British Open

Henry Cotton, last year's winner and this year's heavy favorite, whisked around the course in 68. Dour old Macdonald Smith, who tied for the U.S. Open in 1910 and has never come so close to winning a major tournament since, got a 66 in his first qualifying round, a 69 in his first championship round and then, as usual, slumped. A strange young Texan named Joe Ezar astounded a Scottish gallery less by his qualifying scores (73 & 75) than by the way he made them, wearing a beret which he tossed in the air after good shots, scarcely glancing at his putts, wisecracking loudly to his caddy. Colonel William Lawson Little, watching his famed son & namesake try to win his second major British title of the season, found that a $1,200 letter of credit and several cashable checks had been extracted from his hip pocket by a thief who "had the impertinence to button it up again."

Events like these kept the crowds, biggest at a British Open Golf Championship in years, so busy at Muirfield last week that no one paid much attention to a short, stoutish man named Alfred Perry, who kept himself busy winning the tournament. After a brilliant 69 in the first round, a creditable 144 at the halfway point, Perry equalled the Muirfield course record of 67 made by Walter Hagen in winning the Open of 1929. A 75 would have won for Perry after that. Instead, after just missing the putt that would have given him an all-time Open low of 282. he got a par 72, handed his clubs to his caddy and went into the clubhouse to talk to reporters who had thought so little of the third Briton good enough to win the title since the War that the Associated Press neglected to include his name in the first day's lists of scores.

Like Samuel Parks, who won the U. S. Open at Oakmont last month, Perry belongs to that army of able professional golfers who are often near the top in minor tournaments, usually lack the poise rather than the ability to win major titles. No nonentity, he played on the British Ryder Cup team two years ago, admitted last week that his golf in the Open was the best that he had played for two years. A onetime caddy who learned his game at 6, an assistant to famed James Braid at 14, Perry plays with a quick stroke which looks odd because he keeps his right hand under the club, uses a scythe-like swing. Among the absurd legends about him which he had to deny last week was one, invented by reporters who could think of nothing else to say, that he was lefthanded. Said Open Champion Perry: "The only thing I do with my left hand is to scratch my head. . . ."

-$>

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.