Evening star., 1938-07-30
$50 FEET IS TOPS
FOR BASEBALL HIT
Mounted Polo Star Sends
Links Pellet Length of
300.Yard Field.
BY GRANTLAND RICE,

By GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent Of The Star.
NEW YORK, July 30.-How far
can these prodigious swipers hit golf
balls. baseballs and polo balls? II
there Is any one query from the sport
ing populace that pops up more often
than any other. 1t concerns this mat
ter Of length.
How far can Jimmy Thomson or
Sammy Snead hit a golf ball? I've
seen both drove beyond 800 yards, but
there are angles too often overlooked
that is, the matter of roll, or tee
elevation, or helpful breeze.
The only test in golf is the carry.
III tell you why. I once saw Abe
Mitchell and Charlie Hall drive
green at Skokie that was 42O yards
from the tee. But the course was
baked as hard as granite, and there
was following wind.
On the other hand, I saw Bob
Jones in his prime at ST. Louis in 1921
on polo field, with slight wind
against him, win driving contest
with an average OF 228 yards.
In tournament at the National
Golf Links, five holes from level sur
roundings, with no helpful wind, were
marked out. There were Is OF the
picked pros Of the country driving.
No one carried 245 yards.
Talking 1t Over.
At the recent P. G. A. champion
ships at Shawnee I tried to get the
correct slant from the countrys lead
ing pros. Ed Dudley. one Of the longer
hitters. admitted that, on a polo field,
with no favoring wind. 260-yard
carry was his limit. Most of them
agreed that even Jimmy Thomson
couldn't pass 270 under these con-
ditions-from level ground with no
breeze to help out.
can tell you here and now that
240-yard carry from level without an
assisting zephyr is quite belt. Only
the sluggers can pass 260, and none
Of them can pass 280. Only carry
should count. Carry and roll mean
little over rd-baked terrains where
you hit for elevations. and friendly
gales take the ball along 80 or 40 or
so additional yards.
I'D say that something around
275 under these conditions was lust
about the limit" Ed Dudley said.
Flat surface, no wind to help"
Baseball Distance.
Babe Ruth's longest wallop at his
own game was around $50 feet This
is less than ITO yards.
A long-hitting golfer can pass a ball
player by at least 100 yeards-or 300
feet. Any one who can hit q base
ball $50 feet on the carry won't have
to worry about his home runs. And
that's only mashie shot in golf.
1t might interest you to know also
that Jimmy Foxx and other ball
players can wing that golf ball as
far as any Of the leading pros. Foxx,
Al Simmons and a few others are
up with the longer hits, but they
are not quite sure where the ball
will land.
Ray Guest. the polo star. Is another
who can make a golf ball travel
Some time back, at Meadowbrook,
Winston Guest decided to see how
far he could hit golf ball, teed UP.
using a polo mallet and hitting from
the back of polo pony Taking his
gallop and his wind-up. Winston's
drive over a fiat surface carried lust
around 300 yards-the length of the
field.
III take Guest with a mallet and
polo pony against any long hitter
in golf, using driver-given enough
chances to insure at least one pro-
digious effort.
Polo HitterS.
1t was Tommy Hitchcock who first
introduced the new idea of polo
hard riding and even harder hitting
I've seen Tommy hit at least half
the length Of the field-around $50
yards. Maybe he had a following
wind. But I'd say that was around
the limit.
A little while back. they had a long
distance test which Pete Bostwick,
a bantamweight, won at 800 feet.
Here again you get the element Of soft
or hard turf. favorable or an un-
favorable wind.
Bostwick, pound for pound. is the
hardest and longest hitter in polo.
But when the Guest brothers or
Hitchcock happen to get one right,
they should be good for 140 or $50
yards.
Leo Diegel disagreed slightly with
Ed Dudley about the distance Jimmy
Thomson could hit ball.
I've seen Jimmy carry around 800
yards" Diegel said, but I am not sure
what the force of wind was at the
time. still believe Jimmy can come
close to 300 yards on flat polo field
without the aid of following wind"
Dudley grinned. You've seen these
golf machine hit ball? Well, you
know how puny they make you fell
Yet they rarely are geared beyond
300 yards" he said. IT don't believe
any man can carry 800 yards on a
flat surface without good wind to
help. Jimmy can come closer than
any one else-with the exception, may
be, of chap named Gambler from
Detroit a few years back Gam could
hit a golf ball farther than any one
else ever saw. Snead is long-as
long as any one If you count both
carry and roll. But I still will say
that carry of 275 yards on the flat
is something terrific--and that $50
yards is beyond the range of most
of the field"
tCopyrisht 1888, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Inc)