Evening star., 1939-05-19
Judging Golf
By Players
Standard
Biggest Sporting
Game of Them
All Today
Golf-the billion dollar game.
Ridiculous? Mavbe.

But when you sift the facts you'll
fnd that Mr.. and Mrs. America,
around 100000 of them, make
the game of golf the biggest sport
ing game in America, by a flock of
brassie shots. Baseball runs a poor
third, for even fishing, judged by
the dollar standard, nudges baseball
far below the top of the money
spending heap.
BY any standard you can figure,
by money spent on the game, in
getting to and from golf courses,
and in investment on manicured
fairWays and elaborately equipped
clubhouses, in purchase of clubs,
clothes, shoes and other golf equip
ment, golf today is the sport Mr..
and Mrs. U. S. A. 60 for in the big
gest way.
And it has all happened within
rs years. Back in 1918 a 20-year-
old eX-caddie named Francis Oui-
met whipped Harry Vardon and
Ted Ray, the great English players,
to win the American open cham
pionship at Brookline, Mass. Golf
and golf news jumped from the
hide-bound languages of the society
pages to page /. Late in the same
decade a kid from Atlanta named
Bobby Jones began licking the pros
at their own game. Between 1923
and 1880, when he relinquished
competitive golf-barring one an
nual appearance-Bobby not only
whipped the pros to creamy froth,
but the amateurs as well. Thirteen
major championships in the United
States and Britain fell to the red
hot clubs of this amazing KID from
Georgia New York receptions. Ma
tion-Wide adulation came to the boy
with the level head.
Paralleling the rise of Bobby Jones
IN male golf came Glenna Collett
Of Rhode Island, who won six ma
tlonal women's championships. And
after her came Estelle Lawson Page,
chunky matron from North Caro-
lima, and red-headed. freckle- faced
Patty Berg, the reigning national
champion. Women's golf today is
big business.
And particularly is it big business
around the National Capital, where
tremendous fields of players flock
10 the major tournaments. hundreds
OF women play in weekly team
matches, and hundreds more, hard
Iy out OF the duffer class. TOD EN-
ana slice EN- through the rough
hoping to arrive in the elusive VIM
nerS column. Feminine golf around
washington today is the biggest
angle Of the game. A recent tour
nament drew 1875 entries. Contrast
TINS with a record" field of 81 in
feminine tournament in Baltimore,
a city OF nearly 100000 inhabit-
ants. And with the meager fields
OF 40 who played in women's tour
naments Is years ago.
Probably the assessed value of
real estate. owned by the country
clubs around Washington will run
to S5,000,00o. And the women run
the snow. The men may think
they do, but they always consult
the women when anything of i'm
portance comes up. You don't often
near this angle referred to- but it's
there Just the same.
some day Washington is going to
produce national feminine cham
plon. No city where there is so
much golf played among the women.
ana where the standard of skill is
SO hlgh, can fail to produce, out of
the mass Of aspirants, a top rank
ing star. Helen Dettweiler, the
olono Congressional girl who onlv
recently turned professional, came
aalrly close to it. But Helen. win
ner OF all the sectional chamnion-
shlps IN TINS area, fell just short of
q national championship.
somewhere along the line of
feminine golf around Washington
today, some pig-tailed kid is swing
ing a club, with dreams of becon-
ing another Dettweiler or another
Marion Brown. She'll have q rough
road to hoe, through the routine of
clty championships, sectional titles
ana major tournaments, to the ma
tlonal. Hasn't WASHINGTON. a citv
Where as much golf is plaved in
proportion to population as any CITY
Al tne country, as much chance to
produce such champion as Mime
apolls, Tor example, which nurtured
FATTY Berg and Beatrice Barrett
a girl pretty close to Patty in
ability? And cannot Washington
produce girl like Dorothy Kirby
OF Atlanta or Marion Miley?
The answer-definitely-is ives"
IL can be and will be done. No red
not links sector, such as Washing
ton, can fail to uncover some star
with national possibilities. And
MARION Brown yet may be the girl.
Cool and calm under fire, possessed
OF an exceptionally fine competitive
temperament, Marion has everv-
tnlng 1t takes to become a big
champion.
But it takes youth. Supple mus
cles, and that nerveleSs confidence
OF youth is the badge of the cham
plon In golf. Look over the fairly
recent championship records and
you won't find many approaching
So years in age who have been able
to win.
AND watch Women's golf around
washington. It's the hottest thing
IN town, and it's going to get
better.