Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-24
KEEN SPORT FOR
LOCAL GOLFERS
POPULARITY OF GAME IN LOS
ANGELES
NEW ASPIRANTS ARE MANY
Spring Tournament Now in Progress
Stimulative of Interesting Matches.
Careful Handicapping
Feature

To the uninitiated the game of golf
appears to be one of the tamest sports
that ever came under the category, but
a visit to the beautifully kept links of
the Los Angeles Country club will
quickly dispel all such illusions and the
skeptic will find himself surrounded by
the most ardent enthusiasts that ever
graced the precincts of an athletic
arena.
In golfng parlance Col Bogey's name
seems to hold pride of place and for
old military martinez stalking round
with an I'm the whole works" sort of
air, but the colonel is not of flesh and
blood but merely a term to signify the
standard set by the golfing worthy to
estimate the number of strokes it takes
to complete the course.
What hold golf has on the public
of Los Angeles can be gathered from
ing the last twelve months. H. F. Dry
den, the present secretary, took up his
duties about one year ago, the clubs
membership then numbering just under
400, but today that total has swelled to
shade over 600, and to use his own
terms "it is still going strong" During
the last three months the number of
visitors from different parts of the
country has exceeded 1000 and even this
number is much less than the actual
total should really be, for quite num-
Der show an unaccountable antipathy
to inscribing their names on the clubs
register
At present the cause of all the eX-
citement out on Pico street is the play
ing of the spring tournament. In this
particular contest a great deal of in
terest has been aroused among the less
experienced players, for the handicap
pers have done all in their power to
give this class an even break so that
the novice has now a very good chance
of pulling off the laurels. The system
of handcapping, as adopted by the
handicapping committee, w. w. But
Ter and George Ellis, is a good one and
is as follows: The three best scores of
every competitor is taken and added,
then divided by three, so as to strike
an average, then from this is SUBJ
tracted the bogey of the local links,
which is rs, and the remainder fur
nishes the handicap. Besides this due
allowance is made for the Improvement
between high handicap and the scratch
men.
Another point of interest in the
present tourney is that in the initial
series the opponents must be drawn
from men on their own mark. After
the first round the winners are re-
handicapped by the committee.
Among the best exponents of the
game who plays here is Walter Fair
banks, who halls from Denver ar1
whose play clearly proves that all the
intricate and hard and fast rules that
are laid down for making stroke may
be done away with. In the east Mr..
Fairbanks was an ardent devotee to the
English game OF cricket and most Of
his strokes are made in a cricketing
fashion. That this policy is a good one
is demonstrated by the large number OF
winners in Scotland who are recruited
from the prominent cricket clubs.
Mr.. Lumgair is looked upon to have
very good chance of winning the
present contest. He has handy start
of 10. and although his medal score does