Evening star., 1932-08-28
DETTWE|LER'S CASE
REMINDS OF JONES
Breaks Into National Title
/ Play at ID Same as Was
Done by Emperor.
BY w. r.. McCALLUM.

heSH-ldCcQ yOuLsStCA 4AO1Ll
the Manor Club is the
youngest golfer ever to compete in the
national amateur championship, 1t is
certain that the youthful Billy, at the
age of IA years, will carry much OF
the interest from the National Capital
in the forthcoming title chase over
that lengthy Five Farms layout OF the
Baltimore Country Club, over in the
Green Spring Valley.
Billy reached the age OF IA years
on February % last, and regardless OF
whether he qualities in the 36-hole
test on September II and 13, which
will usher in the match play rounds
for the simonpure title, Billy Is sure
to carry a flock OF interest in his ef-
forts. The Manor Club youngster Is
a fine player-even at the tender age
of l4-and no apologies are necessary
for the brand Of golf he Is capable
of shooting, but it probably is asking
a little too much to hope that he
will qualify for match play in such
stellar field as that which will gather
at Five Farms.
Bobby Jones, at the age Of IA, when
he first came to national notice in the
amateur championship of 1916 at
Merton, set a mark that future young
sters will hav. some trouble tlelng.
Billy can do it at the same age, but
he will have no well creased road to
travel. Back i'll those days golf was
not the popular game it Is today. NOT
SO many people playing it, and those
,a1o hid n1QU well Al
they do today.
DoBBY qualified in that 1916 cham
ID pionship-a chubby, ruddy- faced
kid from Georgia-playing in high
boots and long trousers, waded through
Eben M. Byers in the first round,
knocked out Frank Dyer in the second
round and then fell gloriously in defeat
before Bob Gardner in the third round.
Gardner went on to the final, where
Chick Evans beat him to win kis first
was the same age as Billy Dettweller
is today, as the Manor Club kid faces
his first amateur championship. But
Bobby already was the Georgia State
champion and had won several big
invitation Journeys in his native South
land Billy has won nothing, yet, but
he will be heard from later as his game
develops
Perhaps 1t is asking little too much
to Parallel the rise of young Dettweiler
with that Of the one and only Jones.
But Billy has a great chance-one that
comes to few kids-to move up into
the select national championship class
at the tender age Of IA years: Not
smattering Of golf at a. but here Is
youngster who not only was able to
qualify for the national In the section
al rounds, but shot "a over tough
course in doing it. Truly this Billy
Dettweiler Is a remarkable kid golfer
and one who may go somewhere In the
national. It would not be bit sur
prisins to see him qualify for the match
play rounds.
RHLY will be in his sophomore year
- this Fall at Georgetown Prep
School, where he plays on the gof
team which has as its star performer
his clubmate, the 17-year Maurice
Nee. Billy has played golf only three
years and has spent those three years
under the watchful eye Of Al Treder,
the Manor Club pro, who bids fair, II
Billy goes anywhere, to become as IA
nous as a golf instructor as was Stew
art Maiden back in the days when
Bobby Jones was the uncrowned ANA
teur champion of the United States.
But there the resemblance between
Jones and Dettweiler ceases. Billy is
an unknown factor. He hasn't won
anything yet. He may win everything.
Physically there is no resemblance be-
tween the two. For Bobby, when he
first came North to play in the cham
pionship. was q sturdy, rugged, chubby
youngster, thick of body and legs,
strong Of wrist and as keen Of eye as
the young Dettweiler Of today. Billy Is
a youngster who has outgrown his
wears. At IA he Is as tall as the average
man. He stands feet 9 inches in
height and only recently has he out
grown the junior set Of iron clubs with
which he started the game. He still
plays with a driver far too light for a
grown mana driver which weighs
only little more than IL ounces.
TT hasn't been many weeks ago that
i Billy secured q set of mans weight
iron clubs to suit his height. Short
" he is to acquire a new set OF woods
and will abandon the lightweight
wooden clubs with which he has done
so well. He weighs 125 pounds and
he gets his greatest kick Gas do most
Youngsters cut Of the booming tee
shot and the well hit long iron. The
mysteries of putting mean little to Billy.
but he has the habit of most kids OF
knocking in the long ones now and
then. All kids have that habit before
they learn how hard game golf is. and
before they begin to worry and to tight
en- up at the crucial spots.
This WaShington-born youngster,
whose daddy is in the restaurant bust
aninpna pa has nlaVeQ
Manor in 70 strokes, but whether he
can produce a game like that in such
a grueling test as the national Is yet to
be known Surely Billy will go out
there to shoot the works Eve never saw
a kid that didn't and he may qualliy
for the match play rounds. Queerer
things than that have happened IN gon.
And certainly young Billy Dettweiier
at years of age-packs more drama
around his slim form than most OF
your championship entrants.
R1LLY is one Of three aualifiers from a
Harry G. Pitt, the tall, sturdy
District champion, whom we pick to go
further in the coming title chase than
any other Washingtonian, and slim.
Young Maurice Nee, the 17-year-old
voungster with the swing Of the pro-
fessional and the putting stroke Of
master. All of them may go some
where, but most of the drama Will
center around young Billy. II he quail
fies he will have done remarkably well.
He already has done more than his
share.
Billy and Maury Nee will be the
ma1nspr1ngs around whom the District
Junior championship at the Army
Navy Club will revolve this week, when
the 36-hole tourney for the Junior title
opens next Thursday. There are other
kids in there capable Of shooting good
golf. but around these two youngsters
from Manor will center much OF the
competition. The entries for the junior
title event will close tomorrow night
with Secretary William c. Barr OF the
District Golf Association. Both these