WESTERN NEW YORK NOTES

Transcription

1 THE AMERICAN GOLFER 399 WESTERN NEW YORK NOTES BY A. BISON. OF THE EVENTS of the past month, the Lake Shore League tournament and the city championship of Buffalo easily led in interest and importance. Of the two, it would be hard to say which attracted the most attention. Dissimilar in character, except in so far as they gave opportunity for individual merit to shine, in each event, they separately and collectively engrossed the attention of the golfing world in the western part of the State for the month of July. The Lake Shore League, embracing as it does, the leading clubs of western New York leading numerically, at least, if not in other ways of western Pennsylvania, and of the Province of Ontario, is paramount in the minds of many golfers scattered throughout this section, but the city championship of Buffalo attracts a constantly increasing field of aspirants, among them many who are not identified with any of the clubs' in the League. The Park Club of Buffalo won the team championship in the Lake Shore League for the second time this year. It was a splendid tournament, splendidly contested and splendidly conducted. Not a single note of discord marred the perfect harmony of the occasion, and the bonds of friendship between the members of the participating clubs, formed many years ago were renewed and strengthened by the meeting of this year, until the assemblage resembled a gathering of brothers bound together by the most fraternal ties. Certainly these annual meetings of the League are among the pleasantest remembrances of the year. The tournament lasted three days. The standing of the clubs at the end was: Park Club, Buffalo, 103½ points. A group of Buffalo golfers. On the left-hand are Vice-Chairman E. W. SKEY and Chairman GANSON DEPEW, of the Park and Country clubs, respectively. Standing behind the teeing box is CAPT. GEO. B. JOHONNOT, of the Park Club. DR. DWYER, of the Park Club, is on the extreme right. J. P. BOWMAN, of Rochester, is the man with the "butterfly" tie.

2 400 THE AMERICAN GOLFER Warren (Pa.) Golf Club, points. Wanakah Golf Club, points. Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, 69 points. Willow Brook Golf Club, Dunkirk, 60 points. Brantford (Ontario) Golf Club, 44½ points. William M. Reekie of Brantford made the best record in the 18-hole medal play which practically terminated the tournament. His card read 74, one stroke more than the record for the course, which the same player established on the preceding day. He went to the turn in 37, three under bogey, and came home with a like score. His card: Out In This score won for him the beautiful cup presented by President J. B. Bryan of the Oak Hill Club, for the best gross score in this round. Reekie's work all through the tournament stamped him as an amateur of the highest class and well justified the reputation he enjoys throughout the Dominion of Canada. Dr. Thomas F. Dwyer, of the Park Club, won the second prize in the 18- hole medal round. His card: Out In Ralph E. Rogers of Oak Hill and W. M. Mitchell, Willow Brook, were tied for the lowest net score prize in the above round, a magnificent chafing dish set of wrought copper presented by Mr. Irving S. Robeson, the Oak Hill captain. Mr. Mitchell won in the play-off, the second prize going to Mr. Rogers. The average scores throughout the tournament were very low and showed a distinct advance over those of former years. The following are the average gross scores for the five rounds of golf, as taken from the official scoreboard: W. M. Reekie, Brantford P. Wright, Buffalo I. S. Robeson, Rochester Wadsworth, Buffalo. H. Connaro, Warren Gallery in the final match

3 THE AMERICAN GOLFER 401 Ellis, Buffalo 83 Gardner, Wanakah 83 Colcott, Wanakah H. Marcy, Wanakah Dr. Dwyer, Buffalo Green, Rochester Dr. Orr, Buffalo Faust, Dunkirk Murray, Dunkirk Beatty, Warren G. Connaro, Warren Parshall, Warren Ensworth, Warren. Utley, Wanakah Jennings, Buffalo Calkins, Buffalo Rogers, Rochester Lott, Warren Richards, Warren Armstrong, Dunkirk Cole, Dunkirk Reed, Dunkirk Noyes, Warren Pennypacker, Buffalo Hinckley, Buffalo Ingersoll, Rochester McBeth, Brantford Lane, Rochester J. D. Armstrong, Buffalo Dr. Mease, Dunkirk Williams, Dunkirk Millhouse, Buffalo Abbott, Wanakah Burton, Rochester Schell, Brantford Forsayth, Brantford Jones, Warren Bartlett, Wanakah Dr. N. McLeod, Buffalo Hazeltine, Warren. Crary, Warren Bryan, Rochester Dr. Bartow, Wanakah Gridley, Wanakah. McKiee, Brantford Reville, Brantford Winans, Rochester Shanley, Rochester Johonnot, Buffalo Tiffany, Dunkirk. Sterling, Brantford Herrill, Brantford Hardy, Brantford Marsh, Dunkirk Westwood, Rochester Comstock, Wanakah. Sanborn, Dunkirk Reilly, Rochester Webbing, Brantford Mitchell, Dunkirk. Champlin, Brantford The Wanakah Golf Club, winner of last year's championship, and Roches- amateur championship.

