Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-18
Interesting Golf Notes
From the Local Clubs

The annual invitation Chevy Chase
tournament. which closed yesterday. was
one of the best the club has ever held.
twenty -four OF the 40 entrants being out
of-town players and representing New
York city. Schenectady, y. Y. Baltimore
Pittsburgh. Cleveland. Atlantic City and
Philadelphia. the tournament was a
very well run one aud there was not a
single hitch. Although the course was in
excellent condition. there were any num-
Der OF upsets or calculations. X. l..
Bond. I'd. OF Baltimore. who was finallst
in last years tourney. is playing in the
third sixteen this year. and SO is DR..
Lee Harlan of Columbia. Both Of these
players should be in the first fight. Nor
ven Thompson card placed him in the
fourth sixteen. while there were any
number of cases almost as bad. where
the players placed two and three flights
lower than they should.
At the last meeting of the Middle At
lantic Golf Association ii was decided to
recommend to all clubs the adoption OF
the 'Calkins system" of handicapping.
that not only is the good player handi-
capped because he is good, but the poor
player is also handicapped because he Is
poor. The reason Is this: The object
OF nanO1capplng Is put All players vi
the same level and If an allowance OF a
certain number of strokes is to be made
to the less shilful player because he can
not play as Well some allowance ought
| to be made to the more skilfuf player
| because he cannot improve as much. The
| old method of handiCapping. in all cases
on the exacs difference between the par
| for the links and the average OF play
| er's three best scores, takes into con-
| sideration only the advantage held by
. r~lnx 1a1N Il DC lnf
skill. 1t overlooks the advantage OF the
| bad player-a greater possibility of i'm
provement Theoretically a club handi
cap list should be so made up that each
player has as good chance to win "a
any other, but no better chance. But
as handcaps cannot be readjusted daily
| it is evident that the chances will not
| really be equaled unless some measure i:
| taken of relative probabilities of i'm
! provement in play.
| scratch a player whose best score aver
age, that is, average best play. was pal
at his home course. This. OF course, MADE
| il necessary for an association handicap
| committee to raise 6rom one to five
/ strokes) the handicapS as returned from
| clubs having short courses: the reason
being that the shorter the course th'
! greater the predominance of short hole:
and of easy holes. and the easier to pla,
| in par figures. BY this revision of 1914
1
| Atlantic Association Mr.. Calkins make.
an allowance for this we'll recognized
fact in the handicap table itself. Courses
| having a par of a or IS or 90 are re
garded as standard courses, and thos'
who can play at par figures are placed a
I scratch. But on all other courses tn,
| scratch player must do better than par
| 1t will be seen that best score average
| of par gives a handicap of one stroke
| where par OF the course is ~ or "a: two
or " al
strokes where it is eS or GO; four strokes
| where it is &c or 81. and FIVE strokes
| where it is ca. BY this new feature play
ers handicapped according to the table
| at any club will, as general rule, be
able to play with the same handicap, OIL
nearly SO. at any other club.
Par for the Washington Country Clut
| is 90, for the Bannockburn Golf Club. -
1 for Chevy Chase, 13. and for Columbia
"A. The handicap table, as applied to the
local clubs. follows: