Evening star., 1939-10-22
Mrs. Stokes Is Short
One Win Of Takinq
No. | Ranking
Marion Brown, '38 Queen
Fails to Retain Any
Of Four Crowns
By WALTER McCALLUM.

the year around town been as tough
Job as it is this year.
No single competitor has DOM
mated the tournaments, as Marion
Brown did last year, and as Helen
Dettweiler did in 1887. Champion
ships have been scattered around
among several topliners and, in fact,
no single woman has had an un-
blemished record. Not even the
steady Betty Meckley. the woman
with the lowest handicap around
town. Betty has handicap of
single stroke. Marion Brown has a
the Middle Atlantic champion, has a
handicap.
Based strictly on the record of
the year, the District women's cham
pion-Mrs. Leo j. Walper of the
Capital Golf and Country Club
takes top ranking this year, even
though she has handicap nowhere
as low as that of several others.
Ratings According to Records.
Here is the way the top feminine
golfers Of the town line up, accord
ing to their 1899 records:
No. Mrs. Leo j. Walper, Cap
ital Golf and Country Club.
No. 2-Mrs. Walter r. Stokes, In
dian Spring.
No. 3-Marion Brown, Manor.
No. 4-Mrs. Betty P. Meckley, In
dian Spring.
No. 5-Mrs. Myron Davy, Congress
sional.
No. 6-Mrs. L. G.. Pray, Manor.
Probably the steadiest feminine
golfer around town is Mrs Meckley.
She has been for nine years the
standout player of the Capital and
strictly the one to lick. But Betty,
food as she is, hasn't won major
tournament this year.
Mrs. Walper, on the other hand
c'on the District women's champion
ship, unseating Marion Brown on
the nineteenth hole in the final. She
elso was runner-up in the Maryland
State title tourney, losing on the last
hole to belated squirt by Mrs.
Jerome Sloman of Baltimore, when
the Capital woman seemed to have
the match safely in hand. She stood
on the fourteenth tee 3 up with S
to go.
Miss Brown. who won four cham
rlonships last year, didn't win a
title this year. Marion was runner
Up in both the District and Mid
Atlantic title tournaments. but the
magic putting that won her both
these titles in 1898, and also brought
ner the Indian Spring and Manor
championships was missing.
Marion Makes National Showing.
High spot of Marion Browns year
was her play in the national womens
championship at Weeburn. Up there
N Connecticut the tall youngster
from Manor licked Glenna Collett
Ware, six times national champion,
end lost in the second round of the
title tourney to Maureen Orcutt, the
Jersey lass who twice has been
runner-up for the title. Last year
ct this time Marion held the Mid
Atlantic and District championships,
along the major crown line, and the
club titles at Indian Spring and
Manor. She hasn't title now,
which means either that Marion's
game has gone back or the other
gals have improved.
For three years now Mrs. Walter
r. Stokes, the demure and soft
spoken Indian Spring matron, has
been an uncrowned champion-one
of those women who should have
won and didn't, except in handicap
affairs. Her game was good enough,
but she didn't click. But everything
came her way in the Middle Atlantic
at the Washington Golf and Coun-
try Club, where, armed with a deadly
putter, she waded through a fine
field to grab the biggest sectional
title in this sector. She beat Mrs.
Sloman, the Maryland champ; Mrs.
L. G. Pray, who previously had
beaten Mrs. Walper. And in the
final she handed Marion Brown the
worst licking the Manor girl has
taken In years-a S and 4 defeat.
Had Mrs. Stokes won anything
else this year there wouldn't be any
question about her top ranking. But
the Mid-Atlantic was the only tour
ney she won.
Mrs. MeckIey Has OF Year.
Mrs. Meckley, Washington's steadi-
est feminine golfer, had bad year.
Betty, despite her unquestioned sbil-
ity, failed to win a major engage
ment. She had scattered rounds
down in the middle 70's at Indian
Spring. set course record at Wood
mont in the low handicap section of
the buffers" tournament, but didn't
win a crown. That in itself was
unusual, for Betty has been in the
habit of winning title or two every
year.
Mrs. Myron Davy won the Con-
gressional crown without being
pushed, and played we'll in nearly
every tournament. One of WASH
ington's steadiest golfers, she has
yet to win a big title. But she can
do 1t.
Mrs. Pray sprang the big club
tournament surprise of the year
when she vanquished Marion Brown
in the final round of the Manor
Club tourney. A steady player with
out much 'umph" from the tee, Mrs.
Pray is not the spectacular scorer.
But she can and does stay in
steady groove.
Taking the record as a whole,
Mrs. Walper, with her District
championship victory and her
runner-up role in the Maryland
State title affair, is the top feminine
player of the year. But you'll find