The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-15
American Golfers Prove Good Sports In 'BunkerS For Britain

tournament comes along the duffers will be either twice as good or twice as bad. In any event the general hope is that neither tournament can be too big a success, or make too much money, considering the mott. vating purpose.
 Good Sports
 The golfers of the country, oil varieties. have always been good sports and they are in the process of proving 1t again. A year ago tho professional golfers raised some $60,000 for the Red Gross. Late this winter they travelled to Nassau, carrying Bob Jones along with them, and raised 0 Sizeable sum for the British Red Gross. Yesterday they invaded the hallowed turf of the Brookline Country Club down Bos" ton way md did another good turn. It was the first time, by the way, the pros had played Brookline since 1913, the year Francis Ouiinet thrill cd the golfing world by beating Vardon ard Ray to win the open championship. It appears that Brookline Is somewhat on the stuffy side and their welcome for the cash and carry players has never been exactly open armed. But social standards are changing these days and it's no great surprise to learn that Brookline has taken some Of the starch out of It's high stiff col- lar. Next we may hear that the Brookline broad "A" has been streamlined for popular usage.
 Gate admissions for golf cham plonships and assorted tournaments cepted as a matter of course; Q con. are SO common now they are ac. dition which has always existed. This, of course, isn't so. World war No. produced the first gate ad- missions in this country. II. B. Mar. tin, one of tho nations first golf writers, and in later years an author of distinction, conceived the idea It was ct Inwood, L. |, on May 4' 1917. Martin arranged Red cross foursome for the club and per. suaded the management to sell tickets for the show. Thus 1t was that Jim Barnes, Gil Nichols, Jack Bowling and Herbert Strong, all professionals, were the first to play before q paid gallery Ia America. It took some years for the golf asso. citations to get around to adopting the idea. There was e tradition that you just didn't charge to see the big tournaments; either that or c feeling the people wouldn't pay to see them.
 Hagen at Skokle
 It wasn't until 1922 that the golf ing people realized they had been giving away great shows year after wear for nothing. MT. Martin was telling US yesterday that ticket booths were installed for the first time at the national open when 1t was held at Chicago's Skokie Coun-- try Club, This was the year Gene sarazen flashed into prominence. Tt was also the year they wouldn't let Walter Hagen In the grounds, recalled MT. Martin. "He had peen SO used to driving up to the club house without credentials that 1t hadn't occurred to him this was a different set up. He didn't have a ticket or button or anything to Identify him and the gatekeeper told him to scram. If you're Hagen I'm Napoleon Is what he really told him. Hagen had to hustle around to get somebody to establish his iden- tity before he could play. He fin- ished three shots out of first place"
 The golfing people had a two- fold reason wor applying admis- sions: one was to make money and the other was to thin out the free crowds. The year before the crowds had gotten out of hand at the iia- tional amateur in St. Louis, and 1t was almost impossible to play. Many of the guests apparently mistook the championship for picnic: they brought along large lunch baskets camped around the greens, had a swell outing and almost completely ignored the players and the mar shals. To them 1t was just nice pleasant place to spend the day and they had only casual interest in the fact that big Jesse Guilford was spraying the fairways with the longest drives anybody had ever seen in this country.