difference when I
brought my opponent to Bury, and in the end he won quite easily. "Sandy"
Herd, as we all call him, and I have had many great matches since then,
and many of them of far greater consequence than this, but I shall never
forget this beginning. Neither in those days, nor in the others that
soon followed, when it became clear that I had a chance of becoming
Champion, was I ever in the least troubled with nervousness. I was
completely cured of my early complaint. Moreover, I have not known what
it is to be nervous even in a Championship round when my fate depended
upon almost every stroke, and particularly on those at the last few
holes. The feeling that was always uppermost in my mind was that I had
everything to gain and nothing to lose. It is only when a man has
everything to lose and nothing to gain that he should become uneasy
about his game. When you have won a few prizes and there are critical
eyes upon you, there may be some excuse for nerves, but not before. All
young players should grasp the simple truth of this simple statement;
but it is surprising how many fail to do so. No stroke or game ever
seemed to cause me any anxiety in those young days, and my rapid success
may have been in a large measure due to this indifference.

In 1893 I decided that I would enter for the Open Championship, which in
that year was played for at Prestwick, and I went north in company with
my brother Tom, stopping on our way to take part in the tournament at
Kilmalcolm, which was attended by most of the other professionals. I did
fairly well in this, the first open competition for which I entered,
being bracketed with poor Hugh Kirkaldy for third place. But I failed in
the Championship competition, as, of course, I fully expected to do.
That was Willie Auchterlonie's year, and I was some way down the list. I
started in great style, and, though I broke down badly later on, there
was just the consolation left for me that after all I did better than my
partner, Willie Campbell.

There were some curious circumstances attending the first big success of
any kind that I achieved. This was at Portrush in Ireland, shortly after
the Championship meeting, and the competition was a professional
tournament. I was drawn against Andrew Kirkaldy in the first round, and
his brother Hugh was one of the next pair, so it seemed that the two
Kirkaldys would meet in the second round. Andrew assumed that that would
happen, as he had every r