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Approach Iron The Chip Iron The Niblic The Putter N the new Burke Smithirons the that it simplifies the execution of I weight center is directly behind successful shots from sand and heavy grass. It's legal. the point of ball impact. Results: The Chip Iron is deadly in execut- Greater accuracy, less penalty from ing that short run-up to the pin mis-stroking, and—through the green from just off the green. It increases —greater distance. your one-putt greens. These clubs are scientific means to The Putter has its weight in such balance that it helps smooth your reduced scoring, tested in actual play. putting stroke, giving distance and Now available in four models: direction control. , We challenge any golfer to see The Approach Iron gives mid-iron distance. The rounded sole helps these models in a golf shop without you escape the penalties of divoting examining them, becoming interested and topping. and buying one or all four ! See them The Niblic has its weight so built —feel them—today! Burke CLUBS • BAGS • BALLS V THE BURKE GOLF COMPANY . NEWARK, OHIO turb resultful deliberation. That is ex- satisfied that when we get down to bed- actly the problem of the department heads rock we will find that an important factor at each country club in the United States. in the origin of this unhappy condition is By this I don't mean that we haven't team- the lack of understanding between man- work and a lot of it at country clubs, be- agers, greenkeepers and pros. If they cause we have: One of my finest and la- would talk over each other's problems on mented friends, the late manager at Old a considerate basis they all would be in Elm, was a man who meant a lot to me a position to be of mutual help in "selling" in my work and I am vain enough to say each other to the club officials and mem- that I very earnestly did everything that bers with whom they are in most intimate I could contribute in my small way to his contact. success in a very unusual and difficult situation. Tells Pros' Case Our club is not representative. It has a There is a thoroughly unfounded belief very exclusive membership of wealthy men among many club managers that the pro- and our problem, while not those of han- fessional is reeking in wealth acquired dling heavy play, are made just as trying from pro shop sales. The manager may by the perfectly pardonable insistence of see the sale slips coming through and he our members having absolutely everything sees the pro completely arrayed like Sol- absolutely right. omon in all his glory as the selling front of the pro business. But the manager Figures Show Harmony doesn't see the expense side. A gross At the average country club you can al- profit of 33% in a short-season specialty most invariably tell that harmony exists business would be a hopeless picture to between the professional, manager and the best of specialty shop retailers. How- greenkeeper by looking at the annual finan- ever, this is the pros' usual gross and out cial statement. When you see clubhouse of it must be paid his assistants, very volume and operating expense that is heavy fire and theft insurance rates, the laudable, you are almost certain to find costs of balls snatched but not signed for behind that picture the enthusiastic team- by members in a hurry, the cost of play- work of the professional who is active in ing, dressing and otherwise putting on the conducting events that draw play to the front that is expected by a pro these days, course and running these events off at a and innumerable other items. The les- time that will fit in nicely with the kitchen sons at 18-hole clubs average less than and help facilities at the club. Further- two per member per year. Do you wonder, more you will see the work of the green- then, that many professionals are seriously keeper in maintaining his course in such concerned with their merchandising prob- condition that it attracts the play of mem- lems and consider themselves lucky to bers and guests, and whose purchasing is get by with only a little more than the done with such a keen appreciation of ex- annual profit represented by the club clean- actly what is needed that he contributes ing income? greatly to the financial showing of the club. The difficulty of operating a pro shop at After all, it unfortunately is the case that a good merchandising profit is attested to the restaurant deficits of country clubs are by the annual statements of golf clubs that the sore spots with officials. Anything have tried the experiment of operating the , that possibly can be done by the pro and shops themselves. Only in a few cases do greenkeeper in attracting to the clubhouse I know of clubs that really have received a volume of business that will give the any appreciable net income from such house manager a fighting chance for a operation and in these cases it has been good showing is a consummation devoutly directly and entirely the result of the most to be wished by every country clubhouse intense and constructive cooperation be- manager in the nation. tween the professionals, managers and In the golf club business we have, I greenkeepers. We professionals have our , believe, the greatest department head an- internal problems that are just as be- nual labor turn-over of any activity that wildering and disconcerting as those that is supposed to be a business. You know managers have to contend with. One of how many good managers are looking for our miseries is that number of boys who jobs today. Good pros and good green- can shoot a fairly respectable game and keepers, too, are suffering from this situa- will take a pro job at any income at all tion. We can talk about the details re- simply to have the privilege of playing sponsible for this, all we want, but I am golf and of being called a professional. „ you haven't seen this letter—let's read it now. And, if after looking it over it seems like a good idea, by all means wire, write or phone for any farther information. « « * Professional Golfers Association of America FIRST NATIONAL BANK BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL. Their pitiful lack of qualifications is cost- playing for the golf club is certain t,o result ing the clubs money, but in the tedious in a substantial improvement in the or- period it is taking for club officials to ganizations' score when the annual state- realize this, many competent and con ment is compiled. The only chance any scientious professionals are being penal- of us have of getting more money—and ized. there are thousands more of us underpaid than overpaid—is by eliminating the costly Club Operation Perplexing and senseless frictions that are either the The query of a friend of mine comes to result of festering misunderstandings or of me as I consider the general method of temperamental deficiencies that incapaci- golf club operation. This young man says tate a man for proper service as a golf he wonders how he can be so smart and club department head. In the latter case, so poor and others be so dumb and so I don't know what to do. At my years one rich. I have heard a lot of the perform- becomes rather reconciled to his inability ance of the eminently successful business to reform human nature. However, if I men as golf club officials and I want to had anything to say, I would be brutal tell you that it frequently makes me think enough to "can" the man who can't get that club managers, professionals and along with other honest, striving, com- greenkeepers are financial and executive petent associates. In the former case of geniuses by comparison. I often think unfortunate misunderstandings—if such that one reason why Old Elm is so exist at your club—a little tact, considera- smoothly and satisfactorily run is that our tion, and possibly giving in a bit may bring club very seldom changes officials. We about the energetic and sympathetic unity have had but two presidents since the club that is the only basis of advancement for started. Death took our first president all of us. from office. There is plenty to make me believe that I am working for the smart- As a representative professional, I can est aggregation of business men in Chi- say that I do not care how much money cago, possibly the greatest confirmation any clubhouse manager gets. He can get would come from the income tax authori- a hundred thousand dollars a year as far ties. However, I see particularly vivid as I am concerned just so I get mine in evidence of it in the fact that these men proper ratio. But neither one of us will realize that as competent as they are, it get the income that the importance of our takes one of their number a good many duties warrant unless we put the club in years to learn the job of becoming a golf a sound financial and operating condition. club official. For that reason we all have to think of the club first and that is the real start toward Other club department heads are not as the constructive harmony that each think- fortunate as I am in this respect.

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