Evening star., 1932-02-06
GOLF PROS MARK:
-
BUT Z BELOW PAR
Meals II Is Best Amateur
Score for Tricky Course
in Virginia.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

IT would seem to any student
Of the game of golf that a
/ course measuring only 6,1p
yards in length which has but
very few traps scattered over its
expanse would be literally burned
up by the golfing gentry who
make habit of knocking par for
loop.
Yet so tricky is the golf course
of Army-Navy Country Club in
Arlington County, Va, where
many Of the military officers
located In Washington play their
golf, that the professional course
record is only two strokes below
the par of II and no amateur
among the scores of fine simon
pure players who have dug divots
over the layout has been able @to
equal par. aeV
The Army-Navy Country Club course
constructed only four years ago under,
the direction Of Mai Richard D. New
man, an experienced golfer and a man
famit with golf course construction,
Is one Of the few layouts around WASH
lngton which is practically without
bunkers. And yet, so potent are the
natural hazards on the layout and Sd
tricky the approach to the putting
green's that only one score below par
has been made. The club has staged q
major golf tournament, too, for two
years ago all the star golfers of tie
~ u
gathered there to compete for the
Army championship won that year by
Lieut.. j. N. Baldwin.
Thorn Skaters Par.
Arthur B. Thorn, the smooth-sWinglp
ing New Jersey golfer, who holds down
the professional berth at Woodmeat
Country Club, is the holder of the pros
fessional course record with a mark Of
SO, made November 10. 1929 On that1
day, when Thorn found most of his
puts dropping, he scored a IS and a.
"a to better par by two strokes and see
g record for the course that never since
has been equaled. "t
Lieut.. r. w. Meals is the holder Of the
amateur record for the layout with a.
mark of 35-37-72, made last year
Both records are unofficial. for ties
scores made in the qualification round
OF the Army tourney two years ago
were so high that as real official course
records they amount to little.
The service club layout. notwith-
standing its lack of traps, has several
holes on which any number of strokes
may be taken. Such holes as the sec
ond, third and fourth are tough babies
on which to get par. So is the 400
yard fourteenth, where mere dlstancs
alone will not help the slugger unless
he keeps his tee shot straight
Of them all the eighteenth Is ger
orally regarded as the hardest hole on
the course and if there is a tougher
finishing hole anywhere around Wash
ington It hasn't yet been seen. The
play is straight up a gently sloping hill
to terraced green which Is usually as
fast as lightning, built in two slopes.
When the pin is on the upper terrace It
is tough par and no mistake. ''
Tricky Layout. -
The course has four short holes, with
two of them coming in a row. These
are the ninth and tenth, and they come
this way because the club cannot Sc
cure title to a piece Of property stretch
ing up the hill to the club house on
which it is planned to build a ninth .
hole of drive and pitch distance.
Army-Navy Country Club has drawn
. large membership of officers in thee
service and officers on the reserve list
from the otter clubs about Washing.
ton, and with the tricky construction
of its golf course, has proven hard
nut to crack. IL
Al Houghton, professional at Ken
wood, has changed his plans for a
Winter vacation and instead of going
to New Orleans to play in the True
Temper open, will go to Miami to play
In the Miami -Biltmore tourney the,
middle of March. AS long as the Win
ter remains open, without snow, most
Of the local pros prefer to remain at
home.