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Home , Francis Ouimet, Gene Littler, Horace Rawlins, Rules of golf, Walter Travis, Willie Anderson (golfer)

By JOSEPH C. DEY, JR.

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK Executive Director ON USGA WORK FOR GOLF Association • Based on remarks prepared for 1961 Educational Program of Professional Golfers' Association of America

here's always danger in looking back- "Those new built-in- gyroscopes in this T ward. You may become so enchanted ball surely keep it on line, don't they?" with where you've come from that you he remarks. He plays a medium forget where you're headed for. All of us whO'se is attached to the head sometimes sigh for "the good old days," right in the middle, behind the sweet and that can keep us from taking deep spot-"Gives more power and reduces breaths in the fresh air of the present. torque," he explains, as the ball sits But a view of history can be profitable. down four feet from the cup. There is real value in stock-taking, in Jack, in the fairway, picks up his ball recalling what was good and useful, and and places it on a little tuft of grass. "I what was not, with a view to handling hate cuppy lies," he says. He plays the the future properly. new club, and the ball does a little jig Let's first take a look at the USGA's before snuggling down two feet from the past through some rather distorted hole. glasses-by imagining what might be the As Jack gets Qut of his midget heli- case today if the USGA had been radi- copter at the parking space alQngside cally different or if there had never been the green, he finds Gene moaning: "I'd a USGA. Let's do this by looking in on understood that the cups were gQing to one hole of an imaginary round in the be 10 inches wide. They look to be only National Open Championship involving about 7 inches to me." Jack and Gene (any resemblance to Jack Jack explains: "They are 10 inches on Nicklaus or is purely coin- the back nine. Most clubs around here cidental). have 9 or lO-inch cups on the back nine Jack arrives at the first in his and 7-inchers on the first nine, but midget helicopter. He pulls out a gauge there's no real rule about it." that tells him he should allow for a 5- And sO'on ... degree wind drift from the right. He If that seems a fantastic account of his ball-it is 1.5 inches in diameter- what golf might have been today, let's and he drives 396 yards down the fair- look at some of the influences which way (the hole was recently lengthened have made the game what it actually is. from 550 to 635 yards because the boys The entire history of the USGA is had been reaching the green with directly related to thQse influences. seconds). The principal purpose of the USGA "Nice shot," says Gene. "By the way, is simply this: to prQmote and to' con- I'm playing 18 clubs today." serve "the best interests and the true "Ive got 20," Jack answers. "Our com- spirit of the game of gQlf"-so says the pany is just bringing out a new 9% iron, USGA Constitution. and I want to' use it in the Open so it'll You can best tell history by recounting be known when I defend my National actiQns. The USGA's actions occur in a Amateur Championship next month. I'll wide variety Qf fields. Let's confine tl\is get a lO% royalty on each one. The other sketchy discussion to three broad fields: amateurs will go for it strong, especially First, Competitions if I win the National Amateur again." Second, General Services Gene drives 15 yards short of Jack. Third, Regulations

12 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 COMPETITIONS From a newspaper point of view, the A mix-up involving championships was social aspects of the Championship were the direct reason for the creation of the perhaps more important than the golf, USGA. In 1894, before there was a for the New York Herald published these USGA, two different clubs in the East thrilling accounts: each held what purported to be the Ama- "At three o'clock society began to, ap~ teur Championship of the United States. pear and fully 100 of the spectators were They were the Newport in soon tramping over the hills. It was a Rhode Isla.nd and the St. Andrew's Golf bright scene; the ladies in their silks Club of Yonkers, N. Y. W. G. Lawrence and the men in their red golfing coats won at Newport in September, with a made a scene of color seldom witnessed score of 188 for 36 holes - in outdoor sports. The game of the 8 over even 5s. In October, L. B. Stod- morning was C. B. Macdonald, the prob- dard won at St. Andrews, at . able champion, against Laurence Curtis. Here there were two so-called National The latter was not in any way in the Amateur Champions. game with Macdonald, for he has a low To avoid such an embarrassing condi- short compared to a Io,ng well tion thereafter, Henry O. Tallmadge, directed drive of his opponent .