Golf

In England. No Tolley. No Wethered. No Holderness. No invading Americans. It was a situation without recent precedent in the history of British Amateur Golf Championships. But there it was, as plain as the nose on a plain caddy's face, and you had to accept it, whether you liked it or not. The indomitable Tolley, who had beaten Hans Samek of Hamburg, ''the first German ever entered in a British golf championship," was eliminated by a man named Thompson who had never before got beyond the first round. It was Douglas Grant, U.S. resident in Britain, who put out wethered; but Grant in turn was beaten by R. W. Crummack, Lancashire champion. Bombardier Wells, British boxer, qualified for the tournament, won twice before he fell. Cruikshank, Britisher from the Argentine, was eliminated; only Robert Harris of Scotland, Captain of the British Golf team that opposed the U. S. in 1922 and 1923, was left to face K. F. Fradgely who, weakened by a recent illness, unnerved by losing four of the first five holes, went to pieces, was beaten by the incredible score of 13 up and 12 to play.

In the U. S. The gentlemen of the Examining Board pushed their papers away, sat back with various demonstrations of relief. They had finished arranging, in honorable order, the scores of the 95 golfers who, at Long Beach, L. I., in Chicago, on the Coast, qualified for the Open Golf Championship. There were 5 from the Pacific Coast, 30 from Chicago, 60 from the East and 1 player who did not have to qualify--Cyril Walker of New Jersey, the champion. There was also one score so much lower than any of the rest that the weary examiners, their labor over, discussed it in low tones, marveling. It was the 140 made over the Lido course at Long Beach by MacDonald Smith.

MacDonald Smith is one of the Smith Brothers. No bearded rapscallion he, seller of sugar-coated cough drops, but the most brilliant member of a famed golfing family, the Smiths: Alec, George, Jim, Willie,* MacDonald. Thirty, years ago, Alec, the eldest Smith, came to the U.S., was three times open runner-up, once champion, won 19 important championships between 1898 and 1914, had among his pupils Jerry Travers, Marion Hollins, Glenna Collett, Reggie Lewis. MacDonald, the youngest, was famed at 15, played extraordinary golf until, in 1914, he went to California, disappeared from competition. Recently, he returned. When playing, he is sombre, sanctimonious, a slow putter, a silent walker.

* Now dead.