Evening star., 1927-12-01
Ian Hits Coast Foot Ball Cubs to Mcguire Second Basen,an
BY O. b. KELLER.

~ ELATIVELY, a simply enor-
nous amount of space Is oc.
cupied in the various public
Il prints concerning the style,
methods and general per-
formance of golfers, as contrasted
with their implements. These lat.
ter are neither without their inn
portance nor their traditional asso-
Citations.
A golfer without his own set Of
clubs is astonishingly lost, the duff
fer as we'll as, the eXpert-and
probably more so.
! know from personal observa-
ton that on his British invasion Of
1926 Bobby Jones purchased IA
new drivers--I have several Of
them at home today-and at the
last he continued with Jack
White model he got at Summing
dale, where he played what the
critics declared to be the finest
round of golf ever played in Brit
ain in qualifying for the British
open championship.
And l know, also from observa-
tion. that he tried out and discard.
cd one of those ii new drivers the
morning before the great round.
have it at home now.
Well. there is old John Morris.
Jack" Morris they call him affec.
tionately. as old as--perhaps older
than--the famous Andrew Kirkaldy
Of st. Andrews. John Morris now is
76 years of age and still the active
professional at Hoylake. This is a
little story of John Norris. and a
club which came from his shop,
more than so years ago.
The first club / ever owned was
in 1897. when I was a Summer Wis.
itor at Lake Geneva, Wis, and at
the age of Is years worked as
casual caddy at what was then the
Walworth County Country Club,
now the Lake Geneva Country
Club, where old Jimmy Conacher
was professional. l had to be a
caddy in order to get to play at
the course, before and after
hours"
Now the first club I purchased,
secondhand. was an old cleek de-
signed to handle the gutta-percha
ball. then in vogue. 1t was long
and narrow and curiously graceful
in the blade, very unlike the latter
day cleek. which has nearly passed
out of existence. And on the back
OF the blade was an oval line. and
inside the oval was stamped: John
Morris, Hoylake."
I called it my "Hoylake Cleek,"
and loved it because Jimmy Con-
acher said it was a fine head,
though the shaft was no good.
! have the original today. But l
had two copies made by Spalding
and gave one to my brother in
1913. The other I had cut down
to putter length in the shaft, and
when Bobby Jones was worrying
about his chip shots some three
years ago I basely stole that cut.
down cleek from the lady who
since has become my wife and gave
it to him. He has since played
with it those tiny. delicate approach
shots from just off the green with
such success that in 1926. at St
Andrews. Scotland. he had old Tom
Stewart, the famous club-maker
there. make him II copies of the
head. all marked with his auto
graph, and he gave me one for the
lady who owned the original.
Give her this from me-" said
he, "and say that nobody ever will
get the original away from me-"
But the story AS involving old
John Morris, is this:
At Muirfield. where the British
amateur championship was played
in 1926. Bobby Jones, then Ameri-
can amateur champion. met Rob
ert Harris. then British amateur
champion. in the fifth round. At
the first hole, par 5. Bobby was
just off the green with his second,
and he sent the ball into the cup
from Is feet away with superbly
delicate shot from this club, copied
from the old John Morris original.