Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-04-04
DISPLAYING FORM
OF FAMOUS YEAR
Sensation of 1929 Winter
Season in Ruck Until
Augusta Victory.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

II ancient game of clubbing
golf ball into a little
round hole in the minimum
number of strokes, none more
curious exists than the progress
of that tall. blond youngster
known to the trade as Horton
Smith.
Billed as coming national cham
pion, as far back at 1929-the pride
of the pros and the one man they
thought might turn back Bob Jones
when the one-time emperor was at
the height of his career-Horton has
done everything else but win a major
crown.
His career has been studded BY the
most amazing series of victories and
by some of the worst duffer-like golf
any top-ranking pro has shown. The
Horton Smith of today at last appears
to be on the way back to the emf
nence he had in 1929, when he won
almost every tournament he entered
on the California Florida circuit and
came North labeled the boy wonder
of the professionals.
But in the years intervening Hor-
ton has been anything but the con-
sistent performer he appeared to be
in that year. His win of the Augusta
open few days ago is his first big
event since he COPIED the National
Capital open crown in 1882. The
uncrowned champion from Missouri,
who now presides over the golf shop
at the Oak Park Club of Chicago,
seems at last to have his broganS
planted on the comeback trail.
Horton Smiths rise in the game
started in the P. G. A. championship
at Baltimore in 1923. There, a raw
kid of about 49, he qualified and went
to the third round, where Hagen beat
him. He went back to Joplin, where
he put in endless hours practicing
the smooth swing and the immacu-
late putting touch that he had in
1929 and apparently has only now
regained. He was the sensation of
the Winter circuit that year, grab
ing something like $4,000 in cash
and winning so many tournaments it
became a question of who would fin
ish second not who would win.
Fades After Coed Start.
TN 1880 HE led the field over the
first two rounds of the national
open, but then slumped back and
Jones won. This came after Horton
had led the Atlanta amateur by a
single stroke in the Southeastern open
Of that year. The years 1881 and
1882 came along, and Horton did
almost nothing. Something had
happened to that smooth stroke and
that invincible putting ability which
he had demonstrated so well in 1929
oh, yes; he won a little coin here
and there, but in the main he wasn't
one Of the big winners.
He broke a wrist in 1882 and was
out of the Winter circuit of that
year, although he had won the Ma
tional Capital open month before.
Recovered from the broken wrist, he
and Paul Runyan COPIED the inter-
national four-ball at Miami in Feb
ruary of 1888, but it was Runyan who
did the heavy work. Horton was all
over-the lot and Little Paul almost
single-handed turned back the chal-
lenge of Tommy Armour and Olin
Dutra.
Along came the 1888 National Capt.
tai open and Horton was here to de-
fend his crown. We played with him
in a practice round prior to the tour
ney and he looked to be hitting the
ball as we'll as ever. He did 50 that
day-but in the tourney which fol-
lowed he finished away down, with an
80 in the second round, followed by
another SO. That was his trouble.
He hit the ball in streaks as we'll as
ever he did in the days when they
began calling him the Joplin Ghost,
but he couldn't do it all the time.
And if there is one thing that pays
dividends in pro golf, it is consistency.
Horton no longer could burn up the
course for four rounds without bad
one slipping in.
Gets Back on Edge.
The boy wonder of 192e-now only
25 or thereabouts-had slipped away
to mere zephyr. But down there in
Florida this past Winter something
happened to Horton Smith. He be-
gan to slide back into the old scoring
groove and once more the puts began
to drop. Today Horton Smith is the
Horton of old-the man who can hit
the ball straighter and as far as any
man in the world. Look for him to
go fast and far this year. Seasoned
by five years of tough competition,
during which many disappointments
have come his way, this likeable
youngster with the friendly grin is
well along the comeback trail. He
and Runyan are the outstanding pros
Of today, with KY Laffoon Of Denver
billed as the hottest thing among the
younger group.
Had he won national in 1880 he
would have been too young 1t isn't
good for a mere kid to win. 1t usually
spoils him, as it has done before. But
Horton knows disappointment and de-
feat as few men know it. He is a bet
ter golfer today than he was when he
was sweeping everything before him,
because he has been through the tenn
pering fire Of defeat.
Never one to hit the dawn spots,
Horton Smith has the advantage OF
a strength undissipated by the ex-
travagances through which so many
headliners go. He has taken excellent
care of himself and his money-and
he has made plenty. They won't have
to take up any collection for Horton.
as rumor says they are doing for Cyril
Walker, the open champion of 1924.