Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-23
BIG LINKS. CLASSIC
ROUTE IS ARDUOUS
Jones Heavy Choice on Eve
of Championship Test
at Mamaroneck.
BY FRANCIS J. POWERS.

n YEw YORK, June 22.-For three
IN DAYS next week Americas
greatest golfers will trudge over
I the slopes of the Winged Foot
Country Club, located at the
edge of Mameroneck, NY, in pursuit
of the national open championship. To
professional the championship will be
worth $4,000 few minutes after the
winning putt Is dropped on the home
green and $4,000 or more during the
next IL months To an amateur there
will be only the glory of having led
the worlds fastest golf field and a gold
medal.
More than $50 players from all parts
of North America will battle against
the narrow fairways and tricky greens
for the first two days and then the
field will be split in half for the final
So holes. The last rounds are the ones
that produce the drama, strain nerves
almost to the breaking point and bring
out gallery of many thousands, rush
ing wildly at the leaders, heels.
Open Is Strenuous Event.
The open championship is the most
strenuous of all sports events. A player
must be capable of doing some 20-odd
miles under a broiling sun or through
rain; play without heed of the gal
leries that line the edges Of the fair
ways; preserve perfect nerve control
when faced with an intricate shot that
may make or ruin his score.
The greatest strain comes, naturally,
in the final round when q half dozen
great shot-makers may be grouped
within two or three strokes of the lead.
Then Is the time when every hole must
be made in par or better and positions
In m O
hole. The leader when the final round
opens is in an unenviable position
particularly IL he happens to be a
youngster, out in front for the first
time. News travels quickly in q golf
championship. Oftentimes the reports
are erroneous. but they always come to
the ears of the player striving to hold
the lead.
Joe Turnesa, the fine young player
from Elmford, NJ Y, broke completely
under such q situation when leading
Turnesa held a four-stroke lead over
Bobby Jones, starting the final nine
holes OF the championship. Four
strokes ahead, with nine holes to go,
Turnesa seemed safely in. But Jones
began smashing par and Turnesa play
ing two holes ahead, could hear the
gallery cheer every good shot the
Georgian made. Finally he broke on
the twelfth, with 6, and Jones was
only two shots behind. Bobby then
speeded up his game, passed TurneSa
at the seventeenth and won the cham
pionship. =.
Big Leads Usually Shrink.
Big leads in the early rounds usu-
ally shrink on the final ,36 holes. In
the 1920 British open Abe Mitchell
led George Duncan by Is strokes at the
end Of the first two rounds, but fritz
tered away his margin, and the flying
Scotchman won. Roger Wethered, the
British amateur star overcame a nine
stroke lead on two rounds to tie Jock
Hutchinson in the British open Of 1921.
Leo Diegel, Bill Mehlflorn, Henry Cuici
and many others have thrown away
nice margins on the final day Of play.
Even Bobby Jones tossed away strokes
at Olympia Fields last year. until he
was caught in a tie with Johnny Far
rell.
winged Foot will frown upon any
player assuming a big lead with par
breaking scores. 1t Is a course that
demands strategy rather than force.
Shots made by what Bobby Jones calls
brute strength and ignorance" will pay
no dividends, and the six-inch course
above the eyes. will be needed every
second.
Jones obviously will enter the cham
pionship heavy favorite. He seems to
be playing finer golf and his practice
! rounds over the championship course
have found him hitting all shots Clearly
and accurately. 1t is his monotonous
accuracy that makes him so formidable
, at Winged Foot.