Monday, Apr. 05, 1943
With Niblick and Spade
U.S. golfers have stayed away from the links in large numbers since gas rationing began. Last week they were urged to resume play by no less an authority than Manpower Commissioner Paul V. McNutt. Surprised to learn that many golfers feared golfing would be considered unpatriotic, Duffer McNutt (hundred-and-eighties) told Ed. Dudley, president of the Professional Golfers' Association: "If country clubs can provide horse-drawn vehicles to get their players to the courses or if the people can reach them by public conveyances, there is no reason why they should not play in their spare time." At least three-quarters of the nation's 5,200 golf courses are expected to remain in play this year, and the U.S. Golf Association believes there will be enough conditioned golf balls to go round. Links-men were further encouraged by reports last week that in England golf is enjoying one of its greatest seasons. There players hike to the links from the railroad station, tote their own clubs, get along with dingy sticks and a limit of two battered balls per round, play over fairways shorn by grazing sheep. Despite such hardships, British courses are jammed to the 19th hole every weekend.
But as U.S. golfers last week began to tee off for a new season, there were new patterns in both tournament and duffer play:
> Having given up their annual swing around the grapefruit circuit last winter, top-flight golfers got together in the North and South Open at Pinehurst, N.C. New eligibility rule: players must be over 38 or in uniform. With such stars as Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson missing, Veteran Bobby Cruickshank, 48 and a grandfather, bagged the tournament with a mediocre 292, just 21 strokes above Hogan's winning score last year.
> The U.S. Golf Association cut out a war pattern for golf clubs: let them combine golf with victory gardening by replacing part of the rough (not fairways or greens) with vegetable gardens. Westchesters swank Wykagyl Country Club went enthusiastically supererogatory, plowed up its first and second fairways and allotted a patch to each of 55 member families. Members plan to play nine holes each Sunday, spend the rest of the day gardening.
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