The New York Times/1918/11/11/Travis Again Nips Douglas at Finish
TRAVIS BEATS DOUGLAS ON GARDEN CITY LINKS
TRAVIS AGAIN NIPS DOUGLAS AT FINISH
As in Their Match Eighteen Years Ago, Issue Is Settled at Home Green.
FAMOUS PUTTER IS SOLD
Club Which Won British Golf Title Adds $1,700 to Sum Raised in Garden City Duel.
The golf match between Walter J. Travis and Findlay S. Douglas, in the United War Work campaign exhibition, over the links of the Garden City Golf Club yesterday afternoon, in a way found history repeating itself. Travis won on the home green, even as he did eighteen years ago in the final of the national championship. The winner's margin was 1 up.
Approximately $3,000 was raised for the cause. That phase of the program began just prior to the start of the players, when Frank M. Bacon, President of the club, asking for bids on the scoring privilege, and also for caddie rights. Martin W. Littleton paid $100 to be the official scorer, and he also bid $250 to be Travis's caddie. Howard Maxwell bid a similar amount for the privilege of caddying for Douglas, and he suited the action to the word by carrying the clubs. Instead of Littleton carrying for Travis, the job was turned over to a small boy.
After the match the auctioneering was renewed, the object being to dispose of the much-prized putter with which Travis won the British title at Sandwich in 1904. The bidding quickly mounted up, until L. H. Lapham of the home club topped the list with a bid of $1,700. Lapham then did a thing which was appreciated by every one, making a present of the putter to the Garden City Golf Club.
As was expected, when Douglas kept straight he had the greater distance with his wooden clubs, but lack of control landed him into much trouble. He kept out of the pitfalls fairly well on the outward journey, and, thanks to a steady streak of putting, more than held his own with the Garden City veteran.
Travis lost the first hole after twice being in trouble. Douglas, who had reached the green on his second, won in 4.
Travis showed all his old-time cunning at the second hole, where he supplemented a mashie shot over the sandpit with a neat ten-foot putt for a 2. Douglas also had a chance for a 2, but failed to give the ball quite enough force.
They halved the third in 5, and then Travis won the long fourth, practically 500 yards, in 4. The veteran got that "bird" by a beautiful third shot that left him no putt to speak of. Travis was 1 up then, but Douglas squared accounts with a 4 at the fifth hole.
Travis took three putts on the sixth green, which cost him that hole. Douglas was therefore 1 up, and, after a half in 5 at the seventh, he became 2 up, winning the eighth in 3, by holing a fifteen-footer. The hole is 357 yards long. Douglas missed a short putt at the ninth and lost that hole, but turned for home 1 up. Douglas was out in 40 to Travis's 42.
Douglas rolled up a long approach putt dead at the tenth, and won there with a 4 from his opponent, who had twice been in trouble. That made Douglas 2 up again, but he took three putts on the next two greens, losing at No. 11 and halving the next. The way they played the twelfth hole is worthy of mention. Both found the big pit guarding the green on their tee shots, and, after recovering well from the sand, fussed around for three putts each. It looked a certainty that Travis would get a 4 there, but he missed a wee one of scarcely two feet. A little later the veteran squared the match by winning the thirteenth in 5, Douglas overplaying the green on his third shot.
Sad putting marked the efforts of the players on the fourteenth green, but as Douglas had reached the zone in the immediate vicinity of the pin in a stroke less than his opponent he managed to win in 5 to 6. This saw Douglas 1 up again, but that was the last time he looked like a winner, as Travis won the next two holes. Douglas got into so much trouble at the fifteenth that he finally conceded the hole, while at the next he never had a chance after his drive caught the trap.
A beautiful recovery from a trap near the seventeenth green enabled Douglas to get a half in 5 there, when he appeared almost certain to lose the hole. That carried the match to the home green, and as they halved in 3 it left Travis a winner by 1 up.
Both were credited with a round in 86, the card reading as follows:
| Travis, out | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5—42 |
| Douglas, out | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6—40 |
| Travis, in | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3—44—86 |
| Douglas, in | 4 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3—46—86 |