New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-15
Sixteen Year Old Alexa
Sterling May Go Far in
Coming National Cham
pionship in Chicago.

Atlanta, Ga, Aug. Il Why not?

Atlanta Ga, Aug. j. Why not
She qualified a year ago at Long
Island with eight among the best score;
she was beaten by Georganna Bishop
only up and / TO play; and, at Biz
mngham, on May 80. she won the
women's Southern golf championship.
Her mashie play is perfect, her drive
averages 100 10 200 yards. her iron
shots set 100 to $50 yards, she controls
the most troublesome Of all approaches.
a short niblick pitch; and her putting
is sure.
This is the game of Alexa Sterling,
sixteen years old, daughter Of DR.. and
Mrs. Alex W Sterling, Of East Lake.
Why shouldn't she show well, or win,
in the national golf championship for
women next September in Chicago,
which she has decided TO enter?
An old hand at the game would find
his answer in her age. Sixteen is not
the time for national championship
Steady courage and an old acquaint-
ance with the trials of tournament
play are needed then. Goodness and,
in critical moments, an unwavering
briliancy are the desiderata. One
must have the experience that keeps
the eye on the ball and club following
through even in times of sorest strain.
And these are not the qualities of the
sixteen-year-ol golfer.
But there may be exceptions. There
seems TO be one in the Atlanta girl
who won the Southern championship
so brilliantly at Birmingham. Even
last year at Long Island, on a course
utterly different from links in the
South, she qualified and turned in a
xfsbi Ia If ba Il
flying round was S.
This was a year ago, and meantime
she has improved 20 per cent Her
progress can be timed almost by the
week, certainly by the month. Six
years ago she began golf. and, day in
and day out. mas studied the game.
She, has all the equipment that goes
to assure good golf, and she lacks
merely experience in tournament play
and the steadiness supposed to come
only with years. But don't forget that,
offsetting her youth and inexperience
/ are these things:
A natural golf temperament. Six
7 years of as careful practice as any
{ player ever gave to the game. Compe-
/ tent instruction that has made hcI
form almost perfect. And the courage
and doggedness without which match
play is impossible. She knows the
game, knows it to the least details OF
theory, plays every shot true to form
and has developed the excellent habit
of working over delicate touches that
give her play a fineness, a finish, which
will stand a trying test in the hardest
fought national tournament.
On the old course at East Lake
Alexa Sterling did the eighteen holes
in IS. Her best on the new one is "a
In making this score she got a go
ing out and q 80 in coming back. che
uses the open stance, although sh-
does not play far behind the ball, md
I employs the overlapping grip. She
stands fairly erect, thougn she has not
the straight poise of Stewart Maiden
/ her teacher.
The first hole at East Lake is 400
| yards, and with her drive she usually
negotiated half this distance. Her Sec
/ ond puts her short OF the green and
sometimes on the edge and she rarely
/ misses 8.
No. 2, a 13O-yard pitch shot. is easy
| for her. Her mashie play is almost
( faultless. and il is not unusual for her
to play dead to the flag and 30 down
in 2.
No. 3. which is 800 yards, usually
finds her on the green in ,. although
the circular ditch there needs a ere
| full approach.
She takes 3 to reach the green on