The Defense of Portmarnock

The British Amateur Golf Championship is no private fight; almost anybody with a consistent tournament score can get into it. Last week, on the windswept old course facing the Irish Sea at Portmarnock, near Dublin, an Irishman got into it and made a lot of trouble for his English, Scots and American competitors.

Nine times in the last 45 years, visiting Americans have beaten Britain's amateur best and carried home the 2-ft. silver trophy. Frank Stranahan, who won it last time, and U.S. Amateur Champion Willie Turnesa, who won it the time before that, were back again for the first play of the tournament in Ireland and they were top-heavy favorites.

After five days of match play, the task of turning back the Americans fell squarely on the broad shoulders of 200-lb. Ulsterman Sam McCready. Not many people had heard of 31-year-old Sam: a salesman for a London tobacco firm, he had never swung a club in the nationals before. But in the semifinals, there was Sam, wearing a fixed half-smile on his broad face. He teed off against Frank Stranahan. A brisk wind blew in from the Irish Sea. Between the wind and Sam McCready's smile, Stranahan's game folded up. He went down, 4 and 3.

In the finals, Willie Turnesa was tougher. The wind blew and thunder cracked overhead as he and Sam fought their way round 36 holes. As late as the 32nd hole Willie was i up. But Sam McCready dug into the old sod and finished with a birdie on the 35th to win the title, 2 and i. Said a Portmarnock Club official: "The kindly Irish weather came to our help." Said Sam, grasping the 2-ft. trophy: "Baby!"

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