The golf experts
of the daily papers wrote columns about his play. And it was pretty
generally considered throughout the country that it would be a pure
formality for anyone else to enter against him in the Amateur
Championship--an opinion which was borne out when he got through into
the final without losing a hole. A safe man to have betted on, you
would have said. But mark the sequel.
* * * * *
The American Amateur Championship was held that year in Detroit. I had
accompanied my employer there; for, though engaged on this
nerve-wearing contest, he refused to allow his business to be
interfered with. As he had indicated in his schedule, he was busy at
the time cornering wheat; and it was my task to combine the duties of
caddy and secretary. Each day I accompanied him round the links with my
note-book and his bag of clubs, and the progress of his various matches
was somewhat complicated by the arrival of a stream of telegraph-boys
bearing important messages. He would read these between the strokes and
dictate replies to me, never, however, taking more than the five
minutes allowed by the rules for an interval between strokes.
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