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 One player who nearly always produced the ‘goods’ and had little
difficulty with the Oakdale course that year was the 21-year-old
Australian Peter Thomson. In the final stages of that 1951 North
British the future five-time Open Champion shot a 62 – a world
record at the time, beating the 63s first set in the thirties. As I
said, the course was short, but it was no push over. Thomson
averaged under 70 for the five-round tournament, but it was only
good enough for second and the £500 went to Flory van Donck, who
totalled 337 to beat him by four shots. I matched Thomson’s final
round 69, but was again twenty shots adrift of the winner. Defending
champion, Bobby Locke did not feature, but another South African was
in the field that year- Jock Verwey. His son-in-law would arrive on
these shores a few years later - his name is Gary Player.
I did not enter for the 1952 North British won by Scot John Panton,
who lowered the record for the outward 9 in a British tournament
with 28 on the Harrogate GC’s Starbeck course, but came back in 39.
My outing that year was at the Open, back at Royal Lytham for the
first time since Bobby Jones’ famous victory in 1926. In the early
fifties the organization of the event was not by any means the
professional job it is today and some of the arrangements for
spectators left much to be desired. Stewarding was some way short of
championship standard and there was controversy concerning the
exclusion of spectators from the eighth, ninth and tenth holes,
where the bottleneck could have created congestion and held up play.
Catering facilities were poor, probably the worst I ever
experienced. Competitors had the use of the member’s tent, but had
to join the queue and, after waiting twenty minutes without
receiving attention, five of us handed back our lunch tickets and
dashed into the town. I qualified with a 74 at Fairhaven, a course
that used to have a bunker for every day of the year, and a 75 at
Lytham itself, which I remember was in great condition. It was a
long, demanding course with narrow fairways and many new bunkers had
appeared since my last visit, putting a premium on accuracy from the
tee. I missed the cut, along with a few of the young British hopes.
On my return to Beamish I wrote in my newspaper column that they had
not yet developed sufficient determination to go through with the
job and would have to practise a lot more if they were to meet the
challenge from the overseas stars. It would be another seventeen
years before a young man named Jacklin gave the Lytham crowd the
next British victory.
After the previous year’s Open at Portrush I had written that many
were of the opinion that the ‘slow play’ rule should be more
strictly enforced. Like many others I had expected defending
champion Locke to win in 1951 and make it a hat trick, but should he
be disqualified if he refused to comply with the rule? “You can’t
very well disqualify the reigning champion”, was the general
feeling, but in a discussion I was very much in agreement with one
leading player who said that the rules were the same for everyone
and no exceptions should be made. Bobby always walked in a slow and
stately manor between shots and this was a sore point with some of
his fellow pros. During the third round at Royal Lytham he lost
three holes on the group in front and Norman von Nida, playing in
the match behind, lodged a formal complaint. In fact Locke’s group
was round in 3 ½ hours, which doesn’t sound long today, but 3 hours
was more than enough in those days. How times have changed! You have
to remember that we were playing two rounds on the final day, with
only four hours between starting times - you had no time to hang
about. The pairing of Peter Alliss and the fifty year old Gene
Sarazen, making his first appearance since 1937, raced round in 2 ¼
hours. In his book The Open, Peter wrote that he found it difficult
to concentrate as Gene played his shots so quickly and hit his putts
without seeming to even glance at the line. He got the feeling that
Sarazen was not interested, but I recall that he was always a
headstrong player who went for everything. Bobby Jones said of Gene:
“It was Bang! Bang! Bang! all the time”. It later occurred to Peter
that his performance on the greens could have been a way of
combating the dreaded ‘yips’. Before the final round Locke was
finally issued with a warning, but he blamed the inadequate crowd
control and continued on his stately passage. Fifty years later slow
play is still a controversial subject, but time limits are somewhat
longer these days.
On that final day Bobby had a similar experience to that of Alf
Padgham in 1936. Locke kept his car and clubs in a lock-up garage
near to his hotel and that morning the owner overslept and was not
there to unlock the garage when Bobby arrived. He hitched a lift on
a passing milk float and roused the garage owner from his slumbers,
got his car and arrived at the course with only ten minutes to
spare, but, like Padgham, the unflappable South African remained as
calm as ever. Fred Daly had started the day with a four-shot lead
after a 69 in round two, but it required remarkable recovery play to
compensate for his unreliable long game. On every green in the back
nine he holed putts of between 5ft and 6 yards and single-putted
each of the last five. It couldn’t last and in the wind-blown final
round, when a quarter of the field failed to break 80, he took 76.
The wind did not deter Locke who, despite finishing with two fives,
won his third post war Open; with his hickory-shafted putter with
the rusty iron blade working it’s customary magic, except at the
17th where he missed an 18 incher. That was almost unbelievable for
he was one of the best putters I ever saw - in the same league as
Bobby Jones
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