Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-22

yT,HE war has hit the tennis cracks
l. harder than IL has the stars of the goi
world so far as the stars are concerned
| for eiobt of the first ten men in tennis
are now in the service Of the Government
| I'm 10 date. the best golfers who are undef
| the colors are Bob Gardner twice the
| national amateur champion and last year
| runner-up in the national amateur 10 Ch'ch
| Evans at Merton Max Marston, easily one
| Of the top-notchers In this country FRANZ
| Blossom, the former intercollegiate cnam-
| Mon: Hamilton Kerr, who has been promi-
| nent for years as contender for national
| honors: Henry Topping, one OF the leaders
| In the Metropolitan district; Nelson Wnit-
| ney, several times the southern CHAMPION
| and a host of others who have been proni-
nent in their own local, district and state
| tits
Yet there are scores of golfers who are
not yet in the service OF the country, anu
the two most prominent are Chick Evans
and Francis Oumet. Both are subject to
draft. however, and may yet see service
Frank w Dyer. former State champion /;
Jesse Gulford, the longest of all the golf
drivers and the champion of Massachusetts,
and lot Of others who are subject to draft
have not yet been heard from.
Most Tennis Players Are Younger
tennis and golf player is age. There Is
hardly first-class player of tennis today
who has passed the thirty-year mark. but
in golf the number of men who are rated
among the best players in the country and
who have passed the thirty.year mark is
surprisingly large. Youth is just as essen
tial to success in tennis as II is in baseball
and prizefighting Those who have passed
the thirty-year mark are classed with the
down and out in these three sports. OF
course, there are exceptions, but very few
OF them.
Walter J. Travis captured an important
championship after he had passed the half
century mark, but name a single tennis
or baseball player or prizefghter who fig
ures In his sport at that age. Most of Cur
youth play either tennis or baseball. Neither
is an expensive sport and that is one reason
why they make the appeal that they do.
IL costs money not only to play golf but to
belong to a golf club and in the case Of
youngsters when there is little coming in
and lot going out golf is more or less i'm
possible unless father pays the freight.
So it is only natural that the first ten
tennis men of this country should be
youngsters. If you should name the first
ten golfers the chances are that 40 per cent
of them would be over the draft age. And
II the first twenty were considered the
proportion would be more even.
Plenty of Golfers in Service
Yet there are lot of golfers in the serv-
ice The Corkran brothers. Warren and
Clark, are with a Baltimore battery and II
will be a long time before either will play
golf again. Both are among the
very best men in the country and only last
year Clark was a semifinalist in the ma
tional championship at Merton. Phil Carter,
one of the most sensational players in the
golf world and who two years ago at Pine
hurst wen every tournament played there.
Is a member of the American Ambulance
Corps in France.
In one year he won thirty-eight cups and
thirty of them were won before he was of
age. Carter has written some interesting
letters from the front, and in one of them
he says:
81 am sitting at the wheel Of our ambu-
ance, and It certainly is great life. We
anded about three miles from the front
afternoon and no one can pos
sibly realize what 1t is like unless he can see
t. The roar Of the guns is terrific and we
hadn't been in the camp more than fifteen
minutes when the Germans let go a shell
which landed about a mile from our camp.
and that was pretty good start into what