Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-01

open championship GlidI
is really open" for the
first time in eight years.
Lacking the psychological edge
that Bobby Jones held over the
professionals for the stretch from
1923 to 1880, when he won his last
open title, the ISL professionals
and amateurs gathered here at
the historic Inverness battle
ground will start tomorrow morn
ing in the first of two 18-hole
medal play rounds that will wind
up late Saturday afternoon to
crown one of their number Amer
can open golf champion.
And as the final day of the tourna-
ment fails on July 4, would 1t not be
fitting that a native-born American
should win the title on which Jones had
q strange hold for eight years?
Let's have look at the foremost COM
petitors and see how the chances OF
the best of them assay. First and fore
most in the great field which has gath
eTSQ mere AZ 1OlcQO Is IlOLC tlIaAi
Tommy Armour, the graceful sw1nger
and master of the irons, who really de-
veloped his game at the Congressional
Country Club, where he was the pro-
fessional from early in 1926 to the lat
ter part of 1928.
Tommy is the most feared competitor
in the field. No doubt of that. For he
holds three national championships, Is
keen to win this one and is playing as
vel as any one e'sN. Furthermore. 9ll
the boys admire Tommy for his golf
brains. The others have golf brains. but
Tommy. granted that his putting holds
up, has that slight edge that wins
championships in the final run to the
finish.
Gene Sarazen. I should say, is the
next fancied competitor Gene is strictly
back on the game which won him the
open back in 1922, is putting well and
has inimitable confidence.
These two are the stand-outs. One
q a naturali0ed Scot and the other Is
0 native-born Italian American.
Merely a Guess.
Then comes a flock OF others. Throw
them all in hat and take your choice.
Your guess Is as good as any ones
There are Horton Smith. the Joplin
fash of two years back. whose game, Tor
far back. Walter Hagen the old Duke
who had a squirt in the recent Western
open. but was abe to MAKE nothing OF
it: Macdonald Smith. the smooth
swinging Scot. who should have won
years ago end approaches the end of
his personal championship trail still
without a major title; Henry Cotton
the cocky Britlshnr. who told the Brit
ish P. G. A. to take running jump
when 1t tried to make him live up to
the restrictions imposed on the other
members Of the Ryder Cup team; w. H:
"Bill' Davies, one of the most fanc1ed
of the British competitors; Archie
Compston, the man who should have
been a prize fighter, but became a great
golfer; Ed Dudley, the hollywood idol,
who would make any happers heart
beat faster and who can shoot consid-
cradle golf, as he did in winning the
Western open a few days back; AL Es-
pinosa. the same who tied with Bobby
Jones for this championship two years
back: Johnny Farrell, Craig Wood and
chance-and good chance.
Inverness Is a course where anything
may happen. The whole trail is one of
twisting. tortuous golf, where frayed
nerves may dump a mash'e shot into
endless trouble or jumping muscles may
run up a Z. The seventeenth hole alone
can ruin any competitor, and the eight
zenith. even though it is short stretch
of only 1926 yards. can cause lots OF
grief. They are only typical Of the
whole layout. Anywhere along the
bunkered stretch endless woe can come
to any man.
Personally, we think this tournament
Il to- be won by an outsider man to
whom the winning of major champion
ship is unknown. And of them all our
two choices to go far in the title chase
are Billy Burke, whose name used to
be Burkowski, and "Whiffy' Cox. are
the two men who are most likely to
crash through. To date neither of them
has ever worn a major crown. Cox holds
the North and South open crown and
Burke also has won that championship.
But a major title is as foreign to both
as a topped putt to Bobby Jones. This
championship is the most open affair
that has been held since Bobby Jones
finally came through to win at Inwood
eight wears ago.
believed OF the Jones complex, all the
boys are going out % shoot the works
without reservations, and every one pre-
diets that the course record of 60 for
Inverness will not stand up much after
the first round That Jones complex is
hard to put your finger on, but 1t has
been there just the same. In other
open championships it has been sub
stantially the field against Jones. The
burden was on Jones' and how we'll he
shouldered 1t is seen in the story that
he won four out of eight and was run
ner-up in three more. But he is not in
there today, and no longer does the
Jones complex nag and tear at frayed
nerves as the leaders contemplate g.