The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-16
GOLF TAME GAME
It's Not in Same Glass With
Other Athletic Sports.
Tennis, Baseball and Boxing
Are All Superior to 1t.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, Sept 16.-The golfing
persons kidded themselves into believ-
ing that theirs is the only game that
requires temperament of a certain sort,
steady nerves, unfailing courage,
brains, concentration, and like quail
cities.
Poor dearsi
The Iinkists have written reams and
reams dwelling on the intricacies of
their sport; they have talked them
selves hoarse and hoarser still on the
same subject. They have written and
talked so much about 1t that they have
come to believe that good golfer is a
superior being; that only great men
play golf; that tennis, Billiards, base
ball and the other sports are INDUCED
in only by rough necks.
Poor deluded gollufers!
Tennis Greater Than Golf.
1t seems to be the way of editors of
eolfing magazines to dwell long and
game, to the belittling of other sports.
But what will they say now in face of
what Bobby Jones, of Atlanta, accom-
plished in the recent national amateur
tournament. Bobby" aged fourteen,
went right into the affair, worked his
way into match play. beat former
champion, defeated another star golfer
and gave the 1915 champion bad
scare.
Who will say that at fourteen or fiji
teen, temperament and brains are de-
veloped; that one has acquired poise,
patience, steady nerves and calm
Judgment at such an age? Yet a boy,
undeveloped, beat some of the greatest
golfing stars in America. Does that
show that golf is the greatest game. or
hot m a u
if he gets sufficient practice?
Golfers who term their game the
greatest probably never INDUCED in
tennis. If they had they wouldn't talk
as they do. Tennis requires everything
that golf requires-and much more.
Tennis summons courage, steady
nerves, concentration, endurance, and
a brain a thousand times faster than is
required in golf. A golfer can take an
hour or more, if he wishes, to map out
his next play; a net artist must think
and act in lightning flash. golfer
can play the game at any speed that
pleases him; a tennis player must be
a human whirlwind: he must be here,
there and everywhere.
And yet some golfers belittle tennis.
Baseban's Demand Greater.
Baseball makes greater demand on
the brain. the body and the nerve
forces than does golf. 1t, too, requires
and brains. Golfers elaborate on the
terrific strain they are under when
they are called upon to hole five or
ten or fifteen foot putt or lose match.
Does the strain compare with that of
a pitcher in a three on-bases situa-
ton? Does it exceed the nervous ten
sion that comes to batter when it is
up to him to hit or lose the game for
his club; a contest that may decide a
pennant fight or win or lose a worlds
championship?
Is golf greater than baseball?
Who will say that golf requires more
of a man in the matter of infinite
care, concentration, nerve control and
brains than billiards? Boxing de-
mands more OF its devotees than does
golf. 1t calls for concentration; the
brainier he is the greater the fighter.
Calm judgment and controlled nerves
are essential. A golfer doesn't need
to have endurance, nor ability to take
punishment. But a fighter does.