Evening star., 1939-04-09
National Tournament
Growing Too Large
To Handle Well
Soon Will Hit Capacity
For PIoyoff, With No
Place to Draw Line
BY BILL BONI,
Asaociated preSs 9nortS Writer.


Golf Association today is its public
links section. Like so many prob
lem children. 1t is lusty infant.
Sixteen years ago the U. S. G.. AS
flrst Public Links Committee, head
ed by John F. Standish. jr., Detroit
warned that the time is not far off
when golf will become our national
game and the number of players
using public and municipal courses
will outnumber by far those play
Ing on private links"
To all intents and purposes. that
time has arrived In breakdown
Of the Nations golfers for 1887
Statistician Herb CRAFTS figured
that roughly 35,O0o,0Oo rounds were
played at private clubs, roughly 81
100000 on public and municipal
courses. OF the l,376,000 golfers
who played at least 10 rounds
year, 463000 used public and NUM-
cipal courses. OF the 100000 others
who played less frequently the ma
jority came under the public links
heading.
The first U. S. G. A. public links
championship was played in 1922.
with the cooperation of the To-
ledo District Golf Association and
several Toledo city officials," to
quote the committee report, it was
a comparatively simple tournament
to operate, for there were only 140
entries.
Largest of Golf Tournaments.
BY 1888 the public links had be-
come the largest bona fide golf
championship in the world. It's
true that only 248 players teed off
at Cleveland. But the U. S. g. A.,
which has no way of computing the
actual number of entries. estimates
that those 248 were the survivors
Of an original starting field of be-
tween $500 and 5000 who played
in district eliminations.
It's that group of 248 who rep
resent problem to the U. S. G. A.
They figure that 300 is the load
limit for the championship proper,
and they realize they're approach
ing that limit very rapidly. Already
the fields are so large that this sum-
mer at Baltimore. as in two of the
three preceding years, two courses
will be required to get all Of the start
ers through the 36-hole qualifying
round in two days.
Yet to date there is no point at
which the U. S. G. A. can draw
line and say, stop, that's enough"
The same problem doesn't exist
with the open and amateur cham
pionships. There the U. S. G.. A. each
year designates some 80 to IS places
at which sectional qualifying rounds
will be played, entrusts the con-
duct Of those qualifying rounds to
the respective sectional associations,
allots each district a certain num-
ber Of places in the championship
proper (based on the size and
strength Of the entry) and limits
the number OF players who can
qualify to ITO In the open and 180
In the amateur.
Behind in Organization.
But the development of District
public links associations hasn't kept
step with the Nationwide spread
Of public links golf. Therefore, any
town that wants to stage public
links qualifying round can do so by
applying to the nearest U. S. G. A.
representative for proper supervi-
sion, and any community that can
muster four public links players is
entitled to send those four men, as
team, to the national championship.
And since the number of teams TAX
ing part has grown from 18 in 1923,
the year the first team event was
held, to S. in 1898, it's easy to- see
that this system can't be retained
forever.
It has been kept this long chiefly
out of consideration for the play
ers' pocketbooks. BY letting them
qualify on their home grounds the
U. S. G.. A. has saved them the ex-
pense, incurred by contestants in
the open and the amateur, of trav-
cling to sectional tryouts.
Now the U. S. G.. A. is consider
ing, as the likeliest way out, a COM
promise between the two methods
switching to sectional tryouts, but
running probably twice as many as
the 30-odd customary for its other
two championships. Under this ar
rangement, to quote typical eX-
ample, candidates from Sharon, Pa,
would go to Pittsburgh to qualify.
Sharon no longer would have a
team of its own but the best players
in that entire area.
The U. S. G. A. is concerned
deeply over his public links prob
lem, because the public links tour
nament has produced such fine golf
To quote some convincing figures
from the 1888 tournament:
The winning four-man team, from
Los Angeles, set record score of
584 in the 36-hole qualifying round.
This represented an average round
of 70 for each man over two tough
courses. one with par Of 10, the
other II. The medalist shot 14l,
even par, while an 18-man playoff
for the last of the a. places in the
match play was held at Isl, only
10 strokes higher.
Competition Is Fierce.
AS for close competition. consider
the last two matches played by AL
Leach, the Cleveland w. P. A.
worker who won the title. In his
semi-flnal. against Barbara, To-
year-old youngster from Seattle,
Leach was down at the end of
the morning 10 holes. He squared
the match at the 35th and won on
the 36th. In the final, against Louis
Cyr of Portland, Greg, Leach was
up after 18 holes and 6 up at the
23d. Cyr then came on with ter
rifle streak to draw even at the
34th, but Leach halved the 35th
and won the 36th for the match and
the championship.
Many outstanding golfers first
came to light in these tournaments
The list includes Eddie Held of Den
yer, who was playing out of st
Louis when he won the first cham