Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-12
JAMES RIVER LINKS
OFFERS STIFF TEST
Great Diversity of Shots
Necessary for Par in Mid
Atlantic Event.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

! ~ all the golf courses the cham
pionship tournament of the
y Middle Atlantic Golf Associa-
ton has been played over in
recent years, the James River layout
of the Country Club of Virginia, where
the title chase will be held June S. 6
and z, will rank in the minds of those
Washingtonians who visit the course
during the championship with the best
In this sector. We paid visit to Rich
mond yesterday to look over the layout
where the stars of the mid-Atlantic
neighborhood will gather three weeks
hence to contest for the title won last
year by B. Warren Forkran over his
home course of the Baltimore Country
Club. And we found golf course
whose diversity of shots is exceeded
only by the attractiveness of the entire
layout-one which shows the hand of
the master.
Four short holes, carefully bunkered
and made more hazardous by the pre-
vailing wind which sweeps across their
greens, will test the iron play of the
men who go to Richmond early in June
But these, ranging in length from the
tricky 140-yard fourteenth to the 202-
yard eighth, are but 1nterludes in the
array of fine golf shots that will have
to be played on this layout if par is to
be Appropriated
Only two years old, the course lies 6
miles from the old course of the Country
Club of Virginia, half mile from the
James River, and was built by Fred
Finlay, who is constructing the new
course of the National Women's Coun-
try Club out near Congressional and
other famous courses. Thoroughly mod
ern in its trapping and green construc-
ton, the layout of the James River
course has par of 70 and yardage of
1888 yards. This is on the short side as
championship courses go, but more than
made up by the trapping and other
difhculties that make 1t so interesting.
The first nine originally was intended
to be the last nine, but the course has
been turned around, and the original
last and shorter nine now is the first
nine, a wide-open course laid out over
rolling terrain where the wind sweeps
across from the hills, across the James
and is against the player on most of the
lengthy holes. The last nine is quite
different. Here the course has been cut
through heavy woods and accuracy Is
essential rather than great length.
Course Dried Out.
The fairways are hard and dry, for
Richmond has had no more rain than
Washington, and the fairways need rain
just as do those about the Capital. But
the putting greens are as near perfect
as any We ever have seen, will hold a
pitched ball without trouble and do not
have those tricky rolls and fluctuations
which make putting on some courses a
nightmare. Here is the yardage and par
of the layout over which the Midatlantic
golfers will NAV npyt NINTH
No. !, 1872 yards. par 4; No. 2, 408
yards, par 4; No. 8, 425 yards, par 4;
No. 4, 149 yards, par 8; No. S, 357 yards,
par 4; No. 6, 448 yards, par S; No. 2,
339 yards, par q; Nd. 8, 202 yards. par
3; No. 9. 4sl yards par S. Par out' 50;
No. 10, 391 yards, par 4: No. II, 376
yards, par 4; No. IL, 397 yards, par 4;
No. Is, 322 yards, par 4; No. IA, lao
No. 16, 5l2 yards, par S; No. II. 153
Par in, IS; yardage, 3,052. Total par.
u. Total yardage, 6.253.
Navy Department Wins.
A team of golfers from the Navy De-
partment defeated team from the
Naval Academy yesterday in a match
over the Annapolis Roads Golf Club
course, the officers on duty in Wash
ington scoring II points to 91z for
their opponents on duty at Annapolis.
Lieut.. Comdr. A. H. Douglas of the
Navy Department and Lieut.. F. S.
Holmes of Annapolis tied for low gross
score with cards OF 70 each.