•. " Secretary of the St. Andrew's Club, con- A bit later: ceived the idea of a national association "The sun was well down in the western of clubs to establish uniform rules and horizon and the moon had risen high in to conduct future championships. He in- the heavens when it was announced at vited representatives of five clubs to a the pretty little clubhouse that the Na- dinner in New York on December 22, tional Amateur Championship had nar- 1894. (Some 20 clubs were then in rowed down to a contest between New existence.) Those five clubs formed the York and Chicago." Amateur Golf Association of the United The first U. S. Open was played the States. The name was soon changed, first day after the Amateur ended, also at to American Golf Association and finally Newport. It was at 36 holes and the to United States Golf Association. The winner was the 19-year-old as;istant pro five clubs thus banded together were: at Newport, , still the Newport Golf Club, Newport, R. I. youngest Champion in Open history. He Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, scored 91-82-173 for the two rounds in Southampton, N. Y. a day-7 under even 5s. Ten profes- , Brookline, Mass. sionals and one amateur competed. St. Andrew's Golf Club, Horace Rawlins' prizes were a $50 gold Yonkers-on-Hudson, N. Y. medal and $150 cash. , Chicago, Ill. In November of the same year-1895 Some early Committee meetings were -the USGA held its first women's cham- held just two blocks from the present pionship at Meadowbrook on Long Island. location of the USGA's "Golf House," in The winner, Mrs. Charles Brown, had 69 the New York home of the USGA's first before lunch and 63 after lunch, and her President, Theodore A. Havemeyer. 18-hole score of 132 made her the Cham- The first USGA Championships were pion. conducted at Newport in 1895. Originally Thus, with the Amateur, the Open and scheduled for September, they were post- the Women's Championships, the USGA poned to the first week of October on was fully launched. account of the America's Cup yacht Rapid Growth races. Thirty-two players started in the Ama- The game grew rapidly. In 1895 there teur Championship, entirely at match were some 75 clubs in the United States. play, and the winner was Charles B. in 1900 there were more than 1,000. ' Macdonald, a Chicago Scotsman. One An early first was recorded in the player, Richard Peters, carried a billiard 1896 Open when a 16-year-old colored cue and putted with it, in all seriousness. competed. He went out in the first round before Much of the history of the Champion- the more righteous play of a clergyman, ships can be seen through the records of the Rev. William Rainsford. the great players. One of the early greats

USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 13 was , whose record of the elements of sectional qualifying were winning four Open Championships from introduced. First there were just two try- 1901 through 1905 has never been beaten, outs-one in Worcester, Mass., and one though twice tied. Johnny McDermott, in Oak Park, Ill. In 1925there were three who could pitch a mashie shot onto a -East, Mid-West and Pacific Coast. The handkerchief, was the first American next year 17 sectional qualifying rounds homebred to win the Open, in 1911.,Wal- were held, and the system was firmly ter J. Travis and Jerome D. Travers had established. Entries for the Open that become leading amateurs. year zoomed to a record of 694. Then, in 1913, came the bombshell that Women's golf of that period had its literally put golf on page 1 in America. greatest champion, Glenna Collett Yare, A 20-year-old amateur, a former caddie, who won the National six times. The , defeated the great Bri- Match for British and Ameri- tish professionals, and Ted can ladies was started in 1932. Ray, in. a play-off for the Open Cham- After World War II the USGA doubled pionship, and thus became the first ama- its competitive program by adding a teur to win the Open. This did worlds boys' Junior Amateur Championship, a toward. popularizing the game. Girls' Junior, a Women's Open and a Amateurs won two of the next three Senior Amateur (besides, a Women's Opens: Charles Evans in 1916 won both Senior Amateur will soon be started). the Open and the Amateur. The international match program also In 1917-18, because the nation was at was doubled-besides the war, the USGA did not conduct cham- and the Curtis Cup we now have the pionships. When they were resumed in Americas Cup, involving amateurs ~f 1919 ended the streak of Canada, Mexico and the United States, the amateurs. Three years later Gene and the for the Sarazen, 20 years old, burst upon the World Amateur Team Championship. The scene and won the,ppen. USGA was instrumental in starting the The Bob' Jones Era World Championship three years ago. 