Golf

At Brookline, Mass, is the country club where, in 1913, when he was 20, Francis Ouimet tied famed Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in his first U. S. Open championship, then beat them both in a momentous playoff. Francis Ouimet does a lot of his golfing at the Brookline club but it was for another momentous match against British golfers that he was there again last week. As U. S. Amateur Champion he had been made captain of the U. S. Walker Cup Team

Play began with Scotch (two-ball) foursomes. Paired with slim young George T. Dunlap Jr. against the crack British pair of long-driving John Stout and John Burke, champion of Ireland who signs his first name "Sean," Ouimet's putting helped his partner win four of the first five holes. The match was over at the 30th, with Ouimet & Dunlap 7 up. Captain Thomas Arthur ("Tony") Torrance of the British team and John De Forest, British Amateur champion, did very little better. They lost to Gus Moreland (in vited to join the U. S. team while he was winning the Western Amateur last fort night) and huge Charlie Seaver (Stanford footballer, who plays golf because his father wants him to) on the 31st green. Jess Sweetser and George Voigt beat the Hartley brothers, Rex and Lister, 7 & 6, after Rex Hartley had admitted being made bloodydamnedmad by one of Sweetser's drives which started out of bounds, hit a tree, bounced back toward the green. The closest match of the day ended on the 32nd green. Young Billy Howell and Don Moe, whose 67 at Sandwich in 1920 made a Walker Cup record, had lost five holes out of nine to their 22-year-old opponents, Eric McRuvie and Eric Fiddian, but not until they were 7 up. Howell's short putt for a birdie, after McRuvie had holed a long one, ended the match.

The singles next day were a pleasant formality. Low score of the day -- George Dunlap's 66, while he was beating Eric McRuvie, 10 & 9 -- was a new record for Walker Cup play. When Ouimet was 3 up with 8 to play against Torrance it looked as if he were sure to even matters for the 7 & 6 beating that Torrance gave him two years ago but Torrance got a 2 on the 30th and played beautiful golf to halve the match. Two other matches -- Burke v. Westland and Stout v. Sweet ser -- ended all-even after 36 holes. Rex Hartley had another chance to be bloody damnedmad after losing, 2 & 1, to Gus Moreland; so did his brother, who lost 3 & 2 to Maurice McCarthy Jr. Seaver pounded out prodigious drives to smother Fiddian 7 & 6.

When the series was all over, the only thing the British team could really be pleased about was a small round dent in the side of the Walker Cup. It was a reminder of the only match that went to England this year, the one between George Voigt and Leonard Crawley, a Dunfrieshire. schoolmaster better known in England for his cricket than his golf. Crawley's iron on the :8th overshot the green and bounced against the Cup which, with its bright silver handles sticking out like donkey's ears, was standing on the clubhouse lawn.

At St. Paul was the Professional Golfers' Association championship, hardest match-play tournament in the world to win, for which British & U. S. Open Champion Gene Sarazen failed to qualify three weeks ago. Ponderous Olin Dutra who looks like Jack Dempsey and handles his putter like an elephant with a teaspoon, won the medal with 140. His brother Mortie, Johnny Farrell, Mike Turnesa, Abe Espinosa, Walter Kozak, Tommy Armour and last year's Open champion, Billy Burke, were all over the play-off score--153. The first round was memorable for two tremendous matches which passed the record set when Chick Evans won the 1920 U. S. Amateur in 40 holes.

Dour little Bobby Cruickshank played so badly against Al Watrous of Detroit that he was 9 down on the 24th green. Watrous felt sorry for him and conceded a hard six-foot putt for a half. Bobby Cruickshank plays his best golf when he is angry; sympathy makes him furious. He won nine of the next eleven holes, clinched the match on the 41st green by pitching a niblick shot dead and dropping the putt for a 4 while Watrous, on the green in 2, took 5.

Walter Hagen had a different sort of match with stolid Johnny Golden of Noroton, Conn. They were never more than a hole apart. Golden was i up at noon. He was still up at the 35th, but Hagen birdied the hole to square the match. They halved every hole till the 43rd, where Golden dropped a ten-foot putt for the birdie 4 that won.

It looked as though slim Tom Creavy, last year's winner, would play Olin Dutra for the title but Creavy, when he had squared his semi-final match with Frank Walsh of Chicago on the 36th, after being 9 down in the morning round, missed an important five-foot putt on the 38th. Dutra, who had coasted through the tournament, played Walsh in the finals. In California, where he and his brother learned to play on an improvised course between two trees in a meadow, Dutra is known for his steadiness, his diligence on practice tees. His short swing is especially useful on windy days. There was a crisp wind blowing across the Keller course the Sunday of the final but it bothered Walsh as little as it did Dutra. They finished the morning round all even, with 71's. In the afternoon, Walsh went out in 35. Dutra had a 33. When the match ended on the 33rd green, with Walsh four down, it made Dutra's record in winning his last three tournaments--Metropolitan Open, North Shore (Chicago) Open, P. G. A.-- 31 under par for 304 holes.

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