Evening star., 1931-06-17
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

~ IFF. Bang. Crack. zowie."
ssD It sounds like q minor en-
gagement in q banana re-
public war, or like a trench
raid In the big scrap few years back,
and to the men who try to knock q golf
ball through the fringing woods on that
first nine at The Manor Club 1t is In
deed q battle. Move down into those
colonnaded fairways any day during the
current tourney at the Manor Club.
Equip yourself with padded chest pro-
tector and be prepared to duck and run
for your life, and then-if you are not
playing golf and have the erotic dis
position that enjoys the sufferings OF
fellow human beings-sit back and
watch them suffer. They all suffer down
there in those woods, as their shots
both long and Short-go ricochetting
back and forth between those trees be-
fore coming to rest behind stump.
Lots of the boys are finding out to-
day, as the final day of medal play in
the Manor Club tourney comes to an
end, that there Is difference in trees.
II you pick out Soft-wood tree to hit
with your golf ball you may have a
chance. But II you strike a hard
wood tree your ball may go anywhere.
Have yourself a look over the scores
on that woods nine as the players
good and bad-troop up to the score
board to post their scores, all the while
casting disconsolate glances at the
heavy growth Of trees along those mar
row fairways which Harry Coils laid
out three or four years back. There
were something more than 500 entries
in the Manor Club tournament. All OF
them will have played that first 8
by midafternoon today, and II ! OF the
500 gets by that tough without having
diplomatic encounter or two with a
tree he will be lucky.
THE smart gent takes an iron from
i the tee and poles his tee shots
safely down the middle on that
nine, while the man who hopes to bust
par takes his wooden club and his cour-
age in hand and tries to knock the
ball straight. Those woods wear EN-
all down. though. Good and bad, they
all have trouble on that nine. Take the
case Of Harry Pitt and Miller Stevin-
son Yesterday. The sixth hole may have
cost STEVENSON qualification in the first
flight, for on that hole his second shot
came to rest in clump OF trees and.
although he was only few yards of
the green, he wrote down burly on
his score card. On the fourth hole
both Stevinson and Pitt made excur-
sions into the primeval forest and both
were lucky to get away with SIS on this
easy par hole. AS we travelled down
through those woods with L. C, Pate,
watching Pitt and SteVinSon struggle
to keep level with par, the reports of
golf balls hitting trees behind us sound
ed like a minor battle in the late war.
"Biff, bang and zowie." As those balls
ricochetted from the hard boles Of
those tall pines, strokes went up and up.
Even Dave Thompson, president of
the District Golf Association and chair
man of the Greens Committee at
Manor-the one man who knows those
Dave got mixed up with the pines on
the very first hole and before he
finally plunked his ball into the bot
tom of the cup, he had run up total
of 10 strokes. Tom Pitt had much
the same experience, but he only got
On the first hole. But those woods
sometimes help, as Mel Shipley will
aver. On tke third tee Shipley hit a
wild shot that was destined to come
to rest far down in a bosky dell sur
rounded by the monarchS Of the forest.
But on the fringe of the woods his ball
hit q tall pine, shot back almost to
the tee and gave him an open shot
down the fairway. He secured par 4.
and had he gone into the woods he
might have had anything
lust to show hcw that woods nine
affects 'em, good and bad alike,
have look at Harry Pitts score.
He was out in 80 on that first nine,
which is a short nine, with a par of
So. II woods trouble is avoided. But
over the lcngest part of the golf course
q part where occasional variations from
the straight and narrow path are not
so severely penalized, he scored a sub
par "a. Harry picked up a bird on
the eleventh hole and followed with
string Of fours for "a and a u.
That score probably will stand up to