A large gathering of local golf enthusiasts spent an exceedingly interesting day on the delightful links of the Mid Beds Golf Club at Clapham (now Bedford & County G.C.) on Thursday, (30th September 1920) when exhibition matches were played by George Duncan (current Open Champion), James Braid (Open champion 1901, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910), J.H.Taylor (Open champion 1894, 1895, 1900, 1909, 1913) and Abe Mitchell, North Foreland Golf Club. The course was in excellent condition and was described by the “big four” as possessing great possibilities. As was expected they made light of the difficulties which beset the paths of humbler players on the course, and their enormous drives, beautiful approaches both long and short, and perfect ease of style were good to behold.
The Captain of the Club, Mr Gibson, the Secretary, Mr Gude, Mr Clark, and members of the Committee; with Muggleton, the professional, were indefatigable all day in their efforts to see that all went well. Mr. A.H.Perkins was Clerk of the Course, and made judicious use of his megaphone. Members of the Club, lucky fellows, acted as caddies. Luncheon and tea were served at the Clubhouse, and altogether it was a great day, on which, the Club officials are to be congratulated.
Morning play, consisted of a four-ball four-some between Braid and Duncan (Scotland) on the one side and Mitchell and Taylor (England) on the other, commenced at 11 o’clock, when the morning mist was still hanging about the trees and the dew lying on the grass. Duncan drove first, his ball rising cleanly over the crest which hides the first hole from view. The others followed the same line and all four balls were seen to be either on or close to the green. Down in 3-all square. With perfect drives at the second, Mitchell and Duncan (who throughout the morning were rivals for the longest tee shots) carried the hedge at the end of the 200 yard fairway; Taylor’s ball hopped it, but Braid’s ran into it and had to be picked out. With the exception of Braid’s the second shots were at the edge of the green, and the bestball score for the hole was 4-all square. At the 3rd, Braid and Duncan became one up, holing out in four, against their opponents 5, in spite of their second shots finishing in the ditch at the right hand side of the green. The 4th was a half in 3, and at the 5th the English pair brought the score level again, Taylor missing a 3 by inches only. For the consolation of novices among the spectators, Duncan missed an 18 inch putt at this hole, but the greens so far seemed to be playing on the heavy side. Much of the putting was, however, quite ordinary. The short 6th was halved in 3, Duncan’s second stopping three inches from the hole.
Then came the “ravine” hole with its tee on the hill-top commanding a fine view of the country all around, the slope to the brook and the hedge in the valley, the fairway rising up the opposite slope, and the green in the far distance. By this time the sky was clear and the warm sun brightened the landscape, and was beginning to disperse the atmosphere of apparently reverent awe which had so far held the spectators in silence. Four white balls went soaring into the blue, high over the valley, straight and true in their flight, and fell to earth well beyond the crest on the way to the hole. Taylor and Duncan were on in two, and Mitchell was over in the rough, but played a perfect approach which finished a yard from the hole. Duncan’s approach was dead, and the hole was halved in 4. Still all square. Four more terrific drives landed on a level with the 8th hole. Mitchell and Duncan finished in the thick rough on the left, from which they played masterly shots. Duncan’s putt again stopped short, and the result was another half in 4. At the short 9th Mitchell was down in 2, and England therefore led at the turn by 1 up, the best ball score up to this point being 32 and 33 respectively.
The 10th (518 yards) produced rather more diverse play than had hitherto been witnessed. To begin with, not a single drive finished in the fairway; Duncan landed over the hedge on the right and had to play another shot, which he pulled badly into the rough; Braid ran close to the hedge; and Taylor and Mitchell pulled into the edge of the rough. The distance across the valley was too great to be attempted, and all four played for safety to the top of the slope. Mitchell and Braid, however, ran down into the rough short of the hedge, and neither could get up to the hole on the hillside with their thirds, Braid only just getting over the hedge into the rough on the other side. Meanwhile, Duncan and Taylor had played magnificent irons which landed them just below and just above the hole respectively. Then came the first applause of the match; Braid, taking his niblick, picked the ball cleanly out of its grassy bed, sending it straight for the pin, and it ran to within a foot or so of the hole. The deceiving slope spoiled Duncan’s and Mitchell’s approaches, but Taylor, playing from directly above the hole, trickled the ball gently to its edge, and he and Braid halved in 5.
At the 11th, four long drives finished over the road, Duncan’s being the best in length and direction; his approach ran only a couple of feet from the hole and he was down in 3. his opponents took 4, and the match became all square. At the 12th all four balls lay close together on the green, Taylor’s having hit the wire and ran closest to the pin. It meant a two yard putt if he was to be down in 2, and he missed. Braid’s long putt ran over the hole, just a little too hard to go down, so all four players had to be content with threes. At the 13th (over 300 yards) the driving was terrific, all four shots finishing down the slope within 30 or 40 yards of the pin. All were down in 4 –still all square. At the parallel hole (14th) back up the slope all were on or near the green in 2, and Duncan from the edge put his ball down in 3 with a fast 10-yard putt. Scotland 1 up.
