by Julie Ganz
So, too, then, can we dream of golf in 1950. But it is more difficult now to guarantee fulfillment. Years ago the progress which the game made in Scotland and England, the varying fortunes and evolutions through which it passed, seemed to have a ready counterpart in this country. First the apeing of dress, then of clubs, then of club customs and rules, and what not. Then style of play, imitative attempts to reproduce a champion’s efforts, of the pitch-and-run, the style of course architecture—everything, in fact, which for a couple of centuries had been developed through the pitfalls of experience.
Then, lo and behold, America and Americans caught up! Not only in links portrayal and refined architecture, in dress and stylistic methods, but in the calibre of golf, so that for the first time in the world’s history there was played for on American soil the supremacy title of the world in 1921, by the holder of the British honors opposed to the American champion, both long residents of the United States. What wonderful achievements! And in a score of years. Must we not preforce dream and try to catch a vision when we foolhardily speak of golf in future years.
By 1950 golf will be a self-defense sport, not taught after the fashion dictated by Marquis of Queensberry rules but a more or less luzurious necessity. A man will have to take up golf in self-defense if he wishes to keep the fellowship of his boyhood and business companions. Already it takes little vision to see the trend of things towards that end.
In 1950 golf will have become a game where tourneys will be fashioned by age limits. Each state will have its seniors’ championship with 50 or 55 years as the scratch of a handicap basis. The champions of the many states will gather together for the seniors’ championship title of the land. Even at the present time it takes four days to run off a championship event for the Seniors’ Association with all of 350 entries. In the combined entry lists of two-score states, what with the intense interest of the players of the present day who will be eligible, if living, for such events, we may expect thousands upon thousands who will look forward to this annual event with the keenest sort of pleasure and joyful anticipation.
National championships will be restricted to those golfers who will be invited by the governing bodies to attend and the numbers will be limited to 128 at the most. We believe that there will be sent in by the secretaries of the various states a small list of golfers’ names, those who are entitled to a handicap of not over two, and that the participants will be made up from this number. State championships throughout the land will act as the qualifying basis for these bigger tourneys and the play will be all the keener for the new methods.
Open championship events will not differ so much from today, since the test at 72 holes provides the finest average. But here again we feel that assistants, caddie-masters and happy-go-lucky mortals will not be permitted to send in their entries. Moreover, amateurs will not be permitted to enter unless they have shown open championship capabilities. In other words, by 1950 professional golf will be on a strictly business basis with abundant spoils to the winners.
The best golfers of all countries in the professional ranks will not be engaged by golf clubs. They will spend their whole time giving exhibitions, and, we fancy, talks on how to improve one’s game. Every season will see an international contest between the grand prize winners of the medal and match play champions of the various nations. The money for these trips for highest titles will come from sums set aside after exhibition contests preceding the grand finale.
The teaching processes will have undergone a great change or we sadly miss our guess. We expect mechanical contrivances which will aid the teaching professional. Even today there are on the market mechanical conveniences which purpose to lend a guiding hand in the making of a putt or a short mashie approach. They are of very little assistance because of their heaviness and rigidity. But someone will have invented by that time an arc arrangement calculated to aid the speed of learning. It will be the professional’s duty to arrange the arcs so that they correspond to the physical swing fitness of the beginner or learner.
Driving nets will be scattered all over the land, far and near from golf links. For the youth man and the young miss there will be set aside at clubs driving apparatus and putting-greens where they may play to their heart’s content, always looking yearningly towards the real golf links to which they will graduate when over 16 or 17 years old; that is, of course, if they have spent sufficient time on the practice, driving, putting, and mashie-shot links provided for that very purpose.
Golf should be less expensive in 1950. Long before then golf holes will be standardized so that future changes will not be contemplated except in the unusual instance. When, therefore, all that needs to be cared for is a settled series of fairways and putting-greens, attention can be centered all the time upon the scientific analysis pertaining to the continued growth of good grass. When this has become a settled fact fewer men will be needed. Here, too, the mechanical contrivances to save man labor has shown wonderful progress but greater are in store. At a minimum of expense golf courses will be veritable runways of green, with grooming a delight to the eye.
There will be less freedom in the choice of clubs if improvement develops in play in the same ratio as over the past five years. In this respect we believe there will be less change, fortunately so, than in any other section of the game except, perhaps, in the rules where public opinion leading towards one set for nil will ultimately prevail.
There will be a doubling of the golfing population of the United States and Canada, perhaps a tripling in Canada. To permit this to be brought about, the small towns, as George Ade pointed out, will have to be the standard-bearers. There has been a spurt in this direction lately, and there will be a steady increase in the number of courses spread all over the country, mounting in number probably to another 2,000 at least when a half of this century shall have been reached.
In short, while we might expatiate upon a hundred other features showing expansion, particularly in the literary field covered by the golfing magazine, the whole can be summed up in the statement that by 1950 the game of golf will have become a dominating influence in the life of the nation, health-giving, health-bringing, and the accepted national sport.
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