British Open

Walter Hagen's caddie was nearly blown off a green but Hagen sank his putt. A camera clicked when Leo Diegel was putting. He missed by a foot.

That is almost the whole story of the British Open championship which Hagen won for the fourth time (second in succession) last week in Muirfield, Scotland. Diegel had a chance, but Diegel, as he usually does, blew up. Hagen, cautious as a cat, steady as a locomotive, did not blow up. That is usual too. The British entrants, despite their victory as a Ryder Cup team over the U. S. one week prior, figured scarcely at all.

There was more wind than usual, even for Muirfield. The hats of spectators flapped off their heads. The golfers leaned against it when they were on the greens. Once it blew a Hagen putt, which had stopped short, the last needed inch. Several Diegel drives, starting too high, were shoved aloft, stopped, dropped as though they had hit an invisible cliff.

Hagen's winning score was 292, the same as last year. At the halfway mark (36 holes) Diegel led him by two strokes, 140 to 142, despite a record-smashing round of 67 by Hagen. Diegel had cracked out a 69 himself that afternoon. Next morning he cracked up and had to hit his ball 82 times before holing out at lunch time. Hagen, wind or no wind, dropped back to his steady 75 pace, and held it during the afternoon. Diegel needed a 70 to tie, another 69 to win. He took 77, and dropped behind U. S. Open Champion Johnny Farrell (294) to finish third with 299.

Because Diegel had been the most brilliant player in the Ryder Cup matches at Moortown, and because he is something of a golfing freak, the crowds at Muirfield followed him throughout the tournament. His swing is jerky, the face of his club twists sharply at the moment of impact. He lunges at the ball, moves his feet. When he putts, his forearms are parallel to the ground, the shaft perpendicular, the left elbow pointing to the hole, the hands within breathing distance of his stomach in a posture as of prayer. Few tyros try to copy his style, though perhaps it will suit at his new club in Aqua Caliente ("Hot Water"), Mexico.