'The year of Sara~en's first victory, Now 43 countries belong to the World 1922, was notable for several golfing Amateur Golf Council, which sponsors events. The Walker Cup Match came in- the Championship. to being, between. Br:itish and American In the post-war Opens, the central amateur teams. TheO,lJSGA started the figure has been . He was to National Amateur Public Cham- this era what Francis Ouimet, Walter pionship: In 192.2ior'Jhe first time, ad- Hagen, and Bob Jones mission' fees were ch;lrged to spectators were to their day. Ben Hogan tied the at the Open. This 't:esulted partly from record of Jones and Willie Anderson by the need for controlling lCu.:riosityseekers winning four United States Opens. He at ..the Amateur the pre"iou~ year. was twice runner-up. His victories were Xhe next year, 1923, prought Bob Jones triumphs not only of golf but of the h1,8first national title; the Open. When spirit, after his nearly fatal motor acci- he retired at age 28 <\t tl~e end of 1930, dent before he won his second Open. In he had won 13 national Championships the ,same period won every- in Great. Britain and tpe United States, thing but the Open. crowned. by his Grand. Slanlpf the Bri- It is arresting to compare the scope tish and the American Qpens and Ama- of championship golf today with the be- teurs-all four. of tb~w.,...... inthe same ginnings in 1895. From 11 entries in the year. Seven of Jones'.'13 ChaI11pionships first Open, last year there were 2,449. were' Opens~three In~i:'itainr and four From $150 prize money for the winner, here ..His skill is pointed! up most sharply last year it was $14,000; and there was by the fact' that in erghtout of nine a prize money total of $60,500 in last straight United States 'Opens ..he was year's Championship proper plus $7,800 first or second--he wo'n.i four\~:and was in Sectional Qualifying events-a ~and runner-up in four. And he retired at age total of $68,300 in prize money for the 28. ,; Open.'.(In 1962 the total will be $77,800.) By the time :':ofth-e: 1924 Open there From a handful of spectators, last year had been such growth in interest that at Oakland Hills there were by actual

14 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 count 20,439 on final last day. From 5 seum and Library. It was instituted in member clubs the USGA now has 2,548. 1936 and outgrew its quarters rather This year for the eight USGA Cham- rapidly. This resulted in the acquisition pionships there was a grand total of 230 in 1950 of a modest five-story dwelling sectional qualifying competitions and en- in midtown New York, now "Golf House." tries of 9,480-all-time records. The Library is constantly used for GENERAL SERVICES references by writers and others in pub- A second main category of USGA work lic information work, as well as by plain is General Services. For so-called glamour golf addicts, such as a frequent visitor and popular appeal, they stand at the who spends many lunch hours poring opposite pole from the competitions. For over books on how to putt. their usefulness to golf, their value can- "Golf House" has become a symbol of lwt be calculated. American golf to many foreign visitors. In all the history of the USGA, one We have a rather surprising range of in- of the most constructive steps was ternational correspondence. In one recent establishment of the USGA Green Sec- week we dealt with such matters as mo- tion in 1920. At that time there was no Hon pictures for South Africa, turfgrass impartial scientific agency to which clubs for Mexico, letters of introduction for an could turn for information and advice American in Italy, a Rules decision for about maintenance. The clubs Japan, championship information for were at the mercy of ignorance and , and arrangements for a young quackery. The USGA enlisted the co- European to play golf in New York. operation of the United States Depart- The USGA has been involved in such ment of Agriculture and created the widely diverse enterprises as conducting Green Section. an educational campaign against organ- Today, there are five USGA Green Sec- ized gambling in golf and seeking a re- tion o~fices, in , Texas, Illinois, duction in the Federal tax on club dues. GeorgIa and New . Eight USGA With 2,548 member clubs, the scope of agronomists devote themselves to assist- the Association's General Services is ing USGA Member Clubs, principally rather broad. through personal advisory visits to golf REGULATIONS courses. In addition, the Green Section sponsors research, which is helped con- The USGA's third principal work for siderably by funds from National Golf golf is in regulations-making and in- Day tournaments conducted by the PGA. terpreting rules for amateur status for implements and the ball, for - In the 41 years of its existence, the , and for the play of the game. This Green Section has !invested some $1600 - is