Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-05
Won ELM. TO MEET
BURKE FOR TITLE
Detroit Golfer Saves Open
Championship Chance by
18th Hole Putt.
Continued From First Page)

the blonde from the Rancho Club of
California strobe down the eighteenth
fairway, Burke eased down to the home
green. where he watched George line
up the seven-feet putt for the bird
that would either make him just an
other second place golfer or man
with a chance to win. George holed 1t,
and Billy rushed out in front Of q
flock of frantic cops, gallery marshalS
and others in the mob which milled all
over the green and shook hands with
Won Elm. AS the tieing putt curled up
to the lip of the cup. Hesitated a
moment and then dropped from sight,
George fell down on the green. over.
come with excitement. But he rose
quickly to his feet and met the charge
of the gallery gods.
Burke can blame on his putter the
fact that he is not the champion to-
night. The Connecticut boy, 'who is
the pro at the exclusive Round Hill
Club at Port Chester, took three puts
on the fourteenth green. and missed
puts of seven feet for brides on the
seventeenth and eighteenth. Had any
one of them dropped he would be the
champion tonight and no play tomor-
row would be necessary.
The stage was beautifully set for the
big thrill this afternoon and 1t came
as advertised. Nowhere in sport can
you find more of kick than the drive
down the last nine holes in the open
championship, where all depends on a
six or seven foot putt. That is just
what happened here today What a
thrill!
Recalls IL Years Ago.
Eleven years ago at Inverness much
81 rI.A
That year, back in 1920, Ted Ray, the
colossal Englishman, was the boy hero
of the day. In with 295, he watched
man after man falter in the home
stretch to leave him the champion.
And not one of the four who finished
q shot behind him was able to get the
tieing birdie on that innocent looking
325-yard eighteenth.
But Won Elm got it today to tie,
under the tremendous pressure Of the
championship in the most dramatic
setting of sport. And so, tomorrow, Won
Elm and Burke will play for the open
championship.
Here was the situation as the final
round started today: Won Elm, the only
man who has beaten Bobby Jones over
the 36-hole route in the amateur cham
pionship since 1923. and who shot SO
yesterday to take the lead at the half
way mark with IA, had shot 70 for
a 54-hole total of 217 At that point
he led Billy Burke by 2 shots, for the
28-year-old Connecticut boy added a
"A to his first 36-hole total of 145 for
a 54-hole count of 219. In there at 220
was Guy Paulson, the pro from Fort
Wayne whom no one figured could last
the final round, and he didn't. Mac
Donald Smith of Carnoustie, the much
thWarted man who 1t seems never will
win this championship, was tied with
Hagen at 221, and Charlie Guest and
Leo Diegel were next at 222. The
championship lay between these seven
men and the wise boys had 1t figured
right when they predicted before the
start of the last round it would lie be-
tween Burke and Won Elm.
Burke Lead Seven Holes.
Billy had a seven-tole lead in time
over Won Elm, which put him in the
strategic spot of finishing far in front
and letting the others tackle the job of
beating him, so the workmanlike Burke.
who always plays with a cigar pressed
firmly between his teeth, went out with
only a handful of folks watching him
and shot himself q neat "A for total
of 292.
Won Elm started with birdie at the
first hole and played the next two in
level par. He made his first slip at the
fourth, where he underplayed a pitch
and took S. He hooked his tee shot
at the hard fifth, most difncult 4 par
on the course. and took another s..
Then he added a par 4. But he got q
real par 4 at the seventh, the hole made
famous by Ray back in 1920. Here he
hit a tree with his tee shot, had to play
out sidewise, pitched up from the rough
8 feet from the hole and sank the putt.
He finished in regulation figures for an
out nine of SO.
There he was, facing the most Cruel
ing test of golf. George needed only a
80 over that last nine to win. A g.
footer for birdie 3 slid by the cup at
the tenth and he pared the eleventh.
He took at the long twelfth. where
he pitched over the green and left him
self a 20-footer for a S. which he was
unable to hole. A followed at the
short thirteenth and all he needed was
few pars to win. But here the blond
slipped A chip shot from the edge of
the green left him a 6-footer for a par
at the fourteenth and he missed His
hooked tee shot at the fifteenth left
him an impossible shot to get home and
again he slid one above par. But the
cruelest blow was to come.
Needs Three Pars.
On the sixteenth tee he needed three
pars to tie. And on that rolling six
teenth green, tucked away in the shade
of tall elm trees, Won Elm blew the
six-footer that may have cost him
the championship. He took his third
straight 5 and his third straight hole
over par and then needed a par and
birdie to tie. 1t looked all over
but the handshaking, but George didn' t
think so.
Shaking his blond hair back and
gritting his square jaw a little more
firmly. he Socked a whistling tee shot
straight down that twisting seven
teenth fairway, knocked his second shot
20 feet past the pin and finally holed
q tricky three-footer for a 4.
Down to the eighteenth to be in
at the finish had hocked 5000 people.
and George looked down that sloping
icirway to the green and the faraway
flag where lay the open title. And
whGt a beauty he hit. He socked the
ball 300 yards as If drawn on a line
between tee and flag. His pitch was
seven feet to the left, leaving him a
twisting side hill putt at the end Of
the championship trail.
Long he studied 1t from both sides.
Then he stepped up and smoothly rolled
1t in.
Brides Three Times.
George ought to take that eighteenth
hole home with him. Three times in