Evening star., 1939-06-04
Winner Held Unlikely
To Go -Four Rounds
AT 50 Average
Hope Faint for CopitoI
Entrants in TussIe
On PhiI|y Links
BY WALTER McCALLUM.

BY WALTER MCCALLUM.
For quite few years now it has
been the fashion around major golf
tournaments to reckon the winner
= in terms of how many shots under
par he played the competitive route.
Open tournaments and open cham
pionships are being won nowadays
with dizzy scores so many strokes
under par that the oldtime yardStick
(par) has become ridiculous.
You only need glance at Sammy
Sneads seven-under-par IS at Con-
gressional a few days back to realize
what great golfer, playing very
long ball with the finest equipment
the modem game permits, can do to
a long golf course.
The experts laugh at par as they
snatch shots from under the
whiskers of the Old Man who was
invincible in the days of Bobby
Jones.
Yet, up at Philadelphia this week
they'll play the national open cham
pions'1ip on course where, for the
first time in four years, it looks as
If Old Man Par can settle back and
laugh at the experts. Par for the
course of Philadelphia Country Club
is 50 and for the four rounds of
the open championship starting next
Thursday will be 276.
It will be the first time in links
history that the par of the cham
pionship course has been under 70.
The record for the open is 281,
set by Ralph Guldahl, the reigning
king of the links, at Detroit in 1887
Tough Para Holes.
Para rating, according to the
United States Golf Association,
ranges between $50 and 450 yards.
Yet five para holes on the Spring
Mill course of the Philadelphia club
are over 450 yards in length, rated
as para affairs, and two of them
stretch out to 48O yards. What
course for the sluggerS who can
convert those long par4s into
drive and a medium iron hole.
The course measures 6,786 yards
in length, which makes it consider
ably shorter than the Oakland Hills
course at Detroit, where Guldahl
shot 28l, or the 1000 yards of Pitts
burghs famed Oakmont layout,
where the best that ever has been
done in the open is 299. 1t is heavi-
ly wooded, however, which means
extreme accuracy at the longer
ranges from the tee. Probably for
&ho Srr+ +i,oo cj,,oo 1Q25 O nov Soore
of 278 or worse will win this years
open championship.
And what chance have the five
local qualifiers on such course?
Right here and now you can put it
in your little red book that the
open championship won't come to
Washington this year.
Witty Cox and Leo Walper ap-
pear TO be the best possibilities,
with AL Houghton fairly close. But
Witty himself says he isn't in the
scoring groove, and Walper, even
though a very good golfer, isn't
good enough.
Little Hope for ID. c. Pros.
Cox, around 40 years Of age, needs
more tournament play than he has
had; and more practice, to get in
the scoring mood Witty is par
golfer, or so his record shows. And
while par probably will win at
Philadelphia, it will be quite a
trick to whack the ball around that !
course four times in an average |
of SO.
Walper is putting very well, which |
Is what you have to do to get any
where in the open championship. |
But Leo, frankly, isn't quite good |
enough to lick the dozen or so |
topnotchers. If Cox and Walper !
get into the first 90 and thereby !
become automatically eligible for
the championship without qualifl-
cation next year, they will do all
right.
The same goes for Al Houghton,
who is a very good golfer in local
company, and not so good in the |
big time of the game. AL has
played in quite a few open cham
and hasn't done much. |
At his age-nearing 40-they don't |
find the going any easier.
frankie Cunningham of Burning |
Tree will be playing in his second |
open championship. frankie hasn't |
PLAYED in many tournaments and !
isn't tournament tough" You |
have to be to keep your game to-
gether in the closing rounds of the |
big show, where the boys toss the |
bauble around among themselves
over the last nine. and the man who |
can keep pounding 'em down the |
middle and keep growing those
puts. can win.
Last Nine Holes Trying.
It's the toughest test in golf
that last nine holes of the open |
championship. I've seen many
great golfer curl and wilt under the
pressure.
Harry Cooper at Baltusrol, de-
layed by slow pair ahead: Roland
Hancock at Chicago in 1928, with
the championship staring him in
face, finishing with a brace of SIS;
Joe Turnesa at Columbus in 1926,
nlnlSnlng ikea Cu11er Wnen ne ndd |
the title laid away.
So many of them have had the
chance and muffed it. Nor is it any |
discredit to them. 1t takes plenty |
of intestinal fortitude to see pot |
of gold dangling at the end of the
glory road, nine short holes away, |
and keep that swing in the groove
and those jumpy nerves under con-
troll.
Sarazen had it, and Guldahl has it |
today. So had Jones. and Hagen. |
Guldahl looks the best bet. He |
concentrates so that he forgets to |
get nervous. And I wonder if |
Sammy Snead ever will win the
open championship?