Evening star., 1941-09-12
By WALTER McCALLUM.

Placidly and serenely the District
amateur golf championship moved
today toward the final round late
this afternoon, with a champion
new or old-due to be crowned
around 5 o'clock. Or was it placid?
Under the surface of what seemed a
placid tournament with little to
disturb the smooth progress of events
seethed an undercurrent which may
result in change in the 1912
tournament.
Viewing such good simon pure
linksmen as Roger Peacock play
ing in the second fight, and. Volney
Burnett, the Msryinro~ saDateur
champ, walking around Watching
the matches, some OF the boys were
asking, Why cannot 80 men quail
fly for the championship flight, with
the beaten Is to fall into the first
flight? Wouldn't that insure against
failure Of good men to qualify?"
They are asking those questions in
such stentorfan tones that the Dis
trict Golf Association may be forced
TO take some action next year
changing the traditional form of the
title tourney.
Two Schools of Thought.
There are, of course, two schools
of thought on this detail of goli
tournaments. The hard boiled
school says something like this: II
good golfer has a bad day and
fails to qualify he doesn't deserve to
play. It's his hard luck and his own
fault. and after all he alone played
the round.
The other school would qualify 81
men for the title flight, which would
give ample latitude for the pros
pective champ who happens to have
bad qualifying round. 1t isn't ul
to us to tell the local solons what to
do. But that's the way the boys
are talking. And the boys, after
all, are the ones who pay the freight
Without the players there wouldn't
be any District championship, and
particularly such a good one as
that which was to end today. For
that tourney at Kenwood has been
a pippin. 1t has had q big entry
some fine matches, and the best OF
competition. 1t marks another high
spot in the long line of District
title tournaments.
Defending Champion Ralph Bo-
CART has been no ball of fire in this
tournament. Needing a spirited
rally to qualify, winning his first
two matches with something hess
than classy golf Ralph met Earle
Skinker, his tow-headed pal from
Columbia, today in one semi-flnal
match. The other found portly
Parker Nolan, the former Maryland
champ from Congressional, match
ing shots with Jock Olmstead, the
thin man from Indian Spring, who is
a semiflnalist in a major tourney
for the first time.
Opponents for First Time.
Many times Bogart and Skinker
have played together in golf tour
naments. They are inseparable pals
and usually qualify together. But
up to today they hadn't met in a
major tourney with the chips down.
Little Earle won his spurs in cham
pionship style yesterday by coming
from away back to clip big Charlie
Malone, the foymer Redskin end,
on the twentieth hole. In this sec
ond-round match Earle was 8 down
to Charles with 6 to 60. He won
three holes in row to square at the
fourteenth, dropped the sixteenth
by blowing a 3-footer, won the sew
enteenth and halved the eighteenth.
They split the nineteenth in buzz
zard IS and then Earle holed q s.
footer for a birdie 4 to win on the
twentieth from big Charlie, a foot
taller and so pounds heavier than
the 19-year-old lad from Columbia.
Nolan outclubbed Medalist Buddy
Sharkey by the generous margin of
and 4 in the second round after