1939-07-21 — Page 22

OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP-3RD DAY.

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 21, 1989.-

FOUR PLAYERS TIE FOR LEAD AT ST.

ANDREWS

Locke Shares Top Place With Three English Pros.

Strong British Trend

At Head Of

score list at a glance than the fact that the event has again taken the all, or nearly, all-British trend of recent years.

List

ously jeopardised his whole Cham- pionship prospect with a round of 79.

their rounds created as much

the

in

dreamlike smoothness when suddenly out of nowhere blew up one of those sensations that the posterity of golfers hear at their father's and their grand-

and

bunkers which

spun with impeccable play.

had heard that the Irish player had gone to the turn in 80. It was 38, which was good indeed, though it rob- bed the crowd of the romantic possi- bility of the lower figure. The Locke and Bruen crowd crossed out of the Loop, and the news of the South African's outward half gave him. hundred new followers.

Д

Bruen, though he duplicated Locke's start by hitting a pin-splitter of pitch over the Swilcan for the Bim- plest of putts and a 3, was not in his devastating form of the round.

qualifying

St. Andrews, July 5. With four competitors grouped

LOCKE STAGGERS CROWD with scores of 70 to-night after

So much for the statistics of the first eighteen holes in the situation. The figures as set out in father's knee.; Locke took an 8 at the

of fact

fourteenth hole, which has been with great figure-hunt of the Open print are cold and matter

Chips and putts lacked what I may Golf Championship on the Old compared with the thrills and excite- every good reason called the make-or-

The drama of that sim call the break hole. them. A

Midas touch of yesterday. ment that piled up behind Course here, and a long second welter of excitement hardly describes ply stated golf tragedy, it is almost Then, everything turned to gold, or in

true to say, dazed the big crowd.

right other words, went absolutely string only one stroke behind, the position that developed late Locke drove a good bail there, but with the strokes. To-day, they were the "Open" is no misnomer. the day, when Locke and Bruen trail-

it was rather on the left line, the

not working for him with the same ed wrought-up throngs through Nobody has stepped right out in fairways of this classic green. Nobody the ball ran at the finish and fell into facility. His start in 3 4 3 3 does not

these brilliant one of the Beardies

indicate that, for apart from the first front as Bobby Jones did in the had broken 70, but 1927 Championship, and nothing youngsters had the late chance. They the tee, pushed back into the hinter-hole, where the putt was negligible, strikes one more on taking in the failed to get down to the sixties, but land, is designed to bring back to their he holed one of five yards at the third first old authority. It was a break in the and one of ten yards at the fourth. day excitement as I can remember in golden figure thread which Locke had The sixth was, up to the turn, his one falter, for he was in whins from the a good many years.

But the ball was lying well, and, as

tee. But he took 39 to come back. Locke built himself up a gilt-edged

not only to break 70, it happened, too temptingly well. He

The spared touch in his short game opportunity, but to do it,.as our American cousins took a No. 7 for distance, and the ball showed up when he turned for home,

With

did not come up. There was nothing and it gradually ate in. His tee stroke The leaders are Max Faulkner, J. say, "good and plenty."

for it but a blaster after that, and at the eleventh was over the back of J. Busson, and Dick Burton, all Eng-five holes to play, his glorious golf ac-

when the ball did come out Locke, with the green, and though he pitched up lish professionals, and Bobby. Locke, tually counted six under 45.

a raking fourth, had the misfortune to about four feet from the hole, it the brilliant young South African, The course seethed with excitement;

to catch the top of the Hell bunker, was a downhill putt on a difficult who is strongly expected by his ad- everybody was keyed up to see some-

been the ball coming back into the sand. mirers at home to take the title to thing possibly that had never

With three bunker strokes in the green, and he missed it. The four- teenth is the most telling example of that country for the first time in his- done on the Old Course before. The tory. Close on their heels are Reg. 21-years-old South African campaig- four by this time played, his & has an where bis game had fallen below its Whitcombe, who won last

ner, who had been no more than or-all-sufficient explanation, and he did best level. Cracking away two mag- dinary while he was qualifying and exceedingly well after such a shatter-nificent wooden strokes there, he cov- who had rather slipped back in popular ing jolt to his great figure collection ered a lot of that treacherous coun- the ghosts of eight years ago; and besides, Dai Rees, W. fancy, was back again in the shining of 3s. and 4s. and, besides, one 2, to try where stalk H. Davies, and one or two others who armour of the golf that has more than finish the next four holes, the ever and nine a superb drive grandly plac- have been subjects of championship Continents. No finer exhibition of the speculation for some years, and Martin game has probably ever Pose, the spearhead of the Argentine than this tall, boyish-looking golfer challenge and an excellent golfer.

