Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-07

puSher. A puSher is one
who is known to golf CechnicianS
as one apart from a Swinger, like
Macdonald Smith or Jones. Billy
Burke is a pusher, but how he
pushes the ball around any ones
golf course is something to look
at. He won the open crown yes
terday after IA holes of golf by
pushing the ball around the great
open spaces of Inverness in 148
strokes over the final 36-hole play
off. one stroke less than that great
battler-George Won Elm of Los
AngeleS-was able to knock the
ball around in.
Billy finally pushed in q pinch putt
on the eighteenth green late yesterday
aftern on to bring to an end the pro-
tractci struggle for the open golf
championship that ranks as the longest
tournament in the history of golf. He
3-putted the last green, but he also
had 2-stroke lead coming to the home
hole. That is how successful he was at
pushing the ball around the hay-fringed
fairWays of Inverness.
Billy is not the best-looking golfer in
the world. He has peculiar style OF
hitting the ball. Scrt of push with
bent elbows and bent knees. He Is
fader, which means that his shots in
variably come in from the left side OF
the line. But he probably is today the
straightest hitter in the game. He car
rieS out this business of pushing the
ball even down to the putting green,
but if pushing the ball can win the
open championship We new have new
style in golf.
A Youthful Professional.
The new champion also is one of the
youngest professionals in the game to
win the open championship. He has
been a professional only five years. Born
in Connecticut in 1902 the Lithuanian
American played amateur golf until
1926. when he turned professional and
became attached to small club at
Danvillc. KY He had been runner-up
in the Connecticut State amateur, but
his first title of any importance was
the Kentucky State open.
Three Winters back he won the
North and South and he won a few
minor tournaments in Florida. But Billy
came out here to Ohio as a prospective
candidate for the Ryder Cup team.
made the team in the trials, trimmed
Archie Compston and then proceeded to
wade through the finest field in the
world to win the open championship. 1t
took him a long time to win 1t, but still
he won.
He won the championship yesterday
by one of the finest rounds of golf ever
seen in the title chase, second only to
the great round CT SO shot by Jones in
the 1929 play-off. And he won by only
l stroke from one of the gamest guys
who ever drew on spiked shoe.
Right up to the final putt George
Won Elm matched him stroke for stroke,
with the missed shot that cost him the
championship coming on the sixteenth
of final round green, where he muffed
212 foot putt to go into 2-Stroke
deficit, with but 2 holes to go. He had
missed one last Saturday on the same
green, and that putt cost him win
without a play-off. Yesterday he missed
one of about the same length, and 1t
did cost him the title.
Play Under BlaEing Sun.
Tied in the first 36-hole play-off, at
149, Burke ant Won Elm battled all
through the long day yesterday in an
other 36-hole play-of under a blazing
sun right down to the last pitt on the
eighteenth green. Both stood the test
like Trojans and the courageous players
they are, but, in the final analysis, the
steel nerves of the American-born Pole
held him up a shade longer than the
keyed-up, high-strung nerves of Won
Elm.
If Won Elm hadn't missed that putt
on the sixteenth, they might be playing
today, but 2-stroke lead with holes
to 20 is too much to hope to PICK up
on battler like Burke. Black-haired,
Stolid, apparently without a jumping
nerve in his body, Burke chung tena-
ciously to that lead and carried it right
down to the driving finish where Won
Elm's bid for on the last hole Slid
by the hole by an inch.
The new champion is scrapping
fool. Tightening up in the pinches,
when lesser man might have cracked
and gone sky-high, Billy Burke got
grinmer as the going got tougher and
ended the play-off with blaze of pars
and brides to register the, II over the
final round that won him the cham
pion by a shot He scored II and II
for the final play-off. Won Elm scored
rs and 49, If you think that Is weak
ening, the Athletics are last-place ball
team.
Both these boys are battlefs of the
old Grim strain. Neither weakened
when the enemy put on the fireworks,
and both stood up when the fusillade
grew heavier. In the end, Burke's ef-
fortress pushing of the ball and his
straightness from the tee told.
They say that championship golf re-
quires championship putting, and they
add that championship putting is an
average Of 80 puts to the 18-hole
round If that is true Billy Burke
should be the champion, for over that
torrid last round he pushed the ball in
the hole in 80 puts, 6 under par, while
Won Elm took SO puts for the round.
Burke holed one 30-footer and played,
f1awless golf for the first four holes of
the last round. He faltered a little
seventh holes, but had all his puts
dropped, and they were not long. he
might have started with four brides.
AS it was he got brides on two OF the
first four holes and nearly holed full
midiron shot at the fourth.
Starting the final round with one
stroke deficit, Burke quickly squared
with a birdie on the second hole,
while Won Elm was blowing along at
par. A par and another birdie followed
at the third and fourth. and at the
fourth Burke picked up two strokes, Tor
Won Elm missed 3-footer.
Won Elm got a stroke back at the
fifth, where Burke Clipped short, and
they split the sixth in As. Burke got
a good at the seventh, where he was
bunkered, and George missed a 10
footer to take the lead. Burke got a
birdie at the eighth, and again took
a two-stroke lead when Won Elm 3-putted
the green, missing 3-footer for a par
3. But Won Elm came right back UNI
der the pressure with birdie on the
ninth to cut Burke's lead to stroke.
That lead was all washed out at the
tenth, where Won Elm holed 10-footer
for birdie 3, and they haived the
eleventh in par As. Burke had 30
foot down hill putt at the twelfth to
20 into the lead again with a birdie 4
to Won Elm's S, but he gave the stroke