Evening star., 1921-07-20
BY FAIRPLAY,

With the second division Of amateur
and professional golfers at play today.
qualifying for the two days of cham
pionship fitting in the national open
tournament. which begins tomorrow.
speculation was rife as to the score
that will be necessary to win the
cup of American golf supremacy.
The play will be at seventy-two holes
and predictions have been made that
the winner will have to "crack" 290,
or beat an average of 721s for each
round of eighteen holes. George
Duncan. the eminent Britisher is one
who believes the low score will be
at 29O or under. There are others
just as confident that the winner
will not make as good as 292, which
would mean an average of 70 to the
round.
Most of the forecasts of low cham
pionship scoring were made before
actual play in the qualifying round
began Tuesday morning and were
based upon some Of the phenomenal
figures hung up in practice when two
of the pros" made 50. and Bobby
made the course record of 6S. Prac-
tice rounds and championship rounds
are two things quite distinctly sep
arate and apart. AS Freddie Mcleod.
diminutive professional of Columbia,
put it today:
Pencil and Paper Count.
1T makes a difference when you
are out there playing against a pen
mean that in practice rounds the
players always fail to sink their
puts. I sank all Of mine when I
made a 50, but when the champion
ship play actually. begins and you
know that one stroke may decide the
title. the mental attitude is not the
same as in practice. The old tell
tale pencil and paper always are
hanging over YOU"
These somewhat sage remarks were
called out by the fact that on the
first day of qualification play the low
scores of the practice rounds were
notable for their absence. Against
the 69s and 7Os and lis and 72s, the
best score the first day of play pro-
duced was 73. and only two Of the
eminent players were able to attain
that mark. The high scoring was
partly due to the fact that the quail
flying round was eighteen holes this
year, against the customary thirty
, six. The size of the field made II
impossible to play the full thirty
six. Most of the players palpably
were nervous. this being more true OF
the professionals than of the anna
teurs.
However. none Of the first-rank
professionals was shut out the first
day. and there was no anticipation OF
cataclys mas the second half OF
the field teed off this morning.
Think a 205 VIII WIN.
The difficulty some of the stars
had in qualifying at 7s, however, has
led to the conclusion that 1t will not
be so easy for any one of them to
maintain an average of 70 for four
straight rounds. Some of the more
conservative Columbia players. who
know the course. and know that 1t
looks q great deal easier than it really
is, expect the winning score to be
around 295. The lowest score ever
made in an open championship in this
country was a 2S6. turned in by
Chick" Evans at Minikahda in 1916.
At Inverness last year, Ted Ray. the
present American titleholder-whoi is
not defending this year-made 295.
The possibilities of golf and the
possibilities of the Columbia course
for low scoring are shown, however,
by the fact that the "best balP' of all
the professional playing and practic-
ing over the links for the last week
10 46. This includes q on No.
and five b, to say nothing Of . 3 on
the 66o-yard number i've. with It's
HimalayaR trep. which VIII cost