The Southend Tournament was a professional golf tournament played in
Southend
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
, England and sponsored by the local council. The event was held just once, in 1937, and had total prize money of £1,000. The event was unusual in that the first half of the tournament was played in May but, because of heavy rain, the final half was played in September.
History
The original plan was for tournament to be played over three days, from 19–21 May. Heavy rain and flooded greens meant that no play was possible on the first day and the event was reduced to two days, 36 holes to be played each day with the leading 60 players competing on the final day.
Paddy Mahon
Patrick Joseph Mahon ( – 20 July 1945) was an Irish professional golfer. He was one of the leading Irish professionals of the 1930s and had one exceptional season, 1937, where he was runner-up in three important British tournaments, third in a ...
scored a course record 67 in the first round and led after two rounds on 139 with
Charles Whitcombe a stroke behind.
Henry Cotton started with a 79 and threatened to withdraw from the event but was persuaded to play in the afternoon. His score of 154 was good enough to qualify but left him 15 strokes behind the leader. Torrential overnight rain, however, meant that no play was possible on the final day and the final two rounds were postponed until September.
[
56 of the 60 players who made the cut reassembled on 11 September to play the final 36 holes. Cotton was one of the four players missing.]Dai Rees
David James Rees, (31 March 1913 – 15 November 1983) was one of the Britain's leading golfers either side of the Second World War.
The winner of many prestigious tournaments in Britain, Europe and farther afield, Rees is best remembered as ...
equalled Mahon's course record with a 67. Whitcombe scored a steady 72 in the final round and won the event by two shots from Mahon, who scored 71. Busson had a 75 in the afternoon to drop down the field.[
Because of the delayed finish, the tournament marked the final event for the first ]Harry Vardon Trophy
The Harry Vardon Trophy is awarded by the European Tour. Since 2009 it has been awarded to the winner of the Race to Dubai. Before then it was awarded to the winner of the "Order of Merit". From 1975 to 2008 the Order of Merit was based on prize mo ...
. The trophy was decided by the average score in the 7 leading stroke play tournaments. With Cotton not playing the final two rounds he finished with an average of 72. Charles Whitcombe needed to score 150 in the last two rounds to beat Cotton, while Mahon needed to score 146. On the final day, Whitcombe scored 142 to end up with an average of 71.62 to win the trophy while Mahon, scoring 145, had an average of 71.90 and finished second, with Cotton third.
Winners
References
{{Reflist
Golf tournaments in England