The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-13


is 40 to /, likewise Ted Turner
Torchy Toda, the japanese ace,
Whiffy Cox and Johnny Goodman,
the amateur. From here out the
prices go to 300 to against such
players as Pete O'Hara, Maurice
Walsh and Robert Barnett.
I forgot to mention the price
against young Sam Parks of Pitts
burgh, the defending champion, is
100 to /. This unquestionably is the
most generous price that has ever
been laid against a defending cham
pion in anybodys country, or in
anybody's sport. 1t gives you faint
idea how the bookmaker feels about
the champions game.
CTILL, I seem to recall that the
~ price against Mr.. Parks Win
ming at Oakmont a year ago was
also 100 to 1 and he won anyway.
Apparently the bookmaker still be-
lieves he did it with mirrors, or the
result was typographical error. At
any rate, Mr. Parks is one cham
pion who, in the figures, isn't con-
coded an Ethiopian chance to repeat.
And the chances are when the
final returns are in the figures will
have been justified. Mr.. Parks won
his championship over a course with
tricky greens that paid off on luck
rather than skill 1t couldn't have
been otherwise because too many
really fine golfers shooting fine golf
collapsed facing the test. AS fur
Their proof, Mr. Parks playing the
full winter circuit, picked up just
$675 in prize moneys.
Admitting all this, the price
against a champion repeating in the
open, whether he be a Parks or a
Sarazen, is about 25 to / at the
shortest, And now that Bob Jones
is no longer an active competitor the
price should be closer to SO to 1. He
was the last to put two of these
together, in 1929 and 1890, and the
first to do it since Johnny McDer-
mott in 1911 and 1912. Thus the
odds in this sense are not so unflat-
tering to Mr.. Parks game as it
might seem.
IT develops, too, that Mr.. Parks
n is not much more lightly es-
teemed in the book than Macdonald
Smith who is listed at so to / de-
spite the fact he is accepted as one
of the best shot makers in golf.
The feeling about Smith now is
that he just can't win cham
pionship: that whenever it looks
as if he might something happens
like the rainstorm at Pittsburgh a
year ago, for example.
Author Watterson did not make
his prices official until all the
scores were in from the qualifying
tests yesterday, but in his pre-
liminary book he had tentative odds
figured for all the possible COM
petitors. Some of the failed to
qualify. A conspicuous failure was
Lawson Little and author Waiter
son had decided to make him one
of the short priced entries, at 20
to l. AS the crossword puzzle ex-
pert said, fumbling around for a
four-letter word, that's golf for
YOU"
A RECENTLY reformed amateur,
4 n Little was making his first at
tempt to qualify for the profession
al classic. He had won four major
amateur championship in row,
the American twice and the British
twice. He had been unbeaten in 81
consecutive matches on both sides
of the Atlantic. He had demon
strated by the class and consistency
of his game he was head and shoul-
ders above all the amateurs in the
world.
And yet playing over what was
only a moderately stiff course the
broad-shouldered Californian who
had so thoroughly dominated the
amateurs wasn't able to score we'll
enough even to draw starting
position with the professionals.