Evening star., 1939-09-10
Bobby Is Rated Best
Capital Entrant
In Five Years
Come, Physique Improved,
He Might Well Be Dark
Horse Of Tourney
By WALTER McCALLUM.

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Golf being the one game which
is entirely unpredictable. any gent
who picks one competitor to win
over field where the class is evenly
divided is "limbing," as Frank Will
liams calls it. In the colorful Will
hams lexicon "limbing" means get
ting out so far that mere shake
will drop the hopeful prognosticator
on a bruised beak.
But viewing the exploits of young
Bobby Brownell, the Manor Club
pride, over the last two or three
weeks, you get the idea that Bobby,
little known to the country at large,
can come fairly close to being the
fellow to lick in the amateur cham
pionship at Chicago this week, pro-
vided he gets reasonable break in
the draw and retains the stroke of
genius he has had over local courses
in recent weeks.
Bobby will be making his third
start in the national tomorrow,
paired with blond Charley White
head, the Jersey champ. So you
can't call the Manor towhead ex-
actly a freshman in topline cham
pionship golf. He played at Garden
City in 1886, at Pittsburgh in 1898
and here he is again, ready for the
major amateur engagement of 1889.
Game Seems at Peak.
Right off the bat Bobby shouldn't
have any trouble qualifying for the
match play rounds. He tied for
eighth place at Pittsburgh last year
and he's much better player now
than then. 1t wouldn't be any great
surprise to see him close to the top
in the medal rounds tomorrow and
Tuesday.
Where Bobby was an inconsistent
performer in 1888, a kid with good
possibilities but one who lacked
championship distance and consist
ency, the same Bobby is jewel of
regularity this year.
Local victories may not mean
much in national championship,
where every competitor sports a local
crown of some kind. But no golfer
in years has been so consistently
good over stretch as Brownell has
been over the last three weeks.
Starting with the Baltimore Sub
urban Club tourney late in August,
he waded through a very good field
to win, shooting a 68 to beat Otto
Greiner, then 50 to beat Don
OBrien in the final The next week
he scored 76-72-148 to place Sec
ond in the sectional trials for the
amateur championship and followed
up by scoring 66 at Manor.
Bobby Now Has Strength.
Last Sunday the kid played two
rounds at Manor and Congressional
in p and 68 for total of 14O. In
few words, Bobby is playing the
kind of golf that wins champion
ships-even big ones like the ma
tional.
Against such tough competition as
the national brings out, any one who
picks one man against the field is
"limbing" But BroWnell looks to
me the best competitor Washington
has sent forth to the golf wars since
Roger Peacock went to Cleveland in
1885, and, before that, the George
Voigt and Roland Mackenzie of the
1920s
What I mean is that the Bobby
Brownell of September, 1889, is Is
per cent better than the kid who did
a good job in September, 1898. and
a lot better than the faltering young
ster who played here in the spring
Bobby has added pounds and
inches and has put yards and yards
on his tee shots. Last year he was
outdriven by every one with whom
he played at Pittsburgh. This year
he will do the outranging from the
tee. And it takes range, as we'll as
accuracy, to go anywhere in big time
golf. Don't let any one tell you
that you don't need distance to win.
It's far easier to play an 8-iron, even
from thin rough, than a 3-iron from
the fairWay. They don't turn out
Runyans every day.
Ready for Big Drive.
So young Bobby Brownell, the 20
year-old youngster, may we'll be the
dark horse of this national tourna-
ment. No Washington man ever
has gone past the semifinal Roland
Mackenzie reached the penultimate
round in 1927 at Minneapolis, and
George Voigt, then playing from
New York, went to the semifinal
in 1929
But Bobby has the game to do so,
and may.
A little luck on the draw, hot
round against an equally hot
round by the other fellow and the
Duke University boy can do all right
He has all the golf equipment any
man needs, and this year he has the
physique.