Monday, Jun. 23, 1924
Akahoshi Competes
A feature of the Metropolitan (New York) amateur Golf Championship was the exhibition put up by hefty (he weighs 200 pounds) Rokuro Akahoshi from the isles of Japan.
'Tis true that he did not win the event. 'Tis likewise true that he did not come anywhere near winning it. Nevertheless, he put up a remarkably fine game.
Twenty-five years of age is he, and rumor has it, a distant relative of the Heaven-born ruler of Japan. He took up golf but four years ago and in that period he defeated Donald Parsons of Youngstown in the Pinehurst mid-Winter tournament, thus capturing the title.
Rokuro is a hard hitter and when he hits hard the ball goes and goes and goes. With a mashie he is not so good, but at putting--well, there is certainly something celestial in the way he coaxes the white spheroids into the holes.
The way he tore the heart out of Gardiner White of Nassau, whilom Metropolitan champion, argued well for his golf future. Howard Maxwell, onetime Long Island champ, also found he had strokes to spare when he competed with the cool-clever Jap.
The title was won by Willie M. Reekie from E. H. Driggs on the 35th hole by two and one.