The Greatest Record in Golf
BY W. D. RICHARDSON
Hagen's Victory in the P. G. A. at Dallas Makes It Four in a Row
From American Golfer 1927
ONE RETURNS FROM DALLAS, THE BATTLEGROUND of the 1927 P.G.A. championship, with a conviction of having witnessed an epochal golf event. Having watched Walter Hagen snap his fingers in the face of fate and make new golf history by winning the P. G. A. title for the fourth successive time, one cannot help but feel that absolutely nothing remains to be seen. When you stop to think that here's a man who has matched his wits and skill against the wits and skill of the best golfers America can muster and won twenty consecutive matches-five each year for the last four years-the deeds of other golfers, present and past, seem small and insignificant. That's what Hagen has done. More than that he's played in six P. G. A. championships all told and lost only one match out of thirty. The only man who holds a decision over him is Gene Sarazen, who defeated him on the thirty-eighth green in the final at Pelham in 1923.
There was at least an element of luck in that defeat, for when Sarazen drove over the trees playing the second extra hole against Hagen nearly everybody in the gallery (Jim Barnes, then pro at Pelham, included) thought that Gene's ball was out of bounds. It did hit the branches of the trees, but went through and landed just short of the green. A great pitch out of the long grass by Sarazen, a head-up chip into a bunker by Hagen and the match -one of the greatest finals ever played-was over.
Had it not been for that defeat at the hands of Sarazen, Hagen would now be celebrating his fifth consecutive victory in the P. G. A. instead of his fourth. But four is enough. No other man has ever gained four major match play titles in a row in all the years that golf had been played. That ought to be honor enough.
This year we, like many others, journeyed to Dallas with a feeling that at last we were going to see Hagen knocked off his P. G. A. perch. We had seen him win at French Lick Springs in 1924, we had seen him squeeze out of at least two tight places at Olympia Fields year before last, we had seen him breeze home with the cup at Salisbury. We knew him to be a slippery fellow, but we thought that the mathematical odds, generally reliable in golf, would get him at Dallas. We were prepared to eulogize Hagen for what he had been and to acclaim his successor. Even after he showed his heels to the others in the final qualifying round we still felt that Hagen's time had come and after the draw-one of the most lopsided draws that had ever been perpetrated-we felt even more convinced of the fact that Walter was on his way toward Waterloo. Up in his half of the draw were Tommy Armour, Johnny Farrell, Tommy Harmon, Bobby Cruickshank, Olin Dutra, Al Espinosa and Harry Cooper, to mention only the top-notchers. Imagine starting out to wade through a field such as that to get into the final!
Hagen was in the upper quarter along with Armour, Farrell, Harmon and Cruickshank and luck was with him when Tony Manero upset Cruickshank and when Armour and Farrell were drawn together in the first round. The unexpected defeat of Cruickshank by Manero and Armour's four and three victory over Farrell helped, but Hagen came preciously close to elimination at the outset. Another Farrell, Jack of North Shore, playing in his first tournament of consequence, had Walter four down at the end of eighteen holes. Against anyone else that lead might have been sufficient. Two birdies, one on the seventeenth hole and another on the eighteenth, enabled Farrell to get a bigger lead than Hagen relished, but when the pair of them came into the locker-room at noon Walter was the least excited of the two. Farrell ate little if anything for lunch; Hagen had a good meal and took his time eating it. By the time they returned to the first tee to start the second round, Farrell's nervousness was such as to make it apparent to all. If he could hold his lead only a little while longer his reputation was made. The fish he had on his line was too big for him, however, and by the turn Hagen was one up. Next came Manero, a good putter. According to Cruickshank a great putter, Tony had holed everything against Bobby; against Walter he couldn't hole anything. His was a pathetic collapse which may be charged to over-eagerness.
Then came the match with Armour. Both he and Hagen wanted to win that one badly and the game Walter gambled on to beat Tommy with was to let Tommy beat himself. A good method if it works. It did. Armour, somewhat fatigued after his two hard matches with Johnny Farrell and Tommy Harmon, made one mistake on the fourth green. He stymied himself and permitted Hagen to win a hole that should have been halved or perhaps won. That was the turning point of the match right there. First thing Armour knew he was three down and that was all Hagen needed. When Walter popped in two birdies on the last two holes of the morning round to be four up, the match was as good as over right there. Please note that in this match Hagen had a 71 with a 6 on the par 4 third hole and that in the first round of his match against young Jack Farrell he was in the 80's. That win from Armour brought him through his quarter of the bracket. Let's see what was happening down in the lower quarter. The first surprising thing was Cooper's defeat at the hands of Espinosa. Playing on the course on which he had broken his first 90, his first 80 and his first 70, Cooper was considerable of a favorite, but Espinosa, by playing steady if not brilliant golf from the turn on, beat him five and four.
In the semifinals were to be found Hagen and Espinosa on the top side and Joe Turnesa and Johnny Golden down below. Of the last of these two matches little need be said. Turnesa had a walk-over.
The other was anything but a walk-over. While not great from a scoring point of view it was great from every other angle. To all appearances Hagen was beaten when Espinosa won the thirty-fifth hole to be one up.
After the second shots to the home green it was as good as a certainty that Hagen had lost his crown. All that Espinosa needed was a half and it looked as if he couldn't fail to get that, for his ball was within twenty-five feet of the pin and Hagen's almost over the green. It was closer to the hole, to be sure, but his chances of getting the 3 that appeared necessary were at least one hundred to one.
As it turned out he didn't need a 3, although he almost got it. He won the hole with a 4; - Espinosa, trembling like a leaf making his approach putt, left himself a yard or more short and then missed the putt.
Espinosa did the same thing on the extra hole and Hagen won the match, just as he had won his extra hole matches against Watrous and Diegel at Olympia Fields in 1925, one on the thirty-ninth green and the other on the fortieth after being three down and four to play.
Hagen and Turnesa had a great match in the final - a match that was decided on the last nine holes. For all his 71 to Hagen's 77 in the morning Joe was only two up, but when he won the first hole in the afternoon round to be three up things began to look bad for the defending champion.
The cooling of Turnesa's putter in the afternoon round, however, left him stranded and Hagen retained his title by the narrow margin of one hole.
Both during the tournament and coming back on the train afterward we learned a great deal concerning Hagen's methods.
What is there about him that makes him such a marvel? The main reason for his success is that he plays the game of golf with his head as well as with his body and his clubs.
There's not a minute during a golf match that Hagen isn't thinking. He's just two thinks ahead of his opponent all the way.
Another reason is his wonderful self-control.
Hagen is the greatest forgetter of bad golf shots in the business. Walter starts out knowing that he can't possibly play perfect golf. He figures in advance that he is bound to play a few bad shots and he allows for them before they happen. When they do he isn't disturbed. He takes them as a matter of course and proceeds to forget all about them. Then too he is a keen student of psychology without knowing it. Without any "goat-getting" tactics, he "works" on his opponents or at least lets them "work" on themselves, which they invariably do. They can start out courageously enough, but the fact that it is Hagen they're playing has its inevitable effect. Sooner or later it reacts against them.
And finally he has one shot at his command that no one else has-a low mashie-niblick, a wind-cheater that lights and bites.
A great golfer, Hagen. The greatest match player the world has ever seen, and we don't mean perhaps.