The New York herald., 1922-04-09
Golf Stars Usually Waste
Little Time Hitting Ball
Raw. Vardon, Hagen Barnes Duncan, Mitchell Herd,
Braid, Taylor, Ball and Hilton Are All Members
of Rapid Playing School.
ny JOHN G. ANDERSON.

used. and when the wind blows from the
north other tees, and so on. But do tn ,
greenkeepers seem to have any interest
in good golf? Mighty few. The chair
mer of the green committees ought to
ms Ike an ironclad rule that the frs.
thing greenkeeper does in the morning
Is TO see IL the proper tees are in use,
and If not to have the disks changed
Immediately.
What is the use of having a one shot
hole of 223 yards spoiled by using a
front tee. making 1t 80 yards less when
the wind is strong and favorable, or
having golfers play from the back zee
OF such length hole when there is a
very strong head wind? And yet this is
constantly occurring at holes of all
lengths"
Chairmen of green committees woul
dc well to note the suggestion given
above. for II is full OF good meat and Is
one real instance where a. committee
man can act for good golf
There has been some comment on the
state of the fairway and greens at St.
Georges links. Sandwich, where the open
championship is scheduled. 1t has been
said that the course has never been In
sIch bad condition, but this is an exats-
geration. Almost all the links of char
acter. it seems, have had severe win
tel, but st. George.s> is in no worse
shape than others.
Putting Greens Are Good.
The banks in front Of the greens are
rather badly broken away, but that is an
easily remcdied matter and attention is
now being given to that defect. The
putting greens are in good conditon--as
fine as they ever have been the whole
course has been topdressed and the grass
has been cut on a few occasions thus
early. Given ordinarily good weather
| Sandwich will present its usual splendid
links for the open.
Various experiments have been tried
in the past weeks in England with vari-
Gus weight balls and nothing has Deen
discovered except that certain golfers
who can drive far can drive some heavy
balls further than light ones--which we
have known all along. Abe Mitchell with
six drives at Sonning some time ago,
using a 81 pennyweight ball which was
| 1853 in diameter, showed some fancy
| there was little run was 2S7 yards and
his shortest 27o yards--a grand average
/ of 279 I'll yards There is no doubt that
t,ere is fascination in long hitting. al
work. His longest drive at q hole where
though it is the long puts which do
more winning.
Special Spheres for Stars.
| 1t has long been an established fact
that special balls are made for the
crack professionals and that 1t is diff
cult IL not impossible for the amateur
to buy in a shop the kind of ball which
is used by the champions and near
| champions. With this thought In mind
the open championship committee OF
Great Britain has about decided. we
| have heard, to permit play In open
events only with balls which are fur
nished by the committee and bought
from them, they in turn having bought
them from some shop supplied in the
usual way by the various manufacturers
A player will be at liberty to select
any ball of any make which he pleases
but these balls will have been bought In
the open market and will MT be specials
III any Switching goes on the player
not only will be disqualified but he VIII
be guilty of dishonoraole act which
we presume would be visited by an
edict forbidding his entry in any future
open title play.
This is indeed a noteworthy step for
ward and will probably be followed by
other organizations II need be The ex-
pertinent will be watched with great In
terest on this side.
The stymie is with us gain.
timely action and we're for It good and
strong.