Greensboro Record, Monday, Sept. 24, 1945

By FLOYD F. HENDLEY

PENNROSE PARK COUNTRY CLUB, REIDSVILLE, Sept. 24., 1945 - The Carolinas Professional Golfers association title will be decided over the 72-hole route after all. The tournament, which was held over the Pennrose Park course the past weekend, had been set for 72 holes originally. When rain forced delay of a week after 27 holes had been played Friday before last and it was decided to replay the entire event the officials agreed to reduce the number of holes to 54.

However, when the 54 holes were completed yesterday Orville White and Thurman Edwards, tied at 219. Eighteen additional holes will be played next Sunday at Pennrose Park to determine which of the two will be the Carolinas titleist for the next 12 months and incidentally who will get the first money of $250 and second money of $175. The rainstorm that caused the decision to replay the tournament from the start and eliminate the 27 holes played a week ago last Friday was worth $150 to Cpl. Al Brosch, a one-time Metropolitan New York champion.

Brosch, now stationed at Camp Butner, failed to enter on the original playing date but was on hand when the shooting started last Saturday. He finished third with a score of 224 which was worth $150. AI Smith of the Navy helped up hold the honor of Uncle Sam's fighting men by coming in with a third round 70 to pull his score down to 227 and pocket the fourth prize of $125.

Mel Arnett, who will leave Pennrose Park as pro in a few days to become a sporting goods manufacturer's representative, managed to ease in for fifth place money of $100 just a stroke ahead of Pete Webb, the veteran Shelby pro, who got $75 for shooting 233.

Another veteran of the links, Lester Reynolds, of Rock Hill, S. C., with 234 was in seventh place among the pros, collected $50. Ralph Lang, of Roaring Gap, and Clarence Owens, the veteran from Martinsville, with 235s, shared eighth and ninth places which was worth $25 to each to them. Ernest Edwards, Greensboro, climbed into 10th and last place among the money winners, with 236, by virtue of a brilliant four under par 70 on his last round to win $25.

Of the Greensboro delegation in the playing ranks, Wes Ferrell, the former major league pitching star, made the best showing. His score of 235 was good enough to make him third among the amateurs, two strokes behind Pat Brady, who was tops among the non-profit golfers with 233. Avery Beck, the Raleigh dry cleaning businessman and one of the state's best amateurs, was a single stroke in front of Ferrell.

Ernest Edwards set the pace for the Greensboro professional contingent with his 236.

George Corcoran, who was doing extremely well when the rainstorm that ended the original start of the event, never was able to get started in the replay and wound up with 245.  Curt May, the fourth of the Greensboro entries, had all kinds of trouble and failed to qualify for the final for 27 holes.

Trudging Thurman Edwards, one-time assistant to George Corcoran at Starmount but for some years pro at the Reynolds Park course in Winston-Salem, exploded a scoring bombshell in the first nine holes of the 27 played  yesterday.  Thurman shot a a three-under par 34 in his final round of Saturday's play which went virtually unnoticed although he was only five strokes back of leading Orville White when the final 27 holes was started Sunday afternoon. Picking up where he left off the day before the Winston siege gun reeled off amazing 32 for the first nine holes Sunday morning and wiped out White's margin. Coupling the last nine of Saturday afternoon and the first nine Sunday morning Thurman had an 18-hole score of 66, eight strokes under par and by far the best round of the tournament.

In compiling his 32 Edwards had eight one-putt greens in the nine hole stretch and his card showed six birdies, two pars and one bogie. When his brother's amazing round was mentioned to Ernest Edwards, the Greensboro Municipal pro declared: "He must be unconscious."

The first hole of Pennrose's magnificent nine-hole layout proved the softest one on the course so far as birdies were concerned. Long hitting Orville White had eight birdies in the nine times he played the hole. Three of them came during the initial playing of the hole Friday a week ago before the scores were discarded. The other five were made in the six times he the par five, 477-yard hole Saturday and Sunday.

Col. Frank P. Hobgood, for many years an outstanding member of the Greensboro bar but now a resident of Reidsville, was the most immaculately dressed person in the gallery. The colonel  officiated at the awarding of the prizes at the close of the tournament.

Incidentally, the amateurs came in for their financial rewards. Brady given a $100 war bond for leading the amateur field. Second place received a $50 war bond and bonds of $25 went to third and fourth placers.

Andy Merrilles, for many years pro at High Point's Emerywood Country club but now at Hill 'n Dale in Durham, carried home $37.50 as compensation for low score among the P. G. A. senior members, Only professional golfers over 50 years of age were eligible. Andy's 54-hole was 254.

Aside from Thurman Edwards' 66, the next lowest rounds were 70s by Al Smith and Ernest Edwards. Brosh was the only golfer to register a 71 and Orville White with a pair of 72s for his first two rounds was alone in that bracket.

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Greensboro News & Record, Monday, Oct. 1, 1945