Evening star., 1939-07-23
Oliver, Gipe, Morris
Display Glass in
Tuneup Rounds
Most Democratic Annual
Tourney on U. S. List
Opens Tomorrow
By WALTER McCALLUM..

ship have been pure window dress
ing, They have qualified, gone to
the scene of the championship,
played a few rounds and then van
ished. With the single exception Of
1886. of late years the boys from
the Capital have done nothing at all
In the national public links title
tourney.
But this year it can be different.
The boys over at Baltimore's Mount
Pleasant course, where the cham
pionship will get under way tomor-
row at the crack of dawn, have
wholesome respect for the three
Qualifiers from the Capital.
Chubby Andy Oliveri, Washington
municipal champ; slender Jim Gipe
and bespectacled Bob Morris have
shown their stuff so well and so ably
have demonstrated their shormak-
ing ability that they are being given
q good chance in the tincan cham
pionship starting tomorrow. You
listen to the caddies talk over there.
They are the lads who know golf.
~Yes, Eddie Johnston and Arthur
johnson are good" said a tall, good
looking youngSter with mammoth
golf bag over his shoulder $50 are
Jimmy Armacost and AL Hugel-
meyer. But I saw Oliveri and Gipe
and Morris play. T think they're
just as good as our boys"
Thirty Teams Compete.
The three local Qualifiers will form
the Harding Cup team to compete
for the intercity championship along
with % teams from other localities
Total score in the 36-hole medal
round Monday and Tuesday counts
in the chase for the Harding trophy
And if Messrs Oliveri, Gipe and
Morris get in the groove they can
bring back the big mug to Washing
ton, where is came Lack in 1924, won
by team led oy Southpaw Earl
McAleer.
Oliveri will lead the parade OF
local entrants in the tourney tomor-
row, starting at 7:44 am. tomorrow
and 1923 Tuesday with Zygmund
Zawadski of Detroit and Carl Dezern
of Durham, N. c. Gipe will play at
11:56 and 8:l2 with Ronnie S. Will
Gams of Detroit and Neil Whitney
of Los Angeles, while Morris will
start at 2:30 and 10:46 with Yves
Bener Of Portland. Greg, and Steve
Maurath of New York.
Differing from the amateur cham
pionship. which brings together a
flock of college boys and generally
a group of men from the upper crust
of society, the public links cham
pionship is by long odds golf's most
democratic title tournament. 1t will
toss into competition flock of taxi
drivers, steel workers, Office white
collar men, auto statesmen and rep
resentatives of the heterogeneous
collection of jobs that make up the
army OF American wage earners.
Four Former Champs Play.
Four former champions are in the
list, including Al Leach, the present
titleholder from Cleveland. Carl
F. Kaufman of Pittsburgh, the
tall, scholarly looking man who won
three times, will be no pushover,
nor will Charley Ferrara of San
Francisco, who won in 1881 and
1888. Missing from the starting list
will be frankie Strafaci, protege of
Witty Cox, and winner in 1885.
frankie now is a member of a
private club. If you belong to a
private links organization you are
barred from the upper crust of
public links golf.
The course itself is one of the
toughest tests over which the ma
tional ever has been held. Built
about six years ago by the Balti-
more Parks Commission, it was laid
out frankly as championship
course. It has some of the biggest
putting green's in this country. The
trick is not so much to get on
these greens as to get down in two
puts after reaching them. Ap-
proach puts of 80 yards and more
will not be uncommon on these i'm
mense putting surfaces.
1t measures $685. yards in length,
as it will play starting tomorrow,
with three par holes and three
par 3 affairs, making up a total
par of 70.
Its Par Seldom Beaten.
Par has been shattered, but not
often. There won't be many 67s and
68s over that course, for there are
not the usual number of "leveling'
holes, where good golfer can slip
a pitch shot close enough to bag
a birdie. Long. tough par holes
are the rule rather than the excep-
ton. Five Of the par holes are
well beyond 400 yards in length.
And the course will not be fast.
Last weeks heavy rains have slowed
1t up to the point where it is sure
to be slow-for the first few days
at least.
Il don't think you'll find many
men breaking par here said Willie
Schreiber, the local professional.
'These men are good golfers, but I
think they'll find this course about
as tough as any they've ever seen"
Baltimore, with its first national
public links title tourney coming
up, has spared no effort to make
1t good one. They are proud
of their course over there and
they've kept it up to the point
where it will be at it's peak of con-
dition for the tourney. They've en-
larged the old mansion which now
is used as a clubhouse, but even
at that it hardly will be adequate
to handle the crowd. One hundred
and ninety men will start, with "a
to qualify for match play starting
Wednesday. The tourney will run
through Saturday, reaching its
climax with a 36-hole semi final
Friday, with the same route sched-
uled Saturday.