by Bobby Jones of
Atlanta was presented to him.