History

Knowle Golf Club Many Years Ago..
Extract form 'FORE', The Club Magazine July 1933

"The Americans at Knowle"

Wet weather nearly the whole of the week with a drenching thunderstorm at 6 p.m. on the Saturday preceding the day of our much-talked-of Exhibition match. Such was the outlook. We tried to cheer one another up as best we could, but our hopes centred entirely on the barometer that was inclined to rise after the storm was over. You remember the rest. Sunday morning broke open with sunshine, which lasted all day. Everybody said how luck we were - in fact the repetition of it began to tire us - but it would have been a thousand pities if July 16th had been wet, for about 3,000 spectators would have been denied the pleasure of witnessing one of the finest exhibition games of golf that has ever been staged in or around Bristol.

It had originally been arranged that Walter Hagen would be partnered by Gene Sarazen, but owing to unforeseen circumstances it became necessary to find a substitute for the latter, and on the day of the Americans' arrival at Southampton from New York, Olin Dutra was secured. Hagen and Dutra made a most admirable combination, each in his distinctive way, and their match against S Easterbrook and F. S. Jewell treated the spectators to a ding-dong struggle that lasted right up to the last hole, which the Americans won with an "eagle" each to make the result 2 up in their favour. Possibly the Americans were the shade better than our Bristol pair, and Easterbrook and Jewell are to be congratulated on the way they stuck to their task. In fact at the 21st they were actually 2 up, but this lead had been forfeited at the 27th Hole, and a "birdie" by Dutra at the 28th gave the Americans the lead, which they never lost.

Many incidents of the match stand out in our memory. Dutra's tee shot at the 6th lying in the ditch, which he luckily holed out for a 2. Hagen's drive at the 7th. Easterbrook's 2 at the 8th. Jewell's 3 at the 11th. Hagen's drive at the 14th, which reached the cross ditch. Easterbrook's 3 at the 18th, to give us the lead at interval by 1 up. There were many other outstanding shots and putts, but who will readily forget the 36th Hole, when both Hagen and Dutra finished the match with a "birdie" each? It was truly a memorable match, and a most enjoyable day.

Hagen and Dutra both expressed their great pleasure in visiting Bristol, and were sorry that they had to leave so hurriedly after the match was concluded, but we gave them a true Knowle "send-off", and if it is at all possible to secure these Americans again at some future date, they would be assured of a welcome, more especially Olin Dutra, whose striking personality and disposition, and also his wonderful skill at golf, made him at one a great favourite.

All that arrangements that were made for the match worked out splendidly - not a hitch anywhere. The 'Press" eulogiums and the verbal expressions of congratulations that have been conveyed to the Club are all a testimony to the Club members who so willingly worked hard at their various allotted tasks to make "July 16th, 1933" an outstanding date in the history of the Club.

FOOTNOTE:

The fees paid to Walter Hagen and Olin Dutra were £37:10s. each plus all expenses, from the time they left Porthcawl until their departure from Bristol.