Evening star., 1935-07-16
STRAgGlgT OEE THAE TEE
BY w. R. Me CALLuM

about the psychological angles
of this golf thing, particularly
Il where it is connected with the
gentle art of shanking an iron shot,
which, in the languageof the initiated,
means to watt the ball at a 45-degree
angle we'll to the right by the simple
business of hitting it smack in the
neck of the club, where the head joins
the shaft If you don't believe 1t, ask
AL Houghton, the playing pro at In
dian Spring, or Bill Ullman OF Con-
gressional. the great traveller, who is
on his way back to Washington from
a Pacific Coast automobile trip.
AL Houghton is one OF those impress
sionable gents who Is thinking all the
time and who believes what he hears.
Playing in the recent Penn open at
Hershey, Pa, AL was going along in
good style, looking as if he might fin
ish in the money. Across on an ad-
joining fairway he heard some pro yell
to his partner, Did you see that pretty
shank? Boy, that was beauty! Fifty
yards off the line down there In the
willows" Now up to that time Al
hadn't shanked a shot. His irons were
things of beauty. But from that time
on his life was plain hell.
LIE SHANKED shot after shot, all
- because it had entered his mind
that he might do it. Over at Colum-
bia one afternoon, playing with Clyde
Asher and Fred Mcleod, the Houghton
man came to the fourteenth hole need
| ing par in for II. He would win
his medal bet if he made 73, which
should have been a pushover. But
going down the fourteenth fairway the
discussion turned to shanking of goli
shots and how to prevent 'em. So Al
who is an obliging fellow, shanked one
on the fourteenth and he wound ur
| with an 8. His second shot wound ur
in the ditch below the second green
All of which would seem to indicate
that AL is weak-minded, which isn't
the case at all. It's simply the shanks
When you get 'em you get 'em good.
| Bill Ullman writes from Cheyenne
Wyo., that he has been putting on the
| finest exhibition Of snanking ever pro-
duced. Most people wonder why
keep trying 10 play golf" he says
When got to Los Angeles the boys
on the Times were waiting for me to
stage the annual game. They took me
out to an exclusive Hollywood club
but 1t wasn't exclusive enough. If II
had been exclusive enough to exclude
me would have S32 more in the bank
My shanks out there we're really things
of beauty and artistry. 1 did no better
at San Francisco, and by the time ]
got to Portland I was so disguised
that I walked into an American Fed
Grafton of Labor meeting and told them
1 was Luther Steward Instead of
shooting me, they asked me to make
them a talk I couldn't think of any
thing but shanking, but did make a
speech. All over the wide open spaces
of the great Northwest I have left my
golf paraphernalia out in the open try
ing to lose it. The moths ate my
sweaters, the coyotes ran off with my
golf balls, but that old No. 6, the
cause of all my sorrow, just wouldn't
be stolen.
AT THAT swell golf club at Los
Angeles I thought I would put
myself in right by reeling of the names
of some of my Washington golfng
friends. mentioned you, Albert Mac
Kenzie, Roland, Miller Stevinson, Mai.
Dawson and Jack Rags, but no go-all
unknown. Then by chance I hap
pened to mention Clarence, the locker
boy at the Washington Golf and Coun-
try Club, and right away:
Yes, sir, Use got a good locker for
you. Come right this way We always
takes good care Of any of Clarence S
friends"
Bill adds postscript that he fears
his life is ruined by the shanks. It's
an awful thing, he says, when the
shanks get you. And if you don't be-
lieve it. ask Al Houghton about it some
time. But be prepared to duck when
you do.