Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1937, Page 80

2 THIS WEEK Maogazine Section How to Win the OPEN™ Just ‘‘get hot’’ at the right time, says last year's champion. And when the golf classic gets going at Detroit next Thursday, he will be striving to follow his own advice by Tony MANERO Qpen golf champion of the United States FELT like a man walking a tightrope as I played through the home stretch at Baltusrol in last year's National Open Golf Tournament — one false step and I'd crash. I didn’t make that false step and I didn't crash — because I happened to pick that particular day out of the whole year to get hot. I couldn’t do anything wrong, and though Harry Cooper was breaking the all- time tournament record just ahead of me, I burned up the course in 67, catching and passing Cooper on the last five holes. " How to win the “Open”’? That's the answer: get hot — save your best golf of the year for those tiirree days. It’s simple, if you can do it — and some golfer does it every year. I hope I'll be the lucky one again this year when the National Open gets under way — next Thurs- day — at the Oakland Hill Country Club near Detroit. It’s easy enough — after it’s all over. Take last year’s tournament. Just before I teed up to begin the last nine holes, I heard I was within two strokes of Harry Cooper. If I could overcome his lead, I’d be Open Cham- pion of the United States! I was lucky to be paired with Gene Sarazen, my friend since we were caddies together. When you're on a spot like that, it helps to have a pal pulling for you. “Qut in 33!” he said as we left the ninth green. “You're burning up the course, Tony. This is your day if you keep up that pace.” I took a nice, easy swing on the tenth tee, and the ball flew straight and far down the fairway. The second went home without glancing to right or left, and I sank my putt for a par. It seemed too easy. It was the same on the eleventh hole. The ball behaved as if it were hypnotized, and I got my par. The twelfth was even better, for I sank a long putt for a birdie. We had to wait at the thirteenth tee; the big gallery following Harry Ccoper was slowing up all the matches behind him. Waiting takes twice as much out of you as playing — too much time to worry. Suddenly a man tapped my arm. “How can I cure an awful slice in my drive?” he asked. Think of filling your mind with sliced drives just when you’re making the biggest effort of your life! Gene coaxed him away —and saved me from possible disaster. At last the fair- way was clear, and I sent the ball down the line for two hundred and fifty. Home in two, I dropped another FIGHTING THE JITTERS: TONY MANERO NEARING THE = 18TH GREEN IN THE 193¢ TOURNAMENT Photos by Acme long putt on this lucky hole. Only one TONY SHOWS stroke behind Harry now — and on HOW IT'S the fourteenth 1 got a par, which DONE. ABOVE: brought me even with him. What a MRS. MANERO kick that was! HELPS HIM Right there my troubles began. The ACCEPT THE gallery had followed Harry Cooper CUP WON IN until he sank his last putt, for a LAST YEAR'S record-breaking 284 — then heard CLASSIC that I had caught up with his score on the fourteenth. The crowd made a rush for the fifteenth fairway. Cam- eras sprouted up out of the ground. I’m used to crowds, but with so much at stake, I was tense as a fiddle-string. But Gene kept them back, and 1 got a sweet drive. It was too easy — But on the next shot — when I think how close I came to blow- ing the works I can still feel a ghiver run down my back. I don’t mind cameras ordinarily; but as I swung back to make my second shot, some- thing behind me exploded. “Br-r-r-r!” it rattled like a machine gun. A woman had started her movie camera grinding. My head flew up, and I flubbed the stroke. After all my good luck, was this my finish — licked by a foolish break? I walked slowly toward the ball, fighting off the jitters. “‘Can I take it?”’ I asked myself, “or am I a dub? Come on; play the game!”’ My recovery shot was steady as if there wasn’t a camera in the world. I holed out in five — and I was still even with Harry! The sixteenth is 425 yards, par 4. I made it in a birdie three — and was one stroke under Harry. Could I hold it? I did. I held that advantage with a par on the seventeenth. They tell me I was running my hands through my hair, but I don’t remember. When Gene and I came to the last tee there were three pairs ahead of us. Talk about suspense! That twenty minutes’ wait was the longest I ever lived. I couldn’t keep still. . . . But at last the course was clear. My drive sailed two-fifty yards, straight. A four-iron shot carried over the trap to the green, fifty feet short of the pin. Here was the title in my hand. Could I close in on it? I ~ took a quick putt, which stopped five feet short. 1 still had one stroke to spare. Down went the putt, for a par four — two strokes under Harry — and four under the American record, made by Chick Evans in 1926. Sure, all you have to do is to ‘‘get hot.” It's easy — after it’s all over. But during the three days of that tournament I lost seventeen pounds! From worrying! How did I manage to play the best golf of my life during those three days when it counted most? That'’s a tough question. Luck? That had a lot to do with it, of course; but it was more than that. I learned a hard lesson during the qualifying round for last year’s “Open,” when I barely missed being put out of the tournament before I had even got in it. I had been teaching all winter, and I went into the qualifying round without a chance to relax before I started. And I played terribly. I barely scrambled in among four tied for the last qualifying place. So before starting at Baltusrol I took a whole week’s rest — and I went into the tour- nament fresh. I got 73, €9 and 73 on the first three rounds — not bad. But just before that last round started something happened which might have defeated me right there if my nerv- . hadn’t been in good shape. While I was eating lunch there was a sudden burst of cheering in the distance. A minute later some- one came hurrying in. “This tournament’s over,”’ he called. ‘‘Harry Cooper just got an eagle on the first. He's away out in front. No one can catch him.” Only eighteen more holes to play — and Harry going like a cyclone! The shock might have put me out of the running. But that week’s rest helped me to realize that one hole isn’t the tournament, that I might give par a little beating myself. Which I did. That's the way to ‘“‘get hot” for the Open Tournament, according to the way I figure. How does Gene Sarazen explain it? His final round in the 1932 National Open was one of the greatest exhibitions of golf that famous tournament has ever seen. Going into the last round, Gene needéd a 68 to tie Phil Perkins and Bobby Cruickshank, who were deadlocked for the lead. And a 68 is record- breaking golf. Gene did better than that; he covered the last eighteen holes in 66, and won by two strokes. I asked him how he managed to play such great golf at just the right time. “Because I got a week’s rest just before the tournament started —coming home from win- ning the British Open,” was his answer. But whatever the right combination is, I hope I'm lucky enough to strike it again next Thursday when I defend my title at the Oakland Hill Country Club. And if ! do, I hope I have Gene Sarazen as partner in the last round. Copyright, 1937, United Newspapers Magazine Corporation