SARAZEN AT WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 106, 1 November 1934, Page 20

SARAZEN AT WORK

LEFT FOOT CRIP

Gene Sarazen, "small, compact, and belting his shots without any apparent preparation,' has been smashing course . records wholesale, in Australia.

'-'■■ Just-as the down-swing commences,Sarazen's left foot clamps down flrmly : on the, '■: turf, 'says Hector ■..IComsoii.' ■Especially is,'* this so wh'eiV he, is "flat out for,'distance. It was most ••notice-, able at Kensington, when Sarazen breasted the tee to the 537 yards thirteenth hole against a stiff breeze. His .-tee1 shot'carried easily :220 yarcls, and "stopped 'dead- in lieavy-grouiid.' -He went out: after his second shot with such abandon that his left fodt! slewed round, towards tho'Jitile —:O_f 'course, 'after the ball had " been 'Kit. His anchored left foot made the mighty hit possible—the ball came to rest 15 yards from the green. The slewed left foot and-free follow-through -were just an index of the might of the stroke. Sarazeiv's" approach" shots,: 'observed superficially, seem to be all follow: through. ■■■ ■ ■■"''. ;-: ':

A few hours after he had ;landed he broke the Eoyal Sydney Club's course record with 67. He skied his drive against the stiff southerly to the 433 yards second hole, but reached the greenwith his second shot. He landed a spoon; shot right on the pin -for .'2' at ■ the! 428 yards fourth" hole,'-still Virito the' wind. , But he is human.-He. took-thr'Boi putts bri'-the: fiftligreen,- and again oh'; the ninth green. And still he was out in 35! . ,

"You want to give this one all you know," said his eonipdfuibn, Joe Kirk-; wood, to Saracen, on the eleyenth t'eeJ Sarazen did. The ball-went; hard into thebunker placed to catch second shots.; Sarazen'exploded out over the'green," and holed a chip shot for a 3.

Back against the wind to the 494 yards thirteenth hole, Sarazen nearly drove the bunkers designed to • catch a second shot —: just"on 300; -yards. ■ - At: the1 next hole, the 196 yards fourteenth,' with-:the:wind, he lobbed past the flag; with a No. 6 iron. A twenty-foot putt; rattled', into'the tin for a 2! '~;.■;;■ • ;

"Give me a No. 5 iron," said Sarazen, after he had carried a bunker 250 yards from the tee to the 483-yard fifteenth hole. 'BetteT take a No. 3/'; said Kirkwood. Sarazen played a No. 4 .iron, 'and lobbed past.the pinl..; .. ;

, -. To Sarazen the 502 yards sixteenth hole tlown-wind was/a nice easy: drive, and' a 'No.'- 4 wood to1 the green. -But- his putt for 3 lipped the hole!

Again he missed a fifteen-footer by a hair's breadth for a 2 at the 221 yards seventeenth.hole. .. : ,-. ■'■'■■.

' Bnrazeii 's approach to the last: hole landed.near the pin but> ; slid/;past p:the hole;' right off the green. "['ll lay you two to one you can't get a. Z," said Tommy Howard,--who ■partnered Fred- Popplewell against ' the ■'.'visitors.': ''Would-you like to see. me.-'hole-it;; Tahmmy?" asked Sarazen. "I'll make' it three to one now," replied Howard. Sarazen walked up to the ball and gave it a crisp flick. It hopped two or threo times —and dived into the hole.