The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-30


Golf may have been an old mans
game at one time, but recent de-
velopments in this greatest OF out
door sports indicate that the
youngsters are rapidly taking pos
session Of It. Youth will be served,
as Grantiand Rice insists when he
chronicles the Waterloo OF vet
eran in any sport from baseball to
boxing. =
Since Gene Sarazen captured the
title of open champion Of the Unit
ed States in the tournament ut
Stoke and followed this up by
carrying OF the crown Of the Pro-
fessional Golfers association at
Pittsburgh it remains only for
Bobby Jones, or some one OF his
years, to win the amateur cham
pionship at Brookline, Sept. 20,
to demonstrate the complete SUI
premacy of yoath in golf. Sarazen
has barely passed his majority,
while the Atlanta prodigy is year
his junior. Johnny Farrell is an
other professional and Jesse
Sweetser another amateur who
ranks close to Sarazen and Jones'
and there are hundreds. of boys
daily on the golf courses Of the
country developing form and ex-
perience that will make them con-
tenders for the championships oil
hext year and the year after.
Sarazen's triumph at Chicago was
at the expense of all the veterans
of golf, professional and amateur
who could be brought together
from England, Canada and the
United States. Black, the old
timer from the Pacific coast, who
is a grandfather and old enough tc
be Genes father, had the prize al.
most within his grasp, but he
slipped in the final heart-breakine
test. 1t may have been merely the
| break of the luck, but the fact re.
mains that it was contest of age
against youth and youth won. A,
Pittsburgh in the last round Sara
zen was pitted against the veteran
Emmett French who had defeated
him in a score of matches in days
gone by. 1t was a gruelling strug.
gle and again youth was goine
strong at the finish with age slip.
ping.
The amateur championship a,
Brookline will bring together prob.
ably the greatest aggregation Of
golf notables ever contesting for a
prize that means nothing but glory
and the experts who follow thu
sport closely are predicting tina,
again youth, in the person of Bobb,
Jones, will carry off the honors
Jones led the amateurs in the oper
at Stoke and is at the top of his
game. English professionals suci
as Mitchell and Duncan class hin
as one of the greatest golf player;
Pin the world. His only weakness
heretofore has been one Of tenn
perament-or temper-and it is salt
that he has succeeded in overcom
ing that until he is now capable o
playing through tournament al
the top of his game and if he doe.
that it will take a miracle man tt
stop him.
Why Youth Challenges.
There are two reasons, at least
why the youngsters are challeng
ing the tradition that golf is an oil,
mans game. The first of these i.
that the boys have learned that tn,
game has more destinations thai
any other ever invented and tina
proficiency in it calls for all tn,
qualities of mind, heart, skill ant
strength that can be put into an,
sport 1t requires study, patience
persistence, self-contrOl and per
feet coordination of brain and body
And anyone who thinks that golf !:
not test of nerves and physica
endurance has never playe,
through the finals of a tournamen.
For many years, in this countr
especially, boys and young me-
looked upon golf as a game to b
taken up when they were too ell
for any other sport and would b
content to dodder around the ope
fields in pursuit of health an
serile pleasure. They were in
clined to be supercilious and DAT
ronizing when told that there wa
more to the. game than the
} thought They were cocksure. The
didn't think-they knew! Unfor
tunately, too, it happened almos
invariably that when one of thes
youngsters took golf club in hi
hand an essayed hitting ball !.
had the novice's luck and slugge
it a mile. A performance of tina
: kind usually set him back about l
years in developing the game, fc
: the inevitable result would be thu
he was confirmed in his judgmer