Evening star., 1916-01-02
u STARS IN SEVERAL BRANCHES OF SPORTS TO BE LOST
BY BUSINESS AND TF1hCA HIGH SCHOOLS

I
! 1y on the green. thirty feet away.
The battle seemed to be over beyond
any hope. for Travis was not only thir-
! ty feet away, but he had one of the
| course to putt over. And even if he
made the putt the odds were that Wild
| er would also make his from that dis
| tance. Travis had no chance to try
! decided breaks in the slope of the
green, one to the left and one to the
right. And between these two mound
ed slopes there was narrow gap be-
tween knolls. 1t was impossible to
| follow the line of this gap because the
| cup was set back of knoll to the left,
blocking entrance in that direction.
! He had only one way TO go and that
was to take the mounded slope to the
right. The "Old Man" walked up to the
cup and studied the line carefully from
that angle. Then he walked slowly
back, studying the lay of the ground
along the line he must take. He had to
figure all this tricky slope to the inch.
any slight break off the right line
would probably put him three or -four
| feet away at the finish
! After careful survey he walked
back to his putt and with free tap
| sent the ball spinning along. 1t took
the slope to the right, wound its way
| along this raised mound and. winding,
turning. twisting up-slope and down.
slope. it broE., at exactly the right spot,
about twenty eight feet away, and it
then pumped squarely into the center
of the cup, taking it's last run from
decided downhill spin where the green
sloped off abruptly toward the hole.
I've never seen another like it.
The effect was SO startling that
, Wilder, being human. promptly missed
his four-footer and then lost the next
hole. leaving the match all square. He
rallied after this ands fought an even
fight at the thirty-Seventh, thirty
eighth and thirty-ninth holes, but at
the fortieth Travis sank another hard
putt for l under par and won the
match.
J. a. Taylor's Escape.
These long puts are sometimes neces-
sary to save ones fate. In fact. the
occasion develops rather frequently in
championship play.
At Hoylake, in the British open, j. H.
Taylor, the crack English pro, found
himself up against a similar PROPOSE
tion. Now Vardon had won the British
open on five occasions and Braid had
won it on five occasions. Taylor had
won only four times and he was. of
course, highly keyed up with the idea
and with the hope that he might tie
his famous opponents This tourna,
ment was played in a hard rain coupled
with a driving wind-the severest test
known. And before the seventy-two-
hole medal round started, the field was
so large that it was necessary to have
a qualifying round where only certain
proportion, those among the best twen-
ry in each group, could qualify.
In this qualifying round Taylor had
failed to strike his gait. He had been
a trifie OFF. So much SO, in fact, that it
looked for one shaky moment as ID he
wouldn't qualify. Taylor had come to
the last green and the finish with but
one shot left to get in and get chance
to continue. If he missed this putt he
discards, He was twenty feet away
from the cup when he started his
putt. The ball trickled on, came to
rest at the edge. hung there for an in
wobbled over in for the needed 4.
And after that narrow squeak, where
the odds were five to one against him,
Taylor went out and won the British
open championship for the fifth time.
tying the records set up by Harry
Vardon and James Braid.
j believe two Of the best shots l ever
made were both pulled OF under sim
liar conditions The first one was at
Baltusrol, the second at Englewood.
pionships. In each case. with hard
matches on, against See1ey first and
Byers later on. my ball had come to
rest just in front of tree with the
us
to shoot straight for the cup. as
was unable to get my club back with
out striking the tree. To play safe
was useless, for j had to reach the
occasion 1 took desperate chance.
standing with my back almost to the
hole. To play the shot from this stance
had to play almost at right angles
to the green, allowing Tor terrfnc
pull On each occasion 1 swept my
club around, put my wrists sharply into
the shot, and in some way managed to
engineer sufficient hook to save the
hole.
Effect Of One Shot.
The effect of one good shot or one
bad shot is often startling. In the
Metropolitan open championship. held
at Englewood in 1911, Gilbert Nichols
was playing his last nine holes. He
got on thetenth, playing at
only a steady clip up through here.
The eleventh hole there is 400
yards along. Nichols put away a
good drive. and % on his second % sno.
line for the cup. and second later a
shout came from those around the
green. He had holed in from l6o
yards away! From that point no golf,
him He finished the nine in 80.
breaking all previous records by two
strokes and winning the championship
in a walk After that one-two he
picked up two other holes in play
ing with such confidence and daring
that it seemed as If he couldn't miss
from any distance.
Perhaps the hardest upset that ever
developed came at Apawamis in 1911,
when Harold Hilton of England ana
Fred Herreshof of Garden City fought
out the championship round, They
were all even at the end OF thfrty-six
holes. The thirty-seventh hole. which
naturally is also number one, Is located
upon a high green. bordered at the
right by a towering rock. almost a ciin.
Both drives were down the middle,
but Herreshoff had the best shot, with
in easy pitching of the green. Hilton,
therefore, had to play first. His shot,
badly sliced, Travelled off to the right,
and the match looked to be over, with
America on top. For 1T seemed as 1t
nothing could keep that ball from
bounding OFF from the cliff into an al
most unplayable spot. Herreshon, after
the grinding journey, must have
thought the same. and SO must have
felt that at last his work was done:
But by some strange freak the bail
struck a projection from the side of the
rock and caromed of upon the green
for a sure four in place of an almost
sure six The upset to Herreshon was
quite natural and his approach was
bad, costing him the hole and cham
pionship.
Golf is full of single chances OF this
nature, where one shot may win CIR lose
and where calm judgment and control
of nerves are necessary to achieve the
right result. There is no actual ply