Evening star., 1939-07-29
Steel Workers Game
Likened 10 Metal
He Fashions
Rival Turns in Hottest
Match PIoy Round Of
Tourney in Semis
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
Star Stan CORRESPONDENT.

MOUNT PLEASANT GOLF
COURSE, Baltimore, July 29.-Two
hundred-pound Andrew Szwedko,
out of a pipe mill in Pittsburgh, a
gent who thinks he is lucky to get
this far and who plays golf with as
little give and spring as the pipe he
bends in his daily stint, clashed
today in the. final round of the
public links national championship
over the Mount Pleasant course
here with Phillip Gordon, young
insurance clerk from Oakland, across
the Golden Gate from San Fran
cisco.
Big Szwedko, of Polish-Lithuan-
ian descent, is no newcomer to
championship golf. "A semi -finalist
IN this tournament two years back,
and a quarter -flnalist last year, the
sturdy Pittsburgh mill worker has
hacked his way to the final round
by steady, painstaking golf with en-
phasis on deadly putting.
He is 81 years of age and never
has belonged to a private club.
But he has qualified for the last
two open championships. I saw
him at Philadelphia back in June,
where he finished far off the pace.
That course was too tough for a
hacker like me- said Szwedko. But
this one is all right. I like these
big greens, where you can hit the
ball and hope it won't end in a
trap
Hot Round Licks Cop.
Gordon, his final round opponent
today, is slim, grim faced lad of
%. who never has done much in any
major tournament. But this same
Gordon put together the hottest
match round of the week to lick big
Jim Molinar, the Frisco traffic cop,
by 8 and 2 yesterday, while Szwedko
hung grimly to a one-hole lead to
whip slim Arthur Armstrong, the
kinky- haired Hawaiian entry and
favorite OF the galleries. He finally
accomplished it on the last hole of
the semi-final, but not before gal
lery of 5000 people had more than
their share of thrills.
why don't you pass up this tour
nament and play in the amateur
championship, as good as you are?"
I asked Szwedko. Where will 1 get
the money!" he asked. Which was
as good an answer as any. To un-
derstand the difference, you must
realize that the public links boys are
entitled to accept travel money and
S6 a day expenses at the scene of the
tournament. But in the amateur
championship if they take a dona-
tion or accept expenses. and it gets
noised around. they are strictly be-
hind the eight ball, as far as the
powers of golf are concerned. That
Amateur championship costs money,
and haven't got it," said Szwedko.
Businesslike Golfer.
But the big Pole, portly of build
and as unrelenting as a piece of the
pipe he bends in his Pittsburgh mill,
is rugged guy to lick He isn't any
spectacular golfer, by any stretch of
the imagination. Indeed, he leans
the other way. Where Gordon hits
that ball with the dash and elan of
National Champion Byron Nelson,
the big Szwedko just steps up and
without any plans and any funny
fandangoes, leans into the apple.
There's no funny business and no
fancy tricks about the big boy from
Pittsburgh. He hasn't any frills and
fancy trimmings. He's just public
link golfer and as far as he's con-
cerned, that's OK.
Over the sun-baked Mount Pleas
ant course he has plodded his way
like a farmer ploughing a furrow.
seeking the straight line to the hole
and finding it. And he has fine
putting touch. His second puts
usually are less than 2 feet in
length, which is pretty good country
putting on a course with greens as
big as they are here at Mount
Pleasant.
That Hawaiian boy was tough"
he said. He didn't have much luck
on his puts" Which is the truth.
The 130-pound Armstrong couldn't
hole 'em yesterday afternoon. You
could have heard the groans of the
gallery clear to Washington as they
pulled for the kinky-haired boy
from the islands, but the ball
wouldn't drop. When he failed to
hole a 5footer to win the 35th,
where he was down, he was
through. His putt to win the final
hole just brushed by and Szwedko
laid his approach putt stiff for the
half he needed. Incidentally, he
eliminated Armstrong in the quar-
terminals of the 1887 tournament.
Gordon Coasts in Afternoon.
Gordon at all times had the inside
edge on Molinari. Five up at the
end of the morning round, he just
coasted in the afternoon. Although
Molinari knocked two holes off his
lead, the insurance man nudged
them along, waiting for the inev-
liable end. 1t came on the 34th
and hard-working Molinari was out.
Both the finalists are good golfers.
They had to be to get this far. But
Szwedko, the gent with the cast
iron nerves and the infexible dis
position of the Slav, carries the psy-
Geological edge. He's like piece of
Pittsburgh steel and as unbending.
He may be licked but he won't
crack. You can't crack hunk of
steel, except with dynamite.