The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-01-19
\ s,s: El ] eE. xs'. ~. s.ss <. ss x &ssSS x SS.
 = .vAe,.s
THE BIG COURSE

III n lSLttE Ju6L EGCElNCQ LIOu1 NSAli6 Macan. formerly Pacific Northwest amateur champion, who lives in far away Victoria, British Columbia, ] have discovered what l think is the sparklingest bit of golf course re- partee that ever came over the ocean to this country. It is good because the author, like Abe Martin, puts world of thought in few words.
 Macan was in a group of players recently when George Duncan, the noted British star was performing. Somebody asked Duncan if he thought so-and-so was a coming champion.
 T don't know" Duncan said. ~ never saw him play. How big is he?h
 Duncan's query regarding the play CT in question was a sly shot at the size of the modern American course. And there are those who think the Britisher has no humor!
 And it Is true," Macan writes me. Nowadays they build all the courses for giants. In time the champions arm, chest, leg, biceps. neck, wrist, forearm and reach measurements will be quoted, after the championships, as if he were Jack Dempsey or Carp entier. Prior to the tournaments we will see these measurements. applied to different promising championship candidates, heralded before the week of play, with little mention of the players golfing ability otherwise.
 T would like to know where Har- old Hilton, Walter Travis and John Ball would be on these big, noun tainous courses. They would be off the map, and unless players of your size and your strength and skill can lind to tY,1x fa pd increase weight, you will soon be off the map. too. It's a mystery to me how little Freddy Mcleod keeps up at all.
 This tendency in golf Is wrong, think. It gives the honors of the game to the players who bring the most muscle instead of those who pos sess the greatest skill.
 T think the standard ball, also. should be increased in size and re- duced in weight. Under this condi- tion none of us would drive so far, but the game would without question be made better test of skill, bet ter test of our abilities to control the movements of the ball. That is the purpose of the game, control, not distance. The game should go to the player who masters the key shot, the shot to the pin. It is this shot, the approach. that wins or loses games and wins or loses champion ships. We hear of the putt as the key shot, but the finished approaches makes his putt easy.
 Come out to the Northwest cham pionship and I'll show you, on the side, a real golf course-Ingleside in Seattle. I think it excels anything in the United States for real golf as golf should be played"
 So far as I know, Macan Is the first golfer ever to bring this sub ject up. The English courses are smaller than ours, and I have often wondered why 1t was that I felt such strange liking for the public course in Lincoln park, Chicago. Perhaps this is the answer: I can play that course and feel invigorated On other courses I am conscious of tire after round of play.
 On the other hand golf takes one from the cradle to the grave" and I think that is the great purpose of the game. Then, too, we are narrow Ing the limits for possible champions, The newer courses have great pen alties for failure to carry distances, and in some of the hiIly courses the R-~S VI AS1oS a SldHl to get out of troubles. It has always been the presumption that golf is a game for all kinds of players in all conditions of play.
 In the larger way, though, agree with Macan that the game should. in the final analysis, be a contest of con- trol rather than of strength. I had never dared touch on this subject be- cause of the readiness of some critics to jump to the conclusion that I had a npersonal interest in the matter. Il have never grown big, but somehow always managed pretty well to carry 300-yard distances when I was in a hole where I simply had to. I have frequently pointed out, however, that such carrying necessities-like the tee shot on the last hole of the St. Louis Country club course, where last years championship was held-did not constitute the best test of golf.
 The real charm of the game lies in touch play, in control of the ball.
 (Copyright, John F. Dille Col