The local pessimism, however, did not survive the two qualifying days, and at the moment of writing, a more hopeful feeling was displayed. Indeed, it is not often that this preliminary stage of the open golf championship is of such a sensational character. We are indebted to the Americans for adding to the dramatic interest of the occasion. There was doubt for a time on the second day whether any of their "star" performers would even qualify to go forward to the championship- proper. Hagen, last year's winner, just managed to scrape through, while Sarazen, the American champion, who made a meteoric rise to golfing fame last year, and whose chances at Troon were regarded by some as even more favourable than Hagen's, failed to gain a place among the first "eighty." These
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.