At Baltusrol

At Short Hills, N. J., a golfer addressed his ball to play the long first hole of the Baltusrol course. The ball disappeared over a highway on his left. He tried another, whacked it after its fellow. A third ball also, journeyed to limbo. A fourth landed on the fairway. The golfer, having now played seven, took 12 for the hole (par 5). He was Robert Gardner, holder of many golf titles, U. S. Walker cup team captain, setting forth to qualify for the national amateur. It was just one of those freak episodes that can happen in golf tournaments, even to champions. He did not qualify.

Champion Robert Tyre Jones turned in a medal-winning 143, which included a 70 composed of 16 pars and two birdies. One George Craig Jr. of Pittsburgh handed in a score that averaged a flat two strokes a hole more than Jones. Between these two came a discrepant assortment of gentlemen, from slow-moving little Rudolph Knepper, onetime Princeton captain, with 147, to wavering, uncertain Watts Gunn (Bobby Jones's Atlanta playmate"), who just managed to qualify with a second round of 83 after a bad first round of 80. A certain George Von Elm of Los Angeles was down the list at 159.

Match play began. Von Elm, weak against tall Ellsworth Augustus of Cleveland, barely managed to take the match on the 19th hole. Richard Jones, Massachusetts state champion, pressed Robert Tyre Jones hard before succumbing by one hole. M. B. Stevenson played a family match against long-driving young Roland MacKenzie. Long an intimate of the lad's parents, Mr. Stevenson sent Mrs. MacKenzie Sr. a telegram expressing profound sorrow at having been forced to eliminate her son. Francis Ouimet and Charles Evans, both former title holders, came through the early rounds with ease; they might, if Jones relapsed, meet in the finals. Von Elm beat Watts Gunn, 8 and 7, and rollicked to a victory over a Chicago strapper named George Dawson. Robert Jones, with the flawless, electric golf that only he had ever quite achieved, marched bitterly past Chick Evans, and then past Ouimet, to meet Von Elm in the finals.

Von Elm is a shy, blond man who used to caddy at the country club in Salt Lake City. When he was 15 he won the Utah States championship, playing largely with a mashie-niblick, the only club he really understood. Since then he has often been a finalist, often a local champion. Two years ago in the national finals at Merion, Jones beat him 10 and 8.

There was no great crisis in this match, no moment that spectators could record in their diaries. Memorable instants there were to be sure--Von Elm chipping with his mashie around and over a stymie to win the second hole; Jones failing by six inches to make the hole in one; Jones conceding a hard putt to Van Elm because the latter was bothered by cries from the gallery; Von Elm returning this courtesy; Jones carefully lining a putt on the 17th which he must sink if the match was to go on . . . and Jones missing that putt and standing with a cigaret in his mouth while he saw Von Elm tap his ball into the hole; while he saw a roistering squad of spectators hoist Von Elm, to their shoulders, while he saw Von Elm, bobbing and blushing after his magnificent exploit; receive the gold cup that meant the national amateur championship.