Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-20
Amateurs and Professionals.

| The American method is the be tier
! ADAPTED to this, which is so distinctly the
American end; and as a consequence it
| is my own opinion, not made at first hand
so much as derived from those who, with
| experience enough to make their first
hand opinion of value. have seen some
| thing of the golf both on this side and on
that, that the American amateur is
better player today than the British
amateur If we were to pick half a doz-
en- of each and make them so on play
ing each other long enough to provide a
| test l believe that the Americans would
/ come out on top. This is not very
pleasant confession OF faith Tor ,tf
Briton, but it is the confession required
by my own idea of the truth.
| Nor is the reason very far to seek. Part
| of it has been stated already, that the
British amateur does not apply himself
! to the game in the same business-like
way; does not so out practicinS particu-
lar strokes with the same perseverance as
! the American amateur. There IS also
more than this, namely, that a good
| many of the American amateurs, so far
| as | understand, really do make bust
| ness of golf 1t is the chief interest in
| the lives of good many Of them-so at
! least 1 am informed. At the present
| time a noticeable feature of our British
| golf is that the professional is very far
| ahead of the amateur at the game 1t is
fact which hardly requires to be elab-
| grated. Out of perversity man here and
| there may affect to doubt it, but practi-
cally the superiority of the professional
! is not questioned. And he is more In
| advance of the amateur now than he
used to be. That, too, is a proposition
with which most people who have knowl-
! edge Of the facts will agree.
! For a few years. just when Mr.. Ball
and Mr.. Laidiay were at their best. it
was very hard to say that there were any
| professionals distinctly better. Again, a
few years later. there was while when
| do not think we would have backed any
| professional in a scoring competition
against Mr.. Hilton For a while, about
the date of his winning his first amateur
! championship, no professional was dis
tinctly better than Nj. f. G. TAFT. How
| is it that, in spite CT the great increase
| of amateur players, in spite of the great
increase of players who are of the first
rank regarded as amateurs. we yet have
none who can stand up against the pro-
fessionals, as these men just mentioned
were capable of standing up to them?
A Lack of Enthusiasm.
! I think that the chief reason is that the
modern British amateur does not play as
much golf as those amateurs used to who
| could meet the professionals on equal
! terms. They actually We're on equal terms
! with them in the consistency with which
| they followed the game. Mr.. TAFT was Il
soldier-a profession which allows man
! a considerable leisure for the pursuit of
| golf or any other pastime. But the others,
| Mr.. Ball, Mr.. Laidlay and Mr.. Hilton tat
| his besD, were practically of no profession.
! Golf seemed to be the principal interest
| and business of their lives. They were
| not technically, of course, professionals,
| because they derived no money from their
| skill in the game, but in their all-round
| devotion to the game they We're like the
professionals. II is not so with the anna
! teur players of todaS. Most of them have
| a profession. or they have other amuse-
ments which take a share with golf in
| their affections. Mr.. Maxwell is the most
notable exception.
| OF all our amateur golfers, however, Mr..
| Graham is probably the strongest at the
! moment, and he gets only the practice