Making History winner to take on Darwin. Johnston prevailed, only to have hobbled British Captain Robert Harris weigh in and convince Fownes to play.
The Legacy of 1922
The distinctive Jarvis Hunt-designed clubhouse, which originally boasted 15 bedrooms, played stately host to the 1922 Walker Cup Match.
Darwin, grandson of the legendary naturalist, was first called into action on day one in foursomes as the partner of the great Cyril Tolley. Whether it was Darwin’s nerves, Cyril’s uncertainty or the sheer force of the their opposition—Jesse “Siege Gun” Guilford and Francis Ouimet—the unlikely British duo was pasted, 8 and 7, the worst defeat of the 1922 Match. Nonetheless, Darwin gamely suited up the next day for a singles match against Fownes. One of the finest players America had ever produced, Fownes had already won one U.S. Amateur and had contended for at least two others. Fownes was a proven competitor, and by virtue of his previous captaincies against the Canadians and the British, he was the de facto leader of American amateur golf. Darwin, for all his skill, was nowhere near as steeled in worldclass competition. His warm-up session did not bode well, either. Prior to the start of the match, Darwin was actually hit in the chest by a stray practice ball. As he wrote afterwards, “I thought for a moment here was a state of things if the only available substitute was killed.” The ball did no harm, however,
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THE 44TH WALKER CUP MATCH
and the match went off as scheduled. Fownes pounded away, winning the first three holes. On the fourth, the par-3 Redan, Fownes had knocked his tee-ball stiff when a man with a movie camera inadvertently salvaged Darwin’s day. The writer, who described himself after three holes as being in “a state of semi-collapse,” was at risk of going 4 down. As he prepared for his tee shot, “the man with the camera began to make it whir at me. This seemed the last straw and yet it saved me. I tried to blot him and his noises out of my mind. I could not think of anymore new styles, but merely of the ball, and so, by the grace of heaven, I hit it and put it on the green. I halved that hole in three and stopped the rot.” The story does not end there. Darwin won the fifth. On the sixth hole, Fownes, attempting to play around Darwin’s stymie, actually knocked Darwin’s ball in the hole. Amazingly, Darwin was 2 up at the turn and went on to win, 3 and 1. While many are aware of Darwin’s dramatic win over Fownes, few realize that it almost never happened. Perhaps in recognition of the U.S.’ formidable lead, Captain Fownes had intended to sit out the singles. In fact, he actually instructed American alternates, Harrison Johnston and Rudy Knepper, to play a 36-hole match of their own, the
THE LEGACY of the inaugural Walker Cup Match is multi-layered. From a practical or political standpoint, the 1922 Match at National marked the emergence of the USGA as a co-equal with The R&A. Although the two organizations would dispute issues such as ball diameter and common rules, for decades the Walker Cup Match (and the Americans’ instant and commanding success in it) gave the USGA a status, a level of respect, it had never before enjoyed. There is also the administrative legacy. Today, when a Walker Cup Match is convened, it is not necessarily the most important function on the week’s calendar. Just as the Walker Cup Match was born of a USGAR&A meeting, these meetings continue today with an eye toward laying the foundation for the game’s approaching decades and challenges. “The matches go on, but behind the scenes there are far more important things taking place,” said Match historian Gordon Simmonds. “Namely these are meetings between the USGA and The R&A: Rules meetings, championship meetings, you name it.” This co-administration of the game harkens back to Macdonald’s bridging of the USGA and The R&A. Another layer of the original Walker Cup’s legacy is the human element, the intersection of competition and sportsmanship. Looking back on the Walker Cup some 22 years later, Darwin wrote in his book, Golf Between Two Wars: “At least on the evidence of their individual records, there has never been such a side as that first American one.” He was right. In fact, if the goal of the Walker Cup Match, as envisioned by Walker and Whitney and Boase and the USGA and The R&A, had simply been to stage heart-stopping competitions, the inaugural matches would have been viewed as an utter failure. Likewise, when the U.S. won 30 of the first 34 meetings, the future of the Match itself might have been at risk. But victory, while hungered after by generations of proud