Just wild about Harry
IN June 1914 the Douglas Park course in Bearsden found itself at the very centre of the world of golf.
Harry Vardon, who just four days earlier had won the British Open for the sixth time, came to Bearsden to play two exhibition matches.
The spectacle attracted thousands to see, in the words of the Herald's headline, ''The world's greatest golfer at Douglas Park.''
Channel Islander Vardon was very much the hero of the hour having just won what the paper described as ''perhaps the most remarkable championship ever seen in the game of golf.''
Accompanied by George Duncan of Hanger Hill, reckoned by the Herald to be one of Scotland's greatest-ever golfers, Vardon gave two exhibitions at Douglas Park where the committee had made every effort to have the course looking its best for its VIP visitors. The greens had been manicured, the direction posts painted and a ditch concreted over.
Vardon and Duncan played a round in the morning, then in the evening took part in a four-ball foursome with George Waddell and James McGlashan, the top players at Douglas Park.
''On both occasions the crowd was a huge and brightly-dressed one, and, on the whole, considering its dimensions, wonderfully well behaved,'' observed the Herald.
''At many of the holes a wild scamper was made to the putting greens once the balls had landed thereon, and viewed from a distance one wondered what sort of effect it would have on the players, but both men played away in the most confident and seemingly unconcerned manner imaginable.
''This sort of thing went on with energetic regularity until the crowd began to tire, and considerably affected by the heat many betook themselves to coigns of vantage en route and others repaired to the home greens to await events.
''The hilly part of the course, which might be termed ''The Alps'', was a favourite spot with many, but when the main body following the players came up and wanted to be in ''at the death'', so to speak, one had fears of the weaker sex, when the crowd surged down the steep slopes like a mighty avalanche.''
The Herald reporter was in awe of Vardon's championship form. The open champion was clearly the better golfer though Duncan's driving was powerful and accurate.
By the turn, Vardon's score was 34 against 37 for Duncan. But the Herald noted that the best play of the round was to be seen in the most difficult part of the course.
''The 12th hole, which necessitates a drive up hill, brought out the rare driving abilities of both men. Vardon's play here was as near perfection as it was possible to be and he gained another stroke from the hole, Duncan taking four to his three. ''The 13th hole, a distance of 459 yards, was halved in four, a great putt by Duncan, after he had over-run the green, bumping over the hole, and thus prevented him getting down in three.''
On the 14th, Vardon showed that even a six times Open Champion can fail to sink a putt, missing the hole by a hairs breadth. And on the 16th his ball rolled over the hole and off the green. But on the 17th he holed in two with a 20 yard putt, much to the delight of the spectators who doubtless would have agreed with the Herald writer who described it as ''the most remarkable event of the afternoon.''
''Both players were heartily applauded by the large audience, more especially Vardon, who had gone the round in 68, one stroke more than the record, which is presently held by James McGlashan.'' Duncan's score was 72.
A much larger crowd turned out for the evening foursome in which Vardon and Waddell played against Duncan and McGlashan. An army of stewards was needed to keep the spectators from crowding in on the golfers.
''Right from the start some brilliant play was witnessed,'' said the Herald, ''and the amateurs showed that so far as driving was concerned they were little or nothing behind the professionals, and occasionally out-distanced them."
A highlight of the game was a miracle shot by George Waddell at the eighth. He had driven into the rough, but pitched the ball into the hole from 80 yards.
On the 10th Vardon had dropped behind then stunned his opponents when he holed in three with what the Herald described as ''an extraordinarily long putt.''
The individual returns were: Vardon, 67, thus equalling the club record, Waddell, 76, Duncan 68 and McGlashan, 74.
The Herald also reported that George Duncan had that week gone round the Killermont course in 68, breaking the record 70 set five years earlier by the great Harry Vardon.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Milngavie
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
