OPEN GOLF CHAMPION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20044, 16 September 1939, Page 16

OPEN GOLF CHAMPION

BURTON’S RISE TO FAME ROMANCE OF THE GAME The rise to fame of Richard Burton, winner of the British open championship, golf’s premier honour, on the old course at St. Andrew’s, the greatest course in the world, is one of the romances of the game, states an English writer. Burton worked in a cotton mill when he left school. Kis elder brother, John, was a professional golfer; they had both been caddies in their schoolboy days. There is nothing derogatory about being a caddie. Walter Hagen was a caddie, so was J. H. Taylor, James Baird, Sandy Herd and many other great champions. But Burton used such spare time as he had after work in the mill to play golf with his brother and a few friends. He could not afford to join a club and his equipment was nothing to boast about, but lie showed such aptitude for the sam« that vhen John burton found his job al the Darwen club getting a bit too strenuous fbr one man. he invited his brother to join him as assistant. In those days Richard had to help to cut the putting greens and keep the in order, and teach and play with members. It was at Darwen, his h-ome town, that the champion lajd the foundation of a brilliant golfing career. That was onlv nine years ago. In 1931 Richard left his brother, being appointed full professional to the Hooton club, Cheshire, and here. he began to get his name into the prbelist in local tournaments. His first big success came to him three years after that, when he won the horthern professional championship, an important event which has been won bv such great men as Gene Sarazen, Abe Mitchell, Arthur Havers, and Charles -Whitcombe, among others. Since then his successes have been numerous.