Evening Star Newspaper, July 13, 1937, Page 13

PORTS. THE EVENING One-Arm Golfers Shine TEXANISEXANPLE OF POWER IN LEFT : | Wouldn’t Be as Efficient With Stick if He Had Both | Wings, He Says. BY GRANTLAND RICE. NY ONE who wants a better understanding of the part played by the left side in golf ghould have a round with Jimmy Nichols. Jimmy Nichols i a one-armed Texas golfer. His right arm was cut off just below the shoulder six years ago. He started playing golf with only his left hand and left arm to work with. In six years, against this handicap, he has gotten his game down In the low 70s—he drives as far as the average good pro—he can play every shot in the bag, including a bunker explosion from a heel print lie. He tells me that he has played Van Oortland Park in New York in 62— and has played it in the 60s more than once. Which is easy to believe, after you see him play. Has All the Shots. INJICHOLS uses right-hand clubs— | and takes a right-hander's stance | ot the ball. Naturally he swings | backward with his left hand. using| this hand as a right-hander should— | but 20 often does not. I have seen him drive from 250 to 260 yards—he 18 & long iron player—and he can put | the needed cut on a pitch to the green. He uses a midiron on holesj around 200 or 210 yards in length | without having to press or crowd the | rtroke. He i5 an excellent putter—in | fact, a sound all-around golfer. Nichols proves eflectively the big | part the left arm and left side play | in golf. He finds it easier to get a full body turn—and he has no right | hand to overpower the left or to rush | the downswing. Once in & while, | when he misses one, you'll hear him | sy with & grin, “I got too much | right in that one.” | But the important point is that he has no right hand that will take eharge of the awing and crowd the left | hand out of action. “If I had atarted | golf with both hands,” he aavs, “I | doubt that I would be playing nearly a8 well as I am playing today.” As Mao Smith Sees It. ’I‘HE right hand is the strong hand hitting forward. The big temp- | tation slways is to-call on this hand and forget about the left. Yet most | good golfers—most of the crack pros— will tell you they start the swing with - 'CorroN had a medal score of 141, 20 YEARS AGO | IN THE STAR AGBY twirled the 7-0 white- wash the Nats suffered at the hands of the Cleveland Indians. He gave up six scattered hits. Fred McLeod, Jack Burgess and | Jim Spencer will participate in an- other Red Cross exhibition golf match in Baltimore next week. Ty Cobb still is leading Ameri can League batters with .380, while Rousch of the Reds, with .359, is setting the National League pace. COTFON S0 STEADY HE RUFFLES SHUTE U. S. Golfer ‘Blows,’ British Open King Goes 2 Up in Special $2,500 Match. By the Associated Press. ‘ONDON, July 13.—There seems | to be little doubt that silent Henry Cotton is about the most popular golf champion—with | the galleries—that England has had | in a long time. H Henry doesn’t mix much with his | fellow pros, but the 7.000 fans who wandered over the Walton Heath | course in the rain yesterday to see him | play the first half of his 72-hole | match with Denny Shute gave ample | proof that he is a real drawing card. The spectators saw the usual fine exhibition of golf and one of the famous Cotton tantrums as the British open champion gained a two-hole lead over the American P. G. A. title- holder in their struggle for 82.500“ cash and the mythical title of “world's | match play ehampion.” Thumps Fence With Club. five strokes better than par and three better than Shute for the 36 holes. On two occasions Henry was | 2 down. but he kept on playing methodical, near-perfect golf until | Shute’s wild driving got him in more trouble than he could handle late in | the second round. Cotton became perturbed only on | the twenty-first, where he drove into ; the rough and needed three shots to | get out. After No. 4 finally had floated to the edge of the green, he gave a nearby fence a sound thumping with his club. | More Fine Golf Due. THE fans can look for more fine golf in the second half of the match today. for Shute did a highly credit- | able job up to the thirty-third. His | » GOLF'S LONE-HAND TRIO HERE CLEVER Cagle, Howard or Charest Able to Give Average Two-Hander Battle. OU'D think that a fellow w'*h only one arm couldn't play much golf and that he wouldn't be in a class with gents with the usual physical -quip- ment, but it doesn't hold true with at least three one-armed golfers around Washington, who can play quite a bit of golf despite their handicap. Chris Cagle and A. W. Howard of Washington Golf and Country Club and C. M. Charest of Columbia and Congressional play with only one arm, but they can hold their own in any moderately skillful links company. Cagle probably is the best of the trio. He has played the compara- tively short Washington course in 76 whacks, a goal that many fellows with two arms would like to reach. Howard, who used to be the Dis- trict tennis champion, has played the course in 78 and last year he scored a hole in one. Charest, who won the United States veterans' tennis championship several times not &0 long ago, plavs Columbia in 88 or 90 and is no soft spot for a lot of men who have all thelr arms and hands. Swing's the Thing, Cagle Finds. "()P‘ COURSE, having only one arm does handicap a fellow,” says Cagle. "I sometimes feel that I'd like to get more punch in my tee shots, particularly when the