Wet Sandwich

As during almost every other major English sporting event this season, it rained last week during the British Amateur Golf Championship in Sandwich. The weather made antic the play of visiting golfers from the U. S., Canada, France, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Mesopotamia, the Malay States. Edward of Wales watched for a while, then amused himself 'by practicing some drives of his own, employing the methods taught him last month by British Open Champion Walter Hagen. Said he: "At last I have learned to play golf," but he did not enter the tournament.

Four contestants gave the tournament what brilliance it had.

Joshua Crane of Brookline, Mass., used a putter with a 15-inch shaft, accurately, with only one hand.

John Dawson, chubby-cheeked 26-year-old Chicagoan, played the best U. S. golf and until the semifinals, where he met and was defeated by Scottish Golfer John Norton Smith, seemed likely to win the cup. The Dawson golf, like the Dawson face, resembles that of Robert Tyre Jones Jr. Golfer Dawson has learned a wisdom few able amateurs achieve: to prefer a safe four to a perilous three. But Golfer Dawson was troubled less last week by fours than by fives, sixes, and once a seven. Nevertheless during the last nine of the semi-finals he found himself at the 16th three up and three to go against Scot Smith. Then, without losing his cheery tight-lipped smile, he proceeded to lose the next three holes and the extra.

John Norton Smith is an extremely dour Scot from Fifeshire where normally he is a carpenter*. No brilliance attends his game but only the grimmest determination. His idiosyncrasies: chalking the face of his wooden clubs with blue chalk, waxing the handle of his irons before the difficult shot. To Cyril Tolley who won it at Muirfield nine years ago again went the championship. He, a links behemoth, has obtained most fame from his prodigious drives. In 1923 at Troon he drove to the green on a 350-yard hole. Last week his drives were still spectacular and, rare for him, he putted and approached with steady skill.

*Another famed Fifeshire golfer-carpenter: James Braid.