perhaps the most distinctive work courses.000 in improving the maintenance or' golf which the golf clubs of the country per- form through their national Association. An important part of the USGA's func- tions is provision of information on al- Amateur Status most all phases of golf. To supplement From the beginning, amateur status correspondence, press releases and the has been a deep concern of the USGA. If like, the USGA JOURNAL was started in you think the present code is strict, read 1948. It contains much official news and the rule that applied in the first Cham- background of the USGA including de- pionship in 1895: cisions on the Rules of Golf and hand i- "An Amateur Golfer shall be a Golfer capping and a section on Turf Manage- who has never made for sale golf clubs, ment. balls, or any other article connected with Ten motion pictures, of hoth educa- the game, who has never carried clubs tional and entertainment nature, have for hire after attaining the age of 15 been produced by the USGA in the last years, and who has not carried clubs for seven years. hire at any time within six years of the date on which the competition begins In the early 30s the late. George Blos- who has never received any considera~ som, of Chicago, thought the Association ~ion for playing in a match, or for giv" should preserve visible evidences of golf mg lessons in the game, and who, for a development, so he proposed a Golf Mu- period of five years prior to the first of

USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 1S September, 1890, has never received a One reason is that golf is distinctively money prize in any open competition." different because it is a lifetime game- you can make a match with your grand- Amateur Status Code mother, through handicapping. It is not Down through the years the details a game just for strong young people, as have changed, but fundamentally the is true of many other popular sports. code has always drawn a sharp line be- Therefore, golf takes a long-range view tween the amateur and the non-amateur of amateurism. In the long run this is or the professional. best for the individual, for it helps It may seem a paradox but, also from sharpen his sense of values and obliges the very beginning, the amateur and the him to make a pretty clear~cut decision. professional have competed together in At the heart of the amateur code is open tournaments without so-called con- the rule prohibiting expenses generally. tamination of each other's status-a con- Its observance starts with the USGA dition almost non-existent elsewhere in Executive Committee members-they sports. But this open, wholesome relation pay their own expenses to meetings and between amateur and professional is competitions, and do not receive any re- actually part of the reason why ama- muneration for their work. teurism in golf has been generally If you doubt whether the expense rule healthy and not sickened and vitiated by in amateur golf is observed, consider this shamateurism. question: Of the 200 players in the Na- Of course, golf is not lily-white. But a tional Amateur Championship at Pebble sincere effort is made to carry out the Beach last September, how many do you amateur ideal. suppose played in the Championship the There were problems of amateurism year before? You're probably wrong, even in the early days. In 1901 Walter whatever you say. Of the 200 at Pebble Travis was accused by a magazine of vio- Beach, only 53 were at St. Louis in 1960. lating the rules by accepting free golf Of those same 53, only 23 were at Colo- and board at Southern resort hotels in rado Springs in 1959. In other words, in exchange for the advertising value of his this whole big country, only 23 players presence. He was cleared. Later, golf have competed in all of the last three course architects as a class were declared National Amateur Championships. This non-amateurs, although this was soon seems a healthy state of affairs. seen to be a mistake and was changed. It is a state of affairs in which all Over the years several Amateur Cham- golfers are vitally concerned. What kind pions-popular people-have been de- of a game do you want? Suppose the prived of amateur status. Just last fall USGA long ago had given in to a loose the USGA looked into the status of a policy regarding amateurism: What kind recent National Amateur Champion; he of a game would we have today? How was cleared. Historically, the Association would it affect you? has not hesitated to act in this sphere This is an area in which the USGA has when there was reason to do so. been very consistent throughout its his- One result of such a policy is reflected tory. The professional has always helped in a telegram we received from a lady the USGA to keep golf thus-a clean and who said: honorable game, clean and honorable for "Our women's golf