New Britain herald., 1929-04-16
(BY JIGGER)

A re" years asG critics or Amerl- can life were leveling their shafts at an aspect of sports which offered wide-open mark. They told us that we were a nation of spectators. They said we took our games and exer- else vicariously
 They marshalled hosts of figures to prove their point. So many thousands followed professional baseball. The crowds that attended college football provided ammuni- ton for their guns. They pointed to the sell outs" at prize fighting events as evidence of their conten- tion.
 Probably they were right. The tremendous increase in urban popu- lation crowded the cities. There was little room left for play. A changed mode of living deprived men of the exercise that they got naturally in the course of their daily duties. when they were living in other than the surroundings of the office build ing and the apartment house.
 But the inherent competitive spirit would not be downed and when it showed up in the grandstand and bleachers. It was the throat muscles that got the exercise. Competition could only be had as it was reflected from the field and arena.
 The war provided throw back into more primitive conditions. Men lived in the open. fought and played. In the 10 years since they came back. sports have strode on more gloriously and folks have moved to new paths.
 The Golf Course
 The open road crossed the golf course. The new devotees of exer- else got a closeup of green sward and the emerald velvet of close cropped grass. The fairways and greens ade their own appeal as d just discovered.
 But golf was shrouded behind musty and highfalutin' designation ."The Ancient and Honorab ble Game In the public mind it was silly game. The ribald uninitiatel called it COW pasture pool" and laughed at their own jibes. It was regarded as harmless sport for doddering old men to play, but hardly a he mans" game.
 As one of the signs of a break away from custom and tradition. youth splurged into golf. It hooked and sliced its way into the game. Sports writers began to play 1t and their pages soon reflected a changed opinion toward game that youth was making modern.
 Jones and Lindbcrgh
 Robbie Jones. winning national became front page news. He was the Lindbergh of golf. What the Flying Colonel did for aviation. the Wizard of the Links has done for a game that Is now both honorable and popular.
 Some three millions of Americans men, women and children-are playing golf. They are not all trap ped behind the bunkers of exclusive country clubs-not by a long shot. Thousands of these players cannot pay for expensive golf. But they are playing the game just the same. Their needs are being met by public and semi-public courses.
 Expense Not Necessary
 One of the popularizing features of golf was the discovery that 1t can be played at small expense once the initial outlay for constructing ! course has been met. Of course it s often otherwise in country clubs, hut in them. other considerations than golf for it's own sake or for the purpose of exercise. hold sway
 A fair player could go to Good win Park with a golf outfit costing five dollars. play with quarter ball and turn in tolerable score if he were hitting the old pill on the nose and sinking his butts the day he chose for the experiment.
 The same man might play with a hundred dollar outfit at Shuttle Mea- low or Sequin. use dollar balls and. f his game was not clicking, make l terrible showing. He would have got small pleasure out of that day. while he would have counted the other as quite happy occasion.
 Expensive golf is not essential for he enjoyment of game that is .apidly surging to the front as our national game. It is no longer con- ined to the middle aged or the non- athletic portion of the population. Young men and women are in 1t. College athletes. professional ball players and prize fighters prefer it o their specialties. Boys are golf More of them can spank out ! two-hundred yard drive or take ,nly two puts to a green than can am out home run or throw lrop curve.
 Not So in Dads Day
 It wasn't so in dads day so there $ no use in asking him to pass on he merits of the game unless he has been infected with the golf bug. But