The hope of the Scotsmen was indeed playing at the very top of his game. Going to this lastnamed hole, he played wide of the green and also overran the hole with the next stroke. Again it was a good putt that saved him, a fact that supports my contention that in the majority of instances a game is lost or won upon the greens. I have treated this in a far more exhaustive manner in another portion of the book, hence I have but mentioned it in a cursory manner here. It is not altogether in the driving that a player wins or loses; he requires a sure eye and a steady hand when he takes up his putter. Too much attention cannot be paid to this particular department of the game, for it was through his improvement in this phase of play that Braid succeeded in taking the Championship back across the Border.

At the fifteenth hole he secured a 4, and narrowly escaped a similar return at the long sixteenth, the ball overhanging the edge of the hole. Then he obtained a couple of additional 4's, and so finished the round in 74, his aggregate total for the three rounds being 229.

Meanwhile Harry Vardon and myself were battling along. Vardon was not doing himself justice, his driving being continually at fault; but I did much better in this round than at my previous attempts, finishing in 74, my aggregate, however, being at this stage 236.

But it was during the final round that the battle royal was witnessed. The crowd, whose sympathies were very naturally with the leader, were asking themselves one question - "Could he maintain hia form, or would he lose his nerve?" As after events proved, in this three-ball contest Braid did maintain the greater portion of his form; and although both Vardon and I each returned a better round, the earlier advantage proved far too great for either of us to wipe off.

To tell the story of the final round, it is only necessary for me to say that Braid did not commence too well, for after getting close to the first hole he succeeded in missing a putt that should have been well within his compass, and so took 4 to hole out instead of a 3. This did not tend to unsettle him in the slightest, for at the second hole he played a great iron approach shot, and was finally faced by a three yards putt. There was a sigh of suppressed excitement as he prepared to play the stroke. Slowly the ball rolled up to the edge of the hole, wavered just for a moment, and then disappeared from view. It was one of Braid's best putts, and it deserved the applause bestowed upon it.

He was slightly off his game again at the next hole, which is a not difficult 4. A short iron shot was responsible for his failure in this instance, and he exceeded the figure I have named by a stroke.

A far better recovery, after being short, was wit-D nessed at the fourth hole, but at the next the prospective champion made what was really his first mistake of any magnitude. It is a long hole, but he got very near to it in 4 - within a couple of feet, as a matter of fact. A putt of this distance is as near becoming a certainty as is possible, but by some unaccountable means Braid managed to miss it, and he had to return a 6. At the next he did nothing better than a 5, although it must be pleaded as an excuse for this figure that he was left with a very awkward lie after his iron shot. Accidents will happen, even in the best-regulated families, and it was but the fortune of war after all.

So he was not a whit dismayed, and at the seventh narrowly escaped a 3 (a performance he repeated at the eighth), while with a 4 for the ninth he turned in 40-three strokes above his figures in the earlier portion of the day.

Turning for the return, Braid certainly did not reproduce the initial steadiness of his game, but, on the other hand, there were occasional flashes of brilliance. His first hole when coming in cost 4, and at the eleventh (another long hole) he was well-nigh up in a couple of shots. Then he fell away badly, proved terribly weak on the green, and finally could accomplish nothing better than a 6-a great disappointment to those who were anticipating his success. Again, at the next hole he displayed weakness in putting, just where he had failed to do himself justice on previous occasions, and when he failed to discover the way to the hole his score had reached seven above 4's.

Then it was that the fighting qualities of the man reasserted themselves. Braid knew that one man at least (Vardon) might run him desperately close, and he succeeded in steadying himself, a fact rendered patent to all by his getting down a difficult putt at his next attempt. At the fourteenth he made a still better showing, for he had the hole in 3 ; and although he discovered the bunker by his drive to the fifteenth, he made a grand recovery from a deeply indented hollow, and his ball rested within ten yards of the hole. It was a possible 3, but there was nothing disturbing in the fact that he took 4, for that is the par value of this hole.

Braid dropped another stroke two holes later, for again he missed what appeared to be a certainty, his putt of a yard's distance not being sufficiently well calculated. But with an aggregate of 80, Braid finished his four rounds in 309, and then attention was turned to Vardon.

He had not done too well when he started, his tee shot for the first hole going into the wood ; but he recovered himself magnificently, and 4 represented the hole. At the second hole I succeeded in securing an advantage of a stroke by means of a four yards putt, but at the fourth and fifth Vardon recovered himself.

At the turn his total was 39 and mine 40, and when we had reached the fifteenth we learnt what Braid had done. To maintain the English hold upon the Championship Vardon would need to play a round of 75 - a big task at the best of times, but a doubly difficult one now.

Excitement became intense, for the Ganton man had played such absolutely wonderful games on other occasions that there was no knowing what he might do now; but going to the sixteenth hole he missed his approach by some means, and found himself badly bunkered. This was not encouraging certainly, for the hole cost 6, and it was a necessity for Vardon to take the last couple in 3 apiece in order to make a tie.

That this was almost impossible of accomplishment was recognised to the full, and the seventeenth taking 4, the hopes of the English brigade fell considerably below zero. Then, in approaching the last hole, Vardon had more bad luck, for he sliced his second shot into the crowd, and his full round amounted to 78, giving a complete aggregate of 312, Braid thus winning by three strokes upon the full four rounds. My round cost me 77, and my aggregate for the complete contest was 313.

So the Scot trounced the Saxon, and as I said at the start of the chapter, Braid deserved to win upon the game he played. He is a native of Elie, Fifeshire, learnt his golf at Earlsferry and the Braids course at Edinburgh, came southward to the golfing department of one of the principal London stores, and then secured the position of resident professional to the Romford Club.