Evening star., 1941-02-16
Argue Man Who Pays
Freight Deserves
Less Suffering
Pro Who Cove Emperor
His Stort Now Runs
An Obscure School
By WALTER McCALLUM.

Fewer headaches for the golf duff
fers by elimination of many of the
traps around the putting green's of
the 5000 golf courses in the United
States is the aim of none other
than Robert Tyre Jones, jr., one
time world king of golf, and of DR..
John Monteith, executive head OF
the United States Golf Association
green section. The same scheme was
proposed few days ago by Tom
Walsh, president of the Profession
al Golfers Association OF America.
But Monteith and Bobby Jones
long have had the idea and have
talked it over with Walsh. They are
-Monteith and Bobby
to write a yarn or two for the golf
magazines, proposing elimination OF
many of the bunkerS in which an
guished buffers spend miserable
hours on golf courses.
Such a scheme if carried out will
draw long and loud huzzahs from
millions of sand-grimed men (and
women who suffer endless tortures
irving to whack the ball out of
sand-filled caverns designed for ex-
perts. The experts have spent hours
learning to carve the ball effort
lessly and neatly out of these torture
chambers. But the buffers. lack
an IF thu
perts, continue to suffer.
No Whim, Says Monteith.
Such is the thesis of Monteith
and. he says of Bobby Jones.
1T isn't matter of personal
whim," said Monteith. Il went to a
good deal of trouble checking up on
this thing. So did Jones. At sew
eral clubs I took the pro out in the
sand traps and checked with him on
what the buffers and the experts
can do and cannot do in the traps.
l found that where the expert has
an easy time in the bunkerS f1icking
that ball out fairly close to the
pin but most of the time the duffer
does a lot of suffering and hasn't
much luck in the sand. And who
do you think pays the bill for keep
ing up expensive golf courses, the
duffer or the expert? III answer
that. It's the duffer, by about rs
to I.
Furthermore, I found that sand
traps are very expensive on the up
keep side. They very we'll could be
replaced by grassy mounds or hol-
lows, in most cases, without hurting
the golf course. And it is no easier
to play a shot from the side of
mound than from the sand. I'm
convinced that the experts would
have more trouble from grassy
lie than they now have from the
sand.
I'm short, I'm in favor of cutting
out big proportion of these ex-
pensive sand traps, and turning the
game back to the men who pay the
bills. I mean the buffers, and not
the experts"
Figures Back Him Up.
Monteith has an endless and COM
prehensive row of figures to back
up his claim as to the relative skill
of expert and duffer in getting out
of sand. Also in the play of expert
and duffer from grassy lies near the
green. But figures are boring and
maybe they do not mean much. So
for the time being we'll let 'em lie.
Later on they may be used to boil
ster up some of the claims of Mon
teith.
But the big point, Monteith says,
Is that golf courses are being made
far too hard for the buffers and too
easy for the experts. The latter
boys do not fear the traps, while
to the buffers they are fearsome
things. Many a duffer has had his
whole day spoiled by single trap"
said Monteith.
Bobby Jones and I agree on these
things" he adds. Bobby thinks
the game is too hard for the aver
age player simply because there are
too many traps in which he doesn't
know what to do"
Federal golfers will gather at
Kenwood Wednesday night for the
presentation of trophies won in the
l94O Star-sponsored match play
tourney for Government employees
Accounts and Deposits of Treasury
won the title in playoff against
Agriculture and General Accounting
Office. Commissioner Bartlett of
Accounts and Deposits will receive
The Star trophies on behalf of his
boys.
Harrelrs Party of Wednesday.
Forty-siX Washington business
and professional men will leave the
Capital Wednesday night for Au-
gusta, Ga, and four days of golf
under the Southern sun. The party
IS being led by Lefty Harrell of
the Washington Golf and Country
Club. They'll hold daily Journeys,
with the low gross scorer for 72
holes to be the Augusta" cham
pion. The highest net scorer for
70 holes will be the "doghouse"
champ.
Stewart Maiden, early instructor
of Bobby Jones and Alexa Stirling,
is teaching golf in an obsure little
indoor school in New York, accord
ing to a yarn in one of the New
York papers. Maiden, according to
the story. refuses to cash in on his
earlier connections and also refuses
to believe the glory that was Bobby
Jones has been dimmed. Stewart
had quite reputation as a golf
teacher. I remember at the Nation
al Open of 1928, Bob was having
trouble with his long shots. The
morning of the playoff against
Johnny Farrell I went out to the
practice tee where Bob was whack-
ing out balls. loosening up for the
36-hole playoff. There was Stewart
Maiden squatting on his heels and
tossing to Jones. Bobby was lousy.
He was spraying them all over the
lot, Hit 'em hard" said Stewart