Evening star., 1936-02-25
SK|PS CUSTOMARY
EARLY BALLyH00
18.Year.0Id Maid Likely
to Win National Title
in Year or Two.
BY w. r. McCALLuM.

Ii W. NE uCNALLOWks
- VERY once in a while some
- youngster comes up through
the ranks of golf and becomes
- a star almost overnight, with.
out going through the customary bally.
hoo, or the "uncrowned" champion
stage. Such kid Is freckle-faced lS.
year-old Patty Berg Of Minneapolis.
who is the sensation Of women's golf
this year and Is in the same position
as Glenna Collett and Bobby Jones IS
years back before either Of them had
won a national championship.
This stocky. grinning little miss Of
Scandinavian ancestry has done MOTH
ing much but upset the apple cart Of
all the accepted champions in the
South this Winter, including National
Champion Glenna Collett Ware. She
has taken In stride such accomplished
linkswomen as Mrs. Ware. Maureen
Orcutt Crews, Marion Miley and Mrs.
Opal S. Hill. three of whom we're VIM
ming big golf tournaments when the
Berg kid was playing with gingham
dolls.
Games Biggest News.
CHE is the biggest news story in golf
~ today. and If she keeps on improv-
ing she is going to win a national in
a year or two. But the unusual part
of 1t Is that Miss Berg didn't have to
go through the customary routine Of
winning a flock of sectional champion.
ships before she became big-time tim.
Der. She sprang into the national star
parade almost overnight by going to
the final in the championship last
year, where Mrs. Ware whipped her.
It isn't the usual thing at all for
young star to bloom so quickly, in
golf at least. Usually they have to
go through the child wonder" stage,
win an arnlful Of minor titles, get
licked in the national few times and
finally crash through to win. Maureen
Crews, good as she is, went through
all the stages, including the girl
wonder" development but she never
has won the national, and probably
never will. Patty Berg, freckles, con-
fidence and all, has been spared all
this. From obscurity she sprang into
the headlines within week last Sep
tember, and for while she was looked
upon as one of those championship
freaks, kid who had a good week
and would be a good kid again and
let all the oldtimers trim her when-
ever she started, with that reverence
for age and experience that seems to
be part of golf.
Carries Fight to Enemy.
RUT Patty is not orthodox She
carried the scrap right into the
camp of the enemy in Florida, and
she has done right well. Twice she
has whipped Maureen Crews and
twice she has won big tournaments,
crushing the national champ along
the route in one of them. Maureen
finally defeated her at Palm Beach
last week, but it took all the golf she
had to do it. and Maureen has been
one Of our best swingers for a good
many years.
The Berg lass starts today in another
tournament-at Ormond Beach-along
with the rest of the feminine troupe
which Ma and Pa Keeler and Ray
Mccarthy trot around through the
Southern loop each year. and she will
be the biggest star of them. all. Mrs.
Crews and Mrs. Ware will not start.
The rest of them have proven to be no
match for the Berg youngster this
year. Anyway you figure it, Patty is
the biggest golf news of the Winter.
Any gal who can play winning golf
in the North and then play even better
golf on those sandy Florida courses is
good.