The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-07-10
By DOWN SUTTON (NEA Service Writer)

He always had been able to hit a longer ball and to chip 'em closer to the pin than any other caddie- or later, any other .member-of the Naugatuck golf club.
 His wrists had grown strong and supple from the molding of castings in Naugatuck's iron foundry.
 So the people of Naugatuck sat around their radios the other day and waited for what they felt sure of-his victory. When the news came that Billy Burke had won the National Open championship at Inverness Naugatuck cheered. The people of Naugatuck were vindicated for they had produced golfer who ranks as the successor to Bobby Jones.
 Everybody Happy.
 It was vindication for Joe St Louis and Eddie Reilly wEo bought Putty his first pair of knickers and his first set of sticks and sent him to his first big tournament at New London when he was IS years old.
 It was vindication for the presi- dent of the Chamber of Commerce who had hired Putty" as janitor and turned his head when the boy practiced mashie shots instead of sweeping out the corners.
 It was vindication for George Young of the local rubber factory who often let his young boottop maker off early in the evenings to play golf.
 It was vindication for the mem- bers of the Naugatuck golf club who passed on to Putty" their old clubs and balls so he could practice.
 From the Old World.
 Thirty years ago MT and Mrs Peter Burkowski turned their backs on the tilling of the soil in their na- tive Lithuania and emigrated to America. They had settled in quiet, hill-bordered Naugatuck less than two years before Billy, their first child, was born Dec IA, 1902.
 Peter Burkowski was a coremak- CT. He still is. and proud of his work. They call Peter Burkowski "a damn good coremaker" and he yellow and white, hedge bordered frame house on hill overlooking Main street. He is proud of the quiet, amiable woman who is the mother of his four sons.
 F,eter, Jr and Eddie, both younger than Billy, also have risen from bag-carriers to the rank of profes- sional golfers. Eddie is instructor at Lake Placid. Joe. the youngest brother, is II and still has to win his golfing spurs.
 Billy entered the public schools He was a good pupil. An admirina teacher made him class monitor In school he came by the nickname ~f I} size.
 Got In His Blood.
 Billy was 12 when he took his first job of caddying. After that first game he caddied, according to his mother, "he lived and breathed golf It was the most thrilling game he ever had known.
 "Every day that first summer he reported for work. Players offer would let him use their clubs anc balls to practice. After the seasor ended he hardly could wait for tht next summer to come.'
 Billy was only 16 when he hat the audacity to enter competition for the club championship. In heavy rainstorm he turned in :; in the finals over the nine-hol' course and won the championship.
 From Mill to Meadows.
 Soon afterwards he left school ant became, like his father, a core maker. But while he worked in thu heat of the foundry in summer tim he dreamed of flags fluttering on tn greens. Above the noise of the mil he could hear the crack of the driv sr against ball.
 When his fellow workers wen home after work, tired after da. of plugging iron pigs and fillini nolds, Billy Burkowski took his gol bags under his arm and. ignorin he sissy" jibes of his mill compan