association has just both amateur and professional. become aware of your disapproval of Implements and the Ball pari-mutuel betting. Our low handicap If you would have a quick lesson in the golfers are awaiting your approval of our history of the golf clubs and the golf 25-cent bets which we hold once a month ball, come to "Golf House." Exhibits during the summer. Please wire your there trace the developments from the answer." days of the feather ball. Although this is an extreme case, it You'll see how the club evolved fr<>m reflects something basic. In these days a long, tapering head attached to a of commercialized sport, the amateurism hickory shaft, laboriously hand-crafted, of golf is conspicuous. But it has always to the present machine-tooled precision been so. Why? instruments. You'll see an early steel

16 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 shaft-it was perforated, and whistled and it i~ apparent that there is more to when swung. There is a model of the distance than the ball's qualities-for Schenectady , the almost center- example, club shafts are an important shafted club with which element. But the ball is an immediately won the British Amateur in 1904. and controllable item, and so the USGA has whose revolutionary concept has affected three types of ball test machines. One to the present day. You'll see was developed in recent years and Bob Jones' famous putter, "Calamity measures a ball's coefficient of restitu- Jane." tion, or its innate resilence. The USGA There is a sort of chamber of iUegal is presently working on the possibility horrors:-a club with a set of mirrors of a new rule based on this factor. for lining up putts-several clubs with Last season samples of 10 brands of spirit levels in the head to show the tilt ball did not conform with USGA specifi- of the green-all sorts of directional cations, for one reason or another. Fortu- gadgets .attached to clubheads-screw- nately, the manufacturers have all since type heads for adjustability during play cooperated and the balls now conform, -a putter with a shaft attached at the according to the last tests. toe-and a Rube Goldberg sort of con- Our British friends are now extensively traption with an intricate angle-and-dis- testing the American size ball, and it is tance device, plus a directional pointer possible that they may abandon the small with a degree dial, and an adjustable ball of 1.62 inches minimum diameter clubhead. and permit only the American size of Many golfers will remember the prob- 1.68 inches minimum diameter. lems in the late 40s concerning markings Handicapping on iron clubs. Handicapping has been a major work Can you imagine what the game would of the USGA in the field of regulations. be without controls on such things? It Proper handicapping is at the heart of is all very noble for people to want to enjoyment of the game for the rank and make golf. easier, but without controls a file of players. different game might well arise from the In the first decade of this century ashes of golf. a member of the USGA Executive Com- The has long been a subject mittee, Leighton Calkins, developed a of USGA. regulation. Many years ago, handicap system that was the standard after the gutta percha ball had vanished for many years. and the rubber-cored ball was being con- Later, the USGA borrowed the idea of stantly improved, it was foreseen that course rating from the Massachusetts every course in the land could be put out Golf Association-this is a method of of date if the distance qualities of the rating a hole in decimals, rather than in ball were not limited. This led to con- a round number, as used for , and it trols on size and weight. gives a more refined base for computing handicaps. USGA experimentation produced a Now, with course rating and use of the "larger and lighter" or "balloon" ball in best 10 of the last 25 scores, there exists 1931-not less than 1.68 inches diameter a national handicap system that produces and not more than 1.55 ounces weight. equitable results no matter where scores The next year the permissible weight was are made or how far afield the golfer increased back to 1.62 ounces, but the roams. minimum diameter was kept 1.68 inches. This is still the standard ball in the Rules of Golf United States. Finally, as to the Rules of Golf: In the first Year Book of the USGA, In 1942 a third specification-velocity in 1895, there is the following items un- of the ball immediately after the club's der the heading "Etiquette of Golf": impact-was added to those of size and "Players who have holed out should weight. not try their putts over again when other The Association is still deeply con- players are following them." cerned about the ball. Of course, we all "A player should not putt at the hole like to get as much distance as we can; when the flag is in it."

USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY, 1962 17 With the gutta percha ball then in use British friends of the Royal and Ancient in the 90s, there was a problem we don't Golf Club of St. Andrews forconsidera- have today, as evidenced by this old tion at the USGA's next joint conference Rule: with them. The British likewise send us "If a ball split into separate pieces, an- their suggestions for changes. It has be- other ball may be put down where the come customary to have a joint con- largest portion lies, and if two pieces ference every four years since the present are apparently of equal size, it may be code was adopted in 1951. The con- put where either piece lies, at the option ference then produces final recommenda- of the player." tions. They are referred back for final Among the special rules for medal action to the USGA Executive Commit- play was this little gem: tee, on the one hand, and the Royal and "The for a breach of any Rule Ancient Golf Club membership,. on the shall be disqualification." other hand. Down the years, the course of Rules- Before the last joint meeting with the making has not been a path of roses. British in 1959, the USGA Negotiating Wars have broken out over such matters Committee had a special meeting with as the stymie; in fact, in the early three PGA representatives - Harold 1920s, feelings about the stymie ran so Sargent, then PGA President; Tom Crane high that they almost led to formation and Harvey Raynor. Valuable comments of a second national association. Even were received, and some were incorpo- now, brother may fight brother over the rated in the Rules. It has become a prac- momentous question of the penalty for tice for PGA representatives to meet a ball out of bounds. Some golfers take with the USGA at least once a year to their Rules seriously. discuss the Rules. There was a case a year or so ago of The process of amending Rules is two ladies who were so engrossed in tedious, but that very process tends to conversation that they neglected to play insure that the final product is pretty two holes of the course, then wondered well tested. Even so, slips do occur. But why their scores were so low. The ques- two things are worth remembering: tion of what to do next almost became First, the Rules of golf are a living a Federal court case. code, the evolutionary product of long There was another lady who swung at experience; quick isolatedcha.ng~s can a ball, whiffed it, discovered it was a be dangerous, for the Rules are closely wrong ball, and was astounded to learn dove-tailed .. that she was penalized two strokes-and Second, for all the changes of detail the ball had not progressed an inch. which the Rules of Golf have undergc,>ne, The USGA has the Rules under con- the game is fundamentally the ,same stant daily study. Hundreds of questions glorious sport it has always been. are received every year, and a surprising number are new. Some of them lead to Nourishing the Spirit of Golf changes in the Rules. From these very. sketchy notes on USGA history, perhaps you have caught Method of Changing Rules the idea that practically all of the How are changes made? USGA's work centers in just one thing- First, a flaw or a gap in the Rules may the nourishing of the wonderful spirit of be revealed through a new question for golf. a decision, or through a suggestion made In this work, the by an individual golfer or a USGA Mem- has played a significant part. On the ber Club or one of the several hundred firing line at his club, or on the tourna- golf associations in the United States. ment circuit, day by day he uncon- The USGA Rules of Golf Committee sciously exerts an influence in ways far studies each new matter, first by corre- beyond the matter of swinging a club. spondence and then at meetings. This And now that we have had our look results in a recommendation to the backward, it would be appropriate to ask USGA Executive Committee. ourselves one question as we look for- The next step is to transmit the ward: "What sort of history are we Executive Committee's decision to our writing today?"

18 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: FEBRUARY; 1962