Evening star., 1942-05-10
Winter Tour SteeIed
Visitors Who Won
All Places Here
Boil, Harper and Coffey
Also to Be Watched
In M. A. Title PIoy
BY WALTER McCALLUM.


play from the local stars and
grabbed passes to play in the P. G.
A. championship starting May rs.
For a long stretch of years the
Washington pros so completely have
dominated pro golf in this sector
that it must have been a rude shock
to them to see Erie Ball, the
smooth-stroking English lad from
Charlottesville; saturnine Chandler
Harper from Portsmouth. Va, and
rotund Rut Coffey of Hagerstown,
Md, come into their back yard and
steal the show. And the Washing
ton boys couldn't do anything about
It,. They were licked, and that was
that.
1t proves again the truism that
Hagen and Sarazen cracked many
years ago. There's guy in any
tank town who can lick you," they
said in the days when barnstorm-
ing pro golfers were picking up
stray chunks OF coin In exhibition
matches in the hinterlands. But
Erie Ball, Harper and Coffey aren't
SA0NlAy tdAAh-eOWAA 6S41SASs
The truth behind the failure of
the Washington pros is that they
were not tournament tough" Ball,
Harper and Coffey all played on the
winter professional tour, had the
advantage of constant tournament
golf and were toughened to the try
ing test of medal play.
Worsham Could Make Grade.
None of the local entrants were
on the tour, including Lew Wor-
sham, jr., the Burning Tree pro,
who tied for last place and lost in
the playoff. Lew could be one of
the top pro golfers of the land with
q couple of seasons OF steady tour
nament golf behind him. But it's
questionable whether such a pro-
cedure is worth the effort. Lew
has a good club job, is well liked at
Burning Tree, and would be away
from his club for months If he
played the tournament circuit.
There's nothing like steady, con-
slant tournament golf with the pres
sure bearing down all the time to
tougher fellow up for this game"
said Witty Cox. WHY'S days of big
time tournament golf are behind
him, but he knows the racket as do
few pros. He played the circuit for
q decade and q half and did all
right. But the Washington boys
aren't inferior to their out-of-town
rivals. as the Burning Tree test
would seem to prove. They simply
aren't tournament tough. All of
them are good enough to qualify for
the P. G. A., but they do not have
that background of tough golf be-
hind them. That's what it takes"
Likely to Be Tough in M. A.
Meanwhile watch out for Messrs.
Ball. Harper and Coffey when the
Middle Atlantic P. G. A. tourney
comes along, II 1t Is held They'll
still be the men to lick, unless Lew
Worsham gets back in the groove.
AT present Lew looms as the top
Washington pro scorer
Linksmen around Washington are
not getting excited about the Hale
America open tournament to the
point where they are knocking each
other down to get into the affair
whose initial preliminary rounds
win be played at Bannockburn May
IS. With entries to close Wednes-
day In New York, few of the local
amateur eligibles have entered the
affair. and the pros are lukewarm
about the whole thing, even though
many Of them will enter as a COM
pliment to the United States Golf
Association.
The picture is exactly the reverse
of the usual at this time of year
Ordinarily the pros would be keen
to play in the National Open cham
pionship, always held the first or
second week in June. They'd scrap
for places in the sectional rounds
and enter in droves. But they aren't
doing it this year, for the Hale
America Open Tourney, to be played
at Chicago starting June 49,
Uncertainties Hold Back Pros.
Most of the pros, faced with many
uncertainties and Regulations as
to the future Of their business, pre-
fer to stick on the job this spring
The Hale America event will carry
$4,000 in prize money, although &c
per cent Of the payof will be in
War Bonds. The sectional rounds
at Bannockburn will be followed by
a second preliminary at 13 spots
thrNtfnhnirt tho l1r
54-hole route Local quaiifiers vii
go to Bloomfield, N. j., for this Sec
ond prelim.
Feminine golfers are due for two
straight days of tournament golf
with club events to be staged latel
In the week. Tomorrow few o.
them will play in a woman-prt
tourney at Kenwood, and big fielc
will start Tuesday in the Phylli
Keeler Miller memorial tourney a
the Washington Golf and Countr,
Club. The latter tourney will b'
staged by the Washington womel
and is not to be held by the Wom
ems District Association.
Indian Spring members are elatet
over the prospect of more golf a
their course, to be obtained by con
struction of three additional holes
now being built. Alongside the pres
ent sixth green a new tee will b.
built, and they'll play to the oil
first green. Then they'll play tn
old first hole backward to a ney
green alongside the old first tee
going over in back Of the old gol
shop to play a new one-shot hol
around ITS yards in length. Pr
Mel Shorey predicts the new hole
will relieve congestion on the cours
and will xpeed I'D play.