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Open. At St
Andrews earlier that year he had won the Silver Cross in the May
Medal for the second year running. Max was always a colourful
dresser and a great experimenter with clubs, particularly putters,
which he often made himself. The one that attracted the most
attention had a hickory shaft and a head fashioned from a piece of
driftwood he found on Selsey beach. I am not sure if it was after
that St Andrews Open that he famously disposed of the clubs he felt
had failed him by tossing them one by one from the train as it
passed over the Forth Bridge. L. G. also had a touch of the clown in
his makeup and, in his later years as a golf correspondent, was
famous for wearing a rusty red suit and cowboy hat during visits to
the USA. I was back in the North East, at the South Shields club, by the time of the Irish Open, which was at Royal Co Down. Jimmy Bruen continued his fine form at St Andrews, breaking the amateur course record with a 66 and little Paddy Mahon, buoyed by the news of the birth of his daughter, came close to breaking my professional course record, but finished with a 68. No record for me this time – I finished in a tie with Paddy for 12th, my worst position in six pre-war Opens. Jimmy Adams, playing on what had once been his ‘home green’, was to suffer from his ignorance of the rules. In those days a ball could be lifted by a marker and Jimmy’s marker did this on one green, then put the ball in his pocket. Jimmy was worried that this would mean that it had been cleaned, which was not then allowed. Concerned that he would be disqualified Jimmy sent for a ruling, but the decision that he was safe did not come until the ninth, by which time he had taken 45 strokes. E. Fennel, from the host club, also paid for forgetting the rules. He picked up his ball after failing with a putt and was penalised two strokes.  In an exciting finish the winner, by two strokes from Reg Whitcombe,
was 31-years-old Arthur Lees, a great Yorkshire character who had
first attracted attention at the 1935 Muirfield Open. It was his
first big tournament victory. He was playing pro at Marienbad, then
in Czechoslovakia, and later was the professional at Sunningdale for
27 yearsThe 1939 Penfold League tournament went ahead at Little Aston and again most of my matches were closely fought affairs, but there were no halves this time; I won seven and lost four. My best wins were against Arthur Lacey (4 & 3) and the redoubtable match player Dai Rees, whom I beat 3&1. I won by one hole against Alf Perry, Jimmy Adams and in a very close battle with Sam King, in which I was round in 68 to Sam’s 70 and pipped him to third place by one point. “As good a game as could be imagined”, said the Birmingham Gazette. My matches with Alf Padgham and the Open Champion Dick Burton also finished on the last green, both beating me 1 up. On the third day I played two of the Whitcombe brothers, beating Reg in the morning 3 & 2 and losing to Charles in the afternoon by the same margin. I beat the holder, Percy Alliss 2 & 1. This time he came last with only four points despite playing pretty well, but again being let down by his fickle putter. So very little could make the difference between winning and losing in this company. It was, as the Birmingham Gazette reporter put it, “a sad example of the mutability of human affairs. So much depended upon the player having that indefinable feeling of being in a winning vein”. In other words - ‘form’.  Henry Cotton got his revenge, reversing the previous years result by
beating me 1-up in another ding-dong battle; on the first 9 we had
seven threes between us. The lead frequently changed and we were all
square on the 18th tee, having both driven into the bunker in front
of the 17th, a distance of 310 yards, and halved the hole. My drive
found deep rough on 18, only a yard off the fairway and I couldn’t
reach the green. Henry didn’t make it either but chipped to four
feet. After much consideration with his caddie he holed for the
match. He finished on 18 points and tied Charles Whitcombe. They
were joint winners of the tournament that year and I finished third
on 14. Sadly it was the last time that this great event was ever
played. [It was perhaps a fairer format as it took the ‘luck of the
draw’ out of a matchplay event]. Penfold did resume their
sponsorship of tournaments after the war, but the format was
conventional match play or stroke play. NEXT |
