Evening star., 1939-01-22
Conservative Guess
Puts Average Cost
Around $1,000
$500, 900 Offered in 1899
Is Only Half Enough,
Declares Critic
BY WALTER McCALLUM.

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Colts winter tour grabs the head
lines as the crack shotmakers of the
game parade their skill through the
provinces for a piece Of change
which this year will amount to more
than $200,000, but where dozen
top-notchers make expenses and
little dough to put away for bad
day. scores of ambitious lads wind
up in the red over the four month
circuit.
No man knows more about how
tough 1t is to pile up a bank ac-
count on the winter pro golf tour
than Witty Cox. And Wifi has
been one of the big money winners.
One year he added around $4,000 to
the Cox Golfers by tournament vic
tories. He has won such big ones as
the Aqua Caliente affair, the Texas
open, the Sacramento open, the
North and South and with Willie
MacFarlane, the Miami four-ball.
Yet Witty, despite his success, finds
that most of the boys who play the
big circuit, will wind up behind the
eight ball and work hard all next
summer to catch up on the expenses
they incur this winter. Leo Walper,
Middle Atlantic P. G. A. champ,
who had a flash of form at Au-
gusta and won $500, may make ex-
penses, but toward the end of the
season he'll be up against it un-
less he wins more coin.
Tour Costs About 1900.
Keeping up with the Joneses, un-
less the boys are smart and know
how to cut corners, keeps em broke.
A conservative estimate OF the
amount of cash necessary to do the
winter circuit in the right way, is
around $1,000. And If the young
pro happens to be of convivial ma
ture it can run around $2.500. They
stop at swanky hotels, they travel
on luxe trains, and they do every
thing up in the proper style. And
no one ever could crack truthfully
that golf is an inexpensive game.
1t probably costs the tournament
pro S bucks round merely to play
the game, and an estimate of $l2
day wouldn't be out of line for that
four-month trek. No wonder the
smart boys prefer winter jobs at
clubs in Florida. if they can be had
But for every job there are hun
dred applicants.
Pro golf, stripped of its glamor
fe fhn hork ooH tho
hero worship. is a tough racket.
The pros don't get the money they
should get, even though the p. G. A.
declares with considerable jubila-
ton that the 100000 offered in
purses this year marks new high.
Sure it marks a new high, but it
should be 100000 or more, and they
should have at least couple OF 25-
grand tournaments. Biggest affair
Of the land last year was the SIS
500 Westchester open. This winter
two $4,000 tournaments are the top.
THE wilmington the major part
Of it's split around among about
20 fellows" says Cox. They pick
up most of the change.
Minor Checks Pile up.
IF they don't finish first and get
the big cut of the money they are
getting lot of those second, third
and fourth place checks. When you
win a few of those you are o. K. I
guess we'll never see any one have
the winning streak Horton Smith
had back in the winter of 1929,
when as recall it, he won 9 tourna-
ments. And yet he picked up only
around SIS 900. Any really good ball
player gets that much, and Horton
was at the very top of his profession.
Sammy Snead is doing all right.
but Sammy won only around $4,000
last year. It isn't enough for a man
as good as he is. Furthermore you
don't last so long in the hot golf of
the competitive pro game. Ten
years is about the span of the WIN
ming years, and if you don't pile it
up then the chances slip away from
you. The competition is too good
and you have to be on edge all the
time. No man can keep his con-
centration and his keen edge through
a grueling series of tournaments
running every week. That's why
you don't have so many repeaters.'
But as long as ambition lasts there
will be recruits to the winter circuit
It's been called "the university of
golf" and it is just that. A young
golfer can learn more on the winter
trek over the four months of the
tour than he'd learn in four years
OF knocking around in little sweep
stakes affairs He plays with better
golfers, be nbsorbs shotmaking and
competitive technique and he picks
up lot OF lttle pointers which help
him to be better player. Il
wouldn't miss the big tour If 1 could
afford It, says Leo Walper. But
sometimes the going gets a little
rough. I learned more in the first
year I played it than I ever would
learn knocking around our tourna-
ments here. Leo is in California
now. He hasn't managed to get in
q big payof spot yet out there.