Evening star., 1936-06-17
GOES4OVERPAR
IN PLAYING 18TH
Regulation Figures There
Would Have Put Witty
in Third Place.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.

~ wood pro, was muSlng over
Wv the why's and wherefores
of the national open
championship. "Sfunny," he said,
"how one hole jinxes guy in golf
tournament. How one hole can cost
him a lot of dough and a flock OF
heartaches" Witty has been up there
in the thick of the scrap for the open
title for a half-dozen years. He fin
tshed in a tie for fifth in the recent
scoring jamboree at Baltusrol.
THAT eighteenth hole at Baltusrol
was tough, but there wasn't any rea-
son for me to take such flock OF
shots on it as I took. I went over
par on that hole and I finished with
289. Give me four pars and I would
have finished in third place. winning
quite a respectable piece of money.
And with birdie on the hole might
have tied Cooper for second.
couldn't have won. considering Tony
Manero's finishing round, but could
have been up there in a contender's
spot. Yep, it's funny how one hole
can jinx a guy"
Is Testing Hole.
THE eighteenth at Baltusrol is one
- of the finest finishing holes any,
where. Four hundred and sixty-f1ve
yards in length, nothing to worry
about in point of sheer distance, it is
fanked with traps, and demands un-
erring accuracy off the tee. The hole
is a par-4 affair Witty took 6, 5, 4, s.,
which Is above par for the four
rounds, on this one hole. He finished
with four-round total l above par,
SO you can see what the eighteenth
hole did to his total.
"Baltusrol showed just what the
boys con do to any golf course when
they don't stiffen it up for the nation
al open," Witty said. I'VE played the
same course the members of Baltusrol
play, and, even though two men broke
the record for the open, it was fair
test for every one. 1t shows once
again that the best pros can play any
course around par when they don't
artifcially Stiffen it up"
What was the best shot you played
up LQeTe! We dShcO WHY
Makes Five Iron Shots.
EFT DON'T know" he said. II played
fairly we'll and played what I
thought were some good shots. Guess
the best one was that long iron IA No.
y out of the woods at the sixth hole
on the third round" Here Witty had
started 2 under par, and going to the
sixth had hooked his tee shot into the
woods. He had a narrow opening
through the trees to the green, 100
yards away, but the ball had to hook
and then stop on the keen green. He
played the shot perfectly and actu-
ally had only 2o-foot putt for the
birdie.
But I'd play the eighth hole dif-
ferently If I had it to do over again" !"
The eighth was three-shotter, around
565 yards, to green literally fringed
with traps. "You could 60 for any
thing on that hole" Witty said. "You
might take a 7 or an if you pushed
a tee shot. I would take long iron
from the tee if had to play it again
in the championship, and then take a
brassie for my second. I certainly
wouldn't take any chance on finding
the traps or the woods with that tee
shot"
But how about your putting up
there?" we queried.
Not Good at Putting.
"G'FUNNY how you get into a put
~ ting streak in these champion
ships. Tony was red-hot with his
rutter on that last round. had only
one good putting round. still think
If had been able to get down lot
of those 6-footers might have had a
fine chance to win" Witty missed six
puts of feet or less in his first
Tound-a "a.
Maybe I'll win some day" he mused.
"But I'll have to putt better than I
putted up there at Baltusrol. After
all, any championship is won within
8 feet of the cup. If you can't get the
ball in the hole you can't win"