GOLF IN AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1934, Page 9

GOLF IN AMERICA

AUGUSTA NATIONAL OPEN

BOBBY JONES THIRTEENTH

MONTREAL, March 25'

In the Augusta national' open' golf championship, Horton Smith won the 1500 dollars first prize with 284. Bobby Jones played a par 72 over tho last 18 holes, but his total was 294, which left him in a tie for 13th place.

Robert Tyre Jones, who gave up amateur golf in 1930 to make a series of talking pictures, for which he received £10,000 played in his "first championship at the age of 14, and when. 18 years •of age, the first time that the American 'Amateur had been held after the war, was runner-up to- Charles Evans,, of Edgewater, who had held the title from 1916. At this age and throughout succeeding years Jones was recognised as a wonder golfer, but his progress was retarded by a wild and ungovernable temper, which more than once caused him. to break clubs across his knee. His stroke play constantly improved, and finally he hit upon a system whereby he played the score and not the man—"kept on shooting par at them." This soon brought results, for when-he lost the American Amateur championship it was reckoned more of an event than when he won it.., In 1924, 1925, 1927, and 1928 he won the Amateur, and again in 1930 he tookthe title. In 1926, George Yon Elm defeated him in the final. In the" Open, "his performances were just as consistent, for he was consistently among the leaders, and though ho won it only four times in eight years, it took the,united strength of his opponents to prevent him from doing it seven times.. In 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1930. he was '■ the champion, in 1925 Cyril Walker tied with him with a score of 291, and tied again in the play-off, with a score of 75. The second play-off saw Walker win by 72 to 73. In 1928, Johnny Farrell tied with Jones, the score being 294, and the replay sawFarrell win by a stroke in the 36-hole play-off, the scores being 143 and 144. '

The British Open also fell to Jones in 1926, with rounds of 72, 72, 73, and 74, and again in 1927, with scores of 68, 72, 73, and 72, which gave him six strokes over the field.. The 1930 year, of course, was his greatest, for he accomplished the unparalleled feat of winning the four big championships in America and Britain, including the British Amateur, the one title which he had" hitherto failed to gain. His total in the British Open was 291, and in the American Open ,287. His 287 in the Open was the lowest aggregate ever made until Gene Sarazen cut a stroke off it in 1932, and Jones's 285 in tho British Open was the best score to win that event until Sarazen's 283 two years ago.