| OCR Text |
Show li Ml I; -r HI . J ' ........ ... ., I THE OGDEN STANDARD, ' H I Golf Ideal Exercise for Man When Age Is Upon Him I II ifSSte TRAVER5 I nb PRANCI5 OUIMET If 1 J. &fi bH9HMH BY J. B. SHERIDAN. MANY middle-aged men attribute tholr good health, the recovery of part ot their youtli to golf, doctors recommend goif for exercise for patients over -JO. Baseball and boxing box-ing up to so, tennis up to 40, golf after 0 Is tho way an eminent physician ! . tabulates tho exercise of man. ' I have watched them all try their ; ravorlto exercises for thirty-five years. ; I remember the track athletics of lre-- lre-- land and England, excellent forms cf txerclso but. for young men, tho cricket, football and baseball, parallel and horizontal bars, pulleys, chest weights and tho complete 'equipment of tuo 'American gymnasium of twentymo twenty-mo years ago. boxing, walking and ' tho rest 1 have taken part in and I "link, have played more games with asonable exportnew than any man 1 have known. Yet If I were a boy paln 1 would pay eteat at(cntlon tQ Ihreo forms of sport: Track athletics, Wrestling and calisthenics. " I wanted to bo a professional ithlote, I would, of course, take up taeoball. It pays best. Boxing I would t leuch. Not In ar.y May Is It a good Jr hcnellclal exercise. As a youth I fcould practice running, Jumping and Mlsthonlcs. Later on. In my early 20s I would take up wrestling and practlco ; it a httio evory day so long ns l was able to roll over. I Ot all exorcises that I have known ! wrestling does more to keep a man , ung and strong. A wrestler Is in I "la compel! tlvo prime at 40. Jlo Is good ;j t0 w,n bouts until ho Is Go. Wrestlers, aa a ruJo live to bo very old men. nk Gotch. greatest of all, was the exception. Gotch contracted an illness that destroyed his kidneys and j no died in his prime, 42. Benefits from Golf. However, golf 18 a good game for tho ' nan ho has got along In years without with-out having takon much exercise or who ; has never taKen any exercise. I have Known many business and prpfcsslonal men who havo acquired great benefits from golf. For tho dlnlnjr room hero. 1 , the man who has lived well, golf is a ; "nc exercise. For tho semi-Invalid, the ; roan wbo ha been ill and who is not crong enough to lake part In the more violent sorts of ?ports, golf Is a sploa-; sploa-; dd Pastime. it gets men of thece flajeca out in tho open air, induces tlit-m to walk, and there you arc. Golf ; tor most men means walking and tosh air. That's all. If they could bo Induced to walk flv-3 or six miles across country at a four or five mlle-an-hour gait they would get. In one hour, much nore oxerclsa than I hey can yet Jn four hours at golf. Of course they say that that little white ball does pet a man's mind off his .troubles. Maybe It doc-s. But I know that from tho time a man starts his clghteen-hole match until ho JinlehcB It he walks about GOOD yards or about threo and one-half miles. That is not very fast waging. Nor docs ho hold himself togothcr as ho walks it. He flops all over the place. Nor does ho breathe deeply. He should, though, if ho Is to benefit from his vvalk. On the whole, a man glve3 flvo hours to a same of golf. He must leave his clllcc, go to the golf links, change clothes, wait until preceding players get off and out of range and then if ho plays clghtcon holes, and no lcs.s is worth tho trouble ho goes to, will take him throe hours to make tho round of the Hnkc. Then ho must change clothes again and go home. It will cost him fiom $1 to S5 to do all this. Considering that, to get any benefit out of golf, a man must play at least four days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and that his gamo costs him anywhero from $1 to $0, not counting club fcc3, golf is. I bubmlt, a rich man's gamo or tho gamo of a man to whom tlmo has no valuo. Golf, I have found, is a thief of time. Few men who wcro getting along ir. business can afford to give their entire en-tire afternoons to golf. Men who aro In receipt of salaries less than will find golf too cxpenslvo for their indulgence. The Cost Itemized. When a. man proposes to' play golf decently he must have a motor car, $1000; club membership, ?250; club duc3 (annual), 550; assessments (occasional). ?S0; caddlo ' bags and clubs, $30; play 100 days a year, balls, caddie fees, clubs, reralrs, etc., ?230; entertainment. ?200; clothes, laundry, locker, etc., $100; totrl, ?20y0. After the first year tho motor car will bo still on hand and useful, ilany men would own a car cvon If they nevor played golf. But without tho car and without membership In a swell club, wo havo shown that It will coat a man $1000 a year to play golf at a decent llttlo club four days a