Evening star., 1940-09-15
Iron Sets Will Be Hif
By Drastic Change
In Links Code
Deep Scoring Of Woods
To Be Banned; Jones
PIoys Here Tomorrow
BY WALTER McCALLUM.


sets.
Officials of the United States Golf
Association, which rules the game
with an iron hand ana which sets
club and ball forms and standards,
were not reluctant to talk about 1t,
but they preferred not to reveal the
exact form of the new regulations
to come up in the form of a report
by the Implements and Ball Com
mittee at the annual meeting in
January.
Purpose of the coming change is
to lessen the depth and size of the
slots or punch marks on the face
Of iron clubs, and to prohibit deep
scoring on the face of wooden clubs.
The whole idea is to prevent put
ting so much backspin on the ball
by purely mechanical device" said
one official.
Extension of Old Rule.
In way it is an extension of the
prohibition of deeply slotted iron
clubs, such as tina. which came in
1921, when the slotted mashie made
famous by Jock Hutchison fell un-
der the official ban of the U. S. G. A.
Hutchison and many other players
were so adept with this deeply scored
club they could make the ball run
backward even on a slippery green.
The manufacturers have heard
hints Of the coming change and will
tool machinery for thei1 1941 output
to conform to the changes proposed
by the U. S. G. A. obviously we
do not want to upset the whole ma
chinery of club production" said
an associa ton official But we are
going to do something to reduce
backspin produced by deep slotting.
Just what form the new regulation
will take we do not yet know. But
it will, I am sure, limit the depth
of the slots or punch marks, and
establish minimum distance be-
tween such marks or the face of
the club
Won't Affect buffers.
The United States Golf ASsocia-
ton has unlimited powers to make
such changes in the form and make
Of clubs as it deems necessary. The
present rule reads as follows:
Club faces shall not embody any
degree of concavity or more than
one angle of loft and shall not bear
lines, dots or other markings with
sharp or rough edges made for the
obvious purpose Of putting a cut on
the ball"
Under this regulation, which has
been effective for years, the associa-
ton may take away all slots or
punch marks, but this probably will
not be done. For the present, officials
pointed out, they will seek to restrict
the amount of cut which may be put
on the ball by limiting the depth of
the club-face markings. If the reg
ulation Is carried out to the extreme
1t will make obsolete many sets of
clubs now in use.
But there's one bright spot, or
rather two: Ample notice will be
given, and above all, the regulation
will not affect the average golfer
who does not play III tournaments
sponsored by the U. S. G. A. Like the
14-club rule at present on the statute
books, the U. S. G. A. can enforce
this rule only in tournaments run
directly by the association or spon-
sored by member clubs. Insofar as
the average golfer is concerned, he
can play with anything he wants to
use, from a broomstick up to rake.
ID. C. Meet Deadline Tonight.
Entries for the District Golf Asso-
citation championship, to close to-
night with DR.. w. c. Barr or Harry
Pitt at Manor, will show the largest
entry list In recent years. The
tourney will open Tuesday at Manor.
Tomorrow public links golfers from
all the local municipal courses will
qualify for the city championship.
Sixteen will make the grade at East
Potomac Park, while eight each will
qualify at Rock Creek Park and
Anacostia Park. The match-play
rounds will start September %.
Hollywood's glamour boys and girls
are doing all right in golf. Bing
Crosby, the crooner, outdrew all the
mechanically gifted stars in the
amateur championship at Winged
Foot last week, and now Joe Dey,
secretary of the United States Golf
Association, tells us that Ruby
Keeler and Wilma Banky, stars OF
the screen, are entered in the
women's national title tourney late
this month at Del Monte, Calf.
The boys in the press tent agree
that few more stars of the screen
may provide the much needed lift
at the admission gate. The national
championships haven't done much
business at the gate in late years.
Real name of Ray Billows, the
crack. amateur, is Beulow, so the
New York newspaper boys say. Ray
comes from Racine, which also is
the home town of Wilford Wehrle.
Billows now is a printing sales
man at Poughkeepsie, N. Y, and
was dubbed "Cinderella man" some
years back. He hit New York about
seven years ago in ramshackle
fiivver and proceeded to go places
IN golf.
Jones in Columbia Match. :.
Bob Jones, who used to top all
the amateurs, will play Columbia
tomorrow with Dana Belser and
Robert H. Gardiner. Bob will speak
tomorrow night at the Hamilton at
. dinner for the United States Golf
Association Green Section. Tomor-
rows match will not be an exhibi-
ton affair but solely q friendly
round. In other words no gallery
and no fuss.
Winged Foot was 40 miles from
downtown New York, which is quite
apiece. But by using the high speed
trains you could get there in As
minutes, including a bus ride. The
press tent was away down in a hole,
far from the clubhouse but close
to the 18th green.
Ralph Bogart and Earle Skinker
didn't waste any time at Winged
Foot. AS soon as they were licked
they hustled home. The boys are
good enough. but the comnanv is