Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-16
TEE GREEN
The Unconfident Crooner
By MERRELL WHITTLEsEY


TULSA, JUNE l5-"ole Tom would have made EN-
rewre the record books he had behaved the past
few years like he now Don Cherry saying Saturday
afternoon Tommy Bolt sweating through those
agonzng final holes of the National Open championship
Cherry missed qualifying for the Open by stroke in
Dallas but he Just happened to have night club engage
ment in Tulsa the same week the championship The
Bolts biggest cheerleader and in the locker
room after Tommy had they made date to team
In the Bng Crosby Pro-Amateur.
Don and I used to practice together" Bolt said
he cooling off in front of his locker How about it
Don but didn't fool around with practcing golf Shots
did We Don? How about it Don? We used to practice
throwing clubs at each other how about it Don?" And
Tommy laughed and laughed. 1t the first time he'd
really let his hair down that afternoon.
BOLT HAS A HABIT of using the persons name he
talking to at least half dozen times each sentence
Earlier in the afternoon. Bolt grimly serious and
Cherry his buddy scuffing along with the gallery,
head down much of the time almost afraid to look when
Bolt shot
was keeping Cherry company and feeling about the
way first met Tommy 10 years ago in Italy when
he threw two iron that didn't miss my head by foot
at Rome Country Club The occasion the Italian Open
1t rather a strange sensation walking that final
nine at Southern Hills in Bolts gallery 1t like wait
ing for accident to happen, recracker to go off,
You had heard so much about the Bolt but you
still weren't convinced There were stories that Tommy
had reformed because of message in Bishop Sheen'S
Dook because OF MS new WIFE, because OF caro- ne carries
in his wallet and reads when he's in trouble because
he going broke paying the PEA fines for throwing
and breaking clubs
But with the National Open title at stake. a
devlish golf that testing stronger mems will
power you weren't positive Tommy going to make it,
with a lead of from three to six strokes
HE'S HOME. HE'S HOME Cherry would say and
then Bolt would spray shot in the impossible rough and
Don would moan TITS all he's liable to put that
ball in his pocket and walk right back to the clubhouse
Bolt missed 2ia-foot putt on the 18TH or seth hole
and Cherry muttered Tom, Tom, Tom, don't let that
club CO. keep your head three more holes Tom
Bolt brdied the 10TH but the list hole is 346-yard
par four with fairway a small, hard green
with ditch one side and protecting traps with the
pebble-ike sand.
The gloomy Cherry could visualize Bolt enangled
the ditch and traps and throwing clubs and damning
the UsGA and the world in general But that never
happened
Bolt drove in the rough but he played heady shot
short of the green Clipped close and after surveying
2-foot putt from all angles, he tapped 1t in.
When Tommy poured the wood to his drive the
l8th creased it, he said later Cherry and all the
Bolt rooters knew Tommy had passed the test Cherry
led the applause all of the 468 yards up the farway.
Tommy Bolt the new National Open champion.
THERE'S ALWAYS SHOT that sticks in your mind
as the crucial in winning championship Twenty
different persons may have 20 different versions.
Our choice a shot out of the right-hand trap
on the 18th hole of Fridays round
Bolt first-round co-leader with H. had played the
first eight holes Friday in one under par and was
beezng But he took three from the edge of the ninth
green for DOGGY five and appeared slightly upset over
rather unnecessarily losing stroke to par
He hit a good tee shot the dogleg 10TH but his
second barely made the front of the green, and back
spin brought the ball into the front rough Tommy drew
back with the club in his best cub-thowing manner,
but he didn't let CO. splt-second later he dropped it
to the fairway and his caddie picked it up.
BOLT SCRAMBLED OUT of the rough for par
four, but the llth l67-yard par three, he hit a
sorry 5-ron shot into the right trap He putting
and blowing from the walk up the 10th hole, was
bothered by the 97degree heat and fussng about
the gallery crowding too close to the tee
He walked so yards out of the way to get coke
and was shaking his head when he reached the trap
The ball buried the pin the part of
the green and he had chance to get close with his
explosion shot.
But the new Bolt went for some deep thinking here
He pulled Hogan He played for the fat part of the
green and salvaged DOGGY four with two puts where
he might have taken five six and lost his head if he
had fooiShly gambed. Tom birded the next hole, and
was back in business
You have to see this Bolt to believe it.
l. b