Word: vardon
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Wilson picks up his novelist hero, Bernard Sands, at a moment of pride and triumph preceding a fall. Sands, a Grand Old Man of Letters at 57, has just wangled government support for a young writers' colony at Vardon Hall, a country estate. This simple fact wins him many enemies. The local gentry are snobby about Vardon Hall's comedown and sniffy about the artist types soon to take it over. The leader of the opposition is a huge "obscene parrot" of a woman named Ma Curry, who wanted to turn Vardon Hall into a hotel...
This fresh insight into his own character shakes him. At the dedication of Vardon Hall he delivers a fumbling speech: "So much that has been written would have been better left unprinted." A coterie of his friends then stage a romp that confirms the worst suspicions of the natives. Ma Curry prepares to expose Sands, but before she can make a move, Sands threatens her with counter-exposures, and then dies of a heart attack...
Everybody agreed that picking Francis Ouimet (pronounced we met) for this rare honor was a happy choice and a nice gesture. Ouimet has been a name in transatlantic golf ever since the day in 1913 when, as a 20-year-old, he whipped Britain's peerless pair, Harry Vardon (by five strokes) and Ted Ray (by six), in a playoff for the U.S. Open title. Since then, as a player or the non-playing captain of every U.S. Walker Cup team until 1949, Ouimet has won an unequaled place in the hearts of R. & A. members, surpassing even Bobby...
...Chicago, Golfer Sam Snead, for the second straight year, to become 1950's leading money winner (a record $35,758), and to take the Vardon Trophy for the lowest average-round score (69.23 strokes...