ence, for I picked up a useful lead of
five strokes in the first half-dozen holes. After that Taylor settled
down to most brilliant golf, and brought my lead down to a single
stroke; but at the end of the first round I was two to the good. To my
exasperation, this lead disappeared with the very first stroke that I
made after lunch. There is a wood running along the left-hand side of
the line of the first hole on this course. With my cleek shot from the
tee I pulled the ball into this dismal place, and by the rule in force
at the time I lost two strokes and played again from the tee, Taylor
holing out in 3 to my 5. However, at this crisis I came out again and
won a stroke at each of the next three holes, and only lost one of them
from that point to the seventeenth. Two strokes to the good and two
holes to go--that at least seemed good for the Championship. On the
seventeenth green, my brother Tom, who was carrying my clubs for me,
took a lot of trouble to point out the line of a putt the whole length
of the green, but something prompted me to take an entirely different
course, and I holed the putt, gaining another stroke. There we were,
Taylor and I, at that last hole again, but this time we were together,
and I had a big advantage over my good friend on this occasion. There
was more mental golf to be played, and though Taylor's ordeal was the
more trying, neither of us had any difficulty in coming to a decision.
My course was clear. With a lead of three strokes I had to play for a 5,
as on the previous occasion, because it was certain to give me the
Championship. Taylor's only chance was to blaze away with both his
driver and his brassy, and trust to getting his second shot so well
placed on the green as to secure a 3, which, in the event of my dropping
a stroke through an accident in the bunker or elsewhere and taking 6,
would enable him to tie. I obtained my 5 without difficulty, but
Taylor's gallant bid for 3 met with an unhappy fate, for his second shot
was trapped in the bunker, and it took him 6 to hole out. And so with a
score of 157 to Taylor's 161, I was Open Champion at last, and for the
first time in my life I felt some emotion as a golfer. I was too dazed
to speak, and it seemed as if my feet had taken root on the eighteenth
green, for I don't think I moved for several minutes.

There is a little tale I want to tell about that Championship,
illustrating the old saying that golf is a very funny game, and givin