At St. Andrews

Even to Britons long accustomed to having U. S. golfers win the British Open Championship, the finish of last week's tournament at St. Andrews was something of a jolt. Not one U. S. player but two were in first place. Moreover, they were golfers whom England had heard very little about and seen only in losing matches on the U. S. Ryder Cup team. In the U. S. their names were more familiar. One was blond Craig Wood, professional at the Hollywood Golf Club of Deal, N. J., a phlegmatic, long-driving golfer who took up the game after he had been a crack speedskater at Lake Placid, N. Y. Last year Wood earned more prize money than any other U. S. pro--$7,000. Second place for money winnings went to the young professional who was his opponent in last week's play-off--Hermon Densmore Shute, of the Llanerch Country Club, near Philadelphia. In three days of marvelously consistent golf over St. Andrews' angry bunkers and deceptive fairways, Shute had scored four par 733 in a row. Wood had caught up after a 77 on his first round, mainly because of a brilliant 68 on his third, with putts for birdies on six holes.

Across the first fairway at St. Andrews runs Swilken Burn, the brook which has cooled the heels and heated the tempers of more expert golfers than any other in the world. Into Swilken Burn last week Craig Wood played his second shot of the playoff, a shot which, more than any other, helped decide the championship. Rather than waste a stroke, he took off his shoes and stockings, waded into the water with his niblick and played the ball. It landed near the edge of the green but Wood took three to hole out. Still rattled, he had another six at the second hole and found himself four down to Shute.

From there on, the match was close but the result was never in much doubt. Wood, outdriving his opponent by as much as 60 yds., was seldom nearer to the pin with his approaches. Shute, who said later that he had set himself the task of keeping ahead of Wood for the first round, had one tight moment when his approach caught Ginger-beer bunker on the 14th. He pitched out, sank his putt for a birdie and ended the first 18 holes still three strokes up. In the afternoon, Wood took 39 to the turn as he had done in the morning. At the 33rd, he was still five strokes behind. Shute, his long iron shots travelling to the greens as though they were on wires, ran off the last three holes in par, finished with 149 to Wood's 154. Said he when he received the championship Cup from the Earl of Lindsay: "I'm still too excited to think but I'm tickled to death."

As excited as Shute himself was his golf-professional father, who learned the game at St. Andrews as a caddy, taught his son to play with a set of miniature clubs at the age of 3. Hermon Shute got the news about the play-off when he was giving a lesson at the Ashland, Ohio, Country Club, stopped long enough to say: "I sort of hoped the weather would be bad. . . . The boy is a great bad-weather player." U. S. golf followers knew that young Densmore Shute was an able player in good weather also. He tied Gene Sarazen for third place in the U. S. Open on a hot June day in 1929. Now 28, medium-sized, dark-haired, lightly built and generally considered to have more finesse with his iron clubs than any other professional except Tommy Armour, Shute by his victory last week made it seem that he was the likeliest of the younger professionals to acquire the prestige which has been shared for the last decade by Sarazen and Hagen.

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