Evening star., 1923-09-22


Sweetser met in Marston today
rejuvenated veteran-a golfer whose
game. top-notch for years, appears
this year to have found new vigor
than ever before. The issue of the
struggle today, judged by yesterdays
play, hangs on the turn of a ball on
the putting green or on the jump or
tee shot slightly off the line. Both
men are full of confidence OF the type
that has carried them through to the
final, although the psychology Of the
match favors Marston. 1t is far
easier to win championship than to
defend one, and Jess plays today with
the possibility that a short missed
putt may cost him his title.
Marston, on the other hand, has
handed two Of the worlds greatest
golfers a trimming this week and is
brimful of confidence. Sweetser's
hope to retain the title today lies in
going out and getting the jump on
the veteran from the Quaker city.
Ii lies in going for every shot as if
he were playing in a practice round,
for this Marston person has developed
into a tough egg-a man more on the
type of Jerry Travers at his best than
any other golfer in the tournament
in his ability to reel off birdie after
birdie at a critical point IN match.
Marston is not affected by the shots
of his opponent. He plays his own
game TO win, not disturbed a whit by
the mistakes or the fine golf Of his
opponent.
Marston's First Time in Final.
And that is the Max Marston who
Yesterday snuffed out the last hope of
Boston to win this championships
man with an iron heart, veteran
tried in the fires of many champion
ships and a player with the conf
dence of a kid, with a game vastly
better than any he has ever shown
before. Max never has before reached
the final in the amateur He might
We'll have been there in 1915. when
de made Bob Gardner gift on the
tAirty-sixth hole of their match at
Detroit. But he missed three-foot
putt and was beaten. Last year at
Brookline he failed to qualify, and
the year before he fell in the third
round But Max this year has won
the Pennsylvania state title and has
won several tournaments around
Philadelphia. He has been playing
wonderfully fine golf and 1t would be
not at all surprising for him to lift the
crown from the blond brow of Jess
Sweetser.
The champion, on the other hand.
has had a fairly easy path through
this tournament. His defeat OF BOD
Gardner by such a big margin has
given him an added factor OF conf
dence that will help greatly IN the
match today, and his victory over
Jesse Guilford the day before didn't
Francis Ouimet fell before a com
bination of golf psychology and luck
that shattered the iron nerve of the
great-hearted Bostonian just at the
moment he appeared certain to win.
The short thirteenth hole yesterday
afternoon was the scene of one OF
those electrical upsets in golf-the
turning point of match as grimly
fought as any major engagement on
n battle field. Just at the moment
Francis appeared sure to break
through to victory came one or those
amazing breaks that make golf what
1T is-a game of psychology as Wen
as fine shots-a break so amazing anu
so sudden that 1000 people banked
around the green at the thlrteenln
Easped as they witnessed the meta
morphosis of winning golr game
becoming a losing game-a game that
wilted completely under the bomb
shell effect of a fifty-foot putt ana
faded away as quickly as trop1cai
sunset.
Amazing Events at Thirteenth.
I wonder how many of the thou
sands who banked themselves around
the patch of light green grass at the
thirteenth would have given MAX
Marston a chance, even after his ball
the knee of a Boy Scout detailed to
gallery duty, when it should have been
trapped 1 wonder how many people
expected Francis Ouimet to miss his
tWO-3nQ-a-nalI- putt dlkCI NAdi
ton had holed a fffty-footer from the
extreme top edge of the green. Yet
that is the amazing thing that hap
pened--a change so sudden few real
ized the match had passed its climax
and Francis Ouimet had run up against
master stroke of golf psychology
that succeeded, and in the succeeding
broke the heart of the hitherto un-
broken Bostonian-the man who, as
mere lad, outplayed those master
Roffers-Varden and Ray of England.
The rest of the amazing tale Of the
Ouimet- Marston match is merely IN
cidental to that thirteenth hole. How
Francis, never really on his game,
yet hung on with the grim determine
tion of a Ted Coy and was l down at
the turn, finally squared with ten
foot putt for birdie at the twelfth;
how Marston luckily hit the pin at
should have been in the rough beyond
the hole. and how Ouimet missed
four-foot putt for a half when Mar
ston got away with a lucky 4.
Stage Is Set for Drama.
There they came to the thirteenth
with the match all square, with the
stage set for one OF those electrical
changes that come up in golf like a
Kansas twister. And there Francis
Ouimet met the touch OF golf1ng psy-
choloRy that he had 30 many times
applied to other opponents and failed
TO apply to himself. His pitch shot
TO the short thirteenth was master
shot-a high niblick that carried four
feet beyond the pin and rolled back
a foot and q half on the wet green
with it's heavy backspin. And Mar
ston, after losing the preceding hole
hit his niblick shot high and the ball
carried to the far edge Of the green,
hitting the knee of Boy Scout, which
kept it out of the bunker. There was
MAX fifty feet from the hole, with
Francis two and a half feet away
Nothing for Marston to do but go for
1T. for Ouimet doesn't miss one out of
twenty of the kind he had. Marston
started the ball down hill slowly and
1T gathered speed, curling until. It
reached the cup, and dropped In. And
Francis, completely ffustered by this
1ast-stand effort that succeeded, lost
his head and in the losing lost the
match.
His ball kicked up big cIump of
mud on the pitch, and so confused
was he by this amazing turn OF af-
fairs that he failed to remove the
nud--a thing the methodical Ouimet
seldom forgets. And possibly the
mud DETECTED the bail from the cup
At any rate, it rolled around the
lower edge, and. instead of winning
the hole, Francis had lost it.
Games Uncertainty Illustrated.
Marston had a hard putt to lay dead
and he holed 1T. Francis had an easy