Evening star., 1921-07-22
GOLF HAS|TS own
SPECIAL LANGUAGE
TraveIog Boy Tells His Young
Readers What a Strange
Game It Is.
BY RUSSELL BURKE.
The TPaveloG Bay.


COLUMBIA COUNTRY CLUB. july
2f-u takes nerve TO play golf. and
more nerve to watch it 1 will say
the folks that cpme opt here to see
the .chempiQns-1o just like other
folks you wppld see most anywhere.
They act quiet like. just as il they
wsrs waiting for a Judge to hahd
down "a great JEahtence. or like. u
suppose. the crowds acts when It
,waits' for the mani to vcome to the
window and say ''The king is dead"
There must be lot of people try
ing to play golf. judging by what
near around the club and in the gal
where you think It is at all. or at
least where / thought II was. 1t is
right down on the ground and not UP
three flights of stairs for SO cents
and the war tax. The gallery is
the players as near as the guards
VIII let them. l saw Gen. M, 5 in
the gallery. The funny thira about
the game right now Is that au Amer
ican holds the British championship
and an Englishman-Ted Gray-holds
the American championship. The
last may be all upset. for this is the
American open that is at stake out
here.
They say that 100000 people are
means that about 10000, 900 clubs are
swinging through the air. sometimes
hitting the ball. and sometimes not.
With all the clubs there are out here
do not see that the swinging cuts
down the temperature any. Do you
know what your golf club is made out
Of? At the American Forestry Associa-
tion the other day they told me that
hickory makes the best shaft or
handle, but some makers use horn
can keep his eye on the ball better
How Heads Are Made.
! The head of the golf club. the part
with which you whack the ball, is, or
course. very important. Sometimes
metal is used and sometimes a piece
Of ivory is put in the head. (Some
players. their friends say. do not need
the head are maple. beech. birch, lig
| mum vitae. dogwood and persbnmon.
What q shame to cut up the beautiful
| dogwood to make a golf stick. i hope
| they do not use much of it.
! There are all kinds of funny names
for golf sticks. Jim Barnes is favor
able to the cleek. which. they tell
me, is great for shooting into the
wind. Jerry Travers said 1t was the
| most powerful iron in the bag. In a
pitch to the green" Jock (not Jack)
Hutchison. the American who 10 the
British champion. uses club Of such
/, great loft" that II is a niHlick.
Bobby Jones. who. I think, may win
out here. began playing when he put
| on rompers and they had to saw the
| regulation stick in two for him.
| Need to Talk to Them.
| like golf very much and have three
clubs that I have not tanned yet. for
they do not quite do what think they
| are going to do. but l keep working
| on them for as the funny men say
"the first hundred years are the hard
est" As soon as 1 get better &C
quainted with my clubs am going
to learn the language in which they
can best understand me. I think
som etimes that Is why l do not do bet
ter. for golf needs language all by
itself-anyway that is what Uncle
Fred tells me.
You see. when you pitch to the
greens you do not do that at all. for
except with the other end of club,
so you might be q good pitcher out
here, but never be able to get
contract with Mr. Griffith. who runs
the Washington base ball club.
i They have brides. out here. too.
that goes over the fence like B. Ruth
can do 1t. If you put one over the
fence out here I guess you would be
in a terrible fix. Here you want to
get in a hole as soon as possible. but
that is just what the pitcher does
not want to do in base ball. So. az
II say, when you take up the game OF
golf you take up a new language
along with 1t. And II you can't
speak the language that makes II
bad. Grant" Rice and Uncle Fred
both say the language is not one OF
one syllable sometimes. either.
wonder what they meant?
I RUSSELL BURKE,
The Travelog Boy.
p. S.-The nineteenth hole" is full
OF reporters and experts. like myself,
on this game and you would think
! a world series in base ball was being
sent to the papers.
Again P. S.-Oh. yes. out here you
want a low score and in base ball you
want as big a one as you can ham,
mer out Still muddle? So am 1.
-~~->ps-s~as ~rn nNrn