Mr. J. H. TAYLOR : ' Fifty Years of Golf.'
JUST OVER sixty years ago a boy was born at Northam in Devon, almost within sound of the golf balls at Westward Ho ! Before he was many years old he must have seen the enthusiasts in trousers and knickerbockers on the way to the links with their golf clubs, and yearned to swing with the best of them. It got the better of him, and if he couldn't play, he must carry their clubs and watch the flight of the gutty ball down the fairway, and clean the irons and things when the game was over. For his trouble he was rewarded with sixpence.
The boy went on doing it, watching the faults of his masters and finding out his own. He grew up, and when he. was twenty-two years old he won the Open Golf Championship, and it became a habit. He started in 1894 and did it again in 1895 ; and again in 1900 ; and then nine years later; and then again four years after that; and in between, just to show he hadn't lost his form, he tied with Harry Vardon in 1896, only losing the replay ; and he was runner up in 1904, 1905, 1906, and in 1914. He now looks after the Royal Mid
Surrey Golf Club, Old Deer Park, Richmond, and, as he did when he was a boy, he watches the faults of players. The only difference is that now he can tell them where they are wrong and they are only too glad to listen. They play in plus-fours now and don't use gutty balls; but the man must often think of the boy starting out on life's round at Westward Ho ! J. H. Taylor , who gave a broadcast on ' Golf as a Profession ' on January 7, 1933, tonight will say something about ' Fifty Years of Golf '.
An article on J. H. Taylor , by Peter Lawless , appears on page 224.