Charlevoix county herald., 1907-11-02
Golf
as a Game for
Women
. By Mrs. Chatfield- Taylor
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)

Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
(Mrs. Hobart Chatfeld-Taylor, who is a
golf player of renown as well as leade
in society, speaks with authority upon the
game of golf ard what it offers to women
a healthful and delightful pastime. The
laughter of the late Senator Charles Il.
Farwell, of Illinois, and the wife of the
talented author of The Crimson Wing
and other novels, she is well known)
When American women took up
golf they did it as a pose; in a short
time it became purpose it is now
merely pastime.
All this ALTERATION may seem
meaningless, but those who remember
the various stages through which golf
in this country has passed cannot fail
to recognize the truth of it. The
pose period was when golf began.
Then it was a new fad-the thing to
talk about, the thing to do. Women
and likewise men-wore red coats;
they hocked to the golf links as they
would to afternoon teas, and the pro-
fessionals were busy from early till
late teaching women, regardless of
weight, age or previous condition of
servitude, to drive gutta-percha balls
off little piles of sand. Every woman
must take up golf, and take it up she
did with vengeance.
Out of the pose period grew the
purpose epoch, when home, husband,
children and even best young men
were forgotten in the daily chase of
that same gutta-percha ball. We
dreamed of golf scores by night and
we struggled to lower them by day.
Our intimate friends became our
hated rivals and our sole object in life
was to lower a record or lift" a cup.
One can hardly think of those days
without restraining a smile. A wom-
ans popularity was gagged by her
success on the green, and be she new
er so beautiful or attractive, she was
forced to give the palm to the local
champion. AS for the woman who
had attained national honors, she was
the envied of everything in petit
coats, and consequently the detested.
During that purpose period of golf the
woman who had not reached the first
only object in life for the average
woman of that day was to bring in a
lower score, by fair means if possible,
or--dare l say it?-sometimes by foul
But in time feeling of discourage
ment came over those who, having
tried, had failed. They had gone
through the posing period, with its
red coats and silver scorebooks; they
had made of golf the only thing in
life, but they had not made good
scores and after two or three seasons
of perspiring persistence and grace
less gyrations, they dropped out of the
game. IF at first you don't succeed,
try, try again" does not apply to golf.
Golfers are born, not made, and if
you haven't the eye and the supple
ness OF wrist the game calls for it is
wiser to play skittles. 1t has taken
American women years to find this
out. but at last those who can't play,
and never could play, have become
contented wives and mothers once
more, and those who can play take
golf as one of the many diversions of
life and not as its sole object.
I The game has now reached what /
call the pastime period. We are con-
tent to take it as an amusement, and
those who have any chance of win
ming make it a genuine sport. The
contestants for championship honors
are those who really love the game,
and they play to win. If they are
beaten they don't scratch their OPP
ponents' eyes out, but they go to
work to try to do her up" in the next
match For number of years there
were but two classes in American
women's golf: Miss Beatrix Hoyt,
and the others. No one else, except
Mrs. Butler Duncan, who did not en-
ter tournaments, had the slightest
chance of winning the championship,
and it was only question of who
would be the runner-up.
For three years Miss Hoyt reigned
supreme as queen of golf, but that
was the time when golf was pur.
pose. So that out of the throng of
persistent women who crowded the