Evening star., 1932-02-03
MARYLAND EVENT
FOUND INADEQUATE
Affair to Reeiprocate With
Other Sectors Is Desired.
Coin Aid Offered.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.

TN the place of a great deal of
amateur activity in tourna-
ment golf in the Middle At
lantic area this year, when it
seems certain there will be a
marked curtailment of invita-
ton tournaments, the professional
golfers may branch out into an
other sphere of activity by hold
ing another tournament called the
Middle Atlantic open champion
ship"
Tournaments with this name have
been held in other years, notably the
fasco of 1880 at the Woodholnle
Country Club, where Gene Sarazen of
| New York soundly trounced the local
professional brigade and then when
| Gene was anxious TO get has prize
money and depart for other pastures,
! the local pros had to dig down deep
| into their treasury and make up a
! deficit. Back in the days when Leo
Diegel was a regular winner of the
Middle Atlantic open" the pros had
several amateur angels" whom they
| could count on to contribute varying
amounts for the tournaments. But
| these angels have lost interest in con-
tributing money for the pros to play for,
and in late years the Middle Atlantic
open" has been held only spasmodi-
cauy, on the theory that the title is
all right, but the gent who wins it
should get a respectable piece Of change
to go with his title.
| NOV the pros have before them a
~ proposition made by the Maryland
State Golf Association whereby
the latter body will contribute a stated
sum toward the holding of a Middle
Atlantic open" championship, IN ad-
dition to contributing all the prize
money for the Maryland open. The
| Maryland State Golf Association has
quite heavy purse raised by the single
expedient of charging ST year to the
men who wish official handicap ratings
from clubs within the organization. 1t
seems there are some 1000 and more
golfers in the State of Maryland who
want these handicap cards and are
glad to pay a dollar each to get them,
and thereby have the privilege Of play
ing in the handicap tournaments staged
by the association.
Last year there was good deal OF
grumbling from the pros in other
nearby sections about the stand taken
on the Maryland open" champion
ship. II seems that the boys in Penn
sylvania and other nearby places who
teach and play golf for living and
hold open" tournaments in their sectors
were considerably irked by the fact that
the Maryland open" was open only to
pros who held down professional berths
in the State of Maryland. They told
the Maryland pros so in Just so many
words. although the pros had nothing
to do with the holding of the tourney.
Now, in order to get every one back on
speaking terms. the pros have two pro-
posals before them. Briefly, they are
these: Play the Maryland open as a
tourney open only to professional golf
ers who hold down Jobs in Maryland,
with purse to be put up by the Mary
land State Golf Association, and play
a Middle Atlantic open" with the
tourney thrown open to the world and
a purse to be partly subscribed also by
the MARYLAND State organization. 1t
seems logical way out of the dilemma
in which the pros found themselves
last year after unkmd remarks had
been passed by pros outside the State
of Maryland regarding their inability
to play in the Maryland open, while
Lne MarElanQ pONS COulQ play IN Sllcn
tournaments as the Pennsylvania and
Philadelphia open events
THE Maryland State Golf Associa-
l. ton, which puts up the money for
the Maryland Open, has a perfectly
clear right to say who shall play in
its officially sponsored tournament. It
can make the event open only to pros
attached to clubs which are members
of the association if it wishes. although
there might be a squaWk about that
too. But last year. it will be recalled
Dave Thompson of the Washington
Golf and Country Club, who is local
pro attached to a club in Virginia
whose members are mostly Washington
folk and Mel Shorey of East Potomac
. Ia.:l. sa,,la .sla.: .L.., No ..Ia -