The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-07-14
BYRON NELSON BECOMES LATE
 p. 6. A. FAvOR|TE.
Texan is Burning Up" Shawnee COurse-Sara-
 zen "In There"
BY HENRY McLEMORE limited Press Staff Correspondent

Shawnee Delaware, Pa, July 14-UP)-The birdie man was flying high today as the 21st. Ma tional Professional Golfers Asso- ciation championship moved into the quarter final round.
 The birdie man is Byron Nelson, the freckled faced, pug nosed Tex an who scorched the Shawnee Country Club course yesterday with a score that approached nothing flat. There is no professional golf CT in the world, let alone in this tournament, who can approach Nelson when he's hot. He swept around 26 holes in eight under par in winning his third round match, and today he was favored to kick out Jimmy Hines in the top-bracket match.
 And Hines is no kick in the pants at match play. He proved that yesterday when, with thousand skeptics tagging his heels, he licked defending champion Denny Shute and brought to an end the longest winning streak golf has seen since Walter Hagen was nicked by the scythe of old man time.
 Nelson Is called the birdie man because he knows more about bir- dies, the golfing kind, than Audu- bon ever knew about the feathered variety. Its all or nothing with Nelson. He can throw in an eight or nine here and there, but between those rough spots he is liable to smoke. Against Harry Bassler yes- terday he was so hot that Bassler's six pars in the first ten holes got him just one halved hole. On the back nine Bassler shot a sub par 35 and lost four holes.
 Despite this near record effort Nelson was not too confident when he went to the starting tee today.
 When you get as hot as I was against Bassler," he said, you are bound to cool off. I wish I had saved few of those irons to the pin to use against Hines"
 In the same bracket as Nelson and Hines, with the winner to pro- vide semi- -finalist, were Jimmy Foulis and Sammy Snead. Foulis is the boyish veteran who started out as nobody, grew into a dark horse, and, finally, into a definite threat. A great hitter of the ball. his only handicap is a lack of strength to keep at the 36 hole grind. His opponent, the Hill-Billy Snead, is not bothered by lack of stamina. Snead is the strongest man in the tournament, really great athlete who could go on for ever. Snead is ? to l favorite to oust Foulis.
 In the other half of the draw the pairings pitted Horton Smith against Paul Runyan, and Gene Sarazen against Henry Picard. One guess was as good as another on the outcome of these battles. Sa- razen was not given Chinaman,s chance when the tournament start ed, but as he said, after conquer- ing Jimmy Demaret in 38 holes yesterday, there's life in the old man yet"
 Sarazen has all the shots to win any tournament. There can be no doubt about that. The big question mark concerns his mental attitude. his will to win; his ability to con- centrate through bitter match He'll need to keep his mind on his business against Picard, because the Hershey soldier is hitting the ball the same way he did in win ming the masters this spring.
 Smith must be given the edge even though it be a mighty slim one, over Runyan. The reason. The Shawnee greens are just the type Smith likes and as the young est follower of golf knows, he is the pest butter in the world. So, when you give him just the kind he likes he IS deadlier than cobra at one pace. He was played and won three matches to date and he has yet to miss a sinkable putt.