Evening star., 1935-07-21
SPURNS DISTANCE
TO KEEP STRAIGHT
Experience as Pro Teaches
Value of Accuracy From
Tee in Medal Play.
BY WALTER r.. McCALLUM.

BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.
- ONVINCED that lengthy hit
4 ting Is all right in its place,
4 provided that place is the
~ smoothly cut middle Of the
fairway and not the tall and uncut
rough, the erstwhile long slugger OF
other years, the lad who amazed the
British with his tremendous wallops
from the tee, is remolding his golf
game to bring those tee shots back
in the groove he had as q budding
boy wonder 10 years ago.
Older and far more experienced
than he was as member Of the
Walker Cup team at the age Of ID
years, Roland Mackenzie, Congress
sional pro, Is planning to cut down
those big wallops from the tee and to
make sure that he parks his shots
somewhere in the vicinity Of the fair
ways. His lesson Is one that might
well be taken by any run-of-the-mine
golfer. for when a really f1ne player
like Mackenzie decides to do some
thing in the hope Of improving his
golf game, that same thing might be
good medicine for ailing buffers.
Ten years ago Roland Mackenzie,
then a Western High School kid, was
Just about the longest amateur hitting
a golf ball anywhere in the land. Tall
and 1.-the, with one Of the better golf
swings to be found anywhere, the
Columbia youngster even outstripped
the lengthy wallops Of Jones when
Bobby was at tops; he was longer
than Won Elm and he just about
ranged along with Jesse Guilford,
then masquerading under the cog
nomen Of the Boston Siege Gun.
Roland had, and still has, q great
pair of hands, and the undoubted
ability to whack ball from the rough
like most folks play 'em from the fair
way.
Roland Learns Lesson.
PUT over the intervening years
Roland learned by the hard proc
ess Of losing golf matches that no
tee shot is worth while II it ends in
a Sahara of sand or in rough so thick
you couldn't push a truck through 1t.
He drove with brassie up at Oak
mont to keep the ball straight and he
is driving with the same brassie to-
day for the same reason. But he has
learned more than that. Ten years
ago no man hitting the ball took q
harder cut at a rubber sphere than
did Roland Mackenzie. Today his
swing is a gentle watt compared to
the typhoon that was his wallop Of q
decade back. And why? Let Roland
tell it.
"You learn a lot Of things when
you play in golf tournaments as an
amateur" he says. But really be-
lieve I have learned more In the last
three years as q professional than I
ever learned in those years of amateur
golf. Competition among the pros Is
q far tougher game than among the
amateurs. Match play is far different
from medal play. In match play you
can take big cut at the ball, and II
it winds up in the thickets you can
still get it out, maybe. But in medal
play you may take a lot of strokes OF
in the wild country. You've got to hit
'em straight and at the same time
you must hit 'em fairly far. I've been
losing probably about 10 yards from
my tee shots for the last three years
over the distance I used to get. But
I am satisfied, and I'm willing to lose
another yards If I can keep that ball
on that line to the hole. 1t isn't easy,
when you get out with the long hitters,
to take a smooth swing and an easy
cut at the ball, but haven't you noticed
that the great hitters are not winning
all the tournaments2