Evening star., 1932-12-31
PLACES PREMIUM
ON APPROACH SHOT
No. 8 Only Par S Hereabout
Never Reached in Two .,
LegitimateIy.
BY w. Il. McCALLUM.

- changes in the golf course
of the Chevy Chase Club,
from the days when F. Oden
Horstman, Walter and Wolcott
Tuckerman and William S. Rey-
burn were the top players of the
club, one hole has remained out
standing.
This hole-the eleventh-standS to-
day as the finest two-shotter on the
exceptionally fine golf course of one of
Washington finest clubs, in the view of
Gene Larkin, aide to Bob Barnett, the
resident professional Barnett is in the
South for the Winter but Larkin says
Barnett also believes the eleventh to be
the outstanding two-shotter, regardless
of weather conditions. .,
Day In and day out, says Larkin, the
eleventh hole takes better golf shots
and more accurate skill than any of the
real tWo-ShotterS on the course. The
young assistant pro, who used to hold
the Maryland State open Champion
ship. hesitated long time before 6e-
Gliding on the eleventh. For a time he
considered the sixth, but finally Gene
decided that the sixth, even though it
is rated as par affair, is one Of those
In-between holes which normally is the
toughest kind of 4 and for any but the
best golfers becomes a par 5. In other
words 1t is in the nature of hybrid
too short for a par and shade too
long and hard for your difficult par 4.
RUT the eleventh, played day after
- day, under all sorts of weather
and ground conditions. is as near
the ideal par74 as Gene has been able
to find around Washington Even at
that, he says, it has not much edge On
the fifteenth, for here again is a hole
which shifts in difficulty as conditions
change But the hardest part of the
fifteenth, according to Larkin, is the
sloping, or hillside, lie which the bail
usually finds from the back tee. The
fifteenth hole, If it were straightaway
as is the eleventh, would be far easier
mole than it now is with the second
shot usually played from a doWnhiIl lie.
I've played every kind of second
shot to that eleventh hole, from a full
brassie to a nashie- -niblick." Gene said,
and every time I play it the hole i'm
presses me more and more. They tell
me 1t hasn't been changed a bit since
1919, with the exception of few traps
10 catch tee shots at right or left. It
doesn't need any changing AS it
stands, 1t is one Of the strongest and
nnest tWo-shotterS I know. For re-
gardless Of how fine your tee shot your
second always is a problem 1t may be
brassie, or it may be a spade, but it's
always good shot. And the tee shot
is no cinch, either Hook it a little
and you haven't a chance to get home.
Push it to the right. and it if misses the
traps you may get home, but the rough
is deep over there and the shot is--a
long one"
THE main feature of the eleventh at
/ L Chevy Chase is the deep ditch and
high bank 20 yards in front of the
green. That ditch cannot be bounced
under any circumstances. which mea rs
that half-topped shot is doomed to a
WateTy grave. The only kind Of shot 10
reach that green IS a cleanlv hit ball
| travelling via the air route. And to get
| q shot at the green you have to waIIap
your tee shot far ana straight. The
hole plays about 430 yards in length.
but the second shot must have a good
carry. In many ways that eleventh
STANDS out around Washington. In our
1t would have high place.
But that great Chevy Chase course
does, not stand alone on one distinction.
1t also has the finest three-shot hole
around Washington, the only par S
mole, in fact, which has not and can
not De reached In two shots from the
PACK tee under favorable ground con-
ditlons. Back in the hoary past. there
IS legend that Jack Burgess poled
out brace Of distance -eating valJons
that enabled him to reach the green
at the eighth in two shots. But further
inquiry reveals that the tee plates were
not lar back and that he had a follow
ing wind. Charlie Mackall also is re-
ported to have reached that green in
Two mighty wallops. but Charlie admits
that conditions were perfect and that
tne Tee was not as far back as it might
have been The fifth at Columbia, another
outstanding par 5, has been reached
many times in two. The sixteenth St
Indian Spring has been reached MANY
times IN two big wallops So has the
flrst at Congressional, and the thirteenth
at Army-Navy. But that eighth at
Chevy Chase, $50 yards in length stands
out as the best three-shooter around
Washington. -i0
I ARKIN says the ninth AZ Chevv
~ CnaSe is the best one-shooter on
the course. 1t is a strong mar 2
mole, no doubt of that, but it lacks
feature. even though it has been
strengthened over the last four or five
years BY modern trapping and green
construction. 1t is a fiat hole, of $50
yards IN length. just lusty waIlop for
!usty hitter. Put up cluster of trans
ITO yards from the green, to be carried
from the tee. and it would becomelss
real test. It's tough enough, as II
STANDS even now. for there's plenty of
trouble to be found along the route to
the cup at that ninth.
Among the many good drive and pitch
holes at Chevy Chase, Larkin SAYS the
seventeenth stands out. Unouestionsbly
this seventeenth is not only one of the
best of the drive and rnashie holes
around Washington, but also one of the
most picturesque. The way that green
was built up back in 1919, when Allison.
Colt and Mackenzie redeSigned the
course, Is reminiscent of some of the
best holes across the water. AS a strong
drive and pitch affair that seventeenth
Is rarity among strong holes of inter-
mediate distance. Normally it plays as
a drive and masfhe hole of 385 yareis.
Architecturally 1t Is gem.