The 20,000 people who lined the course to see the last stages of the Open Golf Championship at St. Andrews yesterday were almost out of control from time to time, despite the efforts of some 200 stewards.
At one green, where Johnny Fallon, the Huddersfield player, was among the leaders in the third round, as he was about to putt, crowds following Cotton and Whitcombe surged heedlessly past. Only when Fallon himself called out, "Do keep still," and a spectator capped it with "Give the man a chance," could he make his stroke.
Excited onlookers cheered every stroke, from the 15th to the 18th hole, made by Richard Burton, the winner, and when he put down his last putt there was one of the loudest cheers ever heard on the famous links. People heard from outside and rushed on to the links, and autograph hunters, who stopped traffic outside the barrier, were almost too numerous for the police to cope with.
Wimbledon's more orderly crowds yesterday saw a Men's Singles final that lasted two hours and ten minutes. Then came a drink - designed to offset cramp -of grapefruit with salt dissolved in it. At least, that was the drink for the finalists, Bobby Riggs, winner, and Elwood Cooke, both of U.S.A.
The Irish Times, July 8th, 1939.