Evening star., 1934-02-01

i courSe-those gents who
preside over the destinies
Of the game at Columbia Coun-
try Club. For nearly 13 years
have elapsed since the national
open golf championship of the
United States was played over the
Columbia course and the layout
stands today as it did then,
changed only in minor details.
It speaks volumes for the far-Sight-
edneSS, the fine construction ability and
the meticulous care of planning detail
OF those men who built the course over
which the 1921 open was played that
the same layout on which Jim Barnes
spread-eagled the field is essentially the
same golf course today.
Not single major change has been
made in that classic course near Chevy
Chase Lake The shots are the same
as they were back in 1921, the greens
are in the same locations, and the
course plays exactly as it did on the
day when President of the United
States presented to Lanky Jim the big
championship cup.
No Major Changes
@OLUMBIA is one of the older
courses around Washington. Built
In 1911, a year before the club
moved over from the old course in
Brightwood. Columbia has had the ex-
pert supervision of such men as Walter
j. Travis and DR. Walter S. Harlan.
These two we're the designers of the
course on which the championship was
played and of the Columbia of today.
For. while minor changes have been
made, such as reconstruction of the sur
face of the sixth. seventh, ninth and
tenth greens. no change has come about
IN the matter of shot-making or of
green location with the single eXcep-
tion of the tenth hole, where a new
green has been built within 10 yards
Of the old
Two completely new holes were made
for that 1921 title chase-the fourth
and fifth. The old fourth was a two
ehotter, with green backed up against
stands for the fifth. The old fifth was
. two-shotter played to a green well
short of the present location.
But DR.. Harlan decided, back in
1919. to make a real three-shotter out
of the fifth. He did. and the fifth.
with its Sahara of sand and mounds,
brought grief and sorrow to plenty of
contestants in the 1921 championship,
smong them Bobby Jones, who had
some such preposterous start in the
third round as a. g. 3. 3, and then pro-
Ceeded to Wallop three balls out Of
bounds and wind up with 8. Joe
Kirkwood did much the same thing.
The fifth hole stood up during that
championship as it has stood up since.
one of the hardest three-shot affairs
around the Capital.
One of Best in East.
COLUMBIA today rates as one of
the finer of the good golf courses
scattered up and down the East
ern seaboard Play it from the front
tees and it looks easy. The greens are
expansive and not too tightly trapped.
The fairways are fairly wide open and
It looks a buffers paradise.
But play it from the back tees on a
day when there Is little wind out of
the West. and those fairWays which
looked so invitingly wide from the front
tees narrow down to the width of a
ribbon; those engulfing traps cut down
the surface of the putting greens and
Columbia becomes scoring terror.
From the back tees Columbia plays
very long. no matter what the ground
conditions may be. No golfing gent.
however skillfu1 he may be. ever has
anade a monkey out Of that golf course
another factor which demonstrates
again the skill Of those men who laid
vt out with the open championship in
mind.
Columbia has been played in 65
ttrokes-from the front tees. 1t has
been played in 81 from the back tees,
but only once. That was done in the
Oh lit 1>,-
George Diffenbaugh on a day when the
puts were rolling for the little Indian
Spring mentor.
Prior to that time the official record
was SO. held pointly by Al Hackbarth
and Jim Barnes.
Long Course Severe Test.
n GLAND MACKENZIE and Miller
R Stevinson have broken 10 many
times under favorable conditions.
Fred Mcleod has gone below 70 so
often that he has lost track of his
gub-par scores. But all Of these better
than-70 cards have been made under
unusually favorable conditions, usually
from the front markers.
Put the same player on the back tee
under the same conditions and 81
would turn into 72. For example,
long hitter like Mackenzie has reached
The fifth green in two shots. from the
lower tee. But from the back tee it's
quite a different matter. The sixth and
tenth are two entirely different holes
when played from different ends of the
tees.
The eleventh, which generally is
yated the outstanding two-shotter on
the course, becomes real test of long
hitting from the rear tee backed up
against the road which runs by George
Dunlop's house And the par twelfth,
even for the man who really can poke a
golf ball, becomes a par from the
back tee.
Columbia has stood the test of time
hs have few golf courses. It stands to-
day a monument to the foresight and
Judgment of the men who built it, And
as it is today so it will be for many
years to come, barring some unforeseen
Increase in the yardage golf ball can
~ driven