The Washington herald., 1921-01-09

1t is easy enough to make a gem
eral deduction that sounds reason
able enough and then wander OF
into trouble because the deduction
wasn't carried out TO its entire
| length.
We are thinking here Of the mat
ter of the Out of Bounds VS.. The
Lost Ball.
You remember the old argument
of the course, to be penalized only
one stroke.
The other hooks or slices to the
edge of the rough, not nearly so bad
a shot, and is penalized both stroke
and distance-which means two
strokes.
Why, then, every one asked,
should a lost ball be penalized more
than an out of bounds?
Why should a ball driven clear
of the course receive lighter pen
atty than one merely driven into
place on the course where the ball
couldn't be found?
The FaIIacy.
This sounds reasonable enough as
a query. And so when the Out of
Bounds was awarded the same pen
atty as the Lost Ball the situation
seemed to be solved.
But there was one weakness in
this chain of logic. The lost ball
doesn't occur very often.
A combination of a good player
and a good caddie rarely produces
a lost ball.
slant hazard. On some courses you
60 nt1f-nF-hnunIu
at almost every other hole. Many
Of the best courses have from three
to FIVE out-of bounds possibilities,
with the result that the added PEN
atty has resulted in great damage
to scores. The golfer who drives a
ball out of bounds now is almost
certain to lose the hole unless his
opponent collapses completely.
And he faces this situation fairly
often, whereas losing the ball is a
much rarer affair. The new out-of-
bounds penalty has, therefore, add
ed innumerable scores to the gem
eral output, and any number of
courses have adopted a local rule
which retains the old, penalty of
one stroke loss.
So-the idea, which was logical to |
look at in a casual way, didn't work |
out as neatly as 1t was planned to |
work.
1t has always been our idea that
the maximum penalty for an error
should be one stroke.
The worst shot in golf is for the
player to miss the ball completely.
When he does this he loses only that
one stroke.
If he tops the ball and it barely
oil 1.
that one stroke.
Yet some one who happens to get
away a long ball with a slight hook
or slice that carries or rolls out of
bounds or into some unplayable SUP
stance is awarded a double penalty
for his mistake. II a golfer misses
a six-inch putt, and such things
have happened, all he loses is that
stroke.
To award a penalty of one stroke
for every mistake covers the sltua-
tion completely. For all penalties
in the main hit back at the poorer
player, who makes up 90 per cent
of the roster, and the poorer player
has trouble enough as it is. He is
the one who has to carry the bigS
burden of all peralization. Ranking
golfers rarely have lost balls IN
tournament play, and only infre-
quently rap the white sphere of the
course. But the duffer is assailed
from all directions. With a lost
ball on one hole and an out of
bounds at the next his score begins
to mount with depressing rapidity.
It might be argued that he should
not lose the ball or flop one out of
bounds. 1t might also be argued
that he should not miss the ball
completely, but IL he does the PEN
atty is one stroke only, with no
supertax attached.
One method or plan of reasoning
taken was that the game, when re-
vised, should not be made any
easier. That any change should be
in the other direction.