Evening star., 1933-01-18
REAL TEST Of SKILL
IS THOMSON'S IDEA
Would Be Sure Way to AS
certain True Putting
Ability, Says Pro.
BY w. r. McCALLUM.


L greens of golf courses seems
to have aroused a merry
argument among the professionals
and the better golfers. Gene Sara
zen cut loose with a blast few
days ago to the general effect that
an increase in the cup size from
the present 4l4-inch standard to
8 inches would serve to make the
better golfers better and widen
the gap between the men who
really putt well and those who
occasionally wobble in the long
ones.
But Genes idea was tried out at
Tampa a day or so later by a bunch
of buffers assembled at Temple Terrace,
and the game, according to news dis
patches, was made ridiculously easy.
Most of the players, the dispatches said,
broke par on the course and one man
used only % puts in 13 holes.
Dave Thomson, professional at Wash
ington Golf and Country Club, a man
thoroughly stepped in the tradition OF
the ancient game, comes out today with
q reactionary and revolutionary idea
about the size of the cup. Instead of
enlarging the standard size cup, he
would decrease it to about half size.
EST EFT 'em try a cup of about "a
- inches, one into which the ball
barely will CO." Davie says, land
they will really have something that
will put a premium on putting skill.
Then we will see, where the man who
really knows how to putt will get the
advantage that is rightfully his. His
puts will go in those small cups. and
he will get a real return on putting
skill Any one ought to be able to
knock a or foot putt into an 8-inch
cup, II a professional missed a 6-foot
putt by 8 inches, he would go out some
where and do lot of diligent practic-
ing. As it is now, when we miss a
6-foot putt by an inch or two, we give
ourselves mental kick in the pants
and try not TO do it again.
But let the boys go for 2A Inch
cup, and then we will see some real fun.
With a cup of that size there would be
real premium on accuracy in putting.
I think a move in this direction would
be better than any single factor in cut
ting down the phenomenal scores that
are made on the courses of today. Make
the boles only little larger than the
ball. and you would see some fun"
The standard 1888 golf ball is 1853
inches in diameter, slightly larger than
12s inches. Try to get this ball into
cup only slightly larger than the ball
itself. 1t is quite job, as those gents
who have tried out Dave Thomson's
little cup on the floor of the golf shop
a. To cI1i har ont In
Davies golf shop he has constructed a
miniature putting course on which the
members of the Washington Club have
had some good workouts. The cup is
almost exactly the diameter of a golf
ball and is laid in a strip of rubber
mating. It's a real job to make that
hole In two strokes and quite the hard
est part Of it is to hole a putt OF 2
feet or less.
A FEW years ago at Columbia DR..
A Walter S. Harlan. then chairman
of the Greens Committee had In
stalled on the practice putting green
number of small cups don't know
their exact diameter, but they were only
slightly larger than the diameter of
the golf ball of those days. And the
ball of s or 10 years ago was not as
large as that of today The boys putted
and putted, and they found that getting
putt of feet into that abbreviated
cup was a job in itself Far harder,
they ascertained. than getting 3 or
footer into a cup of regulation size
They were never used on the big golf
course, but probably if they were, the
scores would have been much higher
Wouldn't it be good idea for some one
Of the local clubs to borrow those cups
and try out the small cup idea? Prob
ably they are still stored away in a
shed at Columbia
Such great putters of other days as
Walter j. Travis and Jerome Travers
and the Frances Oumet of today
wouldn't be bit bothered by change
In the size of the cups. To be sure,
they wouldn't hole as many long ones,
but they would probably get around a
golf course with their customary 80 or
80 puts, which is about the standard
for good golfers. Travis, who was in
many ways the most remarkable
golfer who ever lived, has been dead
for three years, but in his heyday he
could put the ball through an opening
only as large as the ball itself. l have
seen the "old man" make puts that
were uncanny, figuring the slope and
roll Of putting green with the pre-
cision OF a machine. He wouldn't have
been bothered by smaller cups, and as
for larger cups can see him remove
that big black cigar and give forth the
modern equivalent of "Fooey."