The 15th hole consists of a level fairway 220 yards long, at the end of which is a spinney forty feet high, with the green 50 yards the other side. Mitchell and Duncan, with tee shots that hummed low and hard for the first 100 yards, and then began to soar gracefully, carried the spinney and finished clear – drives of quite 230 yards. Taylor and Braid played short and lifted over with their seconds. The hole was halved in 4, and the 16th produced the same result. At the 17th all four tee shots ran down to the green, but Braid’s crossed and finished among the nettles under the hedge. With an extraordinary chip shot he placed his second dead, and all four were down in 3, Duncan’s first putt stopping on the very edge of the hole for the third time during the morning. This made Braid and Duncan dormy one, but more excitement was to come at the last hole. Standing by the clubhouse one watched the swing of the club as each player drove from the tee away up in the adjoining meadow, and the next thing was the thud of the ball as it dropped out of the blue on to the green (the length of the hole is 231 yards). Mitchell’s ball stopped two feet from the pin, Duncan’s two yards, and the others ran across. Mitchell’s putt was safe, and his 2 for the hole established a record. Duncan missed his putt, and the hole therefore went to Mitchell, making the game all square at the finish.
The best ball scores were as follows:-
Out:
Taylor/Mitchell 3 4 5 3 4 3 4 4 2 = 32
Braid/Duncan 3 4 4 3 5 3 4 4 3 = 33
Bogey 4 5 5 4 5 3 5 4 3 = 38
Yardage 174 403 405 213 330 142 440 256 127 = 2490 yards
In:
Taylor/Mitchell 5 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 2 = 33 = 65
Braid/Duncan 5 3 3 4 3 4 4 3 3 = 32 = 65
Bogey 6 5 3 5 4 4 5 4 4 = 40 = 78
Yardage 518 327 117 317 297 275 280 197 231 = 2559 yards
Total 5049 yards
The
Afternoon Play
In the afternoon a four-ball medal round was played. Taylor and Mitchell both went round in 70, Braid in 74, and Duncan in 75; but no one could help feeling that to-morrow or the next day the figures might easily be reversed, and Braid and Duncan come in first. It is a case of “primus inter pares” where these four play, and each may be primus in turn, so little is there to choose between them. And yet, like as they are in their excellence, they are all different in style and temperament.
Duncan, in particular, strikes one as possessing temperament. Certainly, he had bad luck on Thursday afternoon. At the third he got well away with a great drive which finished a little off the fairway, within a foot or two of a tree which stood between him and the hole. There was nothing for it but to play out to the right, and take three to the green, and then his putts ran unkindly as he took 6 for the hole. More than once afterwards it seemed as if the stars in their courses were fighting against him. At the 16th, for instance, his lofted shot to carry the hedge, and several times his putts seemed to hop the hole out of malice. He is one of the quickest of players, and on the green took his shots with what seemed an almost careless and indifferent quickness. Right up to the end fate followed him, for at the 18th he missed a 3 by an inch or two. Once he threw out his hand as a sort of protest against the impish perverseness of the ball, but it’s all in the game.
Now Taylor has a very different sort of temperament, and gives one the impression that nothing could ever disturb or rattle him. Solid, thickset, with a very firm chin, he just goes his steady, relentless way as if nothing on earth could stop him. His putting always seemed safe, though even he had his bits of bad luck. The greens at Clapham are not of that billiard table smoothness which some courses can give, and on Thursday they were playing in a rather “woolly” fashion, and therefore were a severer test than these champions sometimes have to face.
Braid is the sort of man one would like to go tiger-shooting with, the man for an emergency, with a big heart. At the 8th, for instance, there was a touch of slice about his drive, which finished in the rough close to the hedge, and a nasty rough it is; but he got out splendidly. Again at the 16th he hit the hedge in trying to pitch over it onto the green; then just forced his ball through, had to play a beastly shot with the club held a foot from the iron, and then took 2 putts-a 6 in all. At the 17th he missed a 3 by an inch or two. But these things he treated like a Gallio, and at the 18th he took an iron and put his ball about 15 feet above the hole. Some one inadvertently stepped on it and pressed it into the ground. He was told of it, and waived off a suggestion that he should lift the ball, took his aluminium putter dribbled the ball into the hole and got a 2. The long driving of the other men never daunted him, and though he twice got a bit of a slice, time and again he hit magnificent drives, long and low.
Mitchell, on the whole, gave one the impression of being the strongest player in the afternoon. His driving was superb, and he never failed in his shots through the green. The best tribute to his play is that he scarcely ever seemed to be in trouble, except at the 11th where his drive finished in the rough over the hedge on the left of the fairway. It took a bit of finding in the long tough grass, and then had to be hacked out over the hedge.
Players at Clapham were naturally very keen to see how the great men would tackle some of the holes that bother them most. There was the long 10th, for instance. The only question was whether anyone would carry the hedge along the ravine with his second. No one tried it on Thursday afternoon. There was a contrary wind blowing, and all took irons for their 2nd, and were content to get on or near the green with their 3rd. Strangely enough, at the short 9th all four were a bit short from the tee, and not one reached the green. At the 15th Mitchell got well over the spinney; Duncan put his first into it, but made no mistake with his 2nd, which was slightly pulled; while Braid and Taylor did not attempt to get over. At the 16th all four balls from the tee lay in a space about the size of an ordinary drawing-room, say 40 yards from the hedge. Duncan and Braid, as has already been stated, failed to pitch over the hedge, but the other two got over all right. All used irons at the 17th, and Duncan and Braid played the 18th with their irons.