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to putt first. He holed it, so instead of an
easy half, I was now faced with a putt of over a yard to win.
Fortunately it dropped. Had I missed it I think I would have jumped
into the quarry.
I had further successes against Abe Mitchell (5&4), Arthur Lacey
(3&2), Sam King (5&3) ) and Charles Whitcombe (5&4), my only loss
being to his brother Reg, the Open Champion, (2&1). A table
published in a Sunday newspaper revealed that, for the 184 holes
played, I came out top with a score of forty-four under fours, but
on points I was second with 15, tied with Reg Whitcombe. The winner
was Percy Alliss, who scored 16.
Percy was a superb shot maker, with a compact - very easy - swing
that seemed sure to land him an Open Championship, but it never
came. As I said earlier his inconsistent putting was his Achilles
heel. Perhaps 1938 would have been his year, but he wasn’t at
Sandwich – it was reported that he had forgotten to enter.
I joined Percy, Alf Padgham, local pro J. W. Davies and the amateur
John Woollam from Hooton at the Upton-by-Chester club for an
exhibition match, in aid of the British Empire Cancer Campaign fund,
to mark the opening of the club’s reconstructed course. My 66
remained the course record for many years afterwards.
The club was founded in 1934, the same year that the now world
famous nearby Chester Zoo opened.
In 1994 I returned to Upton to play in an event to celebrate their
60th
anniversary.
Later in 1938 I was drawn with Henry Cotton yet again in the Dunlop
Metropolitan Tournament. This was a 72-hole limited field event
played at Wentworth, with two rounds each day. Henry finished second
with a score of 279, having shot a course record 64 in the third
round, beating the previous record by two shots. I had been a
witness to another of Henry’s great rounds that year and, with more
luck on the greens, it could have been sensational for he had only
29 putts and lipped out several times. He said afterwards that it
was the nearest he had ever been to breaking 60. I had kept pace
with Henry until then, but my 69, 70 finish to his 64, 71 left me
four shots behind him in third place on 283.
The winner was 1935 Open champion Alf Perry, who played every bit as
positively as he had at Muirfield and proved just how good a player
he could be. His set-up and swing may have been eccentric but he had
a repeating action and a splendid short game. Golf Illustrated said
that he was in a ‘flamboyant mood’ playing every stroke for a win.
That was typical of Alf; he never played the ‘percentage game’. If
he could see a pin he went for it and always tried to hole his first
putt from anywhere on the green. When it came off he was a match for
anybody and his total of 273 gave him victory by six shots. He had
four rounds under 70 over the three days, compiled with unusually
long driving and deadly putting - and he and his partner, Dick
Burton, went round the difficult championship course in less than 2
½ hours. Alf had previously won the Daily Mail Tournament in April,
which had a huge £500 first prize, five times the money he had won
at Muirfield; The Open winner’s cheque remained at £100 throughout
the thirties.
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