THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 17, 1989
GOLF OPEN
Paga
28
RECORDS AT ST. ANDREWS Brilliant Qualifying Scores On First Day.
BRUEN, LITTLE AND ALLISS EACH DO 69
our
to
Course to-morrow in a 70. That sets him the tightest possible margin when the strain is on from the word "Go." Jurado may have reacted also the weather, for although he took three putts only once, he needed 41 strokes for the inward half of the Old Course, with a 7 at the eleventh and the last
hele. He got into the notorious Strath bunker at the eleventh and took 4 to get out. After that he finished
6 5 5 5.
"
in
St. Andrews, July 3. Records were broken on both Old and New Courses in the first round of the Open Championship qualifying test here to-day. James Bruen, the brilliant 19- years-old Eire tip for the title, and Lawson Little, the American who twice won
Amateur Championship before turning pro-
The majority of the well-known fessional, returned 69s on the competitors put in at least serviceable Old Course, and Percy Alliss, one rounds on both courses. Hastings, in of England's most talented play-under 48, with a nine-yard putt for a his 71 on the New, came back in three ers, who has never yet won the 3 at the eighteenth. Ballingall, who Championship, broke 70 on the did 76, drove out of bounds at the last other course, where, later in the hole of the Old Course, und Hector. day, Henry Cotton, the favourite, Thomson, who did 78 for the New... had a card of 73, which ended often to find the green with his se
Course, finished 5 6 1 5. He failed with an extraordinary spell of conds.
trouble.
How Bruen Did It
PERCY ALLISS, who set up a new record over the Now Course.
That brief summary wraps up By the time the bacon and eggs were the doings of personalities who being tabled in this holiday-packed have been prominently in the Cham- town, Bruen was well on his way to pionship speculations, and
the turn. The draw set him. to strike though the first ball of the Championship on their golf has, one way and another, the Old Course, and he did it with a vividly coloured the opening day of picture of a drive that launched him the big event, the scoring generally grandly on this great card-and-pencil, a fine 4 at the make-or-break four- has neither subdued the courses nor
venture for which an amateur is only teenth, after getting a hanging lie once in a blue moon considered at all. from an enormous drive. If supplied any, emphasis for the ab- But Bruen at 19 has soared towards was an anxious moment at all, it was there normally low score forecasts that the Ball, Hilton, and Jones category; just as his wooden club second skim- have been made in some quarters.
with his mechanical figure-stringing med low over Hell bunker, raising a The ground
this Irish youth, has par after par on spurt of sand, but running safely on. conditions оп both the championship courses at his mercy. He holed courses were favourable to figure golf, Though it was an early start at 8.30, and that, I may add, was the longest a three yards putt there, but overhead things were not so good a large number of spectators, advanc-putt he holed in the round. what with a changing breeze that blewing breakfast, and possibly grooming the details of the card:-
Here are stiffly at times, and heavy showers which disturbed the morning.play.
Records Are Recognised
less particularly than
usual, were
out and about to see how the Irish prodigy's bid was to begin.
Out-4 6
6 8 49 3-36 In-3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 3-33-69
Here are the details of his card:
Out-4 514 4 5 4 4 3 4-37
was
holed, and his approach there typical of his play up to the greens. His figures are as follows:--
*
Out 4 4 5 4 3 4 4 4 8-35 In 4 4 4 8 4 8 6 3 494 Bobby Locke did a round of 74 on this course which was devoid of sparkle but which had nothing seriously wrong with it. Taking 37 each way, he putted with no inspiration, though his putting is never for at wórst from sound.
The South African was plainly not at all happy in the damp, coldish wes- ther. He neither looked nor felt com- fortable. He had six 5s on his card., At the sixth hole he drove into the whins and took two to get out.
Bulls, the Chicagoan newcomer did 72 on the New Course, using balls by turns of both British and U.S. spèci fication. The "two bob" and the 45. cents balls averaged out well enough. for him, and he seemed to be playing with something in reserve: His tee strokes were generally long and im- pressive. At the end of the round he illustrated the tendency to mix his putting, for he holed one of ten yards at the seventeenth and missed one of four feet at the eighteenth. His finish in 5 3 4 gave him the only over 4 figures in this round. He was out in 36 and back in 37,
Cotton's Amazing Finish
Cotton set out on the New a few minutes after 2 p.m.-a time for which no doubt he and certainly a large crowd were duly thankful. The draw fitted in nicely with the lunch hour. The British No. 1 hope played almost immaculate golf on the way out save for a 5 at the sixth, where he missed the green with his second and then missed a putt. He was out in 35, and There the story takes a swift and as- he averaged 4s with four holes to go. tonishing turn. crowd like a thunderclap from a blue
The finish took
sky. hook from the tee, his first really bad After the fifteenth he had a wild stroke of the round, and we had the striking spectacle of white-coated stewards and 500 spectators searching for his ball.
the
For nearly the full legal search period of five minutes they prodded bushes with- sticks-and-combed the thick rough. The ball was found. in time in a reasonable good lie close to the Jubilee Course, and he proceeded to get his 4. recovered well from sand, and
At the next hole he then
but a picture of an approach to the missed a putt of eight feet for a 8,
on the side-lines, he missed that putt the flag. Then, amid unanimous gasps
another bad hook from the eighteenth for a 3, and finished the round with
tee. But it all comes to 78, and his head will not lie uneasily, to-night.: To qualify is the thing, how (save for the new leadership prize of £20) does hot matter.
