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Show Golf Champion Reviews His i Hardest Match on ' the Links 1 I : : 1 .1 By Charles Evans i- IT is difficult to tell what has been my hardest match on the links-Every links-Every extra hole contest is a test of endurance and tension. The matches which I have won when ft down and 4 to play and the holing of long putts to win each, carry a tingling ting-ling remembrance to me. My thirty-nine-hole match with Bob Hunter of Midlothian in the semifinals semi-finals of the 1910 western was a tough one. I was 2 under bogey which won the thirty-sixth from his pat 4. After being in two bunkers going to the thirty-seventh, I got a half. He seemed to go to pieces on the green, nnd took three putts whan within four feet of the hole. Bob Gardner, .formor national amateur ama-teur champion, and I have had tough battles. My victory at Lake Geneva, Wis., after being ft down and 10 to play, was exceedingly difficult. My first match in the French amateur championship showed 12 halves before I won at tho thirty-eighth. Putting for halves as the holes are dwindling is mighty ticklish. Each match with Paul Hunter and Albert. Seckol, present western champion, cham-pion, have boen hot ones. I have met both several tunes and every game has been fiercely rlayod. The victory Chandler Egan of Exmoor, former na' tional .champion, -scored over me-o?l,the thirtysixth hole in the national tubr-nev tubr-nev at. the Chicago1 Golf club's links in 1969, was a hard dose, as was ho game I lost in the same event to Billy Fownes of Pittsburg back in 1910. He later won the title. All Hard Contests. All of the above -events are remembered remem-bered bv me as being very hard ones. But the hardest battle in my career was that with A. F. Hammer in the second round of the national tourney this past season. In spite of his victory vic-tory over former Western Champion Mason Phelps of Midlothian, in the first round I held Hammer lightly. Few had he'ard of him, except, that they knew that he was a reinstated amatoirr, having been a "pro" at one time. He had a handicap of 9 in the Metropolitan Metro-politan Golf association, and, as far as T had heard, was not ' considered within four shots of the best player at Fox Hills, which was his club. Moreover, More-over, his qualifying score in tho tournament tour-nament was not low. It happened that. I was playing up to my game at the time, and as I read his hame I congratulated myself on the draw. But the minute he swung his club as wo teed off, I realizedhe knew the game. Our morning round was an eye-opener to me. Playing verv well T. was around to 74, yet was only' 2 up. But t consoled myself by saying to myself I had just caught him above his game and that the afternoon after-noon round would bo easier. I lost the first hole in the afternoon. That was nothing, however, as I had frequently done that in tho nast. But I also dropped the second, which made us all square. Then I began to wonder. won-der. Holo after hole wo played, and I was merely hanging on. It hurt me to thiuk I was getting beaten so early in tho tournament. We turned all square and I lost, the tenth and eleventh, halving the twelfth. Two down aud 0 to play was somewhat some-what embarrassing. A 2 on the 265-yard 265-yard hole and a 4 on the oOO-3'ard hole enabled mo to square- the match. The fifteenth was halved and I holed a forty-foo.t putt for a halve on tho sixteenth. six-teenth. Things certainly looked bad. The seventeenth hole was 574 yards. My second was 20 yards, further than his. Then came a most sickening shot. He played a full iron stroke, as hard as he could hit it, and the ball lauded on tho green -only a foot from the cup. Only a golfer knows the feeling that came over me. Clear Off Green. Well, I played my shot it was a bad one and I wasn't even on the f een. It looked all ip for me. But i reeolvod to do "my utmost on the uert j ;' Btroke. I never hope to piny its equal. f, , ' Bumping over the rolls of the green, . the ball plensinglj' lipped the cup ana f ,-; lnid Kammer a lull stymie. He ',' couldn't negotiate it. The eighteenth 4 ,saw my heart in my throat ngam when j S Kammer's loncputt was just a wee s. bit too hard. We went to the thirty- '.; ; seventh. He compelled me to put a u chip shot stone dead Tor a halve. A S on the difficult par 0 thirty-eighth ?; f. was my good fortune. That mntch has 5 been in many of rav dreams. " 5'" The most "difficult course in, the j, world in my opinion is the National jj 'i poW links of America, frequently V r called rr. Mncdonald's course near v, i Southampton, Long Islnnd. My rank- i 'inp of the courses in this country, ex- f i.- .clusivo of the Ifational, would he My- 4 ' opia (where President Tuft frequently & ' plays). Chicago golf at Wheuton and gym? Brookline. I might say that T never mJ have played over the Garden City links. tI Pinehurst, X. 0.. has a fine course, with j the oxcoption of its sand greens. To ,' tell which links are the best on the J other Bido is indeed difficnlt thc are all good, better than outs. Thoy divide rl their golf into two classes seaside and ?m paTk golf. They take their golf much more seriously than we" do. if frequently r have beoh asked how I ) got my iron shots, down to. aueh a fine point. Well, it's just like this. I lived near the Edgewater club of Chi- '! eago. When 1 went to piny there, or4 , came home, I would drop a couple of ,' balls in the jjrnfls and play them the N entire distance. By keeping this up, ' W day after day, I learned how to get ,1 distance accurately, and, what is eguallj' as important, how to get out 1 ot long crass. t I, I Then I kept in practice duriuc the long 'winter months by swinging at an imaginary ball in the attic of our ; home. It is also good prnctiee, when J you have time, to tako a dozen halls. ; ! set yourself within 50 or .100 yards oL a green and " place' ' them. This in f indeed splendid practice and helps to f keep your approaching game up to a top notch or accuracy. . i |