That, I think, short though it is. Played for those thirteen holes. Im- people framing the home green as he proach to the fifteenth suffered from

year. at

Sandwich: Alf. Perry, another of the British winners since Henry Cotton broke the American sequence five

is a surprisingly long preamble with- out mention of either James Bruen or Cotton, but the young Irish star did a 72 and Cotton a 74, which returns leave them within easy striking dis-

once made him the talk of

only

all the

been seen

what

strange agination boggles át new figure his score might have shrunk to had his putts, which time after time touched the rims of the holes, gone he down. Eight times in the round

THE FOURTEENTH practically the lip of the hole.

dangerous Road Hole included, in after 4.

BRAID WON DESPITE AN 8

There must have been 'some 5000

tried to guide a putt of about seven hole to break 70, and feet into the they raised a great cheer as he walk ed off cap in hand. Locke took his hard knock at the long fourteenth- with a might, too, for he is among the lead- ers to-night; and possibly he remem- bers that James Braid won a memor- able Championship at Prestwick after taking an 8 at the Cardinal..

ed, an equally good second over Hell. Then he was short with his third when he should, at any rate, have given | himself the chance of a 4.

His ap

Both there

the same fault, and another at the Road Hole, after he had hooked his second, landed him in a 6. and at the eighteenth he had putting chances of the sort which yesterday

as follows: Out

tance of the leaders and in a much tipped the ball in with one hand from commendable philosophy, and well he could not escape him. His cards reads

more enviable position than the chief United

Lawson States contender, Little, twice British Amateur Cham- pion in successive years, who has seri.

HOLE BREAK

Things were going for him with a

*

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IS SOLD TILL

IT'S SEVEN

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Sole Agentar

CALDBECK, MACGREGOR

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I

"That is definitely the worst hole," Locke told me afterwards, "that have had in any championship. I con- fess I was scared when it all happen- ed, and when I went on to the fifteenth tee, that I might not finish well. But I am very glad I got over the rest in

48,"

Locke gave me his explanation of the two strokes in the Beardies bunk- er. The ball was in an easy lie, the sort of lie from which nine times 'out of ten he could have got out and made a bit of distance as well. But just as he was swinging his No. 7, his left foot slipped further into the sand and well,

there it was. "I just could not, or, at anyrate, did not stop fateful swing, and I was terribly dis- appointed to see the ball come back into the bunker."

In

3 4 3 3 4 5 4 3 4-83

4 4 4 4 6.4 4 6 4-39-72 COTTON IN THE THUNDERSTORM

the

Both Locke and Bruen had the luck of the weather gamble so often inge- parable from championships. By late afternoon, when they were out, their poles, and, besides that, the ab- wind dropped and flags drooped sence of the wind from the sea, and the rather sultry feel in the air no doubt helped Locke, He likes it warm.

on

The draw made many of the earlier players the victim of a morning thun- derstorm, and subsequent heavy rain that came in rod-like downpours. Cot- ton was the first of the big personal- ties to set out, and when he reached the sixth hole the, storm broke that

his head and the heads of his specta- tors Many of them, too trustful of the weather, were out without any protection.

The South African went to the turn in a superb 32 and, though it suggests the long bow, it is simply true to say that it might have been actually two or three strokes better. From the first green, where his putt was a knock-in formality, the sort of thing a child, could knock in with the wrong end of a club, he played delightful golf. He holed good putts at the second and seventh, but at three other holes, he missed by the narrowest of shaves. A turn of the ball would have made the eighth a 2.

The short eleventh he did in 2 with a seven yards putt; and, his too short chip and too short putt at the twelfth were his only falls from grace, His No. 8 iron, seven feet from the flag at the thirteenth, was a sample of that department. Then came the fourteenth, which I have described. In golf terms, his eight was a tragedy, but not an irreparable one with three more rounds to play.

BRUEN'S SHORT GAME SAG

read fan- Juind this new ng some

Bru wise over the prodigy in #little distance

to see

over

Cotton; however, it is true to say, that had got his bad patch over by time, but it is arguable that he might Loop have made much more of the holes, which were done by Reg Whit combe in a solid row of six 38., had the weather been normal.

By hooking into a bunker at the second hole, Cotton sowed the seed of Though he his only 6 of the round. generally putted well, he did not have 100 per cent. luck with it. Four times his ball was, in and out again." His 74 was made up this way: Out 4 6 4 4 5 4 4 8 4–98 In

44.8 44.5 4.4 4.4—36–74 The majority of the procession till mid-afternoon had wet golf to play. Intermittent showers drenched * the championship. Still, 70s. were on the board before Locke came in.

GOLF AND AGRICULTURE Most interesting among the others is Max Faulkner, son of a well-known' Surrey professional... Against. This name in the draw is the word "unat tached." Thereby hangs a tale. Faulks ner, who was himself a professional, is now a farmer and his score to-day In

olf and proof that he mixe

ricul

aised

ture much better

réen

there

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