Evening star., 1940-09-08

RT WAS just kids tournament back home
in Olympia, but it was tremendously i'm
portant to me. And was sort of down-at-
the-mouth this day. My driving was weak.
my irons cratic, my approaches wild. Benny
Griffin my brother -in-law at that time city
champion OF Olympia. noticed my guinness
as trudged down the fairway to play another
drive.
What's the matter. Bud?" he asked
You're still up there. You've got good
chance to win"
"Yeah?" l said. With my drives and my
irons roaming all over the place."
Benny gripped my arm and lifted a club
out of my bag. 1t was my putter
Listen, you've been going all right with
this - and, " he said, shaking the club in my
face, this is the club you can win with. no
matter how bad your drives, irons and other
Shots
Benny knew what he was talking about.
caught up with the fellows that day with the
putter, and I've been catching up with most
of them pretty regularly ever since The
putter is the biggest club in my bag - indeed.
in any golfers bag. Putting has won and lost
more golf championships than all the other
departments of the game. know. Ii was
putting that enabled me to win the National
Amateur tournament last year in Chicago
and if am lucky enough to repeat in the
tourney this week at MamaIoneck New York,
know it'll be because of my putter. In the
final IS holes of last years tourney, l re-
quired only lO4 puts. During this spree,
had q one-putt holes. enabling me to over
come my rivals superior driving and iron
work.
Benny Griffin could take bow for that.
When was a kid in knee h1eeches, full of vim
and vigoF. naturally was anxious to whack
away at the ball and try to knock it around
the world. But Benny would take the driver
from me and hand me the putter and say,
Let's go over to the putting green, Bud, and
get in little practice. Then we'd putt and
putt until the sun set And, as if that wasn't
enough, we'd go home and putt for hours on
the kitchen floor with rough mat spread
over the lmole,m.
Bud, " Bennyd say. take care of the puts
- and your game will take care of itself
Like everything else in life, it's the little
things that count"
Every tournament, every day, every shot,
the value of my early putting practice is
brought home to me more forcibly. have
found that a six-inch putt counts Just as
much as any 3O0-yard smash off the tee
even more. You see, bad drive or poorly
aimed long iron doesn't necessarily mean the
loss of stroke, unless, of course, you 60 out
of bounds You can wipe out the memory and
the effect of almost any bad shot with smart
recovery. But missed putt is gone forever.
After you miss putt, you aren't playing to
get back to where you were, but to keep from
slipping further.
A Ouusfes-fnoi Win
! AXE last years Amateur tourney. In the
quarter finals, l was pitted against Joe
Thompson, fine golfer. He was in marvellous
form the day we met. His tee shots doomed
down the fanway as if they had been fired
from an antitank gun. He bagged six brides
IN our round. but my putter was just be-
ginning to hum and, although he played a
great game. my greenswork finally told the
story = l won 2 up.
1t took a little more than putting to save
me in the semifnals the next dav 7 WAC still