Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-16

~ OBJ BARNETT, George Dtnen-
x baugh and Ralph Bach are
getting along quite well In
Florida, thank you. Between
playing golf over a course which Is as
good as any championship layout we
ever have SEN, fishing for kinghsh and
amberjack in the ocean, attending the
dog races and the horse races in that
land of the sun that is Miami, the three
Washington golf professionals who
journeyed down to Miami to be asso-
ciated with the Indian Greek Golf Club
of Miami Beach for the Winter are
getting along rather well in the land of
the lotus eaters.
And what club that Indian Greek
Club is. Two years ago the location OF
the golf course and club h-uSe was just
a narrow little sand spit, covered with
mangroves, sticking out into the waters
of Biscayne Bay, where the towers Of
the Miami city water front raise their
ragged fringe seven or eight miles away.
Today on that former sand spit is a
magnificent golf course, built by Bill
Flynn of Ardmore, Pa, who built the
Washington Golf and Country Club
course and has had hand in the
construction of many f1rst-class golf
courses about the East. They do things
like that around Miami First they
stick out a sand scoop, to pull up the
sand from the bottom of the bay. Then
they get out lot of dredges and scoop
up a mud top layer. And2 then they
build a golf course. La GORGE was built
that way. So was most of Miami
Beach. 1t all is a miracle of what man
can do when nature aids him. =
And on that former sand spit is go
ing up a club house whose magnificence
is surpassed by none in the North. 1t
is only about one-third completed and
yet that part which is finished is as
large as the entire club house at Con-
gressional. 1t costs $4,000 to join.
That is the kind of club it Is. Such
folks as the FirestoneS, Fords, the Fish
er brothers and representatives Of most
of the great fortunes of America belong
to it and some day it is destined, from
what I saw, to become one Of the great
play places of the South.
THE day before played the course
L with Bob Barnett and Ralph
Beach, Tommy Armour had come
down from Boca Raton-40 miles away
to play with Bob In that rouno
strokes. But the course Is so new that
anything below IS would almost make
a record. In that round Bob said that
Tommy had a couple of 3-putt greens.
And when I played with him Bob
himself wasn't so bad. He was around
in rs strokes, missing a couple of 4-foot
puts and playing golf with all the skill
and ability that he has shown so often
around Washington. During that round
pAI 1laiy 80
Jimmy Corcoran of the Washington
Club, who spends his Winters at Miami
Beach. Think of that, in the middle
of February. And 1t was hot down
there under that broiling sun.
This place gives me Spring fever"
Barnett said, "but after you get used
to it, it IS wonderful. Think Of those
cold winds sweeping across the Chevy
Chase course, while we are playing golf
without a sweater down here. See that
little sand spit out there? That's the
you don't freeze while you are doint 1t,
either. Some day soon am going out
in the Gulf Stream after deep sea fish.
I expect to get Seasick, for they tell nae
it's rough out there, but that will be
all right Give my regards to the boys
back home and tell them to keep their
overcoatS buttoned up tight. Well be
back home around April l."
THOSE courses aasnpnd Miami and
i Palm Beach almost Ill have fair
way watering. Those that do not
lose much of their fairway grass in
the Summer. But just now, at the
height of the Winter season, their fair
ways are as green as those around
Washington are in Midway. It is .Rosth
q trip to Florida to play over greer fair
ways and take divot from Nkeen.
grass-which Is something we have not
been able to do around the Capita