The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INF M ALTON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
WASHINGTON. d. C
PoPuLARIzING COLE.
Washington, D. c.

bia Country club near here a few days
ago. when the public was invited to
the grounds to witness an exhibition
by several Of the greatest American
amateur and professional players.
1t was Q first half holiday of the
summer for the thousands of govern
ment employees in Washington, many
of whom are strangers, and the clubs
invitation was accepted with a rush.
Upw 'rds of ten thousand automobiles
were parked outside the grounds of
the club, and a great multitude came
by trolley and on foot. For a day,
this hitherto exclusive organization
became a community social center and
| public amusement park.
Many persons who had never be-
fore witnessed a golf game tramped
around the course in the wake of
| Chick Evans. Walter c. Hagen, James
Barnes and Fred Mcleod. They saw
the last named expert negotiate the
eighteen holes of the three mile
course in sixty-seven strokes, which is
three below par. The Camp Meigs band
FURNISHED music for the occasion, and
special thrill was provided when the
Washington-New York aerial post
flew over the green and delivered
| special sack Of letters to club MEM
bers from the Aero Club of America.
incidentally, large sum ST money
was collected for the Red Cross, but
| this was not the main purpose of the
| gathering. Its bject was to show
time as means of recreation for
| thousands besides it's membership, and
can also promote community spirit
and social intercourse, perhaps better
than any other organized sport. For.
| in the first place. golf is one of the
! few games in which the spectators,
tramping miles in the open air, up hill
and down, get almost as much exer-
| else as the players. Seeing a golf
match is very different, in this respect,
| from trying to wear out a hard board
seat at a ball game. And in the second
place, a perpetually moving crowd is
an essentially sociable one; old friends
meet and new friendships are form
| ed; it is sort of informal outdoor
reception.
This innovation Of opening a great
private club to the public may be
| taken as the golfers reply to the
charge that his sport is wasteful
one, which the nation cannot afford
in war time. 1t is true, he admits,
/ that golf requires g. great deal of land,
and often of very good land. a good
golf course represents a large invest
ment in soil which could otherwise
i produce foodstuffs. Furthermore, a
! great deal of labor is required to keep
a golf course in first class condition,
| and this labor might otherwise be en-
golf course is a much more expensive
means of recreation, in proportion to
the number of persons who can use
1t, than tennis court or a baseball
diamond. In Washington the NUM-
clpal tennis courts have become the
sites of buildings for war administra-
ton, but the leading golf courses are
still kept up.
1t is absurd to talk about blowing
up the golf courses, that have been so
when there are miles of equally fer
tile soil all around them in its orr
ginal virgin state. There are three
good reasons for keeping the golf
courses open. First, they offer a
means of exercise for their own mem
bers and their guests. Second, the
games produce a great deal of money
for war work. Last year the golf
courses of the United States turned in
over 100000 for the Red Cross on
be played this year and it is expected
that much larger amount will be
realized.
The third reason is the idea of
community entertainment. When a
club periodically opens its doors to the
general public, it is then capable of
affording amusement to as many per-
sons, per acre Of land and per dollar
invested, as any recreationaI fnstitu-
the example of the Columbia Country
club will be followed by many of the
other golf organizations which are
accessible to great cities.
One result of this movement will be
to give the public an entirely new idea
Of the game.N Golf has been popu-
larry regarded as the sport of rich
men, as game of fashion and leis-
ure, requiring much money and time
but no great skill. This impression is
undoubtedly due to the fact that ss
per cent OF Am orleans have never seen
a golf game. They imagine the sport
as a group of portly plutocrats drib-
bling a little round ball across a lawn
with lackeys serving highballs al
every hole, and Scotch gardener
pers out of the way. and trimming the
grass with pair of scissors.
A: a matter of fact to play even a
fair game of golf requires nerve, en-
durance and skill acquired only by
years Of experience, while there is
probably no higher athletic perfection
than that attained by the golf expert
Fred Mcleod recently gave a con-
: vincing demonstration of this fact by
driving a golf ball twenty times in
face watch without even scratching
the glass. He did not do it with
gentle taps either, but with large
hefty wallops that sent the ball ovel
two hundred yards. What tennis OF
baseball player can do feat requir-
ing equal muscular precision?
There Is room in the game fol
strength as we'll as finesse. At the
eleventh tee on the Shawnee COL
/ course. near Philadelphia. Walter c
Hagen recently drove a ball across the
Delaware river at a point where the
stream is 290, yards wide. and the
, ball went well into the woods upon the
: other bank, so that the drive wa
over 800 yards. This is probably the
greatest distance that missile of any
kind has been sent by unaided human
muscle.
, The degree of control over the bal
by the golfer is well illustrated by {
stroke made by Barnes. He placed
. the pail six feet away from a build
= | ing thirty-five feet high and twelve
feet thru, and drove it over. This in
volved cutting the turf under the bal