Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-06
REMARKABLE HITS
IN LINKS CONTESTS
Pitts Approach at Chevy
Chase Tells, Bowen's Putt
Junior Factor.

II OfCA VIC PG~cb ySdL VA SOAA GIN
recall the situations that de-
manded great shots and who
produced them. The Winter
league locally this year; judged by
the way snow has fallen over the
past fortnight, will be productive
of Renaissance and little golf.
So here goes, to recall a few of the
shots that decided championships
and major tournaments.
One day in nidMay last year Harry
@. Pitt of Manor Club, who seems to
have habit of winning the Chevy Chase
Club invitation tournament, and in fact
Is the only man who has won the Pres
idents trophy three years in success
sion, had Miller B. Stevenson of Co.
lumbia in a bad spot. STEVENSON,
you know, is his arch rival in
friendly final jousts at Chevy Chase.
Notwithstanding some bad putting on
the part of both men over the first nine,
STEVENSON was three down after the
tenth hole.
He won the eleventh and looked to be
in a fine way to win the Twelfth and be-
that, friends, is a spot in which Stevin-
son revels. The former District cham
pion is a fighter from the start, and a
hole down with six to go means nothing
to him.
So when he put his second shot on the
carpet at the twelfth, while Pitts hit to
the lightning fast green, ran over bank
at the right side, leaving an approach
that must barely dribble over the bank,
and even then stand good chance
of going in the bunker past the hole on
that slippery green, it seemed that Ste
vinson would win that hole and go only
one down. 1t appeared to be the spot
and it was-for Harry Pitt.
Birdie Settled the Match.
In some yet unexplained fashion, Pitt
hit that ball SO truly and with such
judgment of speed and roll that it
trickled in the hole for a birdie 8. In
stead of winning the hole STEVENSON lost
1t, and instead of being one down, he
again was three down. That shot was
miracle, and it turned the tide of that
golf match definitely in Pitts favor.
The Manor star romped on to victory
and the initial miracle Of the year had
been pulled.
Tournaments came and went without
any phenomenal stuff, until the District
junior title tourney over at Washington,
where a big group Of youngsters strug-
gled and fought to overcome the perils
Of that tricky course for the Junior
championship Of the city. And at the
end Melvin B. Bennett Of Congressional
was in with a score of 149, and John
Bowen of Argyle needed at the last
hole to tie.
Bowen's second shot failed to make
the green, while a group of youngsters
and oldsters alike held their breath as
the ball rolled back down the incline.
His third shot was 10 feet short of the
cup with that putt between him and the
tie. Just as Tommy Armour did al
Oakmont in 1927, the Bowen lad stepped
up. to the ball and knocked it in the
hole to tie Bennett. ...... pc.
PIay-Ofr TO Bowen.
Bowen won handily on the play-off
when BENEFITS game cracked under the
strain, and his score went shooting up
toward the 80 mark where previously he
had been lowering around rs or better.
The next great shot came within a
half inch OF tying for another cham
pionship, but, under the circumstances.
1t was as great a shot as might have
been expected of Jones or a Hagen.
1t came in the final round of the Cruel
ing 72-hole grind for the District anna
teur championship, and the man who
made it was John c. Shorey Of Ban
nockburn. Had his putt for a 3 gone
down after his great wooden club shot
to the eighteenth green at Burning
Tree, he would have tied for the title
The situation was this: Roesch went
into the final round with comfortable
lead over Shorey and at the tenth hole
had widened the lead to four strokes
Ia a.
up four shots on Roesch over the last
nine holes on such an open course rs
Burning Tree, but the Bannockburn
youngster, fighting with the doggedness
that has made him winner lost an
other shot at the short fourteenth and
then fought back harder.
He picked up shot after shot until
they stood on the eighteenth tee, sew
enty-second Of the tournament, with
thing can happen on that hole, but II
did not happen off the tee, for both hit
well. Roesch, whose drive was the
shorter off the tee, hit an iron shot
which skidded to the right of the cor
ner of the green and came to rest on
the grassy slope of the bunker at the
right side of the fairway.
Great Shot to Green.
Then Shorey made the shot that
stamped him a great fighter. Others
might have blown that shot, for the
green was more than 200 yards away
and a big bunker cuts in from the left
side, over which Shorey's ball had to
60, for his tee shot was at the left side
of the fairway. He put everything he
had into the ball and it carried to the
edge of the green, stopping about Ia
| feet from the hole.
Roesch chinped out of the bunker