course is soft and heavy, but at the same time I can't find any fault from the angle of having on: hand working against the other. I find that if I keep to the idea of swinging the club and not trying to hit the ball too hard I get along all right.” Howard, 10 vears ago, used to be & really fine hitter from the tee. He doesn’t play as much golf nowadays as he did then, but occasionally he catches one on the nose and it goes away from there—far and fast. All three of the one-armed athletes are good putters, too, men who are Jjust as good at getting the ball into the cup as the men who overlap with the other hand. They don't have to bother with theories on grip and swing. They just stand up and hit the ball. Howard's Right Is Strong. | “QO THEY say this golf is a left- handed game.,” laughs Howard. STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, ‘| ONLY TIRE THAT'S TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1937. SPORTS. THE Fidn i TRIPLE-SA AGAINST ACCIDENTS | short game was magnificent, making | “Well, maybe it is, but what if you the left hand in eontrol—both the | up for his driving lapses, until a couple | haven't any left hand, like myself. I backswing and the downswing. | wild shots took him too deep into the | find I can get a little kick into the “T don’t call on my right hand until | rough on the thirty-third and thirty- | shots with my right.” Now what do we mean by TRIPLE-SAFE? We mean . . . Just before the impact,” Mac Smith says. “My Jeft is in control through two-thirds of the swing and the left stays firm and on the job until after the ball is hit. The big trouble is that most golfers let the left hand and left arm quit on the job through the downswing. The right hand rushes into action and there is no firm left side, left hand or left wrist to keep the clubhead in place—where it should | be through the ball.” As one gets older, the main tend- ency is to lift the clubhead with the right hand, using little body turn. This is the easier way—but it gets melancholy results. It is much easfer to get a proper body turn from left to right when you let the left hand start the backswing, finish the back- swing and then start the downswing. FEven after this has happened, there | still i& & big chance that most golfers will let the left hand and left arm soften up or quit just before the club- head arrives at the ball. Practice With Left Helpful. ON!! of the best exercises the golfer ean take is to practice swinging the elub with the left hand, leaving the | right completely off the club grip. He should do this swinging at the ball. At the start, it will be doubly awk- ward. It will seem an almost im- possible piece of work. It will prove how little you have been using this important hand in the swing. This type of practice not only will make you left hand conscious, but it also will build up the weaker left side. It will get you accustomed to using the left band and left arm all through the swing. If you watch any good golfer, you will see the firmnesas of his left side a3 the ball is hit. But when the right hand takes charge too quickly, one is almost certain to have the right| shoulder and right side get into ac- ton against & weak left side, and this means & big loss in both direction and eontrol. If the left side doesn't turm far enough, one aimost is sure to get around too quickly on the downawing and play shot after shot off line to the left of the green. Nichols Is Amazing. left aide, featuring hand and arm, has to be built up for most golfers. On the mental side, it must eome more into the golfer's considera- tion. He must think about its use— especially in practice—until it becomes the normal thing to do. It must be built up also on the physical side until there is a feeling of greater power. For the average person, the right band is much stronger than the left —and it is also hitting forward. The weaker hand and arm must work backward—and this is far from hav- ing & natural feel. Yet there is lit- bie chance for any ateady golf until your left hand and arm earry out their part of the job—all the way through the swing. One look at Jimmy Nichols would give you the general fdea much more clearly. The ease with which he plays every stroke is amaz- Ing. The distance and the control he is more amazing still. And he bas only a left hand with which to work. Copyright, 1037, by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) MILLERS TIE FOR LEAD Seore Over Brewers, While Rain Xeeps Columbus Idle. CHICAGO, July 13 (#).—Minneapo- s was in a tie with Columbus for the American Association leadership today, thanks to the weather and some early- inning punch at the plate. The Millers anapped their losing streak last night by defeating Mil- waukee, 8 to 6. With Columbus and Louisville rained out, the victory sent the Millers into a tie with the Red Birds. each now having won 47 and lost 36. | HE boys are catching up with I Claude Rippy on the munici- fourth. If Shute ean control his woods to- day, Cotton may be in for trouble. Don't let any one tell you these one- armed men are soft spots. They can Dlay plenty of golf in any company. pal mashie meadows. Or at least one of them ix catching onto the slants of the guy who has been king of the pay-as-you-play golf courses in Washington for at least three years. Sturdy, chunky Andy Oliveri, who graduated not so long ago from Roosevelt High School, and who has one of the better golf swings you'll see in many a day's travel, started