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 Dick learned from the galleries that
Bulla was heading for a 73 and that meant that a 72 would be
required to win. He started well playing par golf until the 6th,
where he remarked to his partner, Charlie Ward, that he would need
to get five threes from the 6 holes around the ‘loop’. He proceeded
to get a birdie-3 at 7, a par-3 at 8 and another birdie-3 at 9. He
was then regarded as the longest driver in Britain and, even when he
strayed off line, he had no difficulty reaching the greens. At the
10th he drove the green, a considerable feat back then, but he
three-putted from long distance for a par-4. He made up for that by
holing a treacherous downhill putt for a two on the fast 11th green.
He had achieved his required fifteen strokes and was in good shape
for the difficult home stretch. He got his fours at the 12th and
13th and had to decide on the line to take from the 14th tee with
the out of bounds wall on the right and the lurking bunkers to
avoid. “I was standing on the tee thinking what I should do”, he was
to reveal later, “when George Duncan came alongside me and said,
‘Dick, over the wall with a bit of hook on it’”. (It was in sharp
contrast to the ‘safety first’ tactic that George had told me I
should have adopted six years earlier at the French
 Open). “I
laughed”, said Dick, “but didn’t take his advice”. He drove left
onto the fifth fairway to the left of ‘Hell’ bunker and played for a
5, which he got. He arrived at the famous 17th ‘Road’ hole, then a
par-5, needing two pars to win. 17 was negotiated perfectly in 5 and
he finished in style with a long drive at 18, tight to the
out-of-bounds fence on the right and a fine niblick over the valley
of sin to eight yards. He hit a bold putt and tossed his putter to
his caddie before the ball hit the back of the hole and dropped for
a 71. His 290 aggregate gave him a two shot victory over Bulla. Three home players, Alf Perry, Johnny Fallon and Bill Shankland, had chances of victory, but finished badly to be a further two shots back, tied with Reg Whitcombe and Sam King. Dick was to hold the title for another six years and became known as: ‘The 1939 and duration of war Open Champion’. He had custody of the priceless old Claret Jug all through the war.
In the rain and thunder of round 1 Bobby Locke, one of the
pre-tournament favourites, with Cotton and Bruen, was six under 4’s
standing on the14th tee. He then had trouble with the ‘Beardies’ and
‘Hell’ bunkers and
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took eight. He completed the round in 70 – there
can’t have been many 70s on the Old Course that included an eight.
He took seven at the same hole in the second round after going out
of bounds. Very uncharacteristic-in four years of championship golf
he had not been known to take more than five. He finished in a share
of 9th place along with Percy Alliss, now based at Ferndown. After
the Open Locke went to Mere to play a 72-hole Exhibition match
against the Open Champion for £250 a side. Locke beat Burton 10&8
and was eleven under fours when the match ended. He also beat the
1938 Champion Reg Whitcombe in the first ever televised match at
Coombe Hill.