Briton's Open

The amazing thing about Henry Cotton's first two rounds in last week's British Open Golf Championship at Sandwich was not that the first (67) tied Walter Hagen's record for the Open nor that the second (65) set a new record and put him nine strokes ahead of the field. It was the fact that Cotton is a Briton. No Englishman has won the British Open since Arthur Havers (1923).

A tall, handsome, debonair young golfer, with a job at the Waterloo Club at Brussels, Cotton plays without the characteristic nervous waggle of his British confreres, drives a red Mercedes roadster, is reputed to be the best dressed professional golfer in Europe. He brought with him to Sandwich last week his private trainer & masseur. On the third round Cotton got a creditable 72. On the fourth he blew up completely with a 79, but by that time he was so far ahead it made no difference. His 283 tied Gene Sarazen's record Open total.

Two years ago, British galleries jeered Cotton for not joining the Ryder Cup team the previous year because rules compelled him to travel with his teammates. Last week he rode on the shoulders of the crowd from the last green to the clubhouse. There he learned that Englishmen Brews and Padgham had finished second and third.

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