K.C.C. TENNIS
Bruen made it worth their while, for, in spite of two misadventures in the
Lawson Little's 2s. first five holes and a 6. in each case. It was some time after the 69s had he proceeded thereafter to "burn up" he, too, laid his last pitch close
-Lawson-Little was delighted when been handed in that it was officially the course and break 70.
to intimated by Col. MacAllan, the con-
the eighteenth flag, after the Bruen vener of the Green Committee of the vellously smooth piece
From the sixth hole it was a mar-pattern, and also holed. his putt for of brilliance. a 3 to break 70. When he was being Royal and Ancient Club, that the He reeled off six holes up to and in- congratulated, he remarked, with a scores would rank as new
records.cluding the eleventh in There had apparently been some doubt strokes, and all the way in after that 69, but I must have left out the loop, nineteen smile: "Yes, I have gone round in as to whether in view of the few he hit stroke after stroke as if cham-I think. That was the only way I seventeenth put him within a yard of changes on the course in the matter pionship golf were as easy as shelling expected to get a score like that." of additional yardage the scores would peas until at the home hole he laid concede the American his little joke, We count in this way. While the par values of the altered holes on the Old the flag, and rounded off with a 3 pression that he is one of the real a high-tossed pitch two yards from but his round to-day confirms the im- Course and the general par of the that recalled the one with which Hec overseas dangers. course remain the same, the fifth ninth, tor Thomson snuffed out Jim Ferrier and fourteenth holes have all been
on the same spot in the Amateur final lengthened, the last-named to restore three years ago. Spectators round the effectiveness of the Beardies bunk- the last green had multiplied by hun- ers for the drive and the famous Hell dreds. who
In-4 2.2.4 6 4 4 4 3--3260 hailed bunker for the second stroke.
the youngster's His attack on the eleventh, reported performance with cheers. Bruen's score, equalled later by
to be the hardest, short hole in the Little, displaces the 67 done in the Skimmed The Hell
world, and the twelfth," was the sort Championship six years ago by the
of brilliance that has a much bigger late Willie Nolan, the Irish profession-
*** Bunker
Thursday or Friday, meaning than it al, and the amateur record of 68 done
has at this early stage of the week. by Bobby Jones in 1927, and Alliss's scarf tucked into his pullover against ordinary 37, holed a ten yards putt at Bruen, who wore a light yellow Little, having gone to the turn in an has superseded the 71 which stood in the possibility of heavy rain, the names of Bobby Jones and Ken a rather gloomy aky seemed to hold of recovered touch on the greens, and which the eleventh, which may be significant Greig.
Behind the pace-makers on the Old in the offing, looked supremely con-at the twelfth (818 yards), he drove Course the names that have filed into into serious: difficult. He was striking the putt down. All went well to the fident, and never looked like straying within three yards of the flag, and put the next-in-merit order aro 'lesser knowns, but a Scote challenger in W. the hall "off the meat" no stroke Road Hole, and then he played well Hastings, ex-native champion, turned
anywhere gave him any anxiety for to the left, and finally left him- in a 71 on the New, where R. A. Whit his golf was nearly as possible auto-self to pitch over the pot bunker guard- combe, the storm king Champion of matic and on greens that had the Ing the pin. With a touch of hook last year: Johnny Bulla, the U.S. new lot of "work" on his pitches, and putted it, and got his. 4. The pitch at the morning softness about them, he got a he got the ball just where he wanted comer: Martin Pose, the most boten with a confident air and touch tial of the Argentine party; and Jack
last was a spectacular one, and so he M'Lean have all gone round in 72.
Somebody remarked beside me in the equalled the new record. Jurado's Disastrous
crowd, "This lad's making a drive and pitch course of this classic gre 10 Start
That is no reflection on the course |was a tribute to Bruen's su
nower and his consistent acc Only one drive in the wrong; it was, It left Bruen åt
The most conspicuous competitor who stands under the shadow of the qualifying guillotine to-night is Jurado, whose eleventh hour made the supreme tragedy Championship, when Tanimy won at Cornoustie sight years, The Argentinian's long game let down badly today on the Old
score spun out, to 84. On- tot up to-night of possibilities is AESTORAté of 154 may be the qualifying mark; in which case would have to get robna
ands
drove the tenth drove the twelfth.
Comparatively few spectators started out with him' to-day, but it is safe to say that to-morrow will have another, story. The U.S. "manace" is always a draw.
Alliss Comes Back
Alliss in No Man's Land hero six years ago when he failed to qualify he was Allians back in Wonderland the when he finir
hë | ber of the Br
n
His 69 on the
100
class
whic
en and near the flags
the Jéadin professiona
round matches played in the Kowloon The following are results of first Cricket Club annual tournament to Men's Senior Championship A. E. P. Saturday:-
Guest (holder) received a walk- over from W. C. Hung (runner- up). Men's Junior Championship
J. R.
Turrier beat G. W. Giffen 6– 6–8 6–2
G. M. Gillard beat W. L. Ra pley 6-1, 6-3, 7-5,
B. Soltau beat N. A. E. Mackay: 68, 7-5, 0-6, 6-1.
FA. Broadbridge beat
S. Duncan 5-7, 6-4, 2-8,
Mixed Doubles Handicap--P. Wyna
Blyth and Mre Millard bout WMA Gitting and Mr Lo (——16)
low Handic
(sor.)