Evening star., 1932-10-19
One-Am1ed GoyerBD Star
HOWARD NOW NEAR.
TITLE AT v. G. c. C..
Former Ranking Netman to
Play Mckinney for Club
Championship.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.

w. N. IVCSALLO
A ONE-ARMED veteran of the
~ links, who used to be a big
n shot in local tennis, is forg-
ing his way toward vic
tory in a golf tournament at
Washington Golf and Country
Club.
For many, many years AL
Howard was a tennis player OF
renown. At the old Dumbarton
Tennis Club, on the heights Of
Wisconsin avenue, Howard held
forth for many years as a master
of the net game.
Tucking two tennis balls under the
stump of his left arm and serving with
great speed he was able to hold his own
with the best of the local tennis ex-
perts. Back in 1910 a mere matter OF
% years ago-he won the District ten
mis- championship. The previous year,
paired with E. Charlton BUD Graves,
he had gone to the challenge round in
the doubles championship, where the
pair was licked by the Doyle brothers.
Taking up golf. and abandoning ten
mis- Howard quickly became far better
than average player. handicapped as
he was, he was able with that one
strong right arm to drive golf ball as
far and as straight as most men
equipped with two arms.
A dozen years ago Al Howard scored
an ace on the old fifth hole at Wash
ington, which then was blind hole of
course in IA strokes against a par of
68. and he has played the present
Washington course in IS, against par
of II. So you see he is not so bad
for a one-armed golfer.
HOWARD has won his way to the
i 1 final in the Birney Cup event at
Washington and awaits his final
match to be played against Guy McKin-
ney. The one-armed veteran has beaten
in turn H. Ross Colwell. Otto Thacker
and r. P. Brandt. He is no mans set
up. even though he hasn't those two
hands which Tommy Armour claims
make the main spring of the golf
stroke.
LAS the hands go. so goes the stroke
and the ball" Armour claims Wonder
what he would say with a one-armed
man hitting the ball? Today Howard
is able to knock a golf ball farther than
the average golfer at Washington, and
he hits 'em straight, too. He puts
with grip far down the shaft. and
his opponents do not like the way he
knocks the ball into the hole.
Like most men who have an aptitude
for any sport employing a ball, Howard
has been able, despite his handicap,
to master two sports. He never can
be champion in golf, for it takes two
hands to do that, but he can and does
go far in his class.
Out at Congressional there is another
one-armed veteran who does much the
same thing Clarence NJ Charest also
has but one arm, but today he holds
the national veterans tennis champion
ship, and he is better than an average
golfer. Perhaps Charest is not quite so
good on the links as Howard, but they
are not far apart when it comes to the
business of getting a little golf ball into
a small hole in the minimum number
Of wallops.
That Maryland State Golf Association
handicap tourney which was scheduled
yesterday at Woodmont, will be played
next Tuesday over the same course.
The tourney was postponed because Of
bad weather.
IF some golfng gent made crack
i that the Baltimore golf professionals
are better players than the paid
clan of Washington he would let himself
in for lot of high-pressure argument.
Yet that is exactly what it looks like
today as two pros from the Monumental
City battle over the course of the Mary
land Country Club for the Middle At
lantic P. G. A. match-play title. The
two have reached the final round OF
this wet and soggy tournament are
Charles P Betschler. the rotund little
pro from Rodgers Forge, and Glen S.
Spencer, the long-hitting gent from
Maryland, who has found his home
course much to his liking.
At the start of the second round yes
terday there we're four Washington pros
and four from Baltimore in the tourney.
Today there are two left and both OF
them are from Baltimore. Betschler
knocked over Mel Shorey Of East Po-
tomac Park by and l in the second
round, and then went on to beat Gil
bert Cunningham of Burning Tree in
the third round. Spencer beat Gene
Larkin of Chevy Chase in the semi-final
after Larkin had beaten Carroll NC
round. Bob Barnett fell in defeat in
the second round before Cunningham,
losing on the nineteenth hole.
So the final round of the tourney
which heretofore has been dominated
by Washington pros finds two Balti-
moreans playing for the title and the
purse Of approximately Sl00. One OF
the unusual features of the final Is that
Spencer is the local pro, and Betschler
held down the pro berth at Maryland
for 4 years before going to Rodgers
Forge. Usually the local pro takes ii
on the chain in these affairs, but this
time the tables are reversed.
r OCAL golf courses are slowly drying
- out today after nearly three days
of heavy rain which flooded them
and in some cases caused slight damage
So heavy was the rain yesterday that
swollen creeks overflowed their banks
and backed up the water over fairways
and putting greens. Golf will not be
pleasant for a day or two until the
courses dry out to some extent.
The Columbia club women'S cham
pionship event, postponed Monday anc
yesterday because of rain, will not star
until next Monday, while the Chevy
Chase women's title event, scheduled
for yesterday, will be played tomorrow
and Friday at 26 holes. Feminine
golfers of the Washington Golf anc
Country Club were not deferred by 6
wet course, however, for more than
score of them started today in the com
petition for the Tschiffely, McClenahar
and other trophies. The tourney is 6
36-hole event which will wind ul
tomorrow.
n ICHARD P. WHITLEY has reach
n ed the final round in the competi
ton for the Liberty Cup amoni
golfers of the Chevy Chase Club HI
defeated Admiral c. B. McVay by
and l in the semi-final. The othe
match. probably to be played today
finds D. D. L. McGrew opposed to Franl
P. Reside.