It is endlessly fascinating to speculate on what qualities make a great champion: a Jones, a Nicklaus, a Hagen, a Vardon, or a Sarazen. Do they all have something in common that, let's say, a Macdonald Smith or a Leo Diegel, who had equally fine swings, did not have? Surely there has to be at the center of such men a core that is harder and more durable than steel, but what is that core made of and does it differ from man to man?

DOWN THE FAIRWAY gives us one answer. Jones' greatness was in his mind, what he was able to learn about himself and about the game of golf and how he forced himself to execute what he had discovered.

THIRTY YEARS OF CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF gives us a different answer. Sarazen's toughness, feistiness, and even cockiness might have been ruinous had they not been allied with a total and sweeping honesty. He was candid about himself and about others. He was candid about what he wanted out of life. One of the keys to Sarazen is his ability to keep growing and learning, and the key to this ability is self-honesty.

Of course such candidness makes a compelling story: a rags to riches story if there ever was one, and it makes his views of the other great golfers in these pages - Jones, Armour, Barnes, Diegel, and especially Hagen, who nearly steals the book from Sarazen - ring true. The descriptions of the confrontations during championship play are unmatched, and the instruction has that same Sarazen bluntness, certainty, and assurance.

Perhaps it was Sarazen's honesty that was responsible for his discovering such an extraordinary person as Mary Henry. They were married in 1924. Mary Sarazen died recently. For 63 years they had about a perfect a marriage as it is possible to have. Mary is another reason - perhaps the major one - why Sarazen developed into both a great golfer and person.

Peter Ryde, who did the wonderful Afterword for this book, was the editor of MOSTLY GOLF. Putting together a first-rate collection doesn't sound overly difficult, but it is. You have to know your subject backwards and forwards; you have to have taste; you have to be able to pace the material and make it flow; you have to know what people want and when they want it; above all, you have to have judgement. MOSTLY GOLF is a great collection.

I have been told that Ryde's book ROYAL AND ANCIENT CHAMPIONSHIP RECORDS, is a marvel of research and presentation. I suppose that Peter Ryde will always be known in part for having replaced Bernard Darwin on The Times as well as taking over part of the responsibility for his column for Country Life magazine. The fact that he was able to do so successfully is testament to his attributes as a writer, but his own style and approach to golf writing quickly set new standards that were as fresh as Sarazen's appearances in Great Britain.

One of Golf's Best Kept Secrets

In THIRTY YEARS OF CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF, Sarazen discusses the Hagen style at great length. In winning the 1924 British Open at Hoylake, for example, Hagen is described by Sarazen as being "the only golfer I know who would have passed up the safe route to the green and risked the championship by going straight for the flag."

What is this place called Hoylake? In terms of originality of golf course and pervading sense of tradition and history, Hoylake, which is officially The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, is the English St. Andrews. It was the home of the two greatest amateur golfers in the history of Great Britain: John Ball and Harold Hilton. More Championships have been played at Hoylake than at any other course always excepting St. Andrews. If you consult your A HISTORY OF GOLF, by Robert Browning, you will find that Chapter Sixteen, 'The Amateurs Make a Fresh Start', gives you a wonderful description of Hoylake and its importance to the game.

I urge you to go. Stay in nearby Chester, which is a perfectly preserved Roman-Medieval town. Write the secretary who will arrange a time for you to play (Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Meols Drive, Hoylake, Wirral, Merseyside L47 4Al, England). Ask to see the trophies on display and the paintings in the clubhouse. This may be the finest collection of important golf paintings in the world.

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