Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-03
DOZEN YOUNGSTERS
NOW BREAKING Is
Scores That Won 10 Years
Ago Now Fail to Make
First Flights.

a general all around i'm
provement in competi-
tive play, the fact remains, never
theless, that the scoring pace OF
golf around Washington has
moved far past the standard OF
play that was good enough to
win tournaments 10 years ago.
What with q dozen or more young
eters, all of whom are capable OF
breaking rs on any mans golf course,
and A group of veterans who can keep
pace with the youngsters. the scores
Of 80, 81 and 90. which used to win
golf matches in big time tournaments
around the Capital, would not win a
match in the third flight today. Which
Is all by way of breaking the sad news
that golf, as she is played about WASH
in0ton nowadays, is q far swifter game
than 1t was a decade ago, and not
alone because of the youngsters, either.
The veterans who were playing good
golf In 1920 are playing better golf to-
cay, even though they do not win as
many tournaments because the COM
petition is keener.
It may be the lively ball, or any
ether factor, but We believe the gen.
eral average of scoring by amateur
golfers around washington has been
lowered simply by reason of the COM
petition. The man who used to win
with an 30 found he was losing with
the same score and so he went out and
improved his game to meet the chaI-
lerike Of the men who had come UP and
outscored him as they improved With
practice and competition.
Ten years ago 1t was not at all uTl-
usual for players in one of the large
tournaments about the Capital to make
the first flight with a score OF IS or
even 4 stroke or two more, this with
favorable course Conditions. Today, I'M
der the same favorable course condi-
tons, the man who shoots 76 Is not at
oil sure he will make the first fight, and
several times there have been play-offS
for the first flight at ~. Indeed once
the play-off came at rs and this over
q course which was deemed good
enough 10 years ago to serve as test
for the national open championship.
All Courses Tough.
In the three big tournaments held
about Washington this year land by
big. we mean representative of all the
best golf there is about the Capital), the
scores qualifying at the top Of the first
flight were as follows: washington, 10;
Chevy Chase, 81, and Columbia, n,
This means that the man who shot 70
at washington was out Of the first
AIlQ 10 Is llOb ny ally utCa4A6 o
NAd score over that tricky course where
eny hole on the layout can prove to be
z score wrecker Washington has no
breathing spots where q man can loaf
along TO an easy par. They are all
hard.
At Chevy Chase rain fell on the
qualifying day-a rain so heavy that
many Of the contestants who started
late In the afternoon could not finish,
AA YNatf n GrkN(1Al
tourney for those who could not COM
plete the qualifying round. The scores
were higher than at the other two
clubs, but this probably was caused by
the rain, for Chevy Chase is hardly
q more difficult scoring proposition than
Washington or Columbia. And we dis
tinctly recall that Harry Pitt needed
per from the sixteenth hole for 40
in the final round, when he beat Miller
STEVENSON, even though Pitt missed a
couple of puts on the first nine.
Over at Columbia, where no rain
fell during the tourney, and the course
was q bit faster than the Chevy Chase
course during the Chevy Chase tour
ney, the scoring pace was far hotter
than at Chevy Chase. Perhaps the
size Of the field had something to do
with It, although most of the top
notchers who played at Columbia also
played at Chevy Chase. But the fact
is that n was the highest score TO
get in at Columbia, which is only seven
strokes above par. And IL tied for the
qualifying medal.
Not so many years ago, IS qualified
for the first fight in both these tour
naments and once in a while--a few
years back-S6 or 81 made the grade
in the first fight at Washington.
Today scores of IS sometimes fail
to make the fifth flight, and the gent
who enters one Of the big tournaments
knows before he starts that he must
do S6 or better II he is TO be sure
Of playing in the match play rounds.
Standard Is Raised.
What Is the reason for this change
IN the scoring in the major golf tour
naments about Washington? The ball
o. not great deal hvelier, the clubs
ere about the same, and certainly
greens committees have not made the
courses easier. Rather. the trend has
been to make the courses harder, by
more scientific placement of bunkers,
by rearranging holes and by stretching
out the tees to their maximum length.
We believe the whole cycle of lower
scoring has come about because five or
six years ago there were playing In
golf tournaments about the Capital
three or four men who were able TO
VIII GOIlelSUCntly anu blldb Az OAd'1A W
keep pace with them the rest of the
field had to raise the game to their
level or lose consistently.
1t Is automatic that any high-class
competitor raises the whole level OF
competition in his field to a mark near
his own level, simply by reason OF his
own skill. There isn't any doubt that
the level OF scoring in the big national
championships has been raised by rea-
CON of the siIrpassinH SUPREMACY of
Bobby Jones
The same thing came to pass around
Washington from 1922 through 1925
and beyond, when Chris Dunphy, Ro-
land Mackenzie, George Voigt and
Miller p. Stevenson were winning con-
sistently. The balance of the field found
they could not go along and win with
78's and sos against these men, so they
were forced to raise the standard of
play TO keep In the pace. That, 1T
seems to US, Is q sounder reason Tor
the raising of the general standard play
about Washington than the livelier golf
ball, any change in clubs or any other
single factor. It is a somewhat intangi-
bic thing. but it exists, nevertheless.
Today there are more men with ham
dicaps of 6 and below than there were
I'VE years ago. Is this due To the lively
ball or to a raising of the standard OF
play? And there are many men about
Washington who can play courses other
than their own familiar terrain in rs
or better, which goes to show that ia
miliarity with golf course is not the
lone reason for low scoring.
The crop of youngsters who have
come along within the past three or
four years have played their part In
raising the standard of play. for these
s'kids" around 20 years of age can knock
:f1e ball around any course well below
30. Such golfers as Everett Eynon,