Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-01
HIGH QUAL|FY|N
SCORES EXPECTED
Testing Baltimore Course Is
Made Much Harder by
III Heavy Going.
BY WALTER r. MCALLUM.

~ ALTTMORE. Md, october l.
~ Dire predictions of elongated
scores. above the so ma K.
IL were made today as field OF
SIS of the leading professional
golfers of the Nation stared over a
rain-soaked, soggy course in the So
hole qualifying round, which will de-
termine the 81 who will START match
play tomorrow for the Professional
Golfers Association championship,
now held by Walter Hagen.
The opening round of the tourna-
ment over the fine Five Farms layout
of the Baltimore Country Club, far out
in the Green Spring Valley, IL miles
from the numming marts of the city
at the head of the Chesapeake, found
even Hagen and Sarazen, topllnerS IN
the professional match play champion
ship not at allcertain they would
qualify
Practice rounds over the course end
ed yesterday in a drizzle Of ram which
left the course in anything but nr3t-
class condition for championship play
Drives rolled only a few Yards, iron
shots stonned where thew struck. and
puts had to be hit with far more than
normal force to reach the holes over
the rain-soaked greens.
Thinks 164 VIII qualify,
Leo Diegel Canadian open champion
who rates as fair Judge of the diff
Guilty of a golf course, predicted that
scores as high as 164 would qualify. He
based his prediction on the scores the
men who practiced yesterday turned IN
for the wet. sopping day. Hagen played
the first nine holes in exactly level os.
Tommy Armour did very we'll to get
over the first nine in SO and scored
n for the round. taking three puts On
the eighteenth green after outdrlvlng
even the mastodonic Bob Macdonald
of Chicago, with whom he played.
Most of the other competitors were
wav I'D around and above the 80 mark.
bearing out Diegels prediction that the
Qualifying dead line would be well above
a pair of 80s.
Bob Macdonald claimed he has not
found the course so hard to score on.
'All it takes is a long straight poke
down the middle" Bob said. ITS
length is the chief difficulty" But then
not every man can knock a golf ball as
far as the big Scot from Chicago.
Difficult, Says Armour.
Armour. who is familiar with the lay
out from several practice sessions, says
1t is one of the hardest courses on
which to score he has ever seen. Tom
my did not hazard guess as to what
would be the top qualifying score today.
but predicted plenty of trouble for the
lads who stray from the straight and
narrow path.
Armour started the 36-hole qualifying
round this morning at 1920, IN COM
pany with Gene Sarazen OF Fresh
Meadow, N. Y, a former holder of the
title. and Art Smith of Athens, Ohio.
He was only 20 minutes back Of Hagen
as the champion drove of the first tee
with Willie Ogg of Worcester and DIN
Dutra of California. Sandwiched in
between this trio of stars were such
fine performers as Willie MacFarlane
the national open champion of 1925; AL
Espinosa of Chicago and Clarence
Hacknew of Atlantic City. Before
them started considerable competition
in the persons of Jim Barnes Bill Mehl-
horn, Jack Burke, Jock Hutchinson. Pat
Doyle, John Golden and Bill Burke.
The only dark spot is the failure OF the
open champion. Johnny Farrell, to APP
pear for the tourney. Farrell failed
to qualify in the sectional test held at
New York last month.
Is 6,622 Yards Long.
The course, according to the official
score card, measures 6,622 yards, every
inch of which must be earned by
steady, consistent smuggling. For Five
Farms today was not far removed from
a golf course which needed considerable
attention in the matter of draining
water from its rolling fairways. Its
par is IS each way for total OF 70,
and the pros predict that unless pleas
ant, sunny weather dries out the fair
ways and green's the 10 mark will not
be broken during the tournament.
At least four of the par 4 holes,
which are just shade under the yard
age necessary to bring them up to par
affairs, became full tee shots and
lengthy iron holes today under the un-
usually wet conditions. Holes such as
the sixth with its $50 yards of length
and the possibility of serious trouble
along every one of its yards, loomed as
possible score wreckers while on the
second nine the tricky fourteenth, with
Its fearsome range of traps spread across
the middle of the fairway, lay in wait
for poorly hit ball
1t would not be surprising to see a
score like l44 top the field today, while
scores well above the 160 mark should
get in the match-play rounds tomor-
row.