4 402 THE AMERICAN GOLFER ter, a strong contender, were tied at the end of the first day's play, with 38 points each. Park Club was third, 35 points; Warren fourth, 30 points; Dunkirk fifth, 23 points, and Brantford sixth, 16 points. The results of the individual play in the first round of the tournament were characterized by the local press as little short of sensational. In the first place, Reekie of Brantford signalized his debut upon the Park Club links by breaking the amateur record. Playing against Parke Wright, the strong local player, the Canadian made the round in 73, three under bogey. Irving S. Robeson, the Oak Hill captain distinguished himself on this day by defeating Lieutenant H. M. Faust, of Dunkirk, champion of the League of the Lower Lakes, in the forenoon, and crowned his day's work by beating Reekie in the afternoon. A sudden change in position marked the end of the second day's contest for the team championship. The Park Club, with a strong and evenly balanced team in which the last man was as good, or nearly as good, as the headliner, forged to the front. The popular Warren team came next, leading both Rochester and Wanakah. The strong personnel of the Park Club team became evident on this day when Buffalo beat Rochester in the morning, 24½ to 5½ points, and in the afternoon swamped Brantford by 21½ to 8½ points. The clubs maintained their relative positions on the third and last day. The unaccountable slump of Rochester on the second and third days upset all calculations and still remains an enigma to the dopesters who insisted up to the end of the second day that Rochester had a very good chance to win the pennant. The League will hold next year's tournament at Rochester, where the Oak Hill folk are making elaborate preparations to welcome them to its new club house and its new 18-hole course. This will be the first time that the annual tournament has been held elsewhere than in Buffalo. The press of Buffalo, which, with the exception of the Express, has for so long coldly neglected golf in its curriculum of sports, displayed a sudden and frantic eagerness to "cover" the Lake Shore League tournament and the city championship. These efforts were laudable, of course, but the results were frequently laughable. On the first day of the league tournament the News came out in its second edition with the startling announcement that "John D. Armstrong of Buffalo won the Lake Shore League Tournament at the Park Club this morning by defeating H. W. Conarro of this city (Mr. Conarro, by the way, is a member of the Warren team). Mr. Armstrong finished with a score of 21½ points and Commaro (sic) with 8½.... The other two contests between Rochester and Dunkirk and Wanakah and Bradford (sic) will take place this afternoon." Nobody but a born genius at fumbling could produce such a mixup as the above extract. Just how the reporter fulminated it passes understanding. Possibly the fact that Mr. Armstrong turned in the low score at the time the News got busy for the morning round might have something to do with it. The reporter was unanimously voted to have qualified for the duffer's cup. When Henry Kirschner, captain of the University of Pennsylvania golf team, made the best score in the qualifying round of the city championship, the Buffalo Courier announced in

5 THE AMERICAN GOLFER 403 scarehead type that he had won the city championship. But the Courier made handsome amends later on by publishing very readable and fairly accurate stories of the succeeding rounds. Samuel Ellis of the Park Club, a veteran golfer, won the city championship, which was held at the Country Club, September 3-7. The runner-up was Henry P. Kirschner, University of Pennsylvania, a semi-finalist in last year's intercollegiate championship. Mr. Ellis defeated the young collegian by playing the best golf of his long career on the links. (I say "long career," but mean to use the phrase only in a comparative sense. Mr. Ellis is not yet far stricken in years. A. B.) An even 100 golfers teed off in the qualifying round for the championship, the largest field by far that has yet competed for that honor. The course, under the able and careful supervision of Ganson Depew, chairman of the Country Club golf committee, Charles H. McCullough, Jr., and William H. Joyce, his associates, was simply perfect. Even the heavy rains that fell intermittently during the tournament could not spoil it, as was proved when, on the final round, Mr. Ellis made a 77 in the morning. Coming home in both the morning and afternoon rounds, Mr. Ellis made a 37, which gives an idea of the perfect golf he was playing on this difficult course, made harder by the recent addition of many traps and bunkers where they would do the most harm to wild shots. The winners of the various cups in the tournament were: First sixteen (city championship) Samuel Ellis, Park Club; Henry P. Kirschner, runner-up. Second sixteen George Wadsworth, Park Club; Henry C. Marcy, Wanakah, runner-up. Third sixteen W. S. Wells, unattached; C. H. McCullough, Jr., Country Club, runner-up. Fourth sixteen C. W. Underwood, Park Club; Oscar Meyer, Park Club, runner-up. Karl Keffer, the Canadian pro in charge of the Albany Country Club links, played a good round during September which was a stroke better than Harry Vardon did over the same course, which at the present time is a stroke and half harder to the nine holes than at the time Vardon visited the club. The figures were as follows: Out In A remarkable round was made last month by T. R. Plunkett of Adams, Massachusetts, over the Forest Hill links, the principal characteristic of which is its mountainous conformation and seven blind holes out of nine. The following- score which was made very recently is not only the record but well under the bogey figures of