OCR Text |
Show Pfi nVs"lnnTejh jpl ""if c-icoems the ,1 a:.;loti:c ci ;sz ., w A 177 T.1C l- ' . . "Tim word par." - v - I tie csjer told me. Vjf ' -"lif done more .,' '"ia diEire th3 any- 1 - thin? else in any G.riStliadEioe 1 5-sxne. Is his broken ' ;he ctroTer's or the sveraje seller's spirit, tstm:ed his cre-sms and ' spoiled a 0k3 p-soi of his pleasure. It has even tarrle-d cp the nerres of lie stirs- And it really mens n ethics at alL average player, the maii that make cp the game. An Illustration "Here's an example. The average golfer walks to the hi- iee, en a hole, where he sees par fo'jr hoscrlO'ed cn the card. Ee knows he can't get home m two strokes, Ee is heater before he starts. Ee takes a six and his whole rotmol is srciled. "On that same hole Snead, Nelson, Nel-son, Ho?an and others are home with a drive and a six or seven iron. On a 50-yard hole, a hard par five : for many players, they are home with a drive and an Iron. 'The point is 'that the great mssi of golfers are playing against cer-i cer-i tain fixed figures set for the few ' stars. Tnese figures are far out of I reach, where the SO per cent are concerned. Y'et they keep cn battling bat-tling against impossible situations. "Did you ever hear of par in football? foot-ball? Or baseball? Or tennis? Or boxing? Bill Tiicen never had any par at which to shoot He was just out to beat his opponent The Mental Snitch "Golf,1 Major Jones continued, "should be a game for fun or recreation recrea-tion and exercise. It should have no other purpose for the millions who play it The contest should never be against any par, but against your opponent or your opponents. oppo-nents. Suppose you take a six on the first hole? What difference does that make if your opponent takes a seven, and you win it? 'Take the case of the 95, or the 100 or the 110 shooters. They face 18 holes, each hole marked its set par. So in the main they are fac-j fac-j tag 18 objectives that are largely beyond their ability. As a result, they finish with tangled nerves and low morale. They have missed most of the fun which the game should bring them. "In my opinion, there should be no par figures planted on any hole, or on any score card. This would help to bring about the mental switch needed, to bring more fun back to the game. They could then go out and battle with their opponents, oppo-nents, with the wind and the sand, with the rough and the ponds, with no mocking ghosts of par following them around the course." Craig Wood, Open champion, backs up this viewpoint What Is Par? "What is par, anyway?" Wood asked me. "I've seen Jimmy Thomson Thom-son get home with a drive and a six iron on a hole 540 yards in length. So far as distance goes, tht hole is an easy par four for a Thomson, Thom-son, a Snead or other big hitters. But it is a tough par five for the 90 per' cent. Or take that eighth hole at Oakmont. It is around 265 yards, labeled a par three. That's the target the average golfer faces. It doesn't make sense. "So let's all forget about par, a figure that means nothing to the expert and makes the great majority major-ity miserable. Let's bring back the fun and recreation that belong to golf, including the six or seven-mile tramp in the open which older men now need. Let's make it a game of player against player and not a game against the score card." To all of which your correspondent correspond-ent subscribes 100 per cent, with the backing of some 2,000,000 or more hackers, who have been harassed har-assed by this will-o'-the-wisp from a midnight swamp. Nothing is more heartbreaking to the average duffer than his battle against a cold, inflexible par. He can't hope to match it all he can do is play and perhaps swear. New Prizes Miami recently came back to join Los Angeles in another type of modern mod-ern golf. The first two prizes were a pound of coffee and two pounds of sugar. Big entry list Why not? We may have a world series where the winners and losers may split 60-40 60-40 for a few barrels of turnips and cabbage. Even spinach. The main idea is to keep the ball rolling, whatever the prize ahead. Why not put In Whirlaway and Al-sab Al-sab for a ton of hay? |