Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-03
CALK|NS CR|1|C|SES
HANDICAP GOLF LIST
United States Association
Rating Scheme Will Not Be
Satisfactory, He Says.

NEW YORK, April 3-Leighton Calk-
ms. president of the Montclair Golf Club
and prominent in the United States Golf
Association, takes exception to the nas
tional handicap list recently issued by
the United States Golf Association. He
says the list Is a joke. Mr.. Calkins does
not approve of it because he believes
the most accurate haadicapping is done
by the various district associations The
U. S. G. A., he points out, holds no
handicap events. and hence goes to lot
Of unnecessary trouble in making a han
dicap list which he says is Of no practical
value.
Mr.. Calkins says that the national han
dicap list will work out with unfavorable
RESULTS, inasmuch as clubs will be inf1u-
enced to send in many low ratings in or
der to get as many club members as pos
sible in the national tournament Mr..
Calkins says, in part:
I'm my judgment the L. s. G. A. disa-
bled itself from producing a reliable han
dicap list when it undertook to make 1t
serve two entirely different purposes.
am entirely in sympathy with the effort
of the national association to compile a
list OF players eligible for the amateur
championship of the United States. but
produced with the machinery employed
| for handicapping purposes, it does not
| follow that 1t will be of any value in
| rating players for handicap events. The
reason is simple enough. The clubs who
make returns to the national association
know perfectly well that it holds no
handicap events, and that players are
not being rated for such events, but
| solely for the purpose of limiting the
number of contestants for the blue rib
nf hn fol q
club handicappers will send in as many
names as possible and will rate players
as low as possible, in order, to get as
many of their club members as they can
on the eligible list.
In short, the handicap system is used
for purpose for which it never was
intended and breaks down in consequence.
| Machinery for building dams won't make
| reliable watches. 1 do not believe that a
national handicap list is practicable. Even
| If it were to be undertaken solely for
handicap events it would be Of little
value. The territory to be covered is too
large. Here We have the spectacle of the
national association undertaking to
der a method by which the different
members of the national executive COM
mittee. living in different sections of the
country, pass on the returns of clubs
from those sections. There is no central
national handicap committee passing on
| all the returns. Different committeeman
undertake the work by departments or
divisions. It is clear that a constant,
harmonious national list is impossible un-
| der such conditions. The Metropolitan
| handicap committee, with returns from
| only sixty clubs in a restricted area,
finds it an arduohs task, involving long
| sessions of work, to produce reliable
| and consistent list
"A national handicap list is joke with
out an appropriation sufficient for the
| employment of an expert Handicapped,
supervised by a national handicap COM
mittee able to devote a week of steady,
daily work to the final process of equali-
zation of ratings after the expert has
done all of the preliminary work.
I'm my judgment. the L. s. G. A is
proceeding in the wrong way. 1t should
confine itself to the adoption of a ma
tional handicap system and require all
local associations to adopt such system
in handicapping their players. and to
certify to the national association that
they have done so. The actual handicap
| ping should then be left to the district
associations. who are far more competent
| to produce reliable ratings"