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'Babe’ had first made the sporting headlines in the
1932 Los Angeles Olympics, when she won two gold medals and a
silver, which should have been three golds. She was penalised for
her revolutionary headfirst-over-the-bar technique (western roll) in
the high jump and, although recording a new world-record height, she
was awarded only second place. She won gold in the 80 metres hurdles
with a world record time of 11.7 seconds and in the Javelin, in
which event she had set a world record at sixteen years of age.
In the early fifties she was the star of the newly formed LPGA in
America and she toured Britain in 1951 with a US women’s team. They
played a match against a team of distinguished amateur gentlemen
raised by General Critchley and won every game. Zaharias beat
L.G.Crawley, who had won that year’s President’s Putter at Rye,
after rejecting his suggestion that she should play off the ladies’
tees – she could hit the ball amazing distances. L. G.’ s mood cannot
have been improved by her words when it was his honour: “Your beat,
Len”. The ‘Babe’ was not in awe of anybody.
(L. G. won the President’s Putter again the following year for the
fourth time)
There was then a gap of four years before I played in the Open
Championship again. During that period Henry Cotton won his third
Open at Muirfield in 1948, with a course record 66 in the second
round-watched by King George V1. A gallery of 10,000 lined the 18th
hole to cheer him home, five shots ahead of the defending champion
Fred Daly. In that championship Charlie Ward became the first man to
have two holes-in-one in the Open when he aced the 13th in round-3
(since emulated by Ireland’s Paul McGinley). Charlie was a further
shot behind Cotton, sharing third place with Norman von Nida, Jack
Hargreaves and the brilliant Argentinean, Roberto de Vicenzo, making
his first appearance in the championship. Roberto’s ball striking
impressed Bernard Darwin, who wrote: “He gave more aesthetic
pleasure than any other man in the field”. [Henry Cotton was later
to describe him as the best ball striker in the world] de Vicenzo
won the North British tournament that year, the first of many
victories in Europe. (He won more than 230 world-wide) In that event
Charlie Ward equalled the record of 29 for the outward nine in a
British tournament. I had played in the inaugural North British in
1947; it was played annually at Harrogate, on the Starbeck, Pannal
and Oakdale courses and I usually chose it as my ‘tour’ event as it
was nearest to home [Bert also played in the Northern Professional,
the Y. E. N. and News of the World Matchplay]. In the 1948 North
British my scores for the first three rounds of 76, 76, 77, left me
some way behind and, even with a better 71 to finish, I was a good
twenty shots adrift.
Charlie won the North British in his finest year of 1949, when he
retained the Vardon Trophy, also winning the Dunlop Masters at St
Andrews, which he considered the best win of his career and sharing
fourth place in the Open with Sam King. Bobby Locke had back-to-back
Open wins - that year at Sandwich and at Troon in 1950, where he set
a record aggregate of 279. His other victories included the Dunlop,
Spalding and North British tournaments – the latter’s £500 cheque
took his season’s total to £1900 and gained him the Vardon Trophy
for the second time.
Max Faulkner triumphed at Portrush in 1951, fulfilling the potential
he had shown with a sixth place in 1949 and a fifth in 1950. Max had
played in the first post-war Ryder Cup in 1947, but nonetheless,
when he arrived at Royal St. George’s to practise for the 1949 Open
Championship, he was denied access to the clubhouse and told to
change in the back of the pro shop. Even at his home club of Royal
Mid Surrey he had been allowed to enter the clubhouse only once a
week for a shower – at 8.15 on Monday mornings! When Henry Cotton’s
two leading assistants dared to enter the clubhouse one day to use
the Gents the Secretary immediately issued a memo. It read, “Under
no circumstances shall Henry Cotton’s staff enter the clubhouse
forthwith!” The British class system still prevailed and pros were
kept in their place- Ryder Cup player or no. In some places it
prevailed for the rest of the century and Colin Montgomerie revealed
in his autobiography how he became aware of “the stigma attached to
being a professional” when he turned pro. He had to resign his
membership of Royal Troon, where his father had just been appointed
secretary and he could no longer enter some clubhouses in the West
of Scotland unless invited by a member.
Dick Burton continued to be a prominent player long after the war.
In 1949 he won the Silver King at Moor Park and collected £350, £50
more than Bobby Locke received for winning the Open. He eclipsed
Locke in the News Chronicle Tournament, played that year at Hollingbury Park, Brighton, breaking the then record aggregate for a
major British 72-hole event on his way to a 12 shot victory. He
scored 68,66,64,68 for a total of 266, bettering Ernest Whitcombe’s
score set at East Brighton in 1937 by two shots. Jimmy Adams was
second yet again, twelve shots behind on 278 and Locke finished down
the field on 288. In that sort of form Dick was a certainty for the
Ryder Cup, for which he was on the selection committee. It was
played at Ganton that year, and he partnered Arthur Lees in a
riveting match to beat the very strong US pairing of Sam Snead and
Lloyd Mangrum. It was a sweet victory for Dick, who had lost his
single 5 & 4 to Snead at Southport and Ainsdale in 1937, during
which he had consistently been out-driven by the American. Snead was
one of the very few players who could knock it past Dick in his
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