week. Which puts the gamo In the "war baby" class as fur as tho vast majority 01 Amorlcans aro concerned, Of course, there arc public courses kept up by tho cities whereon a man or woman may play golf without charge. Some of these courses are excellent. ex-cellent. They aro much used by womon and by professional men such as doctors doc-tors and Judges during tho week. Business Busi-ness men crowd to them on Saturday nflornoons and Sundays. On these pub lic links a man may play golf for very little, about the cost of a ball and tho wear and tear oh his gear. Many careful care-ful players rarely loso a ball. They do not hit It far enough to lose it and aro particular to be on tho courao. They do not have caddies. Thoy carry their own clubs. I must say that I novcr havo had any fancy for golf; of this sort I do not like to play on crowded links. Nor to carry my own clubs. Nor to "sparo" my shots that I may not loso a ball. Nor to wait for puttering persons to too off. muddlo through tho green and fiddle around the hole. When you havo to carry your own clubs golf Is work, labor, slavery. Yoi. if you omploy a caddy, you must pay him SO cents an hour for threo hours, lose a ball or two, $1 more, and hand the boy a tip of 15 cents. Thus even on tho free public links your gamo of golf will cost you, say Carrying Your Own Gear. Add your lunch and maybo the lunch of a friend or one or two or threo friends, and whero aro you? Supposs you play thirty-six holes, as all proper golfers should play on Sunday? That's at least ?2 for caddy hire alone. Which makes golf cxpenslvo exercise. I nguro It out this way: I can put in forty-live minutes at tennis and got more exercise than I would in four hours of golf. Tho tennis court is next door. I do not need a motor car to got there. I can chango clothes In my own house. I can return from work at G P. m., play .three sets of tennis and bo dressed for dinner at 0:15. Coat, practically prac-tically nil. Tennis club duos are 50 cents a month. Loss of balls is almost nil. Exercise, best in tho world, save wregtllng. . When I found that forty-five minutes on tho handball court or on tho tennis court or on tho broad highway gavo mo much better physical results than five hours given to golf I could not seo where golf came in. Forty-fivo minutes' fast walking, head up, shouldors back, chest out and belt In, followed by ten minutes' calisthenics and doop breathing, will benefit any man much more than five hours given to golf. Wrestling the Eeal Thing. If I had It all to do over again, instead in-stead of worrying my soul trying to get out nine or ten men to play baseball base-ball and eleven men to play football, rushing to distant Jinks to play golr or to distant courts to play tennis or to far away rivers to go canoolng, l would glvo half an hour to wrestling on the top floor of the downtown athletic ath-letic club, five minutes to swimming In Its pool and ten minutes In tho morning morn-ing to calisthenics four or tlvo days a . wqok. On Sundays I'd rest at l ome or take a motor ride or maybo flsh a blu That's what I'd do. I'd havo saved a- lot of money and lot of tlmo and gained a Jot of strengtl if I had dono these things wrestled swam a bit and took calisthenics. Tho; aro all that a man needs to k;p h perfect condition. Swimming i3 no necessary to health, but it comes li nicely after exercise and a man sboulc bo at homo in tho water as on land This he cannot be without consLin practice. The young man will play bascbal and football at great wasto of energj to himself. That is all right. I lovee to play baseball and football when J was a boy. Tho games are worth while to tho youtli. Thoy do not cost him much tlmo or much money. Swimming is fine, too, fine In tho rivers. So is canoeing. I know few better ways of passing a vacation than a canoe trip. Fishing is line, too; great for tho nerves. Shooting game, also. I havo follOWPfl tho Afmr nr.,1 V. ,.. ,i . v.v... uiw uiu ijuui; lor many a year and I hope to shoot duck and quail to the last winter of my life. I becomo fonder of shooting over)' yoar. I never did caro much for fishing, but I believe I could enjoy It now. 1 have not Ilshcd for thirty years, since I was a boy, but I am going to wet a lino again this fall. I boxed a great deal. I am sorry for that. Teeth are all gone. Neglect, of course. Boxing started It. Bad for the teolh and oyes. Also the nose. I never wrestled. For that I am vory sorry. Dr. Woods Hutchinson, who writes modlcine so Interesting, ilrst enlightened en-lightened mo as to tho value of wrcst-Mng wrcst-Mng as a Juvenescent. Proved his argument ar-gument up to the hilt. Said wrestling was the greatest exercise to Keep a young man, because it was massfigo of