Evening star., 1923-11-18

commodore. removing his helmet and
mopping his face. said freely:
That kid made me shoot a 73 to
beat him. One of these days you're
going to hear big things of that boy.
He's got the stuff
In the next round the commodore
himself went out at the nineteenth
hole to Perry Adair.
TOO many of these blamed kid Won
ders." he grunted good naturedly.
Loses to Nashville Crack.
And Bobby. down in the second
flight. steamed through it TO the final
round and there lost a hard battle
with a Nashville crack named Clark.
who afterward said it was the best
round he ever had played Thus was
a precedent established-it has be-
come a tradition of the game that
they all shoot their heads off against
Bobby Jones'" We will trace it's
verify as we proceed.
Bobby won his own club champion
ship that year and the champion
ship-7of the Druid Hills Golf Club.
just organized And the next August.
when he won the first Georgia state
amateur championship at the Brook
haven course Of the Capital City Club Of
Atlanta. at the age of fourteen. Big
Bob Jones could not find it in his heart
TO hold back the boy from Big Chase
any longer, and he entered the 1916 ma
Merton.
The Georgia state event. by the
way, served as reversal TO the
firm name of the now famous part
nership of Perry and Bob as boy won-
ders. 1t was Perry and Bob when
they started that tournament After
ward. by a sort of tacit understand
ing. it was Bob and Perry. They
came together in the final round, at
thirty-six holes. and at the end OF the
M N a
junior member down.
l remember how Bobby spent most
of his intermission practicing put
! ting after two large glasses Of milk
ber how he mistimed his tee shot on
the first hole of the afternoon round
and took an estimated on a par 4
hole. And / never shall forget how
his boyish face hardened and his
eyes went back in his head. and with
all the grimness of veteran cam
paigner he set out. 4 down, to close
the gap. Bobby Jones shot a 40,
starting with that rotten s, and de-
spite the beautiful golf and the
steady courage of Perry Adair. Bob
caught and passed him and won, up,
on the last green.
His One Case of Stage Fright.
And what a sensation he made at
Merton in 1916-this curiously stocky
fourteen-year-old boy in long trous-
ers, who led the entire field in the
first qualifying round, blew up In the
second round with the only attack
of stage fright he ever suffered, quail
flied with a total of 1853 for the 36
, holes-4 under the limit where Perry
Adair settled-and began his match
play with Eben Byers, a seasoned vet
eran of the old school.
The youngster carried the fight to
! the older man all the way, and 1t was
a merry combat, with an occasional
club hurled after a missed shot
clubs and just as far as Bobby.
suppose it was there Bobbys reputa-
tion for club throwing began, to be
vastly and unjustly elaborated, upon
later, until, three years ago the keen
tempered southerneT schooled himself
into a calm and imperturbable de-
meanor would match that OF Harry
Vardon himself.
Be that as it may. Bobby defeated
Byers, 81. and in the second round
met Frank Dyer. and against him shot
what the experts later agreed was
the finest stretch of golf produced in
the tournament.
Warned by the fate Of Byers. Frank
Dyer started hard after the chubby
youngster and at the sixth hole had
him 5 down.
well, the kids. blown" was the
word in the big gallery.
Upon which Bobby proceeded TO
shoot the next 2S holes in four strokes
under As, defeating Dyer, Az, on the
thirty-fourth green-the finest and
steadiest run of the entire meet.
He Comes Out Whistling.
He lost to Robert A. Gardner, then
champion, next day. 5-3, the match
practically turning on long puts
that the champion got down after
the boy had held him level most OF
the way. And a clipping Is at hand
from the New York Times as to how
the Georgia boy took his defeat:
His short -sleeved white shirt soak
ed with perspiration. his dusty gray
him out from the gayly caparisoned
onlookers. he trudges his way along
to the clubhouse, his dreams of
national championship vanished
Crying? Not a bit of 1t. Whis-
tling. Whistling d scrap from a
comic song. twirling a golf club in
his hand and meeting sympathetic
words with a broad smile. he STROBE
off the links where In the last few
days he made for himself repu-
ation that will endure in the history
of golf.
when such a boy takes beating
in such manner he will come back
for another and another until finally
victory is his
Seven years ago, that prediction.
turned at Inwood "a hard and
straight lane that seemed to have no
turning, even for a time at Inwood.
Next Sunday: Southern Champion