Evening star., 1938-08-12

golfer of the District of Columbia,
more" AL says, Il think we've got in
in this or any other section. Id like
Harper at the top against team of
four from Washington and Baltimore.
and I'd like to bet little dough that
we would win" The I'VE" includes
Houghton himself, for Al would be on
the team of four He rates it following
his second-place finish in the recent
Virginia open championship.
Maybe, in the vernacular. Al has
something there" for it looks like a
spot for a team of four pros from
the Washington area to do a little
links crusading on their own behalf,
the pro season around the Capital
being the fiat thing it is today.
Houghton named the following on
his team: Chandler Harper. Bobby
Cruickshank. Erie Ball of Farming
ton. Va, and Houghton himself
And I don't care who you bring
against u.s." he said. Toss in the
best of the Baltimore pros if you want.
Include Andy Gibson. the Maryland
State champion. We would like that
match" That set the boys to looking
over the prospects.
They couldn't get further
than Witty Cox. right of the
bat. And they picked Leo
Walper. Gibson and Cliff
Spencer to round out the quar-
tet.
I've seen golf teams that didn't
have half that ability win matches.
Harper Hot:
But we must have Harper at the
top. He's the hottest thing in this
section right now," AL added. All Of
which comes as quite surprise, and
yet not too much of a surprise when
you look back on the good amateurs
who have turned pro and have gone q
long way in the game as pros. when
they weren't such heavy winners as
amateurs. There's something about
that turning pro angle that brings
is anything at all. Ralph Guldahl
wasn't hot amateur. but look where
he is today. Denny Shute played for
years as so-sO amateur before he
turned pro, and he has done fairly
we'll.
And perhaps Harper. the kid who
won the Virginia State amateur crown
when Billy Howell was tops in the Old
Dominion, and stopped right there as
a winner. is destined to become a big
pro winner. Chan, you'll recall, turned
pro back in 1884. winning slice Of
the prize dough in the National Capt.
tai open at Kenwood that year and
taking it.
That automatically made him
prO, and he started playing
the winter circuit, with small
success until he tied for the top
spot in the St. Pete open last
February and lost on the play
off.
Prior to that he had won a couple
of Virginia amateur tournaments, but
he never got to first base in the mid
Atlantic, the premier sectional event
in this territory. Roger Peacock
bumped him off IN the mid-Atlantic
of 1884. Back in 1888 Chan came to
Columbia with Morton j. Mccarthy,
the portly Norfolk youngster who won
the Middle Atlantic in 1885, and
started popping off about how he and
Mccarthy could lick any two around
Washington-and no pros barred.
Fortunately for them the pros
laughed 1t of. although Fred
Mcleod and Bob Barnett wa
tered a little at the mouth at
the prospect of such easy dough.
Chan qualified for the amateur
championship that year and didn't
do much in the tournament at Gin
cinnati. The next year he turned pro.
Must Have Improved.
He must have come long way from
the $3.50 golfer of those years If
Houghton rates him the best player
in this sector. OF course, Al thinks
rightly) that AL himself can play q
lot of golf, and when you couple that
fact with the further fact that Harper
licked both Cruickshank and Erie
Bali, you can figure that Harper is
quite a player of the queer game they
call golf. He must be. but we'd like
TO see that match between the Virginia
boys and the quartet headed by Cox,
played on a home-and-home basis,
with the Virginia match over the
James ,River course of the Country
Club of Virginia.
II looks like . natural in a
pro season that has gone fiat by
failure Of the boys around
Washington to agree on
schedule of matches.
And if they want to confine it to
the Washington pros. they couldn't
find more rugged and determined bat
tiers with the checks down than Bob
Barnett or George Diffenbaugh. May.
be al has something"
Women's tournaments were sched.
uled today at coni sessional and In