Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-08
WALTER
HAGEN
T A Tx S
1T OVER

40 Bobby Jones has gone to Eu-
rope again! 1 must say l envy
him, and / am looking forward
~ myself to many more visits to
Great Britain and the British
open, to many more glasses of half |
and-half in the old Cheshire Cheese, |
to many more cuts of roast beef at |
Simpsons, and to many a good shot |
and many a bad one over the sand |,
dunes at Deal and st. Andrews and |
amid the glorious flowers which bloom |
about the inland courses of Surrey.
If any one thinks the American |
golfers fail to have lot of fun in |
Great Britain he is much mistaken. |
] have spent many interesting hours |
watching old Tom Stewart making |
clubs at the FORCES and wheels in his |
cleek shop at st. Andrews, and I have
had plenty of fun in the music halls
in London. And the sea air at Black
pool and Brighton always makes one
glad to be alive.
Bobby Jones, pride of international
golf, is back at the famous old course
in st. Andrews, and on July IL. next
Monday, will start the defense Of the
championship title he won last year
at Lytham and st. Anne's.
Bobby is a great favorite over there.
After he won the championship last
year he made a very tactful speech.
All OF my speeches have not been so
tactful, but nevertheless I get on in
the British Isles a lot better than
some Americans seem to think. I have
o lot Of friends over there.
Thrill i'm Foreign Play.
There is no use talking, there is
nothing in golf that gives players
more kick than the excitement of 60
ing aboard one of the express steam
ers in New York, sailing the Atlantic
and then getting out on foreign soil
and trying to play the game
1 was not surprised when Bobby
decided to go back this year. Photo
graphs of old ST. Andrews in a golf
magazine gave him the urge to go.
Bobby has at least another year of
law before he hangs out his sign and
this is Summer vacation for him and
he is wise to take advantage of it.
Bobby will be much better in the
British open than in the American
open. He jumped to Pittsburgh after
year Of hard work on his studies.
He hardly had had time to adjust his
game and his temperament to the
drastic requirements of our open
championship, by far the toughest
test in the game today. After an
ocean voyage and five or six days
practice over st. Andrews, the course
he loves best, Bobby should be his old
self, and that means he will be hard
to beat.
With Jones at st. Andrews the
American invasion will be formidable.
for what it lacks in numbers will be
made up in the class of Bobby Jones.
He should start a hot favorite in the
field.
There is great golfing atmosphere at
st. Andrews. Pinehurst is the only
spot in America which equals 1t, for
in the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst the
boys swing their clubs in the hall
ways and talk about the game during
all but sleeping hours, just as they
do at st. Andrews. In the Grand
Hotel at St Andrews. however, there
are added stimulants, and the CONVEX
sations wax warm and interesting.
All Like st. Andrews.
I notice that Robert Gardner, cap
tain of the American amateur golf
team, has decided that st. Andrews APP
peals to him more than any other
course, the same decision Bobby Jones
came to after his third visit. No golfer
with downright love for the game, and
S.i good players and most bad players
have it, but is strong for st. Andrews,
the ancient home Of the game.
Except when the wind blows hard.
st. Andrews is not difficult test of
golf. save for two holes, the short
eleventh or Eden, and the seventeenth
or road hole. But a stiff wind makes
many Of the other holes difficult, and
the wind blows much Of the time.
st Andrews is "a great spot, 1t Is
Just pnice ride from Edinburgh. over
the famous Firth of the Forth bridge,
one of the longest railroad bridges
in the world. The railroad enters the