Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
BY JAMES M. NEVILLE.


~HENCE. deep and ominous. settled
over the gallery gathered around
- the last hole of the Winged Foot
ASv Country Club On the green, the
center of all eyes. Bobby Jones bent
over his bali and attempted to make I4-foot
putt
mo player can make a putt like that when
ne has TO-. said Mike Brady, who stood on q
stepiadder. calling plays to the reporters. Bob
by Jones had to sink that putt to tie the score
OF Al Espinosa. He looked at the bali and the
hole. This was a real crisis. It was sink that
putt or lose, and he knew it. So did the crowd
Bobby studied the lie as unconcernedly as
though he were lighting q fresh cigarette. He
took his stance. stood over the bali few Sec
onds, while a breathess silence descended over
Che gallery. Bobby tapped the ball with his
pl1tter. sending it over the green surface to-
ward the rim Of the cup, dropping 1t in for the
point.
Those who are experts went on at length
30 describe and analyze this spectacular shot,
thus bringing the greatness Of the execution
before the reading public. To explain these
plays the experts say the players are heady
and think quickly, that there is q balanced CO.
ordination Of mind and muscle. But In the
case OF Bobby Jones, he said he merely dropped
the putt just as he did day after day In prac-
lice sessions. Jones has studied every fine point
Of his game. He drills his mind in these points
He becomes SO perfect in the fundamentals
and in the execution of these fundamentals
that he finds himself doing the right thing
when the occasion rises without pausing to
q TX OF what he Is going to do.
Try COBB. probably the greatest base-runner
- OF all time was asked to describe the IL
methods he used in sliding into base. Cobb
described them.
"Fzow do you select which side you are going
Do hit the dirt on?" he was asked.
at all depends ON the play before me."
''FaSt thinking. isn't it?"
'T don't think at all, I just slide" answered
Cobb
He never had to thinkl Cobb discovered
when he was a kid that great plays are not
made by letting the mind guide the physical
action. At the start Of his career he prepared
himself for the execution of great plays by
repeatedly practicing the fundamentals until
sliding became mechanical with him Cobb
learned to slide by building q sliding pit. Dor
rowing o base and practicing sliding o few
hours daily. Then, during games, he slid at
every opportunity. Even when he had q play
beaten by 20 feet, when no other player would
think Of sliding. Cobb hit the dirt.
Fifteen years ago Sammy White twice came
into the path of bounding foot ball within
the space Of eight days. In those days foot
ball coaches trained their men to fan ON the
ball. But q man with new ideas was in charge
at Princeton and he daily instructed his men
In snatching up bounding pigskins and running
firSt Saturday White picked up q loose BAN and
Cs5ed the defeat of Yale. On the following
Saturday, when he again picked up the bound
ing pigskin and raced across the line for q
touchdown, he brought about the defeat Of
Harvard
Later when interviewed as a great foot bali
hero and credited with fast and clever thinking
In q crisis White admitted that the secret of
his success in foot ball was doing the right
thing without thinking about it. For days and
days he had practiced picking up q bounding
pigskin instead of falling on it. so when the
occasion arose in the big games he just did
the natural thing.
Charles Brickley of Harvard, the great drop
kicker, received much publicity about the quick
thinking which enabled him to kick field goals
In big games How player could calmly and
collectedly kick a field goal when he started
ON q sweeping run and found himself sur
rounded by tacklers became a subject of wide
discussion until Brickley told his own version
Of it. Long before he entered Harvard Brick
ley prepared himself for such plays by spending
hours and hours kicking field goals. He kicked
goals from all angles and under all conditions
Of wind and weather and footing.
Harry Kipke one OF the greatest k1ckerS
Michigan ever had, used to practice against
the wall of his home, IS did Frank MuETey OF
Princeton. They learned that II they wanted
TO be successful they had to make UP their
minds in . fraction Of q second, with the mere
execution taking Of itself.
Back in 1913 Harry Hooper raced to the
u and reached over it to pull down q fly
ban that saved the series for the Red Sox-a
catch that finally enabled his team TO beat out
the Giants. He said. after the game, that he
never remembered going after that ny. In
stinctively, at the crack of the bat. he moved,
and with the ball coming toward him he was
unconscious Of everything, even himself In try
ing to stab it.
Last year when Roy Riegels OF California
made his sensational run In the wrong direc-