Evening star., 1941-12-07
Major Title Affairs
All Will Be Held
In West Again
Better Gotes Lure PIoy
From Atlantic Coast;
Another Jones Needed
By WALTER McCALLUM.

Lacking a gate producer Of the
croWd-gathering qualities Of Bobby
Jones nowadays the United States
Golf Association, once a standpat
outfit which held its major title
Journeys at only the blue blood
clubs, is going out into the great
open spaces with the big tits for
links crowns.
In spacing the big affairs. in what
TO Fasteners seem to be the hlnter-
lands. the U. S. G. A. is carrying out
its avoWed policy of spreading
championships all over the land, on
the theory that good golf is played
everywhere, and the Texas or Cali
fornia golfer has as much right to
a title event as the staid New Eng
lander
But the East. or that sector OF 1t
east of the Mississippi. is starving
for major affairs. Three mems
championships were held in the
West this year. and all four of the
big title affairs next year will be
held far from Times Square or
Dupont Circle. Last major mems
tourney to be awarded to an Eastern
club was the amateur championship
of 1910. won by Dick Chapman over
his home course at Winged Foot.
The 1912 schedule Is as follows:
Open championship, Interlachen
Club, Minneapolis, MINI, June 18,
10 and 20; public links champion
ship. Denver, Colo, July 27-August
/; amateur championship, Pebble
Beach. Calf, September 7-l2; wom-
ems championship, Tulsa, Okla,
September 2l-26.
Sector Well Exploited.
From the U. S. G. A. angle there's
q reason for the business of passing
up the East in championship
awards. The Eastern sector has been
pretty we'll exploited for long
stretch of years. and people have
gotten blase about big golf tourna-
ments. When Bob Jones was on the
rampage, winning everything in
sight, he produced big gates by the
magic power of his name and the
fact that he could lick every one,
including the pros. Golfers came in
droves to see the great man wave
his magic wands with q skill that
hasn't been matched since his re-
tirement. The U. S. G. A. waxed
fat and wealthy on the luscious
gates drawn by the Incompatible
Bobby.
All this time the nabobs of the
game were neglecting fertile fields.
such as the Southwest, the Denver
sector and the Pacific Northwest.
Soon after Jones retired from COM
petition the gate fees took a sharp
drop. 1t hit the U. S. G. A. in the
pocketbook. and the fathers of golf
began to look around for new areas
TO exploit. spurred by their desire
to spread the championships around
and the pleasant prospect that they
might hit Oil in big gates at un-
tapped spots. They did just that. .
They took the Open championship
to Denver, where they drew a tre-
mendous gate without Jones. They
did all right at the Amateur cham
pionship at Portland, Greg, in 1885,
And this years Open championship
at Fort Worth, where the good
Texans f1ocked out, stamped the
financial wizards of the U. S. G. A.
as smart gents. The gate at Fort
Worth was a luscious number, fair
ly close to repetition of the $4,000
gate in the last Jones championship
at Philadelphia in 1890.
L. S. G. A. Strikes Oil.
The United States Golf Associa-
ton has struck oil-great gobs of
it-by taking its championships to
regions which haven't before seen
big tournament. But above that,
the fathers of the game, who hap
pen to be Sound-thinking gents
with national perspective, are
creating a sounder foundation than
mere dollars. No spur for promo
ton of any sport is better than a
showing of the top men in compe-
tition with a title at stake. BY
striking oil in the form of bigger
gates, the fathers of golf also have
started flock of new golfers on
the road of sliced tee shots and
muffed puts.
There has been a big change in
policy, but it has been all to the
good. American golf today is a ma
tional game. Championships are
not any longer confined to Chicago.
New York and Boston. But the
East will have a right to squawk
if the links fathers don't give the
country east of the Alleghenies a
major tournament in 1943.