Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-11-27
REVIEW OF GOLF SEASON
GAME MORE STRONGLY ENTRENCH-
ED THAN EVER.
Interesting Interviews with National
Secretary Kerr and Amateur
Champion Travis.
From the New York Tribune.


From the New York Tribune.
One of the ingenious persons who COM
pile interesting statistics has discovered
that s15,000,000 has been spent this season
on golf This, of course, does not include
the original outlay for club houses and
grounds, so that this vast sum has gone
merely for incidentals necessary to enjoy
the game.
What has been accomplished with all
this money? A great deal. Careful study
of the results of the more important tour
naments would indicate at least one pleas
ant outcome, and that is the position at
tanned by strictly home bred amateurs,
men who have been taught and trained on
American links. The national champion
ship this year proved beyond question that
successfully by pfayers who have learned
what they know on thf side of the water.
The humiliation of SCI ing foreign bred
golfer win the title Of American champion,
as happened in the case of Macdonald,
Whigham and Douglas, will probably not
be repeated. The sport is on too firm
basis for that.
There have been other interesting feat
ures, too, some of which seemed to have
escaped the notice they deserve. In watch
ing the development ofsthe game this sea-
son no one has had better opportunity
for Judging its trend than Robert B. Kerr
who for the last four years has occupied
the place of secretary to the United States
Golf Association. In keeping in touch with
clubs in all parts Of the country MI. Kerr
has been able to watch results with more
than ordinary keenness.
ITO me the most Interesting feature"
said Mr.. Kerr the other day, has been the
development of the game on geographical
lines. By this mean the organization OF
- otoAlo n M
pionships. This I believe to be the ultf-
mate solution of the national champion
ship problem. Not that the United states
Golf Association will ever place q limit
prizes, but the natural result Of these
various state and district tournaments will
be to demonstrate to golfers at large their
fitness or unfitness to enter the national
contests, and their own good sense and
craftsmanship win do the rest. Thus
man who has shown his skill in home tour
naments will feel stimulated to go In for
higher honors, while those who have been
palpably outclassed will stand aside and
refuse to-burden the national entry list.
There are now more than twenty or these
district associations, the last, 1 believe.
being that of the clubs along the Hudson
river.
Played the Year Around.
Another rather interesting development
has been the elimination Of the word sea
SON. We have no seasons in golf now, so
far as a time for playing or not playing is
concerned. OF course. there is difference
between summer and winter, but each is as
much a part of the golf season as the
other. The game is played the year round.
Take the enormous number of links that
have been opened in Florida and Califor-
MA and remember that as soon as cold
weather appears here hundreds and thou
sands of players hurry away to those
courses, and you will understand what L
mean. All this has come practically with
in the last year, and l am told that this
winter the Florida courses will be more nu-
merous and better equipped than ever be-
fore.
DO think the game is waning? Not a
bit. More clubs have added to their links
in the last twelve months than in the whole
history of the game here. In the United
States Golf Association alone there are two
hundred clubs, and those outside the asso-
citation number twelve hundred more. Fig
ure this out on the basis of two hundred
members for each club, which Is conser-
vative estimate. and you have total of
2S6.0O people paying dues for golf privi-
leges, and when you consider the families
more generous proportions.
Possibly there is not SO much Juror
about the sport but this is because it Is no
longer a novelty. 1t is taken as a matter
of course now that a man plays golf in his
leisure moments and not so much talk Is
made of 1t. Another thing is that the fad
dists have left the game for good. And, I
might add, for the games good also. This
is another reason why there is less talk
about 1t. The man who played because it
was the thing and not because he liked
it, has given way to those who love the
sport for its own sake. There are just as
many players and just as many links, but
the game has assumed a more rational and
permanent basis, and for that reason 1 be-
ieve 1t to be more strongly entrenched than
ever
The practical Scot lays it down as an ak
iom that you want a held to play golf.
and of all the men who have won promi-
nence in the game this season Walter j.
Travis. the present champion. has shown
conclusively that 1t is headwork and per-
sistent practice that has brought him to the
top. They used to say of Travis that he
practiced one hundred puts before break
fast every morning. This is simply men,
toned to show the ca1iber Of the man. Not
a brilliant player at the outset, Travis has
worked his way to the top through the kind
of effort few men are willing to take. Above
all he is a student-always watching for
mistakes, always ready to take advice. He
has learned the game from the bottom,
and can probably diagnose the good and
bad points Of an opponents style quicker
than most professionals. He is accurate.
resourceful. determined That sort of golf
always wins in the end. And this very sue
cess makes him an authoritative critic on
the success of others. Travis has been a
close observer of the game in the last
fed to talk of its development in that time
than he.
Travis on Young Set.
Strangely enough, Travis does not think
that the younger set of players has made
any decided advancement. When it is re-
membered that a Chicago schoolboy, Wal
ter Egan. met him in the finals for the ma
tional championship, 1t would seem as
though his opinion would be exactly the re-
verse. Travis, however. has good reason
for his views. He has seen good many on
the various links where he has played.
and at his home course at Garden City he
is frequently brought in contact with the
boys from the nearby Cathedral School OF
st. Pauls.
With the exception of young William
Holabird of Chicago said Travis the
other day, Il do not know of any who may
be called really good golfers. Holabird Is
certainly an excellent one. The others have
Just begun to master the rudiments oil
the game. 1t takes three or four years for
a boy to do even this. No one can prophesy
about game like golf, but l should say
that il we are to rely upon the younger
men to stand on a par with the great mass