Turning Back the Clock on Usga Work for Golf
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By JOSEPH C. DEY, JR. TURNING BACK THE CLOCK Executive Director United states Golf 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 iron forget where you're headed for. All of us whO'se shaft 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 Gene Littler 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 tee 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 tees 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 wedge 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 Golf Club 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 stroke play- 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 match play. 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 drive 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, Horace Rawlins, 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- The Country Club, 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 Golf Club, 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. caddie 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 Willie Anderson, 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 Francis Ouimet, defeated the great Bri- Curtis Cup Match for British and Ameri- tish professionals, Harry Vardon 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.