The Washington times., 1939-01-17
7. SYLVESTER
LEARNED GOLF
The HARD WAY
This Is the SiEth In q series
of articles on local golf pros
and their SpeciGlitieS.
BY Lillian RIXEY

Every Saturday morning at
10:3O the Georgetown boys gather
on the practice tee at Capital GoIt
and Country Club for a brushing
up on their game from the genial,
roly.poly club pro, who Just last
year was appointed the first golf
coach in Georgetown University
sports history.
Hey, Tony, how do I look on
this backswing?" says Charlie
Pettijohn, No. 2 squad member.
Say, Tony, how can get rid
Of this smothered hook?" asks
red-headed Johnny Burke, inter-
collegiate champion and winner
Of the 1888 District amateur.
GIVES BOYS ADVICE
So Tony Sylvester gives a little
word of advice here, a bit of
demonstration there, for the bene
fit of the crack golfing team with
whom he will go on outof-town
trips during the intercollegiate
spring matches. The other boys
on the team are Billy Shea, Ray
Higgins, Dick Hearty and William
Walsh. The alternateS are Nc
Bride and Van Herpe.
In the days when every pro had
to be a good club-maker as well as
an instructor, Tony Sylvester
learned the business. From short
ly after the war until manufac-
turerS started marketing steel
shafts on a mass-production basis,
Tony's handmade clubs of hickory
and persimmon wood were shipped
all over the world. Tommy Armour
and Gene Sarazen used his woods
and so did Bobby Jones. Even to-
day MacGregor puts out a set of
woods which carry Sylvester's sig
nature.
Club manufacturing is no longer
part of a pros job, but Tony
keeps his hand in with q good
deal Of shaft and head repair
work, not only for his own club
members but also on assignment
from the over-crowded shops Of
other local pros. He has an able
young assistant, Jimmy Kraft, who
is learning the golf business just
as Tony did back in Wilmington
under famed Gil Nichols.
ENLISTED IN WAR
When Sylvester was 16, Gil more
or less adopted him, taking him
into his home and into his shop
as shopboy and assistant pro.
From another Wilmington Coun-
try Club assistant, Alex Simpson,
son of Archie, the famous club
maker of Carnoustie, Scotland, he
picked up the fine points of fash
Joining the implements of the
game.
When Gil Nichols went to the
Sound View Club at Great Neck,
L. l., in 1916, Tony naturally went
with him. During the war, he
enlisted and served as interpreter
for the United States Army with
the Italian engineers. On his re-
turn from overseas, Nichols got
him a job as assistant to Jimmy
Donaldson at the Norwood Club
in Long Branch, N. j.
After a tour at the Fenway
Club in White Plains, Tony went
down to the Whitefield Estates
Club in Sarasota, where he de-
signed clubs for Armour and
Jones. Then, when Armour turned
pro and came up to Congressional
in 1926, Tony came with him.
Much of the shop management
and instruction fell to Tony, for
Armour was a tournament"
golfer.
STILL WITH CAPITAL
In 1928, Tony received an offer
from Capital, then the Old Ban
where such notableS as
Woodrow Wilson used to play and
where the famed Knickerbocker
Women's Club of 1910 was started,
and he has been there ever since
as club mentor.
Though never a tournament"
pro, Tony can and has turned out
good golfers, among them are
Parker Nolan, Of Congressional,
and Eddie Bean and Martin
Mccarthy, of Beaver Dam.