Golf: Aug. 2, 1926

“Before you know it the standard par for 18 holes will be 55, and a dub that can’t go round under 72 will be ruled off the course on Sundays and holidays. …”

Thus, scowling, ruminated a grizzled golf professional on hearing of the scores made on various courses last week. Eastern Open. At Wolf Hollow Golf Links (Delaware Water Gap, Pa.) Walter Hagen won the Eastern Open Championship. The course, a 6,500-yard layout, was an exceptionally difficult one, with long carries, tough sea-grass in the roughs, greens intricately trapped. Two rounds of 72 would probably, the greensmen thought, be good enough to win; such stars as Joseph Turnesa, Emmet French, Cyril Walker struggled to get less than 80; John Farrell, with a 69, declared that he had played the best golf of his life. Walter Hagen, on his first round, took four strokes less. He broke the world’s record for 36 holes of medal play with a score of 132, made seven consecutive birdies, came within a stroke of tying the world’s record for 72 holes.*

Metropolitan Open. When an ir-resistible force meets an immovable body in a golf tournament, the judges are obliged to arrange a playoff. They arranged a playoff for MacDonald Smith and Gene Sarazen, tied at 286 strokes of the 72 holes of medal play in the Metropolitan Open Championship, last fortnight on Long Island (TIME, July 26). Irresistible Smith and Immovable Sarazen proceeded to take 70 more strokes apiece. They were told to tee off again. Irresistible Smith took 72 strokes more; Immovable Sarazen took 72 strokes more. It was a 108-hole tie, a championship record.

Last week another effort was made. Smith, whose mouth turns down at the corners, missed a putt; Sarazen, whose mouth curls up in a grin, holed a birdie 4. Smith, who sometimes falters, shied his drive into the rough; Sarazen, who swings with compact precision, banged far down the fairway. “Ho ho!” cried hasty ones, “You see how this will end!” But Smith, whose wrists are wiry, winged a shot home and sank his putt for a 3. He missed another birdie by an eyelash, then holed a long side-hill recovery putt. He sized up putt after putt thereafter, over expanses of Long Island real estate that sometimes extended 40 and 50 feet, holing a long series of incredible shots. Sarazen, grimly grinning, turned off a 70 that any other man, at any other moment, would have waved his cap over. But Sarazen had no cap. “What’s the use of a 70, anyhow?” he said as he shook Smith’s hand. Smith’s last putt had dropped for a 66.

Western Amateur. A golfing sphere came to rest between the twin trunks of a tree about 60 feet from the ninth green. Frank Dolp, of Portland, Ore., turned his back to the pin, played a niblick shot between his legs, saw his ball stop 14 feet from the cup. He holed out in two, while Harrison R. (“Jimmie”) Johnston, winner of the qualifying medal with a brilliant 141 and favorite to capture the Western Amateur title at St. Paul, missed a two-foot putt. On the 18th green Johnston’s putter again faltered. He missed a six-footer and enabled Dolp to square the match. Johnston repeated with a two-foot miss on the extra hole, was eliminated. Dolp then sailed on easily to his first Western Amateur Championship—Chuck Hunter defaulted to him; collegian Kenneth Hisert (“Big Ten” winner) was swamped; B. E. Stein of Seattle capitulated on the 31st hole of the finals. The headliners were ignored: Keefe Carter (last year’s champion) was eliminated in the second round: Chick Evans (seeking his ninth Western title) fell before Arthur Tveraa, 19 year old Minneapolis player; Rudy Knepper went as far as the semifinals.

*Made by Emmet French in 1922.