Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-20
MODERN TENDENCIES IN GOLF.
AMERICAN AMATEURS MORE
DEVOTED THAN THE BRITISH

that is possible for a busy business man.
Yet, in spite of his strength. we know
his weakness-an inability to stay
through long drawn-out contest. There
/ Is no one of the amateurs, at the mo-
ment, whom We can put up with even a
fair chance of holding his own in
match which is long enough to give any
rea! test against any one of half n dozen
or dozen OF the professionals. And the
reason is as l take II. that they do not
play as much golf, and that golf does not
claim so much of their interest.
I IL is a condition which does not equally
prevail. from what I am able to learn. IN
America, where amateurs still devote
themselves to the game in the thorough
way of devotion OF some Of our own older
amateurs whose best days are gone by.
and therefore the best of the American
amateurs are more rearly match for the
best of their professionals (prohably quite
a match for them) and are perhaps Just A
little more than a match for the best Of
our own amateurs.
The tendency of British golf which this
comparison brings out i one which is not.
in my humble judgment. by any means
10 he regretted. 1t is only a right and
pious faith for the golfer that golf is the
best of games. but at the same time he
may recognize that for him. the amateur
Il is but a game after all. 1t is not
profession. a science or a fine art and
need not be lifted 10 their dignity or re-
garded with the gravity due to them. The
more light-hearted and British view is
much the more Just.
An Exaggerated Cult.
Coincidentally with the advance of the
golf Of the professor beyond the golf
of the amateur, We have seen the latter
lightning to cherish cult for the for
mer which must seem slightly ridicu-
lous - those who have witnessed the
rSe of the prose jsicnal out of worry
small be ginnngs. The professional class
/ deserves the very greatest credit for it's
! rise, and especially do l, personally,
| take a little local pride in the fact that
/ the professional players who have come
/ from westward no! have done so well in
! the golfing world, and have borne such
a very fun share in raising the profess
( Sional status. But those Of the pro3eS-
siOnal class itself. who are the most
level-headei and clear-sighted. are the
/ very first to see and to say that the pro-
/ fessional has for the present. gone far
I enough, that It is a mistake for the ANA
teur to lift him right out of his place and
| eXalt him. as a sChoOlboy is apt to eXalt
I his athletic instructor. And a tendency
/ a growing tendency, Of today, which it is
! easy to perceive, is to discontinue this
! exaggerated cult of the professional.
1t is a cult which has been fostered
! by some of the young press-men who
/ seem to think it rather fine to be hand
! in-glove with the professionals, and on
! NHTISlldn-nalne terms with them. Inc
| golfing world however. is becoming
! saner. It is recognizing that these pro-
fessionals are excellent fellows. that 1t
! Is really infinitely to their credit to have
/ kept their heads as they have amid
/ the incense which as been sent up about
! them, but that all the incense has been
| more than a little ridiculous. America,
! though she a prime offender In the
beginning in exalting the professional
! player little out of his social status.
| never seems to have carried the cult to
| the extreme that 1t has reached here.
Their interest, in America, has always
/ been much more centered in the amateur,
! though the amateur in that country has
/ perhaps a more professional way Of
! looking at the game than our own anna
/ teur. But that has ever been the Ameri-
can fashion in all pastimes and we are
able to congratulate ourselves at least
on this, that we have played the game
more for the enjoyment to be derived
/ from it and less from cast-iron deter
mnation to win 1t than they But in
/ that respect 1t seems as If their present
tendency was toward what we have to
regard as a saner way of enjoyment, at
the same time as we have hope that our
| own present tendency Is, in other re-
/ spects, also toward saner ways. And
with that satisfactory conviction we may
| let the matter rest