Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-30
JESSE GUlLFORD, LONGEST DRIVER
I IN THE AMATEUR RANKS grTc s rn1, INV
SHOT FOR LONG CARRY OF 3O9 YAPnc
Driving I'm Ghe MOST Fascinating of All Shots 70 tho
PlayerIHarry Vardon One of the Vic
Longest of Swatters
BY PETER PUTTEp

HOLF is the most pleasurable game in
" the world. No other game yet devised
has the thrills that this ancient game gives
to its adherents. It appeals alike to Young
and old, the weak and strong 1t does no,
require strength, and some Of the greatest
players in this country are slender stripliny,
like Norman Maxwell. the youthful North
and South champion. But perhaps IN.
greatest thrill in golf is the long shots from,
the tees. Here every one is on a par Tbors
IA no question about the lie and II is ,be
only shot In golf where nothing favors The
player. There Is the smoothly cut tee and
the small pile of sand on which the bail
is placed.
Yet we see some great big husky football
player step UP and the best he can get is a
$50 yards. Next comes younRster s.iiI
under twenty and weighing a few mounds
ever 100, yet lie sends the ball crasbinp
through space for ESQ yards and more
Brute strength in golf means nothing I'm.
less the shot is timed properly you will
not get the results.
know Philadelphan who has been
playing golf for twenty years in a sort of
haphasard way. He is big and husky and
he learned the game In England, and he
says he took at least one lesson from the
twenty greatest professionals in Great Brit
Gin, and he has played all the famous
courses in Great Britain. Yet the chief
pleasure he gets oat of golf Is hitting tre-
mendous tee shots. Twice on a cold day
In January when the ground was frozen
he has driven 2S5-yard green. On one
600-yard hole he drive over bunker which
ran across the entire fairway and probably
$50 yards from the tee. 1t was a frozen
ground exploit and the ball went exactly
VI ft,1t,
But he had a stin breeze back of him,
Cuilf0rd Longest of Drivers
There is lot Of debate as to who Is the
longest driver in this country, but the honor
II generally awarded to Jesse Guilford, the
Massachusetts, state champion. During the
national championship at Ekwanok in 1918
enc of his drives was measured and the
carry was 30S yards. He was not seen at
his best in the national championship at
Merton last year. There had been drought
FOR several weeks, and the feature of his tee
work is that he has tremendous carry and
very little roll. AS result Of the baked
ground several of the men against whom
he played outdrove him because they got
tremendous roll to their ball. But during
the springtime. when the ground is soft he
will outdrive any other man in the country
BY many yards. He is a giant and has tre-
mendous wrists and forearms.
In the four-bal match at the Marine
and Field links on May 26 last. with Oswald
Kirkby and Jerry Travers in opposing pairs,
Kirkby got off one of the longest drives ever
seen in this section Of the country. 1t was
on the fifth hole. where the Immediate
carry near the tee is over Twelfth avenue
Then there comes rolling ground to the
green The average roll will favor the ball
somewhat, though one could hardly call it
downhll to the green.
The length Of the hole is 323 yards and
the turf was heavy. At each sda of the
near entrance to the green is trap. These