Evening star., 1922-09-17

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Mechanical golf appears to be
fairly easy for lads like SWeetser;
Jones. Knepper, Aulbach. To'ley and
many others. These players also
have, in addition to their splendid
mechanical games, that essentiai
quality which puts them up in the
forefront of the championship fight
-grit-the lighting quality whfch
differentiates the champion from the
oftimes brilliant chap who fails III
the pinch.
Golfers such as Dexter Cummings,
Burton Nudge. Ira Couch, Robert r.
Hunter. Pollack Boyd. Norman Scott.
and scores of others play splendid
mechanical golf, but they have not
as yet attained that golf of cham
pions the ability to keep the head
down in the pinch and plug along
with grim sense of certain victory
that oftimes brings the thrill OF
home green finish.
knepper Has the Pluck.
Plucky Rudy Knepper. the Sioux
City lad. whose pet ambition is TO
lick Chick Evans. has that quality OF
champions. Who could doubt 1t after
watching his impressive victory over
w. B. Torrance. the British star?
Rudy found himself six down at one
point in their tilt at Brookline. At
the twenty-seventh hole he had
squared the match. only to lose the
thirtieth hole TO again become one
down. Knepper's chance to square
came at the fifteenth. where he failed
on five foot putt. But Rudy didn't
quit. although he was one down,
with but three plays against one of
the steadiest players in England. He
sank twenty-footer on the SIX
teenth to win and square. and went
into the lead for the first time at the
seventeenth by ramming a fifteen
rooter against the bottom of the tin.
That putt practically ended the
match. for Torrance. down for the
first time in the thirty-sixth hole
tramp. pushed his iron shot away TO
the right of the final green and lost
the hole. Fighting Rudy had won
his spurs.
cyril Tolley. British title-holder in
1920, one of the most picturesque
has that quality of championship
ability to come through with the
great shot under fire. And he very
nearly beat the same knepper by
that quality. after Rudy apparently
Rad cracked.
ToIIey stood three down at the
thirteenth tee at Brookline to Knep-
per and sliced his tee shot into bad
lie in a bunker. while Knepper was
well down the middle. Tolley barely
got out of the bunker, aided by a
lucky kick off a stone in the rough.
Still $50 yards from the hole. the
Britisher laid his mashie shot four
feet from the pin. Rudy, who had
figured to win the hole by laying his
ball anywhere on the green, took
three puts and lost.
Aspect of Match Shifts.
Instantly the character of that
match had changed. By that one
mashe shot to the hole-side Tolley,
the beaten man, suddenly emerged
as Tolley. the fighter. who had
chance to beat the Sioux City lad.
Knepper hooked his tee shot at the
fourteenth into an unplayable lie,
picking up his ball and conceding
,he hole. One down Tolley stood as
the pair faced the fifteenth. and Toll
ley hit a magnificent ball away down
The alley. while Knepper's ball sliced
across the fairway and seemed GER
tain to And a bad lie in the rough.
But luck usually is with the victor,
and in this case Kneppers ball struck
a member of the gallery i'll the back
and dropped on a nice piece of fair
way. giving him a clear route to the
hole. The lad was encouraged. He
pitched up within fifteen feet and
ran down the putt to win and become
two up with three to go.
But Tolley was far from beaten
man. His putt for a two at the SIX
teenth trimmed the cup. and he stuck
his pitch at the seventeenth eight
feet from the tin. while Knepper
pitched into bunker and finally
picked up his ball. A hooked iron
shot at the eighteenth. where he tried
10 play the shot too fine. cost Tolley
a chance to halve, although he very
nearly holed his chip shot for
three. This chap Tolley is a fighter.
a. scrapper from the word go, who