tho stomach, veins and arteries. That Js Incontrovertible I added to that through my knowledge of professional wrestlers. I knew them from Old Man Baptlsto, who will bo 100 years old on November o'. to Karl Caddock, tho now-est now-est champion. I have novcr known a wrostlcr to act or to look old. Old (Man Baptlsto, who resides In St. Louis, Is young at 100. Ho walks flvo miles a day. his hair is black, his teoth arc good, his grip is of steel. .We attends at-tends to his business ovory day. HIa son, George, a middleweight champion wrestler up to ten years tgo, is, 53 years old. George Baptlsto could bo a champion today if It wcro worth hl3 while. Farmer Burns was GO a rew days ago. He can tear a man of 25. apart today. Jack Carkeek, iluldoon, Luttbog, Bothncr and scores of other wrestlers, all in the 50s, aro still at it and aro young and strong as tho uver-ago uver-ago man of 30. John C. Moyers of St. Louis, GTi, a wrestler, looks 40. (Jotch won his world's championship when ho was around ?S. Most athlotos aro considered con-sidered old and superannuated at as. Gotch was In the llrst lluah -f his iiime at that age. 6 WALTER J. TRAVI5 I must admit that I was much takon with golf at first sight. I got llrst glimpso of tho game in 1S0C when I saw Jim and Dave Foulls, then with tho Chicago Golf Club of Whcaton, Play an exhibition. It was pretty hitting, hit-ting, though tho Foulls boys aro not Jong drivers. They wero playing a short courso In tho rain and did not try for long shots. I liked the way tho ball flew. That day I bought a set of clubs from Jim Foulls for $0. Similar clubs would cost $25 now. Golfers woro using tho old solid gutta porcha ball then. Tho man who EOt 10 yards right along was considered a good driver. Two 200 and 223 yards woro only for tho big professionals., Now raw amateurs drive 225 yards with tho elastic rubber ball. A clcek shot that yielded 1C0 yards was a wonder, a mldlron brought 1-10 yards, a maslilo '20 yards. I havo known all the great golfers of America. They all obey tho fundamental funda-mental rules of golf. Travis, whoso victories in many American and in ono British amatour championship, must be rated tho greatest of American golfers, though' Travcrs, Evans, Oulmot me probbaly much better players than Travis ever was. Still tho "grand old man of golf," as Travis is known, has boen a wonderful player. Ho is along in tho COs now and was over 40 when he began to play tho Scotch game. His triumph in tho faco of great opposition, a great field and English disfavor the British wero not oven polito to Travis when ho won their amateur champion-chip champion-chip mark him as tho greatest Amor-Jean Amor-Jean golfer. Dexterous of Hand. Ho is. I think, tho only foreigner that over won tho British amateur golf championship. Ar(naud Massoy, a professional, pro-fessional, did win- tho open championship. champion-ship. If I do not make -i mistake. Travfa u-as not a taking player. He was a short hitter, kept In the course and was a deadly man whon ho got closo to the hole. Travis was a peculiarly light-handed, neat, deft 3ort of a man, something of tho slolght-of-band artist Jn his speed of finger motion and manual man-ual dextority, such a man, I think, as Prince Ranjlslnghl, the famous East Indian rajah; wio was such a brilliant cricketer a decade ago. Since I saw Travis play golf I havo always fancied that some Oriental, an East Indian or Japanese, would some day becomo tho champion golfer of golfers, Tho Orientals Ori-entals aro notoriously dexterous of hand and eye. t Travcrs was a great young golfer, a hugo hitter, a grand man with his irons and a flno putter in streaks. Often I ihlnk that ho Js, to date, the most strenuous stren-uous of American golfers. He could hie them a mile, recover, do overythlns when on his gamo. He loved llfo and lived fast, then gave It all up and went to hard work. Ho was a dashing, romantic ro-mantic figure In golf. A Brilliant Victory. Tho greatest coup do main, as tae French say, tho greatest single stroko ever made in golf, was made by Francis Fran-cis Oulmet of Boston when ho beat iha great English professionals, Vardon and Ray, for tho open championship at Brookllno in 1013 aftor tho three had played to a tic. Oulmot was only a boy, 22. Vardon and Bay wcro mature men. They had many British championships cham-pionships to tholr credit. Oulmet came from behind and beat both in tho most exciting match ever played on a golf course. The victory of tho American boy was akin to what tho dofeat of Germany and Austria by Belgium would havo been. Boforo the battlo Oulmot' chonco was considered to bo about an good as tho chanco Belgium was glvoa to whip Gormany in the opinion of military ox- ' portsv Tho