Sport: Johnny Suggs’s Daughter

Back in the 1920s, Johnny Suggs was a better-than-average southpaw pitcher for the Atlanta Crackers. One day he met the boss’s daughter, married her and quit pitching to run the concessions at the ball park. The night the ball park burned down, Johnny Suggs became a father. He and his new family moved 15 miles to Lithia Springs, Ga.; there Johnny took over a combined golf course and-picnic grounds. At three, his roly-poly daughter, Louise, was traipsing around the course after him, swinging at golf balls with a baseball grip.

Last week, Johnny Suggs’s daughter, now 24, fought through to the final round of the Women’s National Amateur Golf Championship at the Franklin Hills Country Club (Detroit). Her opponent was Fellow Atlantan Dorothy Kirby, who is considered, by home-towners, a shade the better. Dorothy, whose playing form is good, is high-strung, and apt to show it under pressure. Louise is a trim 5 ft. 3 in., with a roundhouse swing that would look good on a ballplayer swinging for the fences.

Every time Louise hit the ball, father Johnny Suggs looked anxiously on with the appearance of a man protecting a one-run lead with the bases loaded. At the 34th hole, the match was even. At the 35th, Louise was one up. At the 36th, Louise’s tee shot faded into the rough and her father was half afraid to look. Calmly she selected a club, wiggled once and sent a tremendous wood shot to the green. Then she curved a putt around a partial stymie and the ball dropped into the cup. That gave her the match and the title which Babe Didrikson Zaharias vacated to become a pro. Proud Johnny Suggs dashed onto the green and gave husky Louise a big kiss. She had played it like a big-leaguer.