ight to do, and he was heard to remark that it
was rather hard luck that the brothers should be set against each other
in this manner so early in the competition. The night before the
match-play part of the business commenced, I was walking down one of the
streets of Portrush when I encountered Andrew himself, and in his own
blunt but good-humoured way he remarked, "Young laddie, d'ye think y're
gaun to tak the money awa' with ye? Ye've no chance, ye ken." I said
nothing in reply, because I felt that he spoke the truth. Next day a
heavy gale was blowing, and I started very cautiously. The first hole
was on the side of a hill, and when my ball lay a yard from the flag and
I had the next stroke for the hole, it was trembling in the wind and
threatening every moment to start rolling. So I waited for it to steady
itself, and my waiting exasperated Andrew to such an extent that at
length he exclaimed, "Man, d'ye ken I'm cauld? Are ye gaun to keep me
waiting here a' nicht?" Then I took the putt and missed it, so the hole
was halved. However, I set about my opponent after that, and had begun
to enjoy the game immensely by the time we reached the turn. At this
point two of the holes ran parallel to each other, and as we were
playing one of them we passed Hugh and his partner going up to the
other. "Man, Andrew, hoo's the game?" called out brother Hugh. "Man
alive, I'm five doon!" Andrew replied in tones of distress. "Ma
conscience!" muttered Hugh as he passed along. Andrew was more than five
down at the finish of that game, and in the second round I had the
satisfaction of removing the remaining member of the Kirkaldy family
from the competition, while in the semi-final I beat an old Open
Champion, D. Brown. But in the final, Herd defeated me on the last
green, and so I had to be content with the prize given for runner-up.
Shortly afterwards I won another prize in a tournament at Ilkley, this
time accounting for Herd as well as my brother Tom and many other
well-known players. Tom was professional at Ilkley, and the course there
was a very difficult nine holes.

I did better in the competition for the Open Championship in the
following year when the meeting was held at Sandwich, playing a
particularly good game on the second day, when my 80 and 81 were one of
the two lowest combined returns. At the finish I was fifth, and felt
very pleased to occupy the position, for the excellence of the golf that
I witnessed was a surprise to