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_ \ ^ APRIL 19, 1924
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Number 1 8
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North and South Amateur Championship
(W. D. RICHARDSON) : • v ;
NWILLINGNESS to let
well enough alone probably
cost B. P. Merriman, of
Waterbury, Conn., the 1921 cham
pion, an opportunity to gain his sec
ond victory in the North and South
amateur championship. Playing
against Fred W. Knight, of White
marsh Valley, Philadelphia, in the
final, Merriman, through some mi
raculous approaching and putting,
was 3 up with only eight holes left
to play and apparently headed for a
certain victory when he elected to
gamble with fate. He lost and
thereafter his fortunes turned on
him and he lost by 1 up.
Four up against Knight at the
finish of the first eighteen holes of
play after losing the first three,
Merriman was still 3 up at the turn
in the afternoon. At the eleventh
hole of that round and the twenty
ninth of the match, Knight, with
the better drive, pulled his second
shot off to the left of the green,
played an approach up to within
two feet of the hole and then ingloriously missed the putt, his ball
hanging on the lip of the cup and directly in Merriman’s line.
The Connecticut player’s ball was lying stone dead for a 4 and,
although the stymie prevented a win, he had two putts left for a
half which would have left him still 3 up with seven holes to play—
a situation that most golfers would have been content with. Mer
nman wasn’t, however, and elected to take a chance of cutting
his putt into the hole.
The venture proved to be a costly one for he knocked Knight’s
ball into the hole, giving the Philadelphian a win and making the
difference between them only two holes. That Merriman’s attempt
was hardly worth the candle was proved by subsequent events.
The “break” restored Knight’s fast-waning courage and he pro
ceeded to square the match two holes later and forge ahead at
the thirty-third hole, never to be headed thereafter.
They were both in traps at the No. 12 hole but Knight reached
tfye sand on his third while Merriman took another stroke to get
°n the green. He then putted ten feet past the hole and rimmed
the cup on his fifth, giving Knight the hole, 5 to 6.
Knight was in a shakey place after his drive going to the No. 13
or he was too far off to the left with a long risky second to get
orr,e. He brought off a superb stroke, however, and then holed
a fifteen-foot putt for a birdie 3, squaring the match. The Phila
dphian should have won the next hole but missed a yard putt
after a great recovery from a trap and an equally great approach.
The short No. 15 hole decided the match. Neither got the green
off the tee, but after Knight ran his approach up to two feet, Mer
Fred W. Knight, of Philadelphia, zvlio staged a most remarkable_rally
in the final round and won the North and South Championship after
being 4 down at the end of the first eighteen holes.
riman laid himself a stymie which
cost him the hole, 3 to 4. Knight
had. to make a great recovery from
the rough to save his half on the
thirty-fourth while Merriman lost
an opportunity at the next hole when ,
he trapped himself off the tee and ’>
was too strong on his recovery. The
home hole was halved in 5’s. *
The cards:
MORNING ROUND
Out— .
Knight . **.545 365 464—42
Merriman .656 354 354- 41
In—
Knight ...455 454 554-MI—83
Merriman .454 444 , 544—38—79
AFTERNOON ROUND
Out
Knight .. .555 345 364—40 i
Merriman .564 455 354—41
In— * .
Knight ...445 353 545—38-78
Merriman .456 454 545—42—83
Knight’s victory was his fifth of
the present winter season in the
South.
His play in the early rounds in which he defeated Donald Parson,
of Youngstown, 6 and 5, and T. Russell Brown, of Lake Cham
plain, 5 and 4, stamped him as a likely winner but he had to make
a great uphill fight to arrest a victory in the* semi-final against P.
S. P. Randolph, Jr., of foint Judith, R. I. This watch was a
thriller from the beginning to the end which came on the nineteenth
hole.: ' ' •_ .. ; •
Randolph was 2 up on Knight at the turn and by laying the
Whitemarsh golfer a stymie on the fifteenth became dormie 3.
Knight then won the sixteenth with a 4, Randolph requiring a 5
as a result of being trapped. Knight also won the seventeenth
with a birdie 2 and the home hole, 4 to 5, holing a fdur-foot putt T, ; .
while Randolph missed one that was not much longer.
A five approach gave Knight the match with a birdie 4 at the
extra hole where Randolph dubbed an approach putt.
The victory of the Philadelphian was a fitting one for no more
courageous fight was ever made in any golf match than his against
Merriman. It was a victory that called for steady nerves and a
courageous heart and Knight demonstrated that he had both. His
putting in the final round against Merriman “was miserable for
he was never up to the hole and missed countless little efforts of
a yard and less. -—. V ..
In the opening rounds, Merriman defeated H. V. Garrity, of
Asbury Park, 2 and 1, and Joe Bydolek, of Buffalo, 3 and 2. His ;■ . p
opponent, in the semi-final was W. C. Fownes, Jr., of Oakmont,
former national amateur champion, whom he defeated 2 and 1. y ^