BRITISH
OPEN-FINAL
OPEN FINAL DAY
WINS
BURTON
BY TWO
THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 24 1989
TITLE
STROKES
Final Round Of 71 Staves Off Bulla's Challenge
Wonderful Scenes On Old Course
St. Andrews, July 7. -Richard-Burton, six-feet tall Cheshire professional, and twice Ryder Cup golfer, sent 12,000 spectators wild with enthusiasm late this afternoon here when storming par's final citadel on the Old Course. With the knightliest of salutes to fortune, he not only won the Open Golf Championship, but, which stirred the vast crowd to an extraordin- ary degree, saved the title from being taken back to the United States after the five
years sequence of British successes since 1984.
our
round, which several times put hearts in our mouths, he fought in the biggest-hearted fashion, covering up his mistakes with memorable re- coveries, and finishing off the Ameri- can "menace" with one of the most superlative 3s ever seen on the Tom
classic Morris green of the and he aggregated 290, and beat Bulla by two strokes. It was a magnificent No other words could better climax. describe it. His winning sequence over the three days is 70, 72, 77, and 71.
+
course,
A 4 REQUIRED TO WIN Standing on the eighteenth tee Bur- ton needed a 4 to win. That is the strict par of the hole, but in the nerve- taut tension that goes with these thrill- ship, we had already seen man after ing closing hours of the Champion- man fail to get his putter to trans That great, green empty space of the late his ardent desire into action. first and eighteenth fairways, from which spectators are excluded, and which was now Burton's stage, hau its emptiness the
When last night's returns were checked up after the first 36 holes play, we thought the U.S. "men- ace," if not entirely disposed of, had
been again forced into background, so that the American challenge had become a thing of possibility rather than probability. But Johnny Bulla, the US. cam- paigner, who came over here this
time with no particular reputation to make our golfing flesh creep, suddenly came up from behind to- day, and stepped dramatically into the lead in the later hours: An- xious eyes
were turned again to the draw-sheet to see which British players had a chance to man this spectacular breach, and what they had to do to save the day,
Burton was the hero of the day: the hour found the man. With a
final
I
accentuated by the thousands of spectators who gave i its throbbing human frame. Twelve. thousand pairs of eyes watched his drive, and then slowly the small group which was the centre of this gripping picture moved from the tee.
It was a peerless drive which Burton hit; it might just have been any drive with not as much as a brass farthing upon" it. In the tense situation, stage-set for him here, it was obviously the hall- mark of a champion. The ball was cracked plumb on the flag-line, and Anished about twenty yards short of the green. There was no trace of nerves or wobble about it. It meant business.
Burton walked up that last fairway every inch a winner. Nothing of swagger marked these last glorious
JOHN JAMESON & SON
&
DUBLIN WHISKEY
"NOT A DROP-
IS SOLD TILL
IT'S SEVEN
YEARS OLD"
Sola Agenter
CALDBECK, MACGREGOR & CO. LTD.
Telephones 20075 & 10644
2, Chater Road
"LIFE AMBITION NOW REALISED" --BURTON
Shortly after Burton finished his last round and it became known that he had won the title, thousands of spectators stamped. ed across the first fairway of the Old Course, which had been sa- cred ground throughout the event, and took up a 'position in front of the Royal and Ancient Golf Clubhouse, where the presenta- tion ceremony took place.
Burton was given a great re- ception when he stepped through the clubhouse window, accompan- led by Mr. Henry Gullen, secre- tary of the R. and A., and John- ny Bulla, the American runner-up.
Colonel H. H. Sutherland, cap- tain of the R. and A., who pre- sided, said the Championship had been excellent in everything ex- cept the weather. The entries had not been so large as on the last occasion the Championship played at St. Andrews, but it was representative of the best golfers in the world. Golfers had comé from all parts of the world, and they thanked particularly their visitors from the Argentine.
was
Colonel Sutherland said the crowd would be pleased to know that Arthur Havers, who under- went an operation for appendici tis last week, was progressing favourably.
He thanked the Championship Committee for the excellent con- dition of the course, and the ste- wards, and markers for their ar- duous work under trying condi- tions throughout the week.
I have realised one of my life's ambitions," said Burton after the trophy was presented to him by Colonel Sutherland. "I thank you all, and particularly the other fellows who let me win." (Laughter, and applause).
