Golf in a Mist

Considerably less famed than the Walker and Ryder Cup play between the best U. S. and British male golfers, the biennial Curtis Cup matches are a healthy, respectable female counterpart. Last week in Scotland a picked U. S. team of five oldtimers and 18-year-old Patricia Jane ("Patty") Berg eked out a 4 1/2-to-4 1/2 tie, retained the trophy, which has yet to leave the U. S. Real winner was par which, ably assisted by the weather, gave both teams a sound trouncing.

The rolling beauty of the King's course at Gleneagles was a dismal sight the day of the matches. Haar," an especially bad Scottish mist, swept over all 18 holes, limited clear vision to 100 yd. Because a postponement was not considered sporting, the golfers trudged wearily around, got soaking wet, wore fur mittens between shots. Caddies stood ahead as human signposts to mark the direction of the greens. To make matters worse, hungry birds had dislodged old divots in their search for grub, left a mass of cupped lies.

Star performers for the U. S. did not include Patty Berg but two old standbys, Glenna Collett Vare, six-time U. S. national champion, and Maureen Orcutt Crews, winner of practically every important U. S. tournament but the national. Playing in a Scotch foursome with Patty (i.e., hitting alternate shots with one ball), Mrs. Vare carried her almost all the way, brought the match to an all-even finish by holing two long putts on the 16th and 17th greens. In her singles match Mrs. Vare conquered British Champion Wanda Morgan 3 and 2. Mrs. Crews not only won her singles but her foursome match as well. Miss Berg, so nervous that she could not even see the hole when she prepared to putt, lost in the singles, sorely disappointed spectators and newshawks who had ballyhooed her as a links prodigy.

Only the play of 21-year-old Jessie Anderson saved the British from open defeat. All-even in the foursomes and leading by one match in the singles, the U. S. needed only a tie in the last singles match for a clean-cut victory. This seemed assured when Mrs. Leona Cheney, all square with Miss Anderson on the 18th green, played her approach shot to within an inch of the cup. Miss Anderson,, however, thoroughly at home in the Scottish mist, laid down a putt which slithered 20 ft. across the soaked green, plopped straight into the cup.

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