Evening star., 1932-01-07
Low SCORES SEEN
IN LATEST PELLET
Links Play This Year Apt
to Surpasc That With
1881 Sphere.
BY w. r.. McCALLUM.

TIME old balloon ball Of last
year, on which the U. s.
G. A. made an about-face a
few weeks back and par
TALLY met the demands Of thou
sands of golfers by restoring the
former weight of 1852 ounces, may
have been a good ball, as the
solons told us it was, but it didn't
do anything in the way of record
scoring around Washington.
The 1.55 sphere was a good ball
as golf balls go, but it certainly
stopped the avalanche of low
scoring that hit Washington over
the last five years. The pros had
a good time with it, but there
were thousands of amateurs who
couldn't make the ball behave.
The plain truth of the year Of play
with the balloon ball is that there were
fewer low rounds scored around Wash
ington with that sphere than in any
year since Washingtonians began to
get good enough to play real golf. No
course records were broken.
Over at Washington, where the sharp
shooters on the tricky Virginia layout
have been going after that record OF
66. set by Maurice Mccarthy three
years ago, only one man broke TO dur
ing the year. In 1880 there were at
least q dozen rounds below 10, but last
wear there were only five and all five
were by little Davie Thompson, the club
professional.
Low Scores in 1880.
The year 1880 saw a lot Of low scoring
at Chevy Chase, Columbia and Indian
Spring, rounds like the 65 made by
Bob Barnett at Chevy Chase; the 68s
made by Fred Mcleod, Miller Stevin-
son and Everett Eynon at Columbia;
the 66 by J. Monro Hunter and the 81
by George Voigt at Indian Spring, but
on the whole the year of the balloon
ball saw a considerable diminution In
the volume of low scoring on the local
golf courses.
Monro Hunter, jr., had round Of SO
at Indian Spring, but there were no
rounds below 10 at Manor or Congress
sional, where there were several below
10 in 1880 at both courses.
Undoubtedly 1882 will find a return
to the low scoring Of the years before
the advent of the balloon ball. but 1t
is true that 1881 was no bed Of roses
for those used to sub-par rounds Of
golf.
In the first place If there was any
wind at all that pesky balloon ball
Just wouldn't go anywhere, no mat
ter how hard 1t was hit. And it had
the annoying habit Of hitting the hole
and popping up on the back edge, TO
FsoFfHoiy1 q inch Shots
that used to be played with mashie
become No. iron and so on. The
ball Just wasn't the ball of other years
Rounds Are Improving.
Already this year, with the advent
as the balloon, the scores seem to be
better. Fred Mcleod romped around
Columbia on q slow course the other
day in 10 whacks, with and S
to finish, where q and would have
netted him a 6S. Several rounds down
in the low 70s have been recorded at
Washington and one or two rounds
around 10 have been posted at Indian
Spring. Tuesday, Tommy Bones, the
young benedict Of Columbia, scored a
10. So it seems the new ball will make
an improvement in the scoring.
But those sub-par rounds of 1929
and 1880 have been strangely missing.
It may be that this year when the
courses get fast high class golfers
around Washington will break out in
rash of low scoring. Quite likely they
will, for the class Of golf about the
Capital is improving each year.
Last year, with the balloon ball,
Harry Pitt won the District champion
ship in approximately the same figures
over the same course as it had been won
in the previous year with the old rabbit
ball. Qualification round scores in the
invitation tournaments were neither
lower nor higher than in the previous
year, but the real low scores were miss
inc