Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-01-26
HAD ALL It TOOK
TO CONQUER KING
Blasts From Sand to Clear
Second Bunker and Stop
On Slick Carpet.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.

DIX W. N2COAAAASONAs
TT TAKES more than one golf shot
L to make q champion. But cham
pion frequently is proved by single
shot when he has his back to the
wall. And what champion hasn't
been In a spot where q fraction OF
m inch means victory or defeat?
Not many people-that is not more
than four or five thousand-saw q
golf stroke at Cleveland last Septem-
Der that revealed the fighting soul OF
a great amateur champion in q pinch
as Lawson Little, the Larruping Cali
fornian, gambled and won with one
of the tougher shots In golf. 1t came
oil and Lawson held on to his crown.
II 1t hadn't come of he might have
been licked. But that is the test
of q champion-to come through with
the right shot at the right time. ana
no one who has watched Little play
through a major championship DOUBTS
that the burly Californian has what
It takes.
Out there in the first round OF that
title tourney at Cleveland Lawson met
Rufus King, a steel-nerved, lS-year-
did kid from Denver, who. among
other athletic accomplishments, az one
time held the national junior trap-
shooting championship. Plainly, Mr..
King wasn't one to be annoyed BE-
cause he met the man-eater Little, Tor
he birdied three OF the first five holes
and became up on the champ.
Lawson Overtakes Him.
T AWsON gradually wore him down
II bv the accuracy and power OF his
Golf and they came to the sixteentn
hole-a par affair around 4S0 yaros
with Little / up. Lawson cut loose
with two of his big wooden-club snots'
hit the second was little OH ana the
hall slid into a trap at the left. on
the same shot King was on the 1r,lise
of the green, chipping to eet CLOSE
The situation was this: Little, up
and il looked as if he would lose the
hole. His ball lay in a deep bunker
with still another bunker stretching
between ball and green, making one
of the tougher shots in golf-a piast
from sand which must carry 20 yaros
and then stop on a keen green. You
can see the picture. II ne iost tne
hole he would be square with sharp
shooting kid who might lick him on
the next two holes. If he halved 1t
he would be l up, but it looked as II
he might lose it. He waded down into
that big trap, planted his No. IS
FIRMLY in the soft sand. lifted his
wedge in a full arc and drove with
all his power into the sand penlno
the ball. Up it came, clearing the
forward trap and slid to stop .
feet from the pin. King Clipped up
4 feet away and missed and Lawson
stepped up and holed for winning
bird 4. That put him up and the
match ended on the next green.
Had To Be Exactly Right.
RUT the nerve-tingling part OF 1t
- was that Lawson had the nerve
and the skill to try the shot. And
anv man who knows the game will
tell you that a pitch from sand with
any club across a yawning trap to
keen green is one Of the hardest
strokes in the game. A pinch or two
too much of sand and the ball stays
in one of the traps. A little too high
and it sails across the green. Under
the conditions it was one OF the
finest shots we ever have seen any
where. It took nerve and skill and
unflinching determination. And 1t
proved why Lawson Little is cham
pion, and q great champion. OF all
the shots he made that hectic week
at Cleveland, where it looked thrice
as if he was to be bumped of, that
one stands out as the finest he &C
complished. There were others
many of them-but that one took
everything and it came off as only
. champion can do it under pressure.
A great champion. that Lawson
Little. A great SHOEMAKER under any
and all conditions. Probably he can
hold the amateur championship,
barring accidents, as long as he wants
it. Which means endless hours Of
practice, tense hours of concentration
and the silky smooth putting stroke
which he picked up from Bob Jones.
For championship golf means just
that. There is no let-down along the
bunkered path where any one Of q
hundred kids can go wild and turn
In 9 or l8 holes Of the hottest kind
Of scoring. The only thing that will
win is shots like that of Lawson's out
of Q trap, and the endless concentra-
ton that is his-and was Jones'.