The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-12
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SOME FREAK SHOTS

What Is the strangest freak shot ever made in golf?
 You have no doubt heard of some wierd ones, but I think l know of the most mystifying one that ever was recorded.
 Some years ago a number of trees on the south nine holes at Beverly Hills club. Chicago, had been cut during work of making improvements on this course. The stumps of some of these trees had been left standing to a height of about three feet
 Into this part of the course. dur ing this work. there came a four some which included George O'NeiI ONeill. who retired from professional golf some months ago, became, after the game of which I speak. the most accomplished golf instructor this country ever had, his work having drawn from Harry Vardon the state ment that George O'Neul was un- doubtedls the finest golf teacher the game in sll it's history had ever pro- duced. O'Neil turned out several chamions.
 o'Neill's partner in the foursome was Mir. o, J. Frances and from the seventh tee MI r tduttS Ble tu lis second shot, then walked over a slight incline guarding the green, He couldn't find his ball. All the players of the foursome looked long and diligently for it. It was about to be given up when O'Neill dis covered it.
 Ball on stump
 With a surprise that was a mixture of amasement and mirth, O'Neiil found the ball laid on the perfectly flat surface of one of the tree stumps to the left of the green! The stump was about three feet high and It's surface was as smooth as glass. How could the ball ever have landed m such a place. How on earth could 1t have stayed there after it did land. The situation seemed incredible. Then there developed immediately the problem of playing it from this un- heard of lie T will get down on my hands and knees" O'Neill volua- teered in offering to aid his partner. and you can stand on my back while you play> it."
 That won't do" Mir Frances ex- plained. "It is my shot and I ought to be able to work out of it without making tread-mill out of your back. I'll build up platform here out of logs and limbs and play It that way" In the meantime some other players had come up from behind and we had quite gallery around the stump Word had gone to the club house in the meantime and we were asked to hold up the play until a DIG ture of the ball lying innocently and serenely on the stump could be taken. II was finally agreed that the proper way to eNtricate the ball from its applicable elevation was for Mir Frances to take stance on George O'Neilrs powerful back and thus, in tandem. formation send the pill onward to the green.
 Tho strain was too great. however, for O'Neiil At the instant when Mir Frances had balenced at the top of his stroke, having shifted all hts weight to his right foot, iO'NsIll strange tee took a header. It was then decided not to play the ball at all. but instead to make 1t fast to the stump where 1t could remain as visible proof of the strange anucs that a golf ball could be capable of when it took a notion.
 The Solution
 Some time after this these men were again plaNing at Beverly. At the tenth tee a stranger asked 1T ne might follow up with their match. | At the seventeenth green this man, having fallen into more or less con versation with the players, said to O'Neill "A most peculiar thing hap pened here several years ago. l was putting on what was then the eighth green when bah driven by players following me ran through. I doubted that the man would ever he able ;o find it so l placed it on top of the stump.
 "Often l wonder" he said to O'Neii who those players were and what ever happened when that man found his bail--if he did find IL on the
 tCopvright John F Dule Col