The Washington herald., 1922-07-10
PARCHED PARKWAY
GIVE DARK HORSES
CHANCE TO Shine
Baked Surface at Skokie
Throws Fear in Hearts
of Favorites..
By GRANTLAND RICE.

away Kansas and Dakota plains
swept over the course. baking it to
still greater hardness where by
nights the cracks and assures in the
earth were a trife wider and a
trifie deeper. The flood that made
Noah famous 10 at last revenged.
with a reverse twist. For forty
one days now not q drop Of moisture
has settled upon the Skokie valley
where the sun Is still a tyrant with
. flaming sword
II this hot roistering Western
wind keeps up as II frequently does,
there will be some queer turns to-
morrow IN the nrst qualifying
rounds and more freak episodes
than any tournament has ever
known. II the wind dies away and
no rain falls many scores will be
remarkably low for at least four
nfths of the course. outside OF the
four short holes. will be reduced to
q drive and a chip shot or a short
pitch and II will take at least a
young cloudburst of twenty-four
hours duration to soak the top
crust which today Is as hard as any
concrete ever put together. With
the course as IL 10 now, the lead
ing diagnosticians are busy figuring
IN the run of outside talent that
may be extremely dangerous
Mcleod Rated High
At nrst the 1ve leading figures
were Hagen. Barnes, Hutchison,
Duncan and Evans.
In
Efbilities. but they will now face
competition from unexpected quar-
ters, from golfers who are fairly
straight, are pitching well and are
topping their puts into the hole.
In other words. no fancy repertoire
Of shots Is needed to get by nicely.
The brassie, the spoon and the long
iron TO the Green will not count in
the slightest. On a vast majority
of the hard baked holes almost
every golfer entered can get far
away enough with a normal shot
10 pitch or chip to the green where
the rest Of 1t will be largely a mat
ter of putting. Two men who
might be extremely dangerous, for
example. are Freddie Mcleod and
Pat O'Hara. Mcleod is always in
the money. He is consistently
straight. with fine control of the
short pitch and one OF the best
putters in the field. It was almost
under similar conditions, most of
the way. that Pat O'Hara triumphed
at Pinehurst in the North and
South, where he led Hagen. Barnes
and Hutchison by several strokes
m 81.
course well baked by March and
April suns.
Entry List Is Record.
Two new entries were discovered
today that had been lost in the
shuttle. running the list to S29
There were 265 entries at Iverness
in 1920 with 264 at Columbia last
July. So the present total exceeds
all past entry records by 81. there
by smashing all known marks in
this country and Great Britain. the
Fiji Islands, South America and all
points East or West.
For three days there will be an
interminable procession of golfers
starting at $3.50 and finishing at
7:30 before the final survivors are
registered and branded for the 72-
hole march on Thursday and Fri
day.
Mitchell in Form.
Scores today meant little as most
of those struggling in the wind
were still exporting and taking life
easy. Bobby Jones took five
strokes from his first round of 10.
finishing with a "a after going out
in "a. After a fine 50 yesterday,
Abe Mitchell continued his steady
play today. The silent Briton has
at last discovered his lost putting
touch and this has added in a
measure to his confidence. He was
around In IL at the following pace:
Out 4 3 3 3-34
In 4 4 5 4-37-71
The array of eleven As and four
SIS shows how evenly and steadily
he was stalking the blistered hills
and valleys in his search for par.
Black Best of Day.
The days best round fell to John
Black. OF Oakland, his SO was ex-
mile gale. 1t was registered in
these figures:
Out 34474 2-35
In "a 3 3 4 5-3+69
A SO with in the list and
two finishing SIS is something to
chatter about for it was none too
easy to keep going at a steady pace
where a slice or hook landing on
the hard ground in the high wind
had no trouble bounding so yards
on the line. Jim Barnes was around
in an Appropriated ~ with Hagen
using "a strokes.
Hagen, Jone5. Diegel and Maiden
comprised an interesting afternoon
four-ball match but there were too
many pickups for their scores to be
given serious consideration, al
though MaideL seemed to be the
steadiest of the lot
Evans Holds Back.
Chick Evans. rated as one Of the
most dangerous contenders, will
make his first recent appearance at
Skokie when he starts in the quail
Tying round with Jim Barnes to-
morrow morning. Chick has never
believed in wasting any practice
rounds over a course he has seen
and played. He knows he can quail
ify, and he prefers to save his
strength and keenness for the big
showdown, where every stroke
counts.
Barnes and Evans will carry
most of the big gallery on Monday.
There will be a delegation of Ma
rines from the Great Lakes training
station on guard, and the course
viii be patrolled by Boy Scouts to
see that no crafty spectator slips