Evening star., 1933-01-07
KenwoOd Club Presents Two
Holes That Stagger Golfers

normally he will be banging away with
two wooden shots hoping TO get home.
Houghton has played hundreds Of
rounds OF his home course, and never
has used a shorter club than q No.
iron for the second shot, even under
the abnormally fast ground conditions
of Midsummer No weak affair, TINS
first hole at Kenwood.
IT'S a real man sized golf hole, with
i the premium on length from the Tee
and accuracy on the second shot
having big dividends. Horton Smith
started his last round in the recent
National Capital open by laying
wooden second shot within Few 1eet
of the pin. He holed the 8, one OF the
extremely rare brides made on TINS
hole, and started by this means on tne
triumphant march which brougnt MN
the championship and nrst money OF
$500.
But we remember another start py
another famous competitor on this noie,
when Tommy Armour stepped out on
the first tee in 1881, and started
vioe hook intended to bring the ball
around into the middle Of the fairway.
Iommys ball met q tree in mid-career
and stopped abruptly.
Kenwood's tenth hole, q par OF
275 wards, Is the longest par 8 around
WASHINGTON and one OF the longest par
3 affairs of which we know. 1t is the
hardest one-Shotter ON the course,
simply by reason of its extreme length,
without considering the traps that cut
into both corners of the green and
the out-of bounds territory at the left.
The best way for the average golfer
to play this hole is to lay q tee shot
as far down as possible on the line to
the green and hope for a chip or short
pitch up close. But the star goes for
the green with anything from a No.
l iron up to driver. Few balls are
hit over that green, but II they are
it's bad news. The green slopes sharply
down hill IS feet high with a pitch
back to a green sloping away from the
shot. It's a real golf hole, this tenth at
Kenwood, and it will be better hole If
the trapping program being consid-
cred by the authorities Of the club is
carried out.
Tor it is the intention of Don Cham
l. berlin and his Greens Committee
associates to trap the right-hand
side of that tenth fairway and restrict
the operations OF the gents VINO keep
away from the out-of-bounds territory
by lacking over to the right and then
pitching onto the green. There's also
an idea in the back Of Chamberlins
head of doing away with the duck
ponds" at the twelfth hole and convert
ing that hole into long par by simply
making grassy hollow in front Of the
green.
The twelfth plays about AS yards in
length, but because Of ground configu-
rations, 1t can be reached with a drive
and an iron by the big hittters. Indeed,
1t plays shorter generally than the first
hole. Glenn S. Spencer, Maryland
Country Club pro, cut loose with one Of
his booming tee shots one day last Fall
which left him SO far down the hill that
he reached the green with a niblick
second shot. So it can be made into q
par 4. As it stands nowadays the chief
task in playing the hole is to carry the
duck-ponds in front of the green. That
and getting down in two puts from
above the cup, which Is considerable of
a Job in itself.
Kenwood may come in for several
changes this year, If conditions improve.
It Is practically a certainty that the
1888 National Capital open tournament
will be a $5 900 affair, big enough to
attract all the lads who say 1t with
flying tee shots for living. As a $2,500
tournament last year it attracted one
of the best golf fields we ever have seen.
AS a $1,000 tourney 1t will do better.