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The highlight of my
year was the nostalgic trip to the Irish Open, which was at Belvoir
Park, Belfast, where I had played in that exhibition match back in
1937. The winner was Eric Brown, who made his Ryder Cup debut that
year. I finished in 15th place.
Following the Open we had a wonderful day out over at Royal County
Down. It is one of my favourite courses, with its magnificent views
of the Mourne Mountains and the imposing Slieve Donard hotel. You
can never move far without encountering Irish humour - spontaneous
and sometimes a bit cutting! On this day we looked in at the hotel
to see if there was anything going on. The big lounge floor had been
cleared and all the armchairs pushed back against the wall in
preparation for a function. Many of them were occupied by elderly
men and women, most of the men ‘resting their eyes’ and the women
knitting. Suddenly a voice at the back piped up; “Will you look at
that now – so its knit, nod and wait for death”! That young man’s
dad was not amused.
[In 1955 Bert entered his last Open at St Andrews, his third visit
since his unhappy introduction to the home of golf in 1933. It was
not to be a final reconciliation; a 76 on the New course left him
too much to do in his second round on the Old and he failed to
qualify. The champion was Peter Thomson]
In 1957 the Bishop Auckland club put a practise ground on the High
Plains at my request and I introduced Saturday coaching for the
juniors. My teaching was based on the principle I mentioned earlier
– control of the club by the left arm forming the radius of the
swing and remaining straight at and through the ball. My method must
have had a measure of success as a number of county players, men and
women, came to Bishop Auckland, including some who had previously
come to me at Brancepeth. I also worked with the C.C.P.R. (Central
Council for Physical Recreation), holding coaching classes on three
nights per week, two classes per night - usually in school
gymnasiums. One class was at an Ecclesiastical College in Durham and
my pupils were all priests – keeping up the tradition of those early
pioneers at Bishop Auckland.
That October the Ryder Cup was played at Lindrick near Sheffield and
I went down with a party from the Bishop Auckland club. GB&I had not
won since 1933 and the pundits did not give them much chance that
year. L.G.Crawley wrote of the American team that ‘The golden age of
the twenties has returned to American golf’. The home team duly lost
the foursomes 3-1, their only point coming from captain Dai Rees and
Ken Bousfield, and L. G. commented that it was “abundantly clear that
the Americans were equipped with an altogether superior short game
and that an old, old story was again about to raise its grisly
head”. A big blow was the defeat of the strong pairing of Eric Brown
and Christie O’Connor, who went down 7&5 to Dick Mayer and the
volatile Tommy Bolt. Bernard Hunt and Peter Alliss were beaten 2&1
by Doug Ford and Dow Finsterwald and out of form Max Faulkner
partnered Harry Weetman to lose 4&3 to US captain Jack Burke and Ted
Kroll. Max asked to be left out of the singles and Harry also agreed
to stand down, but later undermined Dai’s captaincy by telling the
press that he would never play under him again.
Team spirit had been seriously dented and another American victory
looked assured as we went out on the second day to watch the
singles, but Dai had other ideas and the team responded. I remember
the top match in particular because ‘the sparks flew’. Dai had
gambled on putting the tough match-player Eric Brown out first in
the singles in the hope that he would meet the equally aggressive
Tommy Bolt. He guessed right and Brown relished the challenge,
beating Bolt in an encounter that was far from friendly. When they
had not appeared on the tee as the start time approached, the
wise-cracker of the US team, Jimmy Demaret, said: “They’re out on
the practise ground throwing clubs at each other from 50 paces.”
When they set off it was apparent that Bolt, knowing that Brown was
a quick player, had decided to play at a snail’s pace. After a while
Eric sent his caddie into the clubhouse for a chair, on which he sat
while waiting for Bolt to play. When Brown closed out the match by
4&3 the following exchange was reported: “You won Eric”, said Bolt,
“but I didn’t enjoy the game”, to which Brown replied: “No, of
course you didn’t enjoy it because you were ٭٭٭٭٭٭٭ licked”.
The rest of the team followed suit and we made our way around the
course to cheer them on as match after match ended early in the
second 18 that afternoon. Max was charging around acting as chief
cheerleader and he was soon joined by Dai, who quickly saw off Ed
Furgul 7&6 and raced around the course inspiring his men with his
good news. The new boy, Peter Mills, beat Burke 5&3; Bousfield
accounted for Lionel Herbert 4&3; Hunt went out in 32 in the
afternoon on his way to a 6&5 victory over Ford and O’Connor won six
of the first eight holes to finish off Finsterwald 7&6, using a new
putter purchased in the pro’s shop during lunch. Bolt would need a
new club before he played again to replace the victim of its owner’s
rage when he returned to the locker room. He refused to attend the
closing ceremony.
The Americans had been put to the sword, the only survivors being
Fred Hawkes who overcame stiff resistance from Alliss to win 2&1, and Dick Meyer, who halved with
Harry Bradshaw.
The final score: GB&I: 7 ½ USA: 4 ½
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