Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-07-29

Although the Wheeling Golf Club
team suffered disastrous defeat in its
match with the team of the Pittsburg
Field Club on last Saturday afternoon,
the experience gained by the Wheeling
golfers was very valuable one, and
demonstrated to the uninitiated the
fact that the style of play conceded to
be the most effective on the home links
may oftimes be fatal to success in a
strange course, differently constituted.
Every lover of the game soon learns
1.-THE tricks of the course" over which
he is accustomed to play, and learns,
too. with more or less skill, to avoid
the pitfalls and slippery places. 1t is
this knowledge and skill which gives
the local players the vast advantage
over the visiting rivals on any course.
SO at the Field Clubs course, one
glance at the solid board fence seven
teen feet high situated one hundred
and twenty-five yards from the teeing
ground and crossing the entire course,
was sufficient to convince the Wheel
ing golfers that the long low drive
upon which so much patience and In
dustry had been lavished at home,
would be hopelessly ineffective in the
contest at hand. The accuracy with
which the members of the Pittsburg
team repeatedly and uniformly cleared
these hazards on their drives opened
the eyes of the Wheeling players to the
limitless possibilities of the game.
And since the golfers drive Is not the
acquisition of a single days practice,
neither is 1t subject to momentary
modification to meet new and unusual
situations. This fence. which must be
cleared four times in the course of the
match OF eighteen holes, was a costly
hazard to the Wheeling team, resulting
in the loss, in the aggregate, of large
proportion of the total OF thirty-fye
holes. But this was not all. The
is full of fatal hazards, fearful
and wonderful. The location OF holes
close to the high board fence, a dump
ing ground full of debris, deep ravine
public street, with its telegraph and
telephone wires, tall trees with spread
ing branches, and other traps and
hard places, are all there to penalize
the slightest slice or pull or other i'm
perfect play.
But the defeat of the Wheeling team
Is not to be aseribed to the difficulties
OF the strange course alone, however
much these may have contributed to
the disappointing result. Mr.. Harvey
Penn, against whom the accomplished
and skillful player, Mr.. c. +. Paxton,
was pltted, played an almost perfect
game Of golf, completing the eighteen
holes en- 81 strokes. He is a muscular
who loved the game so
we'll that he removed his family to the
vicinity OF the links to enable him to
avail himself Of every spare moment to
play. He holds the record of the
course and has been victorious in
nearly every contest. He has a highly
agreeable manner and is an entertain
ng talker Mr. w. W. Blewett, with
whom the steady and imperturable
DR.. J. W. Storer was paired, is a pleas
ant Scotchman who learned the game
IN the old country, and who evidently
learned 1t we'll Mr.. G. A. Tucker, Mr.
8. w. Laird, Mr. w. T.. Stevenson and
Mr. ]. A. e. Thompson, are the other
members OF the Pittsburg team, and
al OF them are pleasant gentlemen
and sturdy golfers. While it must be