Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-10
YOT that I want to be a criti-
\ sissy, but professional golf

| i
l Y erS are taking on pref
ty tough appearance from
where I sit.
Taking a squint at the boys the
other afternoon as the dough bag
shooters we're ringing up the old
register in the Kenwood open, It
seemed to me as If the old timers
were showing the strain very
markedly, and the young pros are
far from being as clipper and in
nocent-appearing as the amateurs
of the same years and length OF
time in the game.
Don't let me give you the impression
that the shinplaster shooters resemble
second-Story men, refuse 20 shave ana
sandpaper their necks. Not that. But
between you and me the pros today pos
sess mighty definite lines CT wear and
tear upon their faces. They are no
longer the cherubic types of some years
back, when you and were young, Mag
gle, and the dollar chasing in gClf was
at a much lower ebb than it is today.
And I'm going to tell you that 1 be-
lieve competition Is making the boys
sag at the knees, put the dim in their
! girl fcomplexiOn. 1t is helping, because
professional golf is bitter struggle
for the dollar and dollars in golf, as in
everything else, are not as plentiful as
when Iandpa came out of the war
with his shotgun full of munition
money.
These PAYNE coolers are
trying to keep up with the Joneses. And
not getting away with it because, for
one reason, the ability to lead a country
club life must be inherited. At least
I've found it to be true. And these
pros in most cases are men who we're
once caddieS who never let their scant
dollars take them any farther than
home and mother.
So it would seem to me that the So
cial end of golf is taking more cut of
the dough-bag shooters than the stiff
competition, even granting that golf
trade Is more spirited than ever.
THERE'S Tommy Armour, the whim-
L steal Black-Scot getting to show
the years of tear ana tussle from
money golf. TOmaSso is not as young
as he used TO be, but he is showing
more than the sears of time. His game
is standing up, us This years British
Open disclosed. and the Kenwcod Open
verified. But ne Is no longer the easy
moving player of few years back. In
stead, from my observation, he is a
tired, worn golfer who is playing on his
nerve and previous days game.
Gene SaraZen is getting heavy and
pudgy. He is no longer the sturdy, 1.-the,
grinning Italian of a few semesters aft.
Genes game looks as keen, mechan-
ically, as it did three years ago. But
there's nothing else to his game but
machine precision and no man can like
his golf If it comes to him in this man.
ner.
Johnny Farrell, the SWEETEST dresser
in golf" no longer tries to uphold that
honor. He did not, at least, in the Ken
wood Open. I'm not saying that John
ny wore a blue shirt and red suspend
crs, nor that he was soX conscious. But
I do mean that Johnny was not the
smart dresser of old or else my sartorial
taste has been tipped by the depres-
sion. Farrell appears too tired to worry
about ties.
And / could go on and tell you some
more little things 1 noticed to lead me
to believe that either the depression,
c0untry-club life or the night air is not
making our professional golfers loom as
athletic projections.
In short, they are getting to be a
pretty WORKOUT flock of money shoot
ers. Yet folks will tell you that golf is
an elderly gentleman's sport
CORT Of being glad to be relieved of
- that chunk of seeming critisissyism,
let me giggle at the plight of the
ticket scalpers who have found that the
depression has not yet turned the well
known corner for them. These price
hitchers are moaning because they are
being stuck with many tickets on the
big grid games. To me it is not an in
dication of bad times but better ones.
The great American sap and sucker now
Is getting what he wants at what he
can afford. And not what the sharpers
believe he should stand for.
1t Is the most encouraging piece OF
information Of the day.
And to prove that Santa Claus Is
still around, goif ball manufacturer