Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-04
EBEN BYERS, ONE OF BEST GOLFERS,
DEMONSTRATES HE is NO MATCH
FOR MISS BJURSTEDT AT TENNIS
Donald Ross Waves His Magician's Wand and
Now Rverton Has One of the Finest Golf
Courses in This Section of the Country
BY PETER PUTTER

NTEN have not been distinguishing them
1f1 selves in their matches with women,
Jerome d. Travers, many times the amateur
golf champion of this country, essayed some
| time ago to give Mrs, w. A. Gavin the
| Metropolitan champion, nine strokes in each
| eighteen holes in a thirty-siX-hole match
| and was badly defeated Harold Hilton
| the greatest of the amateur golfers of Great
Britain, had tried the same plan with MISS
| Cecil Leitch and was also defeated
Eben NJ. Byers and William c. Fownes'
| Jr, are the only Pennsylvanians who have
| ever won the amateur golf championship OF
| this country. Byers is also tennis player
| and he got the idea into his head that ne
| could defeat Miss Molla BJurstedt IN
| tennis match. So. in Cne Of the Red Cross
| matches in New York, he tried it out and
was badly beaten That he still thought
it was possible was shown by his attempt
the other day. He wagered a large fat sum
that he could beat the Morse woman IN
three-set match. He did win one set, but
the other two went to the woman player
1t looks as If the new Riverton course
were going to play havoc with the three
or four other New Jersey links. They are
all in the same neighborhOod and none or
them is more than five miles from any other
club. But Riverton has an up-tO-the-minute
eighteen-hoe course, while the others nave
nine-hole courses, and once the players OF
something is bound to happen
The Work of Donald Ross
Donald Ross was invited out to Riverton
to look over the property after the club
had bought the land oil the other side of the
grove of trees that formerly bounded the
old nine-hole course. The club paid him
somewhere between $500 and $1,000 for his
services. and when you look the new course
over 1t is worth every cent the club paid
him.
If you should take bolt of cloth to two
taiors, one who would charge you S15 and
a Walnut street tailor would want $40 there
is no doubt that the suit of the Walnut
street tailor would be highly superior to
the other tailor. Golf course architects are
merely tailoTs You show them piece of
land, and out of the hundred acres they
must construct eighteen holes. Which man
will do the better job, Donald Ross, the
expert of experts. or a cheaper man?
Any one can lay out eighteen holes, but
most of us would make sorry mess of il.
II would not have been hard to hash up the
Riverton course and there is shown the
wisdom of the Riverton Cub in employing
the master magici IN of the links. AS Ross
has reconstructed the old course the players
now play the first two~holes and then pass
through the woods TO an opening cut through
the trees to the third tee. This is the first
of the new holes. 1t is a dog leg of the
pronounced type. II is more actually a
right-angled hole. A l6O-yard shot will
carry the ball into the farway. A straight
200-yard shot will land the ball in a trap
A pronounced slice makes 1t even easier for
the player
Beautiful Stretch of Rolling Land
Just as you come out of the woods you
glimpse the new course The old course
is fiat. But before your eyes you see a
sweep of ground of rolling country and
the contrast between the two pieces OF
property is 50 marked that you remark IL
in amazement. And over this stretch of
rolling country, Ross has laid out some
wonderfully excellent holes. His two-shot-
ters In particular are fine, ranging frou
full brasseys and cleeks to mdiron and
mashies for the second shot And on every
one of these If you do not get your drive
you cannot hope to be hole high on your
second shot.
Some one has said that the test Of any
good golf course is its one-shot holes Pine
Valley. Merton and Whitemarsh are
examples of this and Riverton is another.
The first looks like 4 jigger and mashie
hut too often these shots land the ball
In the big trap In front OF the green Later
on there Is another one-shotter from an
elevated tee and a careless survey of this