Evening star., 1920-02-05
LUCK BIC FACTOR
IN GAME OF GOLF.
Camp Discusses the Stymie.
Standardization of Balls
and Larger Cups.
BY WALTER CAMP.


has held its first meeting after five
years of innocuous desuetude, and, it
is reported, has resolved to submit to
the association a new rule standard
izins golf balls. and has refused. or
rather vetoed, any plans to abolish
the stymie or to change the size Of
the cup. Golf is a great game and a
game of infinite theorizing and more
permanent roots in tradition than al
most any other sport
The stymie is one of these relics of
tradition. and every one knows that
The only fair stymie rule is to make a
man play the stymie if he lays it out
for himself, but to abolish the stymie
under any other conditions. And yet
it has seemed impossible to get TINS
common-sense rule put through. Men
left to themselves seldom play sty-
mics, which is. as good a criterion OF
the matter as can be brought out.
The stymie introduces an element OF
luck-and here l listen to some of its
adherents. who claim that it is just
that reason why it should be left in.
so as to introduce the element of
luck-as if there were not enough
matters of luck in golf that cannot be
eradicated.
Views Of an Extremist.
| remember talking with Johnnie
Lowe once, and he said that he had
received the views of an extremist in
this matter of luck. who contended
that il two men were fairly equally
distant from the bunker guarding the
green and both men played to carry
it and reach the green. one man got a
nice, clean-hit ball with good carry
which just failed by a foot of going
over the bunker and dropped straight
in it, and the other man practically
y; Oh, ole ~ IAr nd
it. and the ball ran along the ground
kicked over the bunker and on up to
the green, that the man who had b!
all odds the better shot and had land
ed in the bunker should have right
TO recall the other mans ball and
drop ii in the bunker alongside OF hi:
as a matter of equity.
Golf is full of luck. as any one
who knows the game fully realizes
Two men drive equally long balls into
the middle of the fairway and one OF
them lies nicely knocked up for a Ions
second shot and the other, through
| the tnnate perversity of inanjmate OBJ.
jccts, has run into and come to res'
in a little cupped depression which
makes anything but nihlick an i'm
possible shot. The man whose ball Ii
thus buried curses his luck. gnashe;
his teeth and looks for sympathy te
his opponent. But does he get any
the Hard luck. thank God ~ of tht
! old story. In fact, nobody feels so bat
about the atrocious lie in the middle
( of the fairway as the man whose bal
is resting there.
Another Instance Cited.
,, Again, a man playing g. 120-yart
pitch to a green gets his ball toe
clean and instead of it's striking or
| the edge of the green and running III
Al ha inf
| the full carry at the pin. Instead
| however. of receiving his deserts ant
| seeing the ball go shooting over thu
green into the bunker behind it, the
ball hits the pin and drops dead Il
. the hole. His opponent. who ha!
sees his ball catch the edge of thu
! green with a proper back spin, bu
| instead of trickling up to the hol'
! as il should do it takes nasty littl'
kick on a ridge and goes only half
way up. and he loses the hole aftel
having played a perfect shot while hi
/ opponent has practically missed hi'
! shot altogether.
; A man drives a ball as did one o.
| our great British exponents OF the gam'
in a championship match which. hav
| ing started on it's flight into the woods
strikes a tree and bounds over on t.
the green. Two men drive into thu
rough. One with a good gait finds hi.
| bali and the other loses his ball ant
! the hole. Two men both drive into tn,
| bunker, and, as they come up to tht
| ball, find one of them lodged right undel
! the face where a shot out is impossi
BILE, and the other buried up on thu
grass so that its owner can practically
| play a full midiron shot IL he wishes
Luck? The game is so full of il
| that it is certainly not necessary to have
| the unfair stymie added to these posi-
| bilities.
Standardization Of Balls.
| Standardization of golf balls ha.
been fruitful subject for many years
! And in contradistinction to the stymit
/ rule there is plenty to be said on botl
, sides of the question. There is abso
| lutely no doubt that standardization oi
| golf balls might make it possible to keeI
! a more possible standard of goll
| courses. But, it is also equally true
| that it would make new situation anG
| the hard. hitters would certainly gair
| distinct adjustment of the ball to the
stroke. a harder ball requiring more
hitting. so that the lighter lighter
player would be somewhat at disad
vantage.
But most important of all. how
would the ball be standardized
Would it be standardized by the adop
| tion of a certain make or by tn,
! weight of the ball or the size? b,
it's elasticity? Until these things ar,
determined no one could tell how tn.
thing would work out.
| Regarding Larger Cups.
AS to any alterations in size of tn,
cup, the first thing to do for the bene
| nit of the putters is for the green:
com nmittees to see that the cups ar,
kept cut true. This would mean al
| advance in golf that would be ap
, preciated on thousands of courses
and which is altogether too much lost
sight of upon the average course. AND
| a part of this program would involve
| the numbering of the man who sticks
his iron down into the cup and yanks
the ball out in that way, nine times
out of ten breaking down the turf or
! the edge.
Copyright 1919.D
Eddie Siever Dean