Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-31
,ANC|ENT CLUB GAVE
! FIVE PROS TO BOB'S
Mac Smith Likely to Rule
'Favorite in British Open
y This Week.
BY BERNARD DARWIN.

IL be played at CarnouStle Cnls
Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday. On Monday and Tuesday
the 214 entrants each will play
two qualifying rounds, one at
Carnoustie itself and one next
door, at Barry.
It is, in any case. sad that Bobby
Jones will net be here to defend his
: title, and it is especially sad that he
p.cnship ever held. at CaTncustic.
place that may Be saii to have had
some thing OF the making Of Jones.
From this little town in Angus-it
used to be called Forfa-shire-there his
poured into the United States flood
of professional golfers and thence In
particular came Stewart Maiden, whom
Bobby Jones used to watch with ador-
ing eyes at the impressicnaole age oil g.
Carncustie has provided Bcbby's own
course of Eastlake with no fewer than
FIVE profess .onals-Alex Smith, Jimmy
Marden, Maiden, Willie Ogg and Char
lie Gray and, as in duty boun:. Jones
made pilgrimag. there when he was
last at St. andrews, and laid his gar
lands, metaphorically, at Carnoustie's
feet. What a pity he cannot win
there!
U. S. Well Represented.
What must be must, however, and the
United States has sent formidable
band to retain the championship cup
Horton Smith, Turnesa, Kirkwood, Far
rell Sarazen Manero, Willie Hunter,
Armour, A. Straub and Macdonald
Smith There are three amateurs, our
old frieni, Joshua Crane, who seems
possessed by a strange and irresistible
Co. fuN
fame has not hitherto reached me, j.
De Paoio Of Rancho and T. Mcguire,
-Stockdale.
At the end of the first week in May
I made a one-day raid on Scotland
and walked round tine Carnoust!e
course. MacDnoald Smith was there,
hard at work, and saying he felt all
the better for his native air and the
peace and quiet of 1t. Not many golf
a whole month of golf on one course
without the fear of growing stale, but
I have no Doubt Smith knows his own
business best and will bring himself
to the port in the best possible condi-
, ton.
l do not know Carnoustie well and,
perhaps on that account, 1t seems 10
me to lack something of the romance
and the inspiring atmosphere which
ship courses. There are no tremendous
holes which bring back memories OF
supreme glory or historic disaster, but
the course provides beyond doubt
sound and searching examination In
all the arts Of golf The warm weather
will now have brought it into admira-
bic condition.
The course is just over $500 yards
long, and, heaven knows, that Is long
with a number of new bunkers de-
signed by James Braid, and he does not
temper Justice with any excess Of mer-
cy. There Is q certain bunker designed
by Braid, at Prestwick. which IN all
probs bility robbed J. H. Taylor OF a
sixth championship and caused him to
say that the man who made that bunk
through his heart.
1t is not an easy course to describe,
because, although of the typically sea-
side type, 1t has no great sand hills or
caverncus bunkers. The course is on
the whole, flat-a good thing, in my
Judgment, though mountains are more
northumberland the natural folds
and bends in the ground, though big
enough to be effective, are on no colos-
sal scale.
The most obvious feature consists of
various burns, which we paltry English
men are apt to call streams. There is
Jockie's Burn and the Barry Burn.
The first of the two means trouble at
both the second and third holes, and
as t. the Barry Burn, 1t Is so ubiqui-
tous in It's windings that the stranger
thinks at FIRST Carnoustie hospitality
has been rather too much for him.
Like Serpent.
It seems like q particularly tortuous
serpent eating its own tail. I may,
through ignorance. omit some of Its
meanderingS, but It has at any rate to
be carried with the second shot at the
tenth hole (which has the odd name
of South American, twice at the
seventeenth hole and twice more at the
last. OF a certain old Scottish golfer
of 1927 it was written: "Lykewakes he
exercisit the govt and ofttimes past to
Barry Lynks, quhan the wadsie was
for drink"
My readers may think I have been
following his example, but I can as
sure them that what I say Of that
omnivorous burn is true. At the last
hole II Is simply everywhere It is at
once both to the right and to the left,
making a Mesopotamia Of the spot
where the tee shot must be laid down;
and then there it is again in front of
the green, and to cross it in 2 means
So much for the course, and now
who is going to win there? "Oh, I
suppose one Of these blessed Amer
leans" would be the typical British an
swer and there are certainly good
grounds. At the same time the bulk
of American victories have been the
work Of two men, Walter Hagen and
Bobby Jones, and neither of them is
here. So we may have hopes.
I take 1t that Macdonald Smith will
start favorite and do hope the crowd
there will be very big one-will not
love him too much. Every man, wom-
an and child in that crowd will think
OF him not as stranger from America,
but as one Of themselves, a true-born
Scot. They did so only too fervently at
Prestwick In 1925, and so surged about
him that he collapsed when he wanted
a Is to beat Jim Barnes.
or the American entrants as a whole
my readers are at least as god judges
a. can possible be- so / will say no
more Of them OF the others 1 will
take Cotton, Alliss, Charles Whitcombe
and Compston, and. as a rather long
shot, perhaps, the Frenchman, Boyer,
who played beautiful golf at Hoylake
last year.
South America must net be forgot
ten, with Jurado Genta-described as
a terrific driver-Churio and Freccero.
but I should be surprised If any of
them won. Jurado, a splendid little
golfer, had his great chance when
Hagen won at Sandwich in 1928, and
he could not quite endure the strain
to the end. One has something of the
same feeling about Compston. These
chances only come, even to the best,
once or twice in a lifetime, and after
his wonderful So In the third round at
S1avlake last wear Connston had a s,i-
preme opportunity and made, oh! such
o sad mess of 1t.
I have the most faith in Cotton, who
a not only a very fine PLAYER. but DOS