Evening star., 1939-01-11
New Putting Greens
Will Be Built al
Rock Creek
Others to Be Bettered:
Deunwood Links for
CoIored Opened
BY WALTER McCALLUN.

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Whipping his reconstruction pro-
gram for Washington's public links
into shape S. G. Leoff1er, the czar
Of municipal golf in the Capital,
today outlined the most comprehen-
sive scheme for reconstruction work
on the municipal layouts to come
along since public golf first got un-
der way here nearly 20 years ago.
High spots of the program for public
course reconstruction are:
Building of 18 new putting greens
at Rock Creek Park, in a program
that will probably extend over all
Of 1899.
Reconstruction of at least nine
green's at East Potomac Park.
Rebuilding of all the tees at East
Potomac Park.
Construction of three new holes
at Anacostia Park to replace those
which now are closed for rebuilding
OF the Anacostia Bridge.
Opening, in the spring, of the
new course for colored, at Dean
wood, D. C.
Considerable Work Needed.
AS explained by Tommy Doerer,
tr.. for the man who holds the
concessions for all the public golf
facilities in Washington, little has
been done on the four nine-hole
layouts in East Potomac Park for
several years. All the courses need
considerable work, chief of which
will be rebuilding of putting greens,
trapping of some of the wide
open greens and reconstruction of
many of the tees.
Doerer, who runs the golf show at
Potomac Park, also explained that
greens experts have carefully gone
over the Rock Creek Park course
and have prescribed a complete
greens-rebuilding program as the
cure for excessively hard and overly
fast putting greens. These same
experts agree that right down the
line putting greens should be re-
built every five or six years Most
of the greens at Rock Creek Park
have been in existence, without re-
building, for more than a decade.
Built in hilly country, the Rock
Greek Park greens are laid on a
foundation of rock over thin layer
Of topsoil. They drain quickly and
need, in the view of the experts,
considerable foundation work under
the surface to soften them and keep
them soft throughout the year.
Long Time Without Change.
Much the same situation exists
on courses A and B at East Potomac
Park, where some of the greens,
laid down in 1919, have hardly been
changed since that time. Some of
them originally we're built as two
way green's. on the theory that by
reversing the play from time to
time an entirely new course could
be obtained. The reversal process
has not been used In recent
years, since Leoffler built additional
courses north of the fieldhouse, be-
tween the central house and the
railroad embankment.
1ntermingled In the process of
transfer to the Leoffler outfit of all
municipal golf facilities in the Cap
ital is at least one professional
change. Doerer already has re-
ceived several applications for the
pro berth at Anacostia Park, where
Bill Carson held down the job when
the Fairlawn layout was operated
by the Welfare and Recreation AS
sociation. Mentioned, either for
that post or for others in the Leof-
fler organization, are Clagett Ste
vens, former assistant pro at Con-
gressional, who also was pro at Ponte
Vedra, near Jacksonville, Fla, and
AL Houghton, former Kenwood men,
tor.
Doerer himself, who has a lot to
say on the Leoffer golf enterprises,
holds that only by strengthening
the public courses and bringing them
near the standard of private layouts
can better linksmen be produced on
the municipal divot-lifting grounds.
He rebuilt the East Potomac Park
layout last summer, in a mild way,
and the boys couldn't score lick on
courses where they'd previously been
batting the ball around in the lower
70s.
Means Better Players.
VI don't know how these boys ex-
pect to play pitch shots to the we'll
trapped green's of the private clubs
when they don't have many of
those shots to play here" he says.
Most of our greens at Potomac Park
len dthemselves more readily to the
runup shot than to the pitch. The
reverse is true at the private courses,
where usually you have to carry a
bunker or ditch to get to the green.
I've seen lots of 'scuffed' shots snug
gle up near the pin here at Potomac
Park.
IF I have my way We will elm
mate that sort of thing and make
these courses so good that they'll
be very close to the private-course
standard. You can't develop a good
ballplayer without good competition.
Nor can you develop good golfer
unless he plays the right type Of
shots. Runup shots won't do on the
private courses"
The reconstruction program will
get under way at both Rock Creek
Park and Potomac Park by late
March. Doerer estimates it takes
around 10 days to rebuild q green,
and while all green's won't be re-
built at the same time as little in
terruption to regular play as pos
sible will be countenanced during
the rebuilding process.