Mr. Johnny · Bulla said:
"The best man won, and I am tickled to death that I did so well.” He expressed his' pleasure at having visited St. Andrews, and said he hoped to be back in this country and to compete in the "Open" next year.
his
signal ran that Burton was pion.
Cham-
As he left the green, he was mob- bed by admirers all the way to the clubhouse, and the demonstration would have got out of hand probably had the terrace outside the clubhouse not been closed to the general public. As it was, two stalwart policemen had to give the new Champion protective
convoy.
It
These were rapturous minutes. was a wonderful scene, and though the Old Course has been the setting for not a few spectacles that have made golfing history, the oldest St. Andrean here will admit that to-day's fits in worthily. As Johnny Bulla stood in the clubhouse watching the cheering crowds, the poignant side of these big events leapt to my mind. Burton was on top of the world, and deservedly so; Bulla for an hour and a half had waited with his hands on the golf prize of a lifetime, on the verge of a triumph that would make to his name ring from New York San Francisco as the American who had broken through the solid British golf phalanx as Jock Hutchison did on this very course 18 years ago. Frame and fortune would wait him across the Atlantic..
But with the swiftness of a mir- age that glittering prospect dis- solved, and what would have been one of the biggest surprises in golf. since the United States began to challenge was staved off.
We have to look down through se veral names before we come to the most discussed competitor of the cham- pionship, Bobby Locke. The young South African" was no better than 296, and Cotton and Bruen were two strokes worse. The brilliant young Irish player was first amateur, and K. T. Kyle, the amateur champion, was next in that class.
Burton's triumph is partly one of auto-suggestion. At the League Tournament at Birmingham about a month ago, when he did not do well, he stated that he was going into pre- paration for the Open in the belief that he would win it. His faith in himself has undoubtedly helped to see him_through.
HE WANTED TO KNOW
It was a sorely tried faith at times before he saw his drive leave tho last tee like a bullet. His finish was indeed a triumph against self-created difficulties. When he stepped on to the seventh tee he was two over 4s. "If I get two 3s on the Loop," he said, "I think I can win,” As a mat- ter of fact he proceeded to reel off the next three holes all in 3s.
and
in
It was at the twelfth hole that he learned he had to do a 72 to beat Bulla. He wanted to know, and he to yards of his victory march; but there kept asking for informations as
He was was a confident and firm bearing about how the scores were going.
From
three under 4s at that stage, him that spoke volumes. cigarette he calmly blew the smoke he saw his golden opportunity. puffs and outwardly at anyrate he A big lusty hitter, Burton, however, might have been finishing a "bob-a- the strict par with a timely long put
having done the next four holes corner" Saturday afternoon match on 'his course' at 'Sale.
at the fourteenth, suddenly began to Choosing his club for the approach sixteenth holes he hooked far off the drive wildly. At both fifteenth and he had one or two practice swings line, and at either hole this would and then he struck: his pitch and as have been ruinous had the Old Course the ball hit the green and pulled up not been a hooker's course. six yards from the hole cheering At the fifteenth his second was as broke out: Only something sensation-far as it could be, away on the other al could now keep him from getting part of that spacious double green, the 4 of triumph. The vast throng but he ran the ball up, it must have became hushed as he addressed his been fifty yarda, to within six feet putt; the Rather points overlooking at the sixteenth he hit another wild and A. balcony, hotel of the hole, and put, the putt down. the scene were crowded with tense hook, and played an astonishingly
windows, and
faces.
#PUTT DROPS FOR A'8
over. He had finished like a con- quering hero, and the cheers wore ringing for him:
-weak approach which just missed a bunker. That hole cost him 5. But Off the ball went from his club firm-two holes, later all his worries were ly, in keeping with his other strokes to the hole. It was unmistakably go- ing to be dead. Then as the small white object watched by thousands • The new champion-is 31, and he of eyes, observed from long rango by began in his profession, with his bro- binoculars which many people carried, ther John at Darwen, in Lancashire, asudden roar shattered,the, hush. when he left school. From there he The ball had dropped and Burton got a post at Hooton, near Liverpool, had crowned his Championship, rolu 1981, and hat been at Sale,
ince: with a 10-
Cheihire, „for some time. His .. first The din preal from those in the entry for the Open Championship was inity of the green right" through here six years ago, when he failed to
Hfar flung, crowd and s
Fret into the last day Uplay: Last year he was rth at Sandwich, when R. A Whitcombe had his triumph in
(Continued on " Page 23)
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