Evening star., 1933-08-23
PRO PLACES LABEL
ON PRACTICE AREA
Lessons Given Sherman Ford
Thought to Have Offered
Basis for Name.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

r. YER hear of "Lunatic Hill?
r. Every club has one, some
IL where along the bunkered
premises, but only at Co
lumbia is the practice ground for
golfers who really work on their
game called by that name. Fred
Mcleod, knowing little profess
sional at Columbia, a veteran of
more than two decades with the
club, is the presiding genius of
Lunatic Hill and the man who
gave the club practice ground the
name it bears.
1t is located out between the seven
teenth tee and the golf shop in
triangle in which also is placed a prac-
tice green for short pitches and puts
Some of the better golfers of Wash
ington-men who have made their
mark in countless tournaments-hav
sharpened up their iron shots under
the eyes of Fred Mcleod on Lunatic
Hill.
But the big laugh of the habitues of
the hill comes when Sherman Ford,
one of ColumbiaS members, goes out
to take lesson from Mcleod out there
ON the hilltop. Perhaps it is because
of these lessons that Fred has named
the place "Lunatic Hill" They get out
there to give and take a golf lesson
Ford and McLeOd-but they do every
thing else. Both of them have definite
ideas as to how golf shots should be
hit, and they discuss this angle for
a while with all the heated animation
of brace of St. Andrews eaddies. The
subject ultimately turns to horses. and
it goes from there to heights of argu-
ment that is not approached by any
maSter-and-pupil pair at Columbia.
Out there on that hilltop Roland
Mackenzie grocmed the immaculate
swing which gained him foremost
place among the Nations amateurs in
the days when Roland was in high
school and college. Harry G. Pitt OF
Manor is another who has placed him
self in the hands of Mcleod and has
improved his game by the teaching of
the master of Lunatic Hill. Many Of
the better amateurs of Washington
have gone forth on the hill and come
back with a better knowledge Of the
golf swing It's one Of the traditions
of Columbia.
4 MONG the better amateurs who
~ play golf around Washington is
one gent who has yet to reach
the heights he is destined to attain.
This chap is Martin F. Mccarthy black
haired former sandlot base ball star,
who took to golf only five or six years
ago and by constant practice and as
siduous attention to the game has estab
lished himself as one of the leading
players of the Capital
For two years in row now Mccarthy
has qualified for the national amateur
championship making the grade where
more favored golfers failed. His prog
ress has been marked by consistent
improvement of the plugging variety.
No youngster when he took up golf,
Mccarthy has gone at the game in the
right Way-by taking lessons from pro-
fessionals-and today he stands out
among the first half-dozen amateur
golfers of the Capital
Indeed he rates better than that, for
last Fall he finished third in the Dis
triet championship at Chevy Chase,
over a 72-hole test He's a fighting
fool this black-haired gent with the
Irish name, one of those determined
fellows who never knows when he is
licked and a man who can turn on the
heat plenty strong when he wants to
go somewhere. A few days before the
sectional qualifying rounds at Columbia
he played the course in SO strokes, and
then few days later, when he was ap-
parently hopelessly out of the tourney,
he ganered three birds in row to put
him distinctly back in the running.
Those three birds enabled him to
qualify.
Mccarthy holds the amateur record
at Beaver Dam, where he also is
member, with a card of IL He can go
fast enough to hold his own in any
company, and if he gets his Irish up at
Cincinnati next month he may con-
found some of the experts.