Evening star., 1939-09-14
The
SpoRTLIGH7
Merry Putting Stroke
Puts Over Sheehun
By GRANTLAND RICE,

By GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent of The Star.
NORTH SHORE COUNTRY CLUB,
Chicago. Sept. IA (NANA).-I had
a long talk with young Tommy Shee-
han. who set an all-time qualifying
record at 139-three strokes better
than the best even Bob Jones ever
shot-tWo strokes better than john
nv Fischer's mark at 141.
Here was his angle. Il happened
to be hitting my tee shots a long
way and straight enough. But the
main point was that I gave every
putt a chance. I had known before
how many puts stop short of the
cup. Those never have chance
to drop.
80, on Wilfred Wehrle's advice, I
decided to give every putt chance
to reach the cup at least. I was
surprised to see how many dropped.
I believe short play costs more shots
than almost anything else. The
tendency always is to spare the
shot-to be on the safe side in place
of taking the bold side
StiedIe Shows 'em How Golf Ball
ReoIIy Should Be Hit
This brought up the matter of the
longest hitters in the field. This is
the way they are ranked-and the
way they belong-Frank Stiedle, Hot
Springs-Bruce Mccormick, Cali
fornia-Johnny Fischer, Ohio.
Stiedle is ranked with Jimmy
Thomson and Sammy Snead at their
best. He overdrove the 18th hole,
which is 353 yards in length-and
he did this twice He reached par
5 hole of $40 yards with drive and
q four iron-and this over slow
course.
You can call this hitting the ball.
Bruce Mccormick and Johnny
Fischer are almost as long, almost,
but not quite Mccormick is a
slender California fireman who
weighs 160 pounds. He is well up
with the longest hitters in pro golf.
So is Johnny Fischer. They hit the
ball up with any pros you'll see,
barring possibly Thomson and
Snead.
One feature of this amateur
championship has been the terrific
pace set by the leaders. We had
part of the answer on Monday, when
% of them equaled or broke par on
a course over 1000 yards in length.
We had about the same answer on
y1-l,n 0f fhoro
tinued the same dizzy pace-the
fastest pace I've ever seen from
any field in any past amateur
championship.
Amozing improvement Noted
In Play Of Amateurs
Amateur golf in the United States
has come along with an amazing
Improvement in all-around play.
There are more fine amateurs to-
day than the country ever knew
beforehand this happens to be by
a wide margin. The next champion
whoever he happens to be-cer-
tainly will earn his crown.
Before Sheehan, captain of the
all-time medal play record by two
strokes with his 139, Johnny Fischer
had set the mark at 141 in Cleve-
land. Before Fischer, Bobby Jones
George Won Elm, Chick Evans
Francis Ouimet, Roland Mckenzie
Johnny Goodman, Jerry Travers
Walter J. Travis-the greatest
ryN1fnrc tho uNrlC-ho n
fired away for more than 40 years
at the target that young Sheehan
shattered. The best mark that
BOBBY Jones ever knew was 142.
The story of Sheehan's record
breaking march might be labeled
the ease of the broken toe"
Il used to lose my temper too
much" he told me. Over a month
ago he blew a 12-inch putt on the
last green and then promptly struck
his toe with the putter, breaking a
bone.
That cured me-" he said, that
broken toe gave me the medal play
record"
Every Putt in Two Rounds
Is up to or Past Cup
It was the most magnificent medal
play performance in the long his
tory of medal play golf. 1t might
be recalled here that, in the last
Is years, Bobby Jones, at 142 or
each occasion, is the only entry who
ever has won the medal and ther
moved along to bag the big title
and take over the purple toga.
Young Sheehan was extremely
modest as we talked over his dou-
BILE round, which failed to include a
single Ga single bad hole.
IT just happened to be hitting al
my Shots" he said, land my drives
happened to be both long ano
straight. That always helps" Well
1t rarely hurts.
please give a lot of credit te
Wilfred Wehrle," Sheehan told me
"Why?" 1 asked.
Because he wrote and wired me
from the hospital to be sure anc
give every putt a chance, and
never struck a putt in the two
rounds that stopped short OF the
hole
With his record breaking 139, he
had six puts that trimmed the cur
and failed to drop. With better
luck, he might easily have had 6
81 or a Sc to go with the 10 he shot
in the first round.
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