Evening star., 1932-12-26
NOW IS THE TIME
T0MASTER SHOTS
Mcleod and Barnett Tell
How to Save Strokes When
=. Close to Green.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.

BY w. Il. McCALLUM.
IN TANDING OH the threshold
- of another golf season which
~ Is certain to be as good as
the last one, a flock Of local
golfers are taking stock of their
links efforts while the courses
around Washington are slowly
coming out of the blanket Of
snow which has shrouded them
now for a fortnight.
| It won't be more than a day or two
now before the local layouts will be
playable and hundreds Of golfers will
step out, some equipped with new
| Christmas clubs. and others with the
old standbys to make the old errors
all over again, while the smart ones
profit by their mistakes of the past
year. Gradually the snow is melting,
marking the end of one of the longest
stretches of non-golfng weather WASH
lngton has had in many years. Hill
sides are losing their blanket Of white
and the dyed-in-the-Wool golfers ere
getting ready to take up where they
left off early in December.
FREDDIE MCLEOD, the little golf
l. doctor of Columbia, who knows as
much about hitting golf ball as
any living man, brings to local golfers
this Christmas word or two of free
advice which any golfer from the
lowest to the highest rank can use to
advantage. Here is Freddie's prescrip-
ton for curing part Of your golfing
| ills:
Look to your play around the hole"
says Freddie.
| "As you approach the hole become
more and more careful. Remember
that putt-no matter how long
counts Just as much on the score card
as 250-yard wallop from the tee
Perfect your putting stroke, but more
than that, perfect your chip shots and
your short pitches"
| Freddie is a great believer in train
ing for the ''stroke-savers." as he calls
| the short pitches and the chip shots.
| Why not" says Freddie. Didn't
Boboy Jones win dozen champion
| ships because he could consistently
knock the ball down in two strokes
from anywhere around the putting
| green? In the days when Jones was
| outscoring the best in the world there
were dozen men who could hit the
De%-A 80 AoA oiAN 90 OIL dlSAIt dS LIE NIPOT-
| gan. But around the green he whipped
them all. He was the supreme master
OF the art Of finishing the hole. Which
| simply means that he had succeeded in
| mastering the business of getting the
ball into the hole from anywhere around
the green in the lowest mathematical
number of shots"
FREDDIE comedies that not &ery
L one can become the great putter
that was Jones-the Jones who
broke the competitive hearts of his
aoVersar1es by his consistent knocking
! in of the siX-footers. But every one
can improve his game from the edge
OF the green by a little better at
tention to details and a little more
practice. For example" says Fred
Ole, look over the terrain before
| YOU play your chip shot. II it is
hat and free from hillocks and bumps
. run the ball up. If it must be pitched
be sure to pitch it past the edge of the
green so it will not be DETECTED by a
! rough spot, And above all, be sure to
be up to the hole It's just as easy to
hole a three-footer from the other side
OF the cup as it is from the short side.
/ Ano you VIII hole chip shot once in
/ a while by making sure you hit the bah
/ as lar as the cup. So be sure to be up.
for big percentage of chips and short
| pltcheS are short of the cup
work on your game from 90 Yards
| away from the hole Master all the de-
I talls OF the pitch and the chip or run
up, and you will notice how the strokes
TIlde M OIL your average score next year
Do 1t now, in the Winter and you VIII
notice the big improvement next Spring.
For that is where most Of the strokes
lost on golf courses are wasted-2O
yards from the hole
S1F you are bunkered, do not worry
L about the shot. There are so many
devices made nowadays for getting
( golf balls out of bunkers with the
( minimum Of wasted strokes that there
Is net excuse for leaving a ball in a
bunker If it lies even fairly well. And
be sure to get that ball out in one shot.
even II you only get it on the edge Of
,he green. Even that is better than
leaving 1t in the bunker and losing an
other shot. But if you can consistently
emp from the edge of the green into
fOllr-fOot circle around the hole YOU
VIII IND you have cut your score very
materially next year"
Bob Barrett. the little mentor at
| Chevy Chase, has another idea for saw
ing strokes near the cup It isn't
p@telIteu ana BOD mas used 1t for years
to make himself one CT the finest golf
ers around the hole there is anywhere
ABOUT the Capital. It's just this: Wis
| uallze a circle around the cup, a circle
| drawn on the putting green," saws Bob.
| Don't try to get the ball into the cup.
Simply try to chip it into that circle.
1 II you do it successfully-and a four
foot circle is plenty big--you will find
yourself saving lots of strokes from the
edge of the green
Try these things this Winter, Mr.
/ Washington Golfer. and see If your
game does not improve That is, if
Winter permits us to play once more.