Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07
Loss OF YARDAGE
TO Be ONE RESULT
Possibility Of. Bootlegging
Present Small Variety
May Bring Worry.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

going 10 happen 10 uLIh OA
January /, 1881, but the
plain. bald fact of the matter is
that John himself is to be the un-
willing victim of a bit of legisla-
ton at the beginning of the new
year that is certain to rob him of
at least 10 or Is yards of the thrill
of crashing tee shot.
Old John, the main contributor to
Americas 5000 golf courses, and the
gent who holds the bag whenever any
thing happens by way Of general golf
legislation, is going to have new,
larger and lighter golf ball perpetrated
on his unsuspecting game on January l,
and we predict that after that date
there will be big business in boot
legged golf balls Of the 1880 variety.
Not that the new ball will make any
considerable difference to old John on
January 1, for about that time he will
be thinking of paying of his Christmas
bills and wading through the snow to
his office, while the gents who dodge
the snow will be perspiring In Florida
and other spots in the South.
Along about mid-April, or perhaps
later, John will walks up to the fact
that mayhem has been committed on
his game of golf, and he might as well
break 100 this year with the 1880
edition of the standard golf ball. for 1t
will be harder to do next year with the
lighter and bigger pill. We predict
that bigger and better cuSS words will
be the outcome of that new ball, for
the unsuspecting John will find next
wear that the old tee shot won't go so
far, his puts will hang on the lip OF
the cup and his game, on the whole.
won't be the same as it is this year.
when he gets that gorgeous thrill OF
busting 100.
British Golfers Have Laugh.
It seems that the United States Golf
Association is determined to foist that
new ball on the unsuspecting golf
public, and some 5000 900 Of them viii
begin to wonder next Spring whether
this legislation is all that it is cracked
up to be- America is that way. There
are something like 129,000,000 people in
the country and only few who tell
'em what is best for them.
And 1t seems that British golfers are
by way of having a quiet laugh up
their collective sleeves over this newest
mania of the golf powers that be, for
Britain, after listening to the suggestion
of the United States Golf Association
regarding a larger and lighter ball. has
done exactly nothing about, in big
way. Only In the United States, after
January / next, will the big, light ball
be played. In Britain they viii muddle
along with the present type Of golf ball.
Gerald Russell, we'll known British
amateur star, was in the city last week,
and during game of golf, he asked
about this new ball. We told him and
even lent him one, which he Swatted an
alHnost unbelievable distance.
He said. with typical British tact:
''That Is fine. 1t feels good. but why
Is 1t being done? We have done noth,-
ing like It In Britain and ! haven't
heard of anything going to be done
toward curtailing the length Of the
ball"
Big Manufacturers in Line.
II seems also that the U. s. G. A. has
been able to gather the golf ball manu-
facturers in one basket, so to speak, and
convince them that the new ball is the
thing to use, so the manufacturers have
gone ahead buying and making new
dies and machinery for constructing the
bigger and lighter ball. That is, most
Of them have. But what of the little
fellows, who don't rate big enough with
the u. S. @. A. to come under the head
of influential golf ball manufacturers?
Why isn't 1t just possible that they may
forget to change their machinery and
that the balls they turn out for home
consumption after January will be Just
like the 1880 brand? Is it not possible
that John J. Duffer, finding that the
fand-picked variety of ball chosen for
him by those who have his welfare in
mind, will turn to the lesser known
brands which will give him back that
10 or Is yards Of which the new ball
has robbed him? It is, we answer, and
It Is also quite possible that bootlegging
in golf balls viii become quite q brisk
industry.
Can't you see the possibilities? Here
Is A playing a golf match with B, and
being steadily outdriven from the tee,
with A reaching the green on two-shot
holes that B can't reach with two of his
bigger and better wallops. So B begins
to suspect that all Is not well, and COM
ing in to the clubhouse after being
roundly licked, he drops a sinister hint
that A might have something on him in
the matter of golf ball
The committee solemnly gets out the
scales and calipersi and proceeds to
measure and weight AS golf ball. To
its horror it finds that he has been play
ing the jack-rabbit ball-193O edition.
And then what will they do about itP
But John Is Meek.
viii it be possible that around the
starting tee at each tourney there will
sit q group Of solemn gents with scales
and calipers whose business it will be
to measure and weight each golf ball
And II they do measure and weigh the
golf ball, why can't the smart boy reach
down in the ball pocket of his bag after
getting out of sight of the committee
and put bootleg ball in play. It's
situation loaded with dynamite and all
sorts Of funny possibilities. But John
j. Duffer, being the meek gent he usu-
ally is, and being honest at heart, prob
ably will do nothing of the sort. He
has put his neck in the guillotine, and
now he's waiting for the AK to descend.
Old John won't be guilty of treason,
even II he loses couple of bucks in up
holding the spirit of good, old American
craftsmanship and couple of hurrahs.
But, anyhow, the golf courses will be-
come longer next year, by the inferen-
tial reasoning of the powers that be
that when you make the golf ball short
er you make the courses longer. Or
what have you? They may be right.
and they are right when one considers
the many thousands of kopecks that
are spent annually trying TO keep the
long hitters from making a golf course
look silly, but how many long hitters
are there in the game? Old John
Duffer, who considers it an occasion
when he busts the century mark, will
be holding the ha0 as he alvays dnas