Evening star., 1938-06-12
.NEAR-RECORD 284
BEATS METZ BY G
First Repeating Champion
Since 80 Brides Way
to Great Victory.
(COntinllHd Fro,,, UNrck ror.>
CONTINUED From First page)

NNoIIeIItucu .cTom f1rSC Page.)
Henry Picard, the Hershey (Pa.) star.
had fallen abruptly from the pace
making position with third-round n.
Besides Metz and Guldahl, the quar-
tet of potential winners included long
hitting Jimmy Hines, Metropolitan
New York open champion, and Emery
zimmerman, the slender 2s-year- -old
dark horse" from Portland, Greg. but
the pressure quickly caught up with
and disposed of all but the champion.
Guldahl Turns On Heat.
Hines folded quickly and wound I'D
with an 80 for total OF 297. zim-
norman hung on longer, showing his
gameness under fire, but the youngster
from the Pacific Northwest finally
skidded to 70 for total of 2s4. 10
strokes behind the winner.
Meantime Guldahl, having rated
himself exactly four strokes of the
pace for three successive rounds
turned on the heat. The tall, stoou-
shouldered champion. with par under
control and his best shots mustered
to give it beating if necessary. over
took Hines on the second hole of his
final round. He caught up with Metz
at the NTH and also shook of zin-
merman's challenge.
The issue. to all intents and pur-
poses, was decided on the fourth, fifth
and sixth holes In that short stretch
Guldahl picked up five strokes on the
1alter1ng Metz and three on Hines.
The champion shot 4-4-2 on these
hoies against par Of 4-5-3. Big Ralph
coolly dropped puts of Is and o feet
Tor MS brides on the fifth and sixth.
Leaves Opponents in Ruck.
Guldahl went on to the turn in "a,
! under par. He had picked up .no
less than seven strokes on both Metz
and Hines and four on Zimmerman.
From there on only q crack-up by the
champion shimself could affect the
outcome. He never displayed the
slightest trace of even bending under
the pressure as swarming crowd of
nearly 10000 spectators saw him
march through shower of rain to
victory.
euldahl applied the crowning
touches to his great finish midway on
Inc homecoming nine. To the roaring
delight OF one of the biggest crowds
that has romped over the hills since
Jones won his last open at Interlachen
eight years ago. big Ralph bagged a
brace Of brides on the 18th and 14th.
He struck long irons to the greens SO
accurately that he needed to get down
puts Of only 7 and feet for birdie IS.
Even Lady Luck rode with the
winner. On the 18TH he went too
boldly for the pin. but his ball struck
slope of the green, nearly 20 feet
from the cup. stopped in its tracks
and rolled back more. than halfway,
just as If it were searching for the
hole. His only mistakes on the last
round put him in trap on the eighth
and over the green on the 18th He
had seven one-putt greens and every-
thing SO completely under control that
all possible thrill was extracted from
the stretch run.
U2inS GonS Hall Qf Fame.
Here was another golfing man O.
war. spread-eagling all opposition and
adding new chapter to the 42-year-
old history of Americas biggest golfing
sweepstakes. Only two years ago
Guldahl was close to real adversity
from golfng as we'll as an economic
viewpoint. He was just a big fellow
who had muffed his chance in 1888,
when he was runner-up to Johnny
Goodman at Chicago. But he started
a comeback that has now reached
astonishing proportions and put his
name in the games exclusive hall of
fame.
Only three players, up to today,
had repeated in the National Open.
Besides Jones they were Willie An
derson. who won three times in a row
in 1903-05 and Jack McDermott, who
turned the trick in 1911-l2. Only in
TWO previous tournaments has Gull
dahl's winning total been beaten-by
his own record 281 of last year and by
Tony Manero's victorious 282, the
previous record in 1896 at Baltusrol.
Metz Second by Strokes.
There wasn't even much consolation
for the rest of the professional brigade
after Guldahl got through mopping
up, collecting the 1000 prize money,
signing another receipt for the title
cup. and fastening off to give radio
talk as the first step in a campaign he
hopes may enrich him by $25,00O
worth Of by-products.
Metz. whose 54-hole total of 211
equaled the championship record,
had 2-stroke margin of second-place
safety with his 290 total Trailing
him, in a tie for third place at 292,
were Tony Penna of Dayton, Ohio,
who came through with q last-round
SO to cut himself bigger slice of the
money than he expected, and Harry
Cooper, the hard-luck king. Cooper
finished with II for 292, after blowing
his chances with third-round 76.
There was another two-way tie for
NTH place, between Emery Zimmer-
man and Byron Nelson of Reading,
Pa, at 294 each. Zimmerman scared
to final 78 after three fine previous
rounds Of u, II and 70. Nelson, never
able to shake of completely the effect
OF 8 on his first-round card, shot
"a and u today.
Picard Gets Putting Jitters.
Picard's attack Of putting filters on
the third round put him out of the
running after starting the final days
play in possession of a 1-stroke lead
over Metz, 140 to 141. The Hershey
(Pao ace thyee-putted the first two
greens OF his third round, posted II
and 10 for his last two rounds and
totaled 295. This left him in q three
way tie for seventh place, with Paul
Runyan and Frank Moore, both from
New York's suburban Westchester.
Metz's reversal Of form was the
biggest surprise and shock Of the final
afternoons play. After his third
round 10, which gave him . three
stroke margin over the field, he was the
darling Of the big galleries. The hand