the final day of play today at East Poto- mac Park deadlocked in a tie with the “Ripper” over the initial 36 holes of the 72-hole affair for the local championship that will wind up late this afternoon. Two of the boys—the top pair—will go to San Prancisco next month on a pass from Santa Claus Leoffler, little czar of the public courses, and it looks like Rippy and Oliveri. Whether two more of the lads will go to the Coast to round out ‘Washington's four-man Harding Cup team depends on the zeal and per- suasiveness of Dave Herman, public links commissioner. And Dave csn talk; almost as well as Goldie Ahearn, and in American, too. IN OTHER years 36 holes of medal play over East Potomac Park or any other local public layout would find Claude Rippy strokes out in front. But the chunky Oliveri kid, who hasn’t made up his mind whether to 80 to college next Fall or enter the grubby ranks of the employed, hung on when the going got really tough and today he opened the third round in a spot where he can grab the local title and be the top man on the Frisco Jaunt. The local champ always eap- tains the Harding Cup team. Both Seore 141. ETTING down to figures, the two lads—Rippy and Oliveri—shot & pair of ordinary par 72s over that first round and then settled down to business, blasting out a brace of 69s. They were closer than quarter-past- three all the way, although Rippy stuck his nose in front Yor a brief spell at the twenty-seventh, only to find Andy steaming up for a 4-under- par last nine of 32. On the very last hole Rippy holed & tricky 6-footer and Oliveri did the same, for the same score. That how close they were. At that, their 141s left them eight shots in front of their nearest competitors, completely outstripping their field, the 130-pound Rippy, lanky and lean, and the chunky Oliveri, 180 pounds of ambitious boy. 'OUR lads were deadlocked at 149 behind them, but unless Rippy and Oliveri crack with a loud bang today, the others are playing for pea- nuts, and s chance (maybe?) of get- ting to Prisco. 8mooth-swinging. painstaking Jim Gipe, Harold Bowers, s guard at Lorton Penitentiary; Jerry Hart, & youngster fresh from Okla- homa, and bespectacled Bobby Burton, | the Navy Yard mechanic, all had 149s. | | Clyde Halley, a dark-haired Govern- | ment employe from Texas and & good golfer, had 150, and Harry Saunders | had 151. But alongside the torrid brand of golf that Oliveri and Rippy are putting | on the others aren’t doing &0 much. | The championship, barring those orack-ups that come to some goifers, lies between them today. Ted Burrows, & qualifier last year, has a chance today, but he must con- siderably better his 153 of yesterday. Pat Axtell, who also qualified last year, is out with his first-day total of 160. But it doesn't look as if any records are going to be busted this year. | Rippy won last year with a 274 total. He'll have to move fast today to tie that. JOHN LEVERTON, greenkeeper st ‘White Flint Country Club, is richer by a few golf balls today following the little golf jamboree the Middle At- lantic Association of Greenkeepers held yesterday at Congressional. Lev- erton won the flag tourney, playing his final shot to & point 100 yards away from the nineteenth green. J. S. Con- nelly was second, 150 yards away. The low gross award went to Joe Fungy of York, Pa., who had a 78. INNING Maryland golf champion- shipe 15 getting to be a habit with Bobby Brownell, the tall youngster who also holds the District amateur links crown. Bobby today placed alongside his Maryland junior cham- plonship the “junior open” erown which he won yesterday at Rolling Road with & two-over-par card of 72. Just as he did & few weeks back in winning the true junior title, he led Otto Greiner, tall Baltimore youth, to the wire in the “junior open” a tournament which was open to assist- ant pros and all youngsters who hadn't reached the age of 31. Brownell ouistripped Grein- or's 74 by twe shets. John Parrell of Baltimore, the mid- Atlantic junior champion, was fourth with 79. Bobby was to play in the mixed two- ball tourney todsy at Congressionsl with Marion Brown, the tall Manor Country Olub girl. They won the affair at Columbia last year with a 76. Fights Last Night By the Associztec Press. CHICAGO._—Sammy _Angott, 131, Loufsviile, ‘Ky... out) a2 Chrlaty. ‘131 Giteage a00TS MY TIMORE.—Louls _ (Kid) _Cocos New e oten et VA SO0 oalll, Boston '(2); weiehts ‘unavaiiatic. K T e outpoin 5 148, Rock Tsland. Rl: (10, . 13814, l’ln;fi . Xy. A1 hfi:\r Louisville, t) e 131 Akron: (1) oo nied Liovd 8I0UX CITY. Tows.— wen stob. 3R, Wiintper, - Cogeds, et pointed Henry Jones, 178, Fort Dodee, PHILADELPHIA —Eddie Cool. 13814, Philsdelphia, drew with® Al Casimini! Ne¢ ‘ork (10). Chinp Alva- Philadelphia, knugod out atore. 136'a, Chicago, in HOLYOKE. Masx—Joe Gelinas, 147, Athel, Mass.. outpointed 9"“&!!“ Lfl- eurts, 1431;. Ttaly (10). PROVIDENCE. R. I —l-llgh Zan- i. 1435 Providence, ou ted B e l: yMa ver. 130%, Scranton. A [ ne 2:40 (2) Firestone HIGH SPEED TIRE 4.50-21.810.08 | 6.50-16.819.1§ 4.75-19. 7.00-16. 20.80 $.00-17. 7.50-16. 26.40 3001 HEAVY DUTY $.25-17. Hosbulh L 5.25-18. 4.75-19.813.08 5.25-19. 5.50-16. 16.28 5.50-16. s.50-17. 16.8§ 5.50-17. 6.00-16. 18.40 $.50-18. 6.00-17. 18.60 6.00-16. 6.25-16. 20.48 6.00-17. 6.50-16. 21.1§ 7.00-16. 24.48 6.00-18. 6.00-19. 7.50-16. 32.00 BATTERIES Allrubber separators in Firestone Batteries ive more power— jonger life. 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