The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-27
LAST MINUTE SPURT
 GIVES JOHNSTON WIN
After Being Four Down At 3lst, St. Paul Star
 Laces Seckel In Driving Finish

been during the forenoon, the gallery began to whisper that he had broken and that Seckel had the victory clinched.
 There is plenty of room yet" re- marked a friend to Johnston as he pro- ceeded to the next hole.
 You bet there is," said Johnston firmly, with a smile and he proceeded to slam out a drive down the center of the fairway for 250 yards on the 360- yard fourteenth. He pitched hole high 10 feet to the right and Seckel conceded him the hole after taking four. While this hole was scored for Johnston as a par 4, he might have holed out in 3. Now three up and four to go, John- ston evidently still thought: You bet there is" as he slashed another drive down the center and after Seckel, hay ing topped his drive, mashied to within 12 feet of the pin. On the fifteenth Johnston pitched six feet closer and holed 1t for a birdie 3.
 JOhnston's Great Drive
 Two down and three to go, Johnston then stood on the sixteenth tee looking across a deep valley to hill top green that has defied hundreds of players to reach its limited boundaries and stay there, for it hangs on the end of promentory with declivities on all sides except the right, and there are traps everywhere, except for about 30 feet at it's entrance from the tee. The drive has to be made to a space not more than five feet wide at the right hand corner of the green to have the ball .trickle onto the carpet, and the distance is PAS yards. Johnston's drive sailed through and hit the exact spot and ran within nine feet of the cup amid the plaudits of the spectators, who were wild with excitement. Seckel was 40 yards short of the cup on the hillside. His second ran 15 feet over and his third two feet short. The Chicagoan again conceded the hole in three, although Johnston might have holed a birdie two if he had been pressed.
 One down and two to go, was the situation that confronted him instead of the recent four down and five to go, and Johnston seemed to sniff victory as he lambasted the ball down the cen ter as straight as rifle shot 260 yards on the 500-yard hole. Seckel sliced out of bounds and put his second effort from the tee into the bushes along the boundary, was barely able to chip out on fairway in 3 and while he got a fine brassie it ran across the green.
 "Just Room Enough"
 You bet there is" Johnston evident ly thought as he snapped an iron straight to the green hole high and only IS feet to the left of the cup. Seckels fifth shot was six feet over the hole and he conceded it to Johns ton after he barely missed an eagle three.
 All square now. Johnston decided that one hole more was room enough and he fired a drive far down the green, pitched to the edge of the car pet and sank his first real long putt of the day to clineh the victory.
 Just room enough and that was all" remarked Johnston to the same friend after the hurrahs of the gallery had died out and the victor was pre- pairing to take the championship cup to St. Paul for one of the few times it has been outside Chicago in the 25 years the western amateur golf cham pionship has been contested.
 Great in Defeat
 Seckel's defeat was not without hon. or for he played wonderful golf most of the time and was up much of the day. He outdrove Johnston on many holes, and while Johnston generally was more exact in his approaches, Seckel was more deadly with his butter. Seckel, owing to longer experience, having won the title in 1911 while he was student at Princeton University, displayed slightly better generalship. but Johnston drowned all his other faults with the brilliancy he poured out on the last five holes, for it seldom falls to any golfer in a championship match to win five holes straight, in- cluding three birdies and two other holes possibly birdies.
 Johnston qualified for the champion ship with 146 strokes, five above the medalist, Art Sweet of Chicago, and Seckel survived the elimination round with 148. In the finals each shot one stroke better than in those rounds Both waded through a fine field of golfers Seckel numbering among his victims R. J. Daily of Chicago, Frank Dyer of Memphis, former metropolitan champion; William Medart of St. Louis and James Manion of St. Louis, who put out Chick Evans in the third round by shooting better than par. Johnston waded through the finals by downing Lawson Watts of St. Louis, runner-up to Manion in the trans Mississippi championship; B. H. Bankard of Chicago, who had elimi- mated former national champion, Bob Gardner; Eddie Held of St. Louis, al- though the latter shot 71 and Burton Nudge of Chicago, a Princeton uni versity star.