OTLQOK 1
VOL. XX, NO. 1
EARLY SEASON NUMBER, 191617
FIVE CENTS
A SCIENTIFIC GAME
Number Four Coarse Now in Best
Condition of Any at Pinehurst
IVnmber Two Course Remodelled and
Trapped to Require Great Accu
racy and Variety of Play
QUOTING Donald Kosa
as his authority Jerome
D. Travers in his book,
The Winning Shot,
says that the object of
golf from now on will
be toward an even great
er science of stroke. To
play well a man must
have a wide variety of shots. Mor9
and more he will be forced to use
his head as well as his hands, and
arms. More and more the golfer will
have to have control over the club to
insure direction or meet, certain trouble.
This same Donald Boss, true to his
creed, has been planning and divising
this certain trouble for those casual cham
pions who have been making too many
low scores over the Pinehurst links by
virtue of distance and luck. For those
familiar with the championship number
two course a little study of the defences
against bad scoring executed this Sum
mer under direction of the master archi
tect will be of some interest.
Par and bogey on the course remain
the same. But Eoss says that for the
average golfer with still a slight occa
sional tendency to slice or pull it is four
or five strokes more difficult than last
year. The greens have been narrowed
down, the bunkers pulled in and the sur
roundings rendered more dangerous. Eoss
has come to the conclusion that a bunker
must be not only an apparent but a real
hardship, and caverns of dread propor
tions have yawned where the unwary were
permitted to chip blithely out onto the
green last year. An effort has been made
to give more variety to the approaches to
the greens. Instead of the dead flat fair
way in the center in a great many in
stances ah undulating surface has been
substituted, so that in playing the holes
many times one will never have exactly
the same shot or problem twice.
PENALTY FITS THE CRIME
The very aspect of many of the hard
fought holes has been changed. The six
teenth is wonderfully improved by mov
ing the green out from the hollow and
placing -it thirty-five yards further back
up the hill. This makes is possible for
it to be seen from the tee. The same is
true of the fifteenth. This used to be a
blind hole. Now the tee is upon a look
out, and the hill between that and the
green has been razed, and a most savage
and complete line of defence established
on every side. To the left great mounds
and enormous pits place a premium upon
a straight ball, while in front a trench
of terrifying proportions suggest the
advisability of a good drive. Improperly
played it is a terror. Properly played it
is easier than it ever was. The green is
in full sight, and the fairway on the
approach renovated to be one of the
best on the links. This hole illustrates
very well Eoss' ambition for all the
course; to make the penalty fit the shot.
Here a ball a little off line will find only
a little trouble ; an undulating surface.
One further off will run into the hills and
be a bit more uncomfortable, while a
really wide ball will find itself penalized
at least one full stroke in the nether
depths.
The weak spots on all the fairways
have been thoroughly renovated and re
planted this Summer, notably on number
ten which has been entirely replanted.
The old bunker has been moved forward
on this hole, and deepened to make sure
of its tenacious reception of any ball
coming its way. Number thirteen has
been made into the most treacherous and
dangerous of the lot. It is Eoss ' delight.
Play it right and, oh, so easy. Make the
slightest mistake and it is almost impos
sible. This was accomplished by the sim
ple expedient of moving the greens to
the left and behind a nasty well, so that
a fellow driving anywhere except straignt
down the right of the course skirting the
bunkers on that side will be obliged to
put his second ball dead over this chasm.
Number nine, the oasis in the swamp,
where Carter made his one against
Whittemore, and 'from which all other
men's balls were wont to roll over into
the slough of despond, has also been
remodelled into a fairer and more scien
tific hole. A good mashie shot often used
to run clear over the green into the
woods because the whole surface of the
green, and its surroundings sloped away
from the drive. This has now been
changed so that a little depression on the
near side of the hole will hold a good
mashie shot. On the other hand one
driven too long will have a harder time
than ever recovering he space back to the
green, for the inevitable valleys and hills
have appeared there as elsewhere to
penalize the careless.
THE FOURTH COURSE . ; '
This course, which we have many times
heard lightly referred to as a myth, is
now the prize of the whole lot as far as
condition of the fairways and greens is
concerned. It is an easy and attractive
nine holes for beginners and those pre
(Concluded on page five)
SUMMER GOLF AT PINEHURST
H. A. Page Wins Handicap from a
Large and Fast Field
Country Club and Links How Open
the Year Round. Great Improve
ment In Condition of the Turf
THE golfing season did
not close in the Village
at all this year, 21 nd it
will never close again.
No sooner had the tour
ist left for the lights of
Broadway and the Rialto
than the permanent
neighborhood, infected
with the putting germ, organized the
Moore County Country Club and took
over the links for the Summer. As usual
they got the best of it. As the early
Fall came on they had the famous course
all to themselves, 4ind started a series of
tournaments early in September. The
field was by no means a feeble one.
Forty members constitute the role, in
cluding many familiar in the major con
tests in the Midwinter Season. There
was Frank Gates, who gives promise of
pushing the National leaders in the North
and South this coming year. Fresh from '
breaking the record on the Dayton course
he struggled to overcome a strong field
from scratch in the annual Summer
handicap. But he had to blast his way
through a formidable array, and it was
too much for him. There was Tom
Kelly, bulwark of the Tin Whistles,
and Hennessee, fresh from his triumph
at Bethlehem, where he lifted the Swigert
(Concluded on page sixteen)
"'mini 111 nihil I,,,, wrii"&s fa f M MJ
A BIO SIX. GUILFORD, BEALL, CARTER, PHELPS, SKEHENS AND DYER