I envied Mr. Wilson and Mr. Maudling their daY at
Birkdale, although I expect I saw more of the play from my study. I suppose it was the triumph once more of hope over experience to expect us to win the Ryder Cup with our present generation of professional golfers. The story Was sadly familiar: a good start and then a slow wilting under pressure. Over and over again the British putts slipped past the hole, and the American ones dived in. And I remembered sadly MY often-used quotation from an American com- ment on one of our earlier Ryder (or perhaps Walker) Cup teams: 'These British boys play a beautifully simple game. They hit a beautiful drive, a beautiful second, and take three beautiful Putts.'
PalmerSome of the golf was excellent, and not even
v or Lema played better than Peter Alliss, who won five out of his six matches. In these days of pressure golf and enormous purses, it was startling to hear Alliss saying that he played better for his country than for money. And very refreshing.
I have, however, discovered the only sure way °f winning this match in future. We have already l'educed the matches from thirty-six holes to eighteen. Why not reduce them again to nine? ever nine holes, instead of losing as we did by
,,,12 to we would have won by 171-141. Which is really only another way of saying that %Ideat
the pressure at the end of the match which ed us.
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