Monday, Aug. 03, 1931

One

Playing with his friends the Viscount Ednam and Lieut.-Colonel Piers Legh, Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, last week came to the 220-yd. sixth hole at the Royal Wimbledon Golf Course, near London. As he teed his ball and attempted to intimidate it with the emphatic waggle which marks him as a mediocre golfer, it doubtless never crossed the Prince's mind that he might get a hole-in-one. Nevertheless, after a swing a little smoother and a click a little firmer than usual, the ball soared straight to the apron of the green, rolled between two hummocks true to the pin and, with a little plop inaudible from the tee, went in. If the Prince was surprised, he was also justly proud. It was his second hole-in-one this season. The other went in on the Sao Vicente course in Brazil during his Empire Trade Tour. The Prince plays an 85-10-90 game. He uses Walter Hagen clubs and playing hints.

In England, holes-in-one may cost a golfer a bottle of whiskey for his caddy, and drinks all around in the club bar. In the U. S. there are material rewards for the lucky player, besides intense personal satisfaction and a membership in the International Hole-in-One Club (16,425 members) whose founder is D. Scott Chisholm, editor of Country Life.

Results of luck and skill combined, holes-in-one are commoner than perfect bridge hands. They are almost inevitable on the bowl-shaped holes of a course designed and owned by Comedian Joe Cook. Though the majority of golfers have never made a hole-in-one, Tom Washington, professional at the Monomonock Golf Club at Caldwell, N. J. has made 23. One G. Barnard, at the Prestwick St. Cuthbert's Course at Ayr, Scotland, made five holes-in-one between August 1929 and June 1930. Most holes-in-one are made by indifferent golfers assisted greatly by good fortune. Most expert golfers have made one or more holes-in-one. Robert Tyre Jones Jr. has made one.

W. B. Swan, playing golf for the first time in his life & with rented clubs made a hole-in-one at Vancouver, B. C., by bunting his ball 117 yd. with a driver.

Two holes-in-one on a single round were made by Albert Danke at Omaha, Neb. on July 21, 1929; likewise by W. J. Birmingham, at Chautauqua, N. Y., two months later.

Leo Diegel made a hole-in-one at the U. S. Open at Inverness last month and finished third.

J. Alwyn Ball made two successive holes-in-one on a private course at Newport, R. I.

U. S. Open Champion Billy Burke, modest, claims to have made no hole-in- one. But playing Horton Smith in the 1930 P. G. A. championship, he laid his first shot on the lip of the cup. Smith's putt knocked it in.

On three known occasions, two golfers have halved a hole in one.

At Apawamis Country Club (Rye, N. Y.) in 1916, Charles Sutter made the par fourth 11th hole in two by hitting both shots out of bounds. The first hit a tree, bounced back on the fairway; the second bounced in off a rock.

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