Along Comes Youth

The New Year Ahead in Sport Will Find More Than One Young Athlete Bidding for a Crown

GRANTLAND RICE

Mr. Kingsley came quite breathlessly near to writing it—

"When all the game is young, lad, And legs and arms are steel.

Where nerves are not unstrung, lad,

But on an even keel.

Then hey! for youth's romance, lad,

When summer sunlights gleam,

Young blood must have its chance, lad, And every kid his dream."

We have never been quite sure where the greatest drama lies in the competitions attached to sport; whether in the triumphal reappearance of some stalwart veteran, unexpectedly back for one more laurel wreath to wear around his seamy brow, or in the sudden upward rush of a youngster who, almost without warning, tears the sceptre away from the hands of older and more experienced rivals. We had Francis Ouimet at twenty beating Vardon and Ray for the United States Open Championship, and that was as dramatic a day as many will ever know.

Last spring we had Zbyszko at forty-seven winning back the wrestling championship of the world from younger giants, and that was something to think about.

But on the rim of a young year it seems more fitting to take up the cases of those youngsters who are fairly certain to play important roles in the competitions which wait further along the road. Especially so, since the possession of so many young stars is one of the greatest factors in America's future international ranking.

Young Golf Stars

COLF championships lately have gone rather consistently to the more experienced set. Every leading title is now held by a veteran of from seven to thirteen years' experience in championship matches. The youngsters were neatly blocked off last summer and fall, in spite of their early promise.

Golf is rated by many, who neither know nor understand, as "an old man's game." Whereas the facts in the case are this—no other sport has so many brilliant young performers between sixteen and twenty-one threatening to take charge of the main portals. No other sport has any stars who are still in their 'teens, capable of exchanging skill and genius with the best in the game. This of course does not apply to football, which is almost exclusively a collegian's pastime, nothing which the multitude at large can engage in by way of killing off an afternoon.

Of all the youngsters in sport none has quite reached the brilliancy of Bobby Jones, the nineteen-year-old Atlanta golfer, who is rated by such judges as George Duncan, Harry Vardon and Abe Mitchell as the greatest amateur shot maker in the world. Young Jones will not be twenty years old until around midMarch and yet his golfing fame has extended as far as fairways and bunkers reach, from Boston to Melbourne, from San Francisco to London. So far he has made bold bids for more than one title, only to fall short by a bare stride. But his day is coming and it might easily be somewhere along the march of the next year.

Jones has the skill, the courage and the brain needed to win but his main drawback up to date has been an impetuous eagerness, which would be an asset for tennis, baseball or football, but is still a handicap in golf. This, combined with a tendency to overplay before a tournament starts, are about all the faults one can find with his game, and these are slight defects that a little more experience will cure. It must be remembered that Chick Evans, with all his brilliant play, went eight years after his first title hunt before he finally broke through. Jock Hutchison needed eleven years, where Jim Barnes needed nine, before they were able to register in Fame's big Inn. Jones is a long, straight hitter, a fine iron player and a fairly steady but hardly brilliant putter. At his best he is capable of playing golf that no professional star could beat on a given day.

He has been hammering at the portals now for several years and 1922 may easily be his lucky year. In 1919, Jones reached the final round of the amateur championship, where he was beaten by Dave Herron's sensational scoring of 2 under even 4's for 32 holes. In 1920 only a fine round by Francis Ouimet stopped the Georgia youth in a semi-final test. And at St. Louis this last September it needed Willie Hunter's,72 to bar the road again.

Rudolph Knepper

BOBBY JONES is not the only youthful golfing star now coming on. The west has a star youngster in Rudolph Knepper of Sioux City. Young Knepper, now a student at Princeton University, has a fine free swing and a stout heart. He has acquired valuable experience in three championships, celebrating his third appearance by twice tying the course record at St. Louis. He finally fell before Bob Gardner, one of the best of match players, but he has been working his way closer and closer to the front rank. Knepper is ranked next to Jones among the youngsters, according to judgment passed by Duncan and Mitchell who played against them both. The Sioux City boy, with the game he carries and the experience he has received, is now qualified to win any time he is favoured with the lucky fortunes of war. And without this no one can hope to come through safely.

The best young golfer in the east seems to be Jesse Sweetser of New York, now a student at Yale. Sweetser is just a month younger than Bobby Jones. He was the only New Yorker to make any headway in the last championship, where, after being 3 down and 3 to play against Chick Evans, he carried the battle to the final green where Chick needed a 40foot putt to close out the show. Sweetser, at the age of eighteen, won the intercollegiate championship by fighting his way through a star field at Nassau, beating Simpson Dean of Princeton in the final round. A year later at Greenwich, Dean's brilliant golf stopped Sweetser, but remarkably low figures were needed to bring about this revenge.

The golf story of youth is not entirely masculine. Not with Miss Glenna Collett of Providence, R. I., bounding along the way. Miss Collett, through a mixture of unusual physical power and excellent form, not only defeated Miss Cecil Leitch in one hard test, but gave the great English star a hard battle in their second meeting.

She also rather astonished the gallery by tying for low qualifying score in the last women's championship at Hollywood where her 85 was the result of extremely fine play. The Providence girl is almost sure to win a championship within a year or two. She is almost as long from the tee as Miss Leitch or Miss Hollins. She has a fine, crisp swing and a cool, level head that doesn't go in for flurries. Her game is well rounded, needing only a bit more experience to carry her far.

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In her victory over Miss Leitch at Whitemarsh, Philadelphia, Miss Collett gave one of the best exhibitions of the year, proving again that she could bring out one of the strongest games when it was badly needed to save the day. And this is no unimportant detail of championship play.

Vincent Richards is now to tennis what Bobby Jones is to golf. Their careers in fact are almost parallel achievements. While both are still young they are fast becoming veterans in the way of championship experience.

Richards, still a youth, has been in the tennis spotlight for several years. He has beaten most of the leading stars of the game with almost every title to his credit except the national turf championship.

It has been said of Richards that his main weakness is loo many strokes, too

much versatility. The possession of so many may often prevent a young player from mastering the two or three essential ones needed in championship play.

After a number of good seasons, the young New Yorker had his best year through the closing campaign when he worked his way into third place just back of the two Bills—Tilden and Johnston. He was even good enough to beat the all-conquering Tilden earlier in the year, but he couldn't quite go the distance against Johnston at Germantown with a national title at stake.

Richards isn't the only tennis star coming on, for young Jones of Providence who played with Tilden in France and England, is another promising entry from the youthful parade. The two Andersons of New York are good enough to get far with sufficient experience.

With golf and tennis taking such strong international trends it is something to know that the United States has more than its share of winning talent ready IO pick up championships. Certainly no other country can show such phenomenal youngsters as Bobby Jones, Vincent Richards, Rudy Knepper, Miss Collett, Edward Held, and many others who may soon reach out for the main crown.