Evening star., 1938-12-15
Can Go Far in j. ).
Play Unless They
GET More 'Savvy'
Mechanics Seem Simple
To Woshington's Only
Woman Links Pro
BY WALTER McCALLUM.

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Washington's top girl golfers lack
"savvy' and the doWn-to-th the
ground knowledge of the refine
ments of the golf swing. They have
the best pro teaching talent avail
able to them, but they haven't alb
sorbed the main idea of it all
which is to swing the clubhead
And because of this lack of under
. standing of the essentials of the
swing they aren't going very far in
national golf.
1t sounds like a fairly severe
Indictment of the gals every one
thought-including ourselves-were
,-Pretty good. But Virginia Mapes,
Washington's only woman golf pro-
fessional and the leading local ad-
vocate of the swing-the- club idea
sticks to her guns. Until the top
girl golfers of Washington learn
to have more 'savvy about the golf
swing they aren't going very far
In the national picture" she insists.
Maybe you are sticking your neck
out little far?" we asked the
little blond girl who plays a good
game of golf herself and who has
had considerable success as a links
teacher over the 18 months she
has been around the Capital.
Must Think More of Swing.
Maybe I am" she said But
1t seems to me that if these girls
are shocked a little bit they may
come around to thinking more about
the swing and less about the results
they get. After all, the swing is
the thing. Once you master that
you will get results. You can't help
it. And I'm not afraid to mention
names, either. Helen DettWeiler is
a good player with a lot of kick
in her game. Potentially she is a
national star whom I see you claim
has been held back by her lack of
putting punch. Of course that is
true, but Helen makes other mis-
takes. She is too much a hitter
and not enough swinger of the
club.
Marion Brown, the girl who won
most of the championships this
year, is more a Swinger. but she
doesn't have the knowledge of the
swing it takes to be a topliner in the
bigtime of feminine golf. Marion
comes pretty close to being COM
pletely a swinger, but she hasn't yet
gotten over the hitting stage. Vir-
ginia Stokes, Charlotte Stern, and
others all are pretty good golfers,
but Id like to see them swing that
club more. Like this. And the
little blond picked upa knife hung
on the end of big bandanna hand
kerchief Swing that she said,
land watch the way it acts. The
1t isn't exactly new-this swing
idea-for 25 years ago Chick Evans,
the best amateur golfer ever TO come
out Of the West, put out the theory
that the closer any golfer could
come to a swing conception of the
club-head fastened to the end of
"A string, the closer he would be to
the perfect golf swing. Chick tried
to follow his own theory and about
ing the next seven years he won
three national championships.
Idolizes Her Mentor.
OF course Virginia Mapes is a
pupil of Ernest Jones. But she's
more than a pupil. She's a wor-
shipper. If ever any golfer idolized
. an idea, she idolizes the theories of
Jones, the "one-legged British war
veteran, who from a camp stool at
the Womens National Country Club
on Long Island or from the same
stool at his winter club in Bermuda,
spreads the gospel of "swing-the-
club" Ernest has had a lot of sue
cess, Miss Mapes says. Did you
know that most of the pros go to him
from time to time?" she added. And
practically all the best female
golfers.
On the wall of her golf school in
the Columbia bowling alley building
Is a letter from Jones. She prizes
this letter. naturally.
Il spent years trying to hold my
right arm in close to my body and
sWulSillS Will Ily DOuy dllu dll
those complicated things we were
taught years ago" she said. Il went
through all that riganlarole of hold
ing a pack of cigarettes under my
right arm-pit while swung the club
to cultivate that inside out thing
which was the rage 10 years ago.
But I didn't know anything until I
learned to swing the club head. I
see so many women trying to lead
the backsWing with the body and
getting into all kinds of funny posi-
tions, and have to laugh. You see,
it's so downright simple. All they
have to do is to swing that club
head"
Yeah, and beating the races is SIM
pie, too. All you have to do is find a
winner, or two. But probably Vir-
ginia has something there. The
overtheorized game of golf could
Go with little simplicity of instruc-