Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-31

cate that the yOuuSstis P
taking possession OF It. Youth wiz De
served. as Grantland Rice insists when
he chronicles the Waterloo of a veteran
in any sport from baseball TO boxing.
Since Gene Sarazen captured the title
of omen champion of the United States
in the tournament at Stoke and follow
ed this up by carrying off the crown OF
the Professional Golfers association at
Pittsburgh it remains only for Bobby
Jones. or some one of his years, to
win the amateur championship at
tRrookline. September %. to demon
| strate the complete supremacy OF youth
in golf. Sarazan has barely passed ms
majority, while the Atlanta prodigy is
a year his junior. Johnny Farreil is
another amateur who ranks close TO
Sarazan and Jones, and there are nun
dreds of boys daily on the golf courses
of the country developing form ana
experience that will make them CON
tenders for the championships of next
year and the year after.
Sarazan's triumph at Chicago was a.
the expense of all the veterans OF golf,
professional and amateur. who .ould he
brought together from England, a
ada and the United States. Black, the
old timer from the Pacific coast, VINO Is
a grandfather and old enough to be
Genes father, had the prize almost
within his grasp. but he slipped IN the
\ final heart-breaking test. 1t may nave
been merely the break of the luck, but
the fact remains that it was a contest
of age against youth and youth won.
At Pittsburgh in the last round Sara
zan was pitted against the veteran
Emmett French who had defeated hum
in q score of matches in days gone by.
t. --o. ~r,1lion StrriOO1Q and again
youth was going strong at the 1inlsn
with age slipping.
The amateur championship at Brook
Iyn will bring together probably the
greatest aggregation of golf notables
ever contesting for a prize that means
nothing but glory, and the experts who
follow the sport closely are predicting
that again youth, in the person of
Bobby Jones, will carry off the honors.
Jones led the amateurs in the open at
Stoke and is at the top of his game.
English professionals such as Mitchell
and Duncan class him as n of the
greatest golf players in the world. His
only weakness heretofore has been one
of temperament-or temper-and it is
said that he has succeeded in over
coming that until he is now capable of
playing through a tournament at the
top of his game and if he does that it
will take a miracle man to stop him.
Why Youth Challenges
There are two reasons, at least, why
the youngsters are challenging the ira
dition that golf is an old mans game.
The first of these is that the boys have
learned that the game has more fasci-
nations than any other ever invented
and that proficiency in it calls for all
the qualities of mind, heart, skill and
strength that can be put into any sport.
1t requires study, patience, persistence.
self-control and perfect coordination Of
brain and body. And anyone who
thinks that golf is not a test of nerves
and physical endurance has never play
ed through the finals of a tournament.
For many years, in this country es-
pecially. boys and young men looked
upon golf as a game to be taken up
when they were too old for any other
sport and would be content TO dodder
around the open fields in pursuit of
| health and senile pleasure. They were
inclined to be supercilious and patron
izing when told that there was more to
the game than they thought. They
were cocksure. They didn't think
/ they knew, Unfortunately, too. it hap
pened almost invariably that when one
of these youngsters took a golf club
in his hand and essayed hitting a ball
he had the n~ovice's luck and slugged it
a mile. A performance of that kind
usually set him back about 10 years in
developing his game, for the inevitable
result would be that he was confirmed
in his judgment that anybody could
play golf and nobody would until he
had nothing else better to do.
One such youth yielded to persua-
q. 4~- N .a,,r4 ~,
a Washington course q few years ago.
True to tradition, he got off excep-
~tionaIly long drives from the first three
tees. He was not so good in approach
ing the greens and in getting down his
puts, but he was extremely well
| pleased with himself as he stood on
the fouth tee and prepared to get off
another slashing drive.
"Well," he said in all seriousness, II
have mastered the long game, but
see that I'll have to give a little atten-
ton now to the iron clubs"
Needless to say he did not there
upon whale out another long drive,
Whom the gods Of golf love they
chasten, and that young man was duly
chastened before he learned the differ
ence between luck and skill in a well
hit golf shot. Today the golf courses
of the world are covered with men who
mourn the years they lost-the years
of youths suppleness and resiliency
when the eyes were keen and when
there were no such things as jumpy
nerves, ~atrophied muscles and stiffened
joints.
Future for Professionals
Second of the reasons why the
Younger generation is taking to golf is
that it now holds out substantial re-
wards to those who make a profession
of it. Walter Hagen will probably make
$4,000 this year as a result of his
having won the British open cham
pionship. He and Joe Kirkwood, the
Australian champion, have teamed up
to play exhibition games and have
practically all their time booked for
months ahead. They get a minimum
of $500 a day for these games, and
while there is nothing about that to
make Jack Dempsey give up prize
fighting, it runs into a tidy sum in the
course of a year. Kirkwood is a past
master of trick shots and he and
Hagen make q combination that is
hard to beat as a drawing card.
Gene Sarazen viii cash in on his
success in like degree. He is in great
demand for exhibition games already
and in October he and Hagen are
matched in a contest for what IS termed
the worlds championship, that VIII