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Entered MARCH 8, 1 92 4 Number 12
........1.S-j*-*;.«*«■» at >hc port o«oc at BICHMONP. VA. Subscription. *2.00 per year.
V o 1. XXVII
Annual Spring Tournament Under Way
A BEAUTIFUL spring day saw the start of play last
Monday in the 20th renewal of the annual spring tourna-'
ment. For the fourth successive year the field of starters
numbered more than 300, the exact number this time being 319.
• No amateur tournament in this or any other country, save the
National Seniors’ championship, can approach such a record.
As this is written there is every indication that to John D.
Chapman will go the honor of being medalist. In the opening
day s pl<iy the Greenwich man ran the field ragged with a sterling
round of 73 on the No. 3 course, five shots better than his closest
. rival, B. P. Merriman, of the Brooklawn Club, Bridgeport, Conn.
One other had a chance to take the medal play honors, that one
being a Japanese player, Rokuro Akahoshi, of Princeton, N. J.,
a member of the celebrated Pine Valley Club. He had a 79.
Only these three succeeded in breaking 80, and they all played
the somewhat easier No. 3 course.
George A. Law, Jr., of the Abenaqui club, Rye, N. H., shot an
82 to lead the players who were assigned to shoot on the No. 2
or championship course. Larry Paton, winner of the recent St.
Valentine tournament, was but a stroke away, despite the dis
couraging total of 47 strokes which he needed to reach the turn.
He raced home in 36 to fight for a place in the first division of
qualifiers. William A. Rupp and Malcolm McBurney also had
83’s on this course.
There was every indication that a score of 165 or 166 would .be
good enough to leave one in the championship flight. Donald
Parson, of Youngstown, who was winner pf the 1923 tournament,
shot an 82 on the No. 3 course for a starter.
Other than the players already mentioned, those who seemed to ' ■
have the best chance to qualify over the. 36-hole route were:
William McPhail, of Norfolk, one of Greater Boston’s best
amateur sharpshooters; Frank Keating, of Pinehurst; C. H. Paul,
of Westchester Hills; Phil Randolph, Ned Beall an$ Jack Hyde,
of Charles River. ..
A feature of the tournament was a hole-in-one* made by George
W. Statzell, of the Aronimink club, Philadelphia. At the 14th
hole of the No. 3 course, measuring 138 yards and calling for a
high shot over a lake, he drove with a'mashie.and had the pleasure
of seeing the ball take a hop and a short roll, then disappear into
the cup. It was the first time on record that the former Pinehurst
Seniors’ champion had perpetrated such a trick. It is reported
about the clubhouse that he did the honors usual on such rare occas
sions, and the boys were perfectly willing to “let George do it/’
Chapman’s round and the par figures, compared:
Par—Out ./.... .4 4 4 4 3 3 4 5 4—35
Chapman .......4 4 4 4 3 3 4 5 5—36
Par—In ....... .4 4 5 4 3 4 3 /5 4—36—71
Chapman 3 4 6. 4 3 4 4- 5 4—37—73
Only on three holes did he go over the par figures, while he
bettered par on the 10th hole. Not long ago Mrs. Chapman tied
with Mrs. Ronald Barlow for the medal in the annual St. Valen
tine’s tournament for women. Last year the Chapmans won the
Tin Whistle and Silver Foils titles.
- f
■ . . ,v_.
First Division Final between Donald Parson, winner, and B. P. Merriman, runner-up, in the Spring tournament last year. , ■/
* Both these players are on hand to try for chief honors in this tournament again this year.