Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-21
VOW much difference does the
late Autumn air and soft fair
ways make in the distance
i golf ball may be driven? Is

late Autumn air and soft fair
ways make in the distance a
golf ball may be driven? Is
the ball actually shorter on the
carry because Of cold air or does 1t go
as far through the air as In the Sum-
mer time, with most of the distance
being lost because Of soft fairways.
We have heard many theories to ex-
plain the fact that a golf ball does not
travel as far in cold weather as in
warm weather; have seen golf balls
warmed carefully before starting out;
have seen them carried in an inside
pocket for warmth and such things de-
signed to make the ball fly farther.
And yesterday, the day being good one
to try out the matter of distance, we
determined to watch five professionals
who were playing in a game at the
Woodmont Country Club.
rabbit" Gone From Ball.
The only conclusion that could pos
sibly be reached is that the rabbit
is all taken out of the "jack rabbit"
ball by the cold atmosphere and that
the ball does not carry anywhere near
as far as it does in warm weather.
Naturally 1t does not roll as far as it
would on the hard fairways of Sum-
mer, but the carry itself Is at least 20
yards shorter than in the good old
Summer time. We chose a relatively
short hole, where all five of the pro-
fessionalS would reach the green with
a wooden club shot in normal Summer
weather. This hole Is the fifteenth at
the Woodmont Club, normally played
in the Summer with No. iron or a
spoon to keep from going over the
green with full wooden club shot.
Every one of the professionals used a
driver and not one carried within 20
yards of the green.
The longest carry was hit by A. L..
Houghton Of the Harper Country Club
whose ball carried just past the 200
yard mark and rolled to the edge OF
the green. after favorable kick. None
OF the other pros carried more than 1876
yards, and the way the ball slowed up
in the air was quite different from
the flight Of the sphere in the Sum-
mer time, when 1t seems it will never
stop going up and out. The test DEM
onstrated to us conclusively that the
fight of golf ball is at least 20 yards
shorter in cold weather than in the
warm air of Summer. The test was
made under perfect Fall conditions, for
there was no wind against the players,
although the slope of the fairway at
the fifteenth at Woodmont Is slightly
up hill.
Yet to show what can be done, even
though none of the players were on
the green from the tee, four Of them
secured par IS on the hole, and the
other had 4. after getting in the trap
at the right of the green. Mel Shorey
of East Potomac Park made weak
chip shot and then holed 30-foot putt
for g., Arthur B. Thorn OF Woodmont,
from a position back Of the trap,
pitched so accurately that his ball hit
the pin and would have remained in
the hole for a deuce If the flag had
been out Houghton hit the hole for
a 2 and got 3, while AL Treder of
Manor Clipped short of the cup and
holed a 3-footer for his par. Walter
w. Cunningham of Burning Tree
pitched over the green from the trap
and got down in 4, the only man Of
the quintet to go over par, even though
no ball was on the green from the tee.
Is Garry Over Contest.
The game in which they played was
a carry-over from the contest Of last
Monday, when Thorn and Shorey beat
Treder and Houghton in a 19-hole
match at Columbia, with Shorey sinking
a 6-footer for a birdie at the extra hole
10 win the match In yesterdays COM
bat Houghton and Treder started out as
if they would win, for they obtained an
carly lead over the other pair, and were
l up at the turn. But on the tenth
Shorey got birdie to win, and the
Thorn Shorey combination won the
eleventh and twelfth in par to go into
a 2-hole lead. They retained this lead
to the end, although Treder and Hough-
ton did not go down without struggle
Puts en- the sixteenth and seventeenth
might have dropped for the latter pair,
which would have put different COM
plexion on the golf match. Thorn had
the best score Of the quartet, registering