Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-23
CHAMPION RARELY
REPEATS VICTORY
Pressure Makes Show Poor
as Scoring Spectacle,
Armour Maintains.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.


VI THERE'S one thing certain in
the most uncertain sport of them
all, you can lay the checks on the
i line that new national open golf
champion is going to be crowned at the
Baltusrol Golf Club next June. And
not altogether because portly Sam
Parks, jr., the Pittsburgh boy who.
holds the crown, is considered among
the cognoscenti of golf somewhat of a
fuke champion.
Not since Bob Jones grabbed the
open in 1880 for his second straight
win and the third post in the grand
slam march has an open champion
come anywhere near repeating. There
aren't any men like Jones around to-
day, and the competition has become
even tougher than it was in the days
of the great man from Atlanta.
The big point is Just what Tommy
Armour always has inSisted-that the
worst golf is played in the national
open championship" just why that
Is, Tom doesn't say, but any one who
has been around the big championship
over any considerable stretch of years
knows how the boys blow the tourna-
ment around among themselves over
the last nine holes of the 72-hole trek.
Steady Finish Tells.
IT'S always true that the man who
can steady down over the last nine
and play it in par, If he has been good
enough to keep level with the leaders
over the previous So holes, is certain
to be up there, first or second.
Baltusrol is Johnny FarrellS home
course and it isn't too much to expect
that Johnny himself will have lot
to say about that 1886 national open.
John was good enough to win eight
years'back and is good enough to win
today, if the pace isn't too fast. But
John, at the age of around IS, hasn't
been able to move along with the
younger leaders of the game in recent
years.
Baltusrol is famous for surprises.
A national open and a national anna
teur have been played there since
1914 and both tournaments resulted
then an amateur leader, and now a
pro, grabbed the open championship
with a score of 297, a figure which
looks like telephone NUMBER wnen
you compare it with the 278s and IBIS
with which the boys are winning the
minor Journeys nowadays.
Baltusrol Famous for Upsets.
A ND in 1896 George Won Elm won
his only national amateur, beat
ing Bob Jones in the final by 2 and l.,
when Jones looked certain winner.
Baltusrol is famous for upsets. Who
will il be next June and will the
score come anywhere near the winning
mark in other tournaments without
the national title Ringing on the play?
There isn't much question that Sam
Parks was lucky to win the open at
Oakmont last June ANY man who
wins that title must be lucky, as well
as good, but Sam was a l00-to-1
shot to win against the field that
gathered at Oakmont.
Sam had literally lived for two
knew the curls and twists of those
keen greens as we'll as Dutch Loeffler,
the club greenskeeper. His knowledge
of those greens won the championship
for him.
But Sam will be double-dyed won
der if he wins the title again at
Baltusrol. It simply isn't being done
nowadays by any golfer, no matter
how good he may be. And there isn't
much question that new crop Of
winners Is being developed among the
pros, topped by Johnny Revolta, the
black-thatched Milwaukee boy.
National Scoring Not Low.
RUT Tommy Armour is right as
rain when he cracks that the
national open is punk show from the
scoring standpoint. The record for
the open stands at 286, first set by
Chick Evans at Minikhada in 1916
and tied by Gene Sarazen in 1892 at
Fresh Meadow.
But the boys who are winning tour
naments in the minor leagues now
adays are grabbing first money with
scores in the low 280s and, over
shorter courses, down in the 27Os.
And they don't shorten these courses
when they play tournaments on 'em.
OF course, the national champion
ships these days always are played on
courses with watered fairways, but
even lack of roll on the tee shot
doesn't hold back the scoring on other
courses. The real reason for the COM
paratively high scoring in the Ma
tional is that it is the National. You
can't blame guy for steering" the
ball when he knows that any bad shot
may cost him $4,000 smackers. or more
Last year Sam Parks won the open
with score of 299 at Oakmont, adj
mittedly the toughest scoring prop
osition of them ALL Olin Dutra won
at Merton in 1884 with 293, John
Goodman won at North Shore with
287 and Sarazen won at Fresh Mea-
dow in 1882 with 2S6, tying the record
Record Due Beating.
SOME day some pro is really going
to get hot and crack that record
wide open with score around 282
It's been done in England, where ALI
Perry set the record last year with
2S3. But the British do not water
their courses.
The main scramble at Baltusrol
this year seems to lie among the
younger crop of stars-Revolta, Pick
ard, Hines, Horton Smith, Runyan
and few others.
But whatever happens it will be the
same old story. The gent who can
stick along at the sixty-third hole
within shot or two of the lead and
then play good last nine will win
the championship and the dough that
goes with it.