1939-06-12 — Page 23

THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 12, 1989.

GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP 2ND DAY

CAMERON'S GREAT

GREAT FIGHT

AGAINST

YATES

Amateur Golf Championship Thrills At Hoylake

Bruen's Comfortable Victory Over Crawley

way to the twelfth, and after getting The American was beaten all the a bad lie in a bunker, picked up, and Cameron drew up on level terms at the fourteenth, where Yates, playing forcing stroke, got into the rough and a then came within an ace of holing his

up with one astonishing miss at the tenth, where he failed to put a four feet putt down after a great recovery from the hills, and as this fancy for the hills took the youngster off the line again at the short eleventh, Craw- ley won that also, and was now only ? holes down. But from that point ve saw Bruen at his best. Never for u second did he relax until he had Craw-. ley beaten, and well beaten at the six- teenth.

Hoylake, May 24.-"Luck was, the strongest of his own countrymen. sure rootin' for me all right," in-Richard D. Chapman, who will, I ima- sisted laughing Charles R. Yates, ginc. have to be taken at a new value for the half in 3. Hats off to Yates, since we saw him defeat James Bruen, for that was a prodigious recovery for the happy-go-lucky American the Irish wonder,

Take his sequence of match-winners at Sandwich two from Georgia, when he defeated years ago. Bruen was not so good

a half!

--a second shot nearer the tenth flag than Crawley was with wood against Donald Cameron, one of the West than he was then, and his penetration

a yard from the stick at the thirteenth, then as he is now; Chapman is better

the breeze with an iron; tee stroke laid of Scotland stalwarts, in the to the semi-final of the U.S. National

where Crawley was in trouble; a putt Amateur Championship here to-last year endorses that. This shoul

of four. yards at the fourteenth for a 4, day.

be a good American clash to-morrow.

"Bill" Holt is another American

difficult one of three yards by his op- followed, I must add, by a singularly whose record in the U.S. Championship

ponent for a half; a long second to the bids us take his prospects with the ut-chip.

fifteenth that covered the pin all the. most respect, for he has been in the The sixteenth hole I have already way and laid him fairly and squarely last eight in the past three years. We described, and it only remains for me on the middle of the green, with Craw- shall see him to-morrow for the first to add that the American time in the championship here,

from the ley chipping on from the left, and then and fringe grass in front of a bunker at finally the Bruen clincher at the six- another fellow campaigner who takes the seventeenth hit a perfect ball to teenth. the tee for the first time this week is the difficult green, after changing his Ellsworth Vines, the

Crawley was in the cop bunker from lawn tennis mind three times about the club he the tee, and the Irish player, putting "crack," who arrived on the course to. should take. He was fortunate not to the screw on, hit a magnificent iron to day and, after watching Yates, went roll a little further and get into the the green at this hole of out for his first practice round.

over 500 bunker, but he did play up his good yards. Crawley took four strokes to Whether it may be construed as a luck, and when his ball flew to commentary upon his chances here I green there was applause and impar-gave up the hole, and Bruen, with a the make himself puttable, and he finally do not know, but I understand that tial cries of "Fine shot, sir," from a

final toss back of his head to get his Vines has a tennis engagement to keep sportingly impartial crowd. in Dublin on Thursday.

hair off his forehead, shook hands and walked jauntily off the green amid ap- concerned person on the course. plause, to all the appearances the least

That American summary by the title-holder was prompted by what happened at the sixteenth and deci- sive hole in a match, which, while it was staged in the championship atmosphere, and was international in character, was in "friendly."

The two players struck a friendship at Troon last year, where Yates, fol- lowing his first contracts with other Scots in the Walker Cup contest the year before, became, pro tem, a more or less naturalised Scot.

essence a

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Yates and Cameron were all even with three to go in their meeting to- Bruen was the figure that drew the day, and hundreds of spectators swarm- crowds to-day. This 19-year-old star ed down the course to be in at the from Muskerry, Cork, has become death. The doubt as to whose death world golf personality. He has been was to be involved charged the situa-called the Henry Cotton of amateur tion with plenty excitement.

golf, and no bad description either. But in one dramatic moment the Chock-full of confidence, he must be whole issue switched over in favour of the envy of a large percentage of com- the American. The seconds to the six-petitors in any event in which he tees teenth, a long dog-leg hole of over 500 up, and he defeated L. G. Crawley to yards, were the vital strokes. Camer-day in one of the big matches of the on's ball hit the green; we watched it week, and did so with an air of easy land; it looked good, and then, foot by nonchalance that fascinated the spec- foot, we watched it cross the green, go tators. on and on, causing agonies of Scottish |E. D. HAMILTON'S GREAT PUTTING suspense, and finally dive into the Maybe he will have his nonchalance bunker at the back.

shaken a bit to-morrow, when he has Yates, sure as an Income-Tax de- to meet E. D. Hamilton, the Scottish mand, was on the putting surface in Champion, who defeated G. Alec. Hill, two. The Scot's ball, however; lay so Walker Cup promotion of three years badly in the bunker, that he required ago, by 6 and 5 to-day, and is now two to get it on the green, and so he frankly braced up and anxious to do became one down with a desperately battle with the favourite. narrow margin to make that up. The American won at the seventeenth, where Cameron hit his second into the long grass on the left of the green.

JOHN BALL A SPECTATOR So ended one of the salient chapters of a much more exciting day than yes- terday, which did, however, duplicate glorious weather. Crowds, thrills, and the championship procession were di- rected by the fates under a clear sky amid sunshine and lark-song, and all the poetic trimmings of this great course in as fine summer conditions as we ever experience here.

One switch in interest to-day was emphatic. Just as Yates drove the second tee, a thousand spectators from

pressed in the wake of the Bruen- Crawley struggle, which was at that time on the fourteenth fairway. The American had a comparative handful of onlookers. Bruen has become, beyond all doubt, what they call across Atlantic "the big shot," and I daresay the

that the crowd who watched the 19- year-old Irish golfer did so more to see him than with any real idea that he would be knocked out.

The faith that Bruen has in his own golf is evidently shared by ever 90 many people on the spot here, and the supremely confident air with which the young golf machine backs his power and skill certainly does nothing to sug- gest that they are wrong.-

Hector Thomson, after some uncer- tainty near the flags on the outward half, struck his authentic golf, and won very easily in the end against Andrew M'Nair, who tells me that he played weeks in the past winter in Florida. with Tommy Armour every day for five

Thomson, at the eighth, did one of those things that are sensational in a championship setting. M'Nair had ex- ploded out of a bunker, and Thomson. with two for a half but stymied lofted too far, and missed the short putt back. and actually lost the hole. That left him two down, but the match was all even at the eleventh, at which point Thomson began to ladle out par stuff, and his opponent began to spray his strokes prodigally.

HOW THE OTHER SCOTS FARED

Once Thomson had assumed the lead for the first time at the twelfth, where M'Nair had a bad drive and then knocked his second 50 yards into bunker, the end was in sight. Thom- son now meets Timmis, the Hoylake back-marker.

а

BRUEN'S CONFIDENCE Up against one of the longest hit- ters in Britain, Crawley, who in the opinion of many is the best player in England to-day, Bruen strolled alone with an appearance that registered an easy mind. He could hit the ball as far as his opponent; he turned away on the greens before some of his putts were more than half way to the hole Late in the day, when the sun was in the knowledge, apparently, that they nearer setting time, Walter M'Leod de- could not stay out, and he rarely slack-feated Cyril Tolley in a match in which ened his attack,

the Scot had to pull up manfully, and

As a matter of fact, Crawley seemed did it gloriously against a player who to feel the occasion more than Bruen: still hits the ball long distances with he started in nervous fashion, and his old majestic ease. M'Leod was at striking putts and chips weakly, he, in one time. three up; still one up at the effect, gave the match away in the first turn, and then, lo and behold, three seven holes. At that stage he wa down with four to play. actually 4 down, and against a jaunte and abnormally assured young rival there was little hope of breaking dowr that commanding position:

if "Sam" was going to pick up his The chief Crawley faults were, as "moosket." but from that point there was really only one player in the hunt, Kvle won by 6 and 5.

Hamilton was out in 35, and, though he should not have been five up even on that cracker of a pace on a man who has played for Britain, there it is. and he became six up by holing an enormous putt of 25 yards length, con- firmed by himself, at the twelfth hole. Besides Cameron, another Scottish internationalist in S. L. M'Kinlay. was put on to the sidelines by Alex. Kyle, the Yorkshire Scot, who chipped and putted on what we used to quote as the pukka American model. but did not need to play as well as he did, for this was a totally different M'Kinlay from The wind was light, and the weather vesterday, when he went to the turn in generally was so stabilised that spec- 34. That same journey cost him 41 tators many women in bright attire, M'Kinlay was cutting his strokes, and some of them trousered - set off to generally under form. When he won -trek-about-the-course-all-day-with-never-the-first-hole-in-a-good-4-it-looked as

a thought of coat or waterproof.

Marching with the crowds, his head thrust that little bit forward in the old manner, was John Ball, Hoylake's hero of a hundred fights. The moderns do Yates finished with much more at not perform the prodigies of valour tention than he started with. Perhaus that this famous veteran used to per- there was a ghoulish touch in the in- form with straight-faced irons, even terest his fighting finish with Cameron out of bunkers, and he might be exon- had. The American's danger was erated from any purely "good-old-days" rallying signal, and the spectators ral- sentiment if he regarded this green and lied from all quarters. The danger for grassy Hoylake, devoid of bad, bare Yates would have been greatly accen- lies, as a rather simpler examination tuated had Cameron grasped his putt- than he and his contemporaries' under-ing opportunities in the early stages, went in other years.

but, in spite of the fact that he was At any rate, it was the same for giving himself chances to get down in everybody to-day, and there were sever- one putt, he was missing short ones, al first-rate matches to see 08 the and was two down with six played. starting sheet neared the end of the Still two down at the turn by missing second round of the big event. A small a putt of 18 inches, he pulled up ex- section of that round remains to be ritinely when the match turned into overtaken to-morrow, when the third the punishing Hoylake finish. round will also be completed, and to- Two magnificent wooden club strokes morrow night the field will be reduced helped to put him on level terms with to 32, so that the Championship will the American, who, forced back to the work out to its 36-holes final on Satur- wall here, operated the American ex- day.

pedient of short game recovery at its TO MEET FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN most spectacular.

Yates, as I have recorded, got

A PUTT OF 40 FRET through to-day without quite looking The Scot served notice by shooting consistently like a champion, and his a remarkable long second to within à progress, which reminds me of the yard of the tenth pin; but Yates, who adage that threatened mon live long, looked beaten to a frazzle at this hole. now brings him up against, perhaps, I somehow got down a putt of forty feet in 40 to 36 out. The Irish boy slipped

a

At the fifteenth, with the knife. so to speak, at his throat, he escaped like. the hero in a golf Bulldog Drummond story by holing a six yards putt; Tol- ley missing one of four feet there. That was a mighty important putt.

have indicated, in the short game, for be duplicated a weak chip by Bruen a Tolley was in two bunkers at the the first, when he should have smotr sixteenth, and was through the green his opponent hip and thigh, and then at the seventeenth, and, unable to putted short at the second and seventh match M'Leod's 4 in each case he found holes.. If you add to that little list himself without a vestige of his lead. the par-breaker 3 which the Irish boy M'Leod clapped another grand 4 to took at the fifth, you have the 4-down this at the home hole, where Tolley explanation.

missed a four fest putt, and was out. The short seventh was a tragic hole Here I must insert an East of Scot- for Crawley. With one of the super-land item which was in the M'Lead kev irons of the Championship, a picture of for R. Wight, the Lothians golfer, he' a stroke, he put his ball on the green John Greenly, the holder of the Pre- 200 yards away, and some ten yards sident's. Putter, after being four down past the flag. Bruen was just off th with four to play. This was green, yet the English Walker Gur the last result of the long day, and ↑ man, with a chance, ran his first put shall allow Wight's figures to nay him four feet past, and then failed to find the right compliment. Here they are the line for the short one.

for the last four holes-3.5 3 4. ** Crawley neglected: enother great two of them were stormed with super' chance to cut into the Bruen lead at irons; the ninth, after he had cannoned in off To complete the Scots' story, I should the opposition ball to win the eighth in a 4, but, after getting himself bril- liantly out of a bunker at the ninth where only head and shoulders could be seen, he proceeded to take three putts from no more than six yards to lose the hole.

STROKES

BRUEN'S. MATCH-WINNING That made him 4. down at the turn

about

say that Gordon Peters, won by the length of a street in a match that was ordered for American consumption, on account of the impression the West of Scotland player made in the States three years ago. Ronnie Inglis put in another fighting finish, and won the last hole to get through, but Guy Jamieson, who went to the nineteenth. hit his ball out of bounds there, and was beaten.