Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-30
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.
? " YAsHINGTON'S longest golf
n course opened today.

n 4 course opened To-Day.
NM While members of other
golf and country clubs about
the Capital were struggling
with Old Man Par over shorter layotts,
the golfers of the Beaver Dam Country
Club were matching shots against
par of 73 over a course whose stretches
of tree bordered and well bunkered
fairways measures 6,827 yards. No, 1t
isn't bridge score, or trick in income
tax calculations. 1t is the length OF
golf course. And what a course those
same members found awaiting them at
Beaver Dam today.
Congressional with its $500 yards OF
length stretches out far enough for the
members of the big club near Bethesda.
Columbia has looked like miles OF
misery on occasions, and. Chevy Chase
and Indian Spring are not beds of roses
when the tee shots are not going out
there like shells from rifle. But think
of the suffering that can come from
6,827 yards of length on any mans golf
course. And how it can be multiplied
when most of the distance lies through
narrow fairways with tangled battle
mentS of brush and pines to catch the
hayward ball
Until today Beaver Dam was just
another golf course. 1t had its great
spots to be sure, and its length of a
trifie more than $500 yards was long
enough. But today, when S. G. Loeff1er
and his workmen opened up an entirely
new last nine stretching out to dis
tance of 3,480 yards, Beaver Dam
moved up to its true stature. We have
not played the course, but course
with such length and such narrow fair
ways and well trapped greens has am
pie difficulty to suit any man.
Today Is the Day.
For more than a year Loeffler has
been nursing this course along for the
opening. Today is the day and some
$50 golfers of the Landover Club were
billed to match their shots against its
somewhere close to the mythical figure
If any of them do they will be golfing
marvels even though they have the
advantage of playing Winter rules, for
the new fairways are not yet as good
as they will be next year and for a
while those who play the layout may
''tee EN- up"
The old first nine will be turned over
to the beginners and the women of the
club just as the Manor Club has done,
while the second nine of last year to-
day became the first nine of the "big
course" and the new nine became the
last nine of the regular 18-hole layout.
And, by the way, that first nine is no
mans cinch, for it stretches out to q
distance of 3,347 yards. And every
yard has its share of terror.
Last year Loeff1er promised Beaver
Dam 81 holes of golf He got Bill
Flynn of Toomey & Flynn down from
Philadelphia to go over the architect
ural and engineering features of the
rolling terrain back in the woods which
he proposed to construct into a new
nine holes. Flynn laid it out anc
Loeffier built it. And it stands today
an enduring monument to the genius Of
Flynn and the perseverance of Loeffler
who blasted through woods and over
hills to wrest from nature a golf course
that appears to be a gem.
That new nine has on it three pal
B holes, two of that indeterminate dis.
lance between 450 and 500 yards, which
mean that the good golfer may have
q little pitch or perhaps a chip shot
for his third, while the last-and also
the eighteenth-stretch out to a dis
lance of $50 yards and is just plair
slug all the way.
Incidentally the eighteenth fairway
Is the only one which has not come
along In good shape. Loeffler planted
the fairway with grass seed severa
times this Spring, but as luck woulc
have 1t, each time the seed was sowr
along came a heavy rain and washed
1t down the hill into the bottom
country.
Figures for New Nine.
Here is the distance and par of the
new nine: No. 10, 449 yards, par 4;
No. IL, 352 yards, par 4; No. IL, AIS
yards, par 4; No. Is, 483 yards, par s.
No. IA, 1856 yards, par s. No. is. 36T
yards, par 4; No. 16, All yards, par s.
No. II, 218 yards, par 3, and No. Is
$50 yards, par 5.
For the present the old ninth greer
is being used as the eighteenth greer
OF the new course. 1t will not be usec
for that purpose permanently, however
for the new green is just being trapped
and needs little more time.
The greenkeeperS yesterday completed
the job of putting in between 200 anc
800 tons of sand in the traps on tn,
new layout. Next Fall the old frs
nine will be reconstructed to bring i
up to the standard of the other two
nine holes, giving Beaver Dam 81 of thu
best golf holes to be found anywhcr,
about Washington.
The outstanding short hole on {;
course crammed with fine holes is tn,
fourteenth, where the tee shot must b.
played to green shaped like kidne.
bean, with yawning traps at the RICH
and left and woods awaiting an overl
strong tee shot. 1t is shaped somewha
like the fifth of the new layout, bu
appears to be better hole.
Ted Farr, who manages Beaver Dan
claims that nothing in the form of rub
Der tape has been used in measurin
the course and that they are all tru
indexes of the distance which must b
covered. They have been measured
the standard way--from middle of te
to middle of green Which means thu
Beaver Dam may be stretched out to
maximum length of something mol
than 1000 yards by frightening tt
tees
Today the members are competing
the first of a series of events for tn
Presidents Cup, played for annual
and won last by Luther Florine, Ii
southpaw club champion, who is har
of hearing and hard to beat. Other go