The Bruen Loop

A biography of the Irish golfer Jimmy Bruen who Henry Cotton once described as the best golfer in the world. As a teenager Bruen led the Irish and British Walker Cup team, and had already won his first Irish Close Championship.

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Jimmy Bruen became an internationally known golfer when still a schoolboy. He was once described by Henry Cotton as the best golfer - professional or amateur - in the world. To lead the British and Irish Walker Cup team as a teenager was quite unique. But by then the "Hibernian Wonder Golfer" had already won his first Irish Close Championship. He went on to win the British Amateur Championship in 1946. There were, of course, thousands of witnesses but only the golf scribes recorded the facts. They painted the scenes and put their words in print. Two dedicated people - Jimmy Bruen's father and later, Nell, his wife - collected the cuttings, photographs, letters, wires, score cards and even championship badges, and put them all in a large scrapbook. It was with the aid of this scrapbook, as well as his other golfers' personal memories, that George Crosbie was able to compile the Jimmy Bruen story.