Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-02
Golf Prophets Up Tree as Sneod
And Nelson, CoIorIess but Hot,
Shoot It Out for PIG. A. Title

scrap under q hot sun, over dry
ing course.
But Snead was no SLOUGH either,
as he put away Harold Jug Nc
Spaden of Winchester, Mass, S and
l. Sammy shot SO Saturday and
played IA holes yesterday in even As.
He would probably have been just
as good as Nelson had he been re-
quired to finish at the same fast
pace But McSpaden, far outranged
by the tremendous tee shots of the
boy from the Virginia hills, simply
couldn't keep pace with Slamming
Samuel
Guldahl did better job. Ralph
started / down, went into a daze
early on the first nine to come out
of it down, grabbed back a hole,
lost it again and entered the last
three holes 2 down with three to 60.
Had he been up with his puts he
might have squared, but Ralph
and Nelson, too-were woefully
short with their puts from 10 to 80
feet. The boys might have been
playing tiddlywinks, instead of for
the second most important links title
of the land.
Byron definitely showed signs of
cracking at the seams when he
shanked his second shot at the thir-
ty-fourth and lost it to Guldahl's
par. Then Ralph parked a niblick
second shot 6 feet from the pin at
the thirty fifth. That putt wasn't
tough, but he missed it on the
sucker side-the low side. 1t was
his last chance, for Nelson Clipped
dead at the final hole after barely
missing bunker and got the needed
half. At that Ralph, his only chance
the holing Of 35-foot putt to keep
the match alive, left himself 8 feet
short. You don't win golf matches
by hitting those puts short of the
cup.
Neither Has Won P. G. A. Crown.
Neither Snead nor Nelson has won
the P. G. A. before. Nelson was
runnerup to Henry Picard last year,
when Henry parked a niblick shot
dead to the cup for a winning birdie
at the thirty-seventh hole at Po-
monok. Sammy took the biggest
licking any P. G. A. finalist has
taken in the 1888 championship at
Shawnee from the war clubs OF
,Runyan.
Snead has given good limitations
OF blowing in the pinches before.
He tossed the 1899 Open champion
ship with the biggest blowup in golf
history on the seventy-second hole
at Philadelphia. And he started the
1910 Open championship with a
blazing ST at Cleveland, only to cool
off with a last round 50 and finish
down in the ruck. Two weeks ago
Sam licked Defending Champion
Harold McSpaden in a playoff for
the Canadian Open championship.
And today he has his second real
crack at the P. G. A. crown. It
may be that Sam has turned that
victory corner and is on the winning
road to the big championships. And
again it may not be.
Certainly he has one of the tough
est of all the golfing sharpshooters
In Nelson, hot on the trail OF his
second national title. Byron was the
linksman Of the year in 1899, win
ming the National and Western Open
championships and finishing runner
up in the p. G. A. He hasn't won
much so far this year, but a win
of the P. G. A. would cover all mis-
takes for the Houston 26-year-old.
Both Lack Color.
They're both great golfers in q
mechanical sense, with about as
much color as q pair Of selling
platers. Or Is color the mere act Of
making marvelously delicate golf
shots under fire? If it is, these two
have color. Otherwise they are
pair of great mechanical men,
grooved to perfection in the game
they have played since childhood.
To reach the final Snead and
Nelson have beaten some good golf
ers. Snead has licked Nelson Gid
dens, Charles Sheppard, Jimmy
Hines, Gene Sarazen and Harold
McSpaden, and Nelson has put the
finger on Dick Shoemaker, Frank
Walsh, Medalist Dick Metz, Eddie
Kirk and Ralph Guldahl. So nei-
ther of them is exactly unfamiliar
with tough golf matches.
Glimpsed at the championship
were the following Westinghouse:
Page Hufty, Parker Nolana Pat
Flaherty, James D. Strayer, Mr.. and
Mrs. A. G. Dezendorf, Fred Walen,
A. M. Clayton, Charles Price, Claude
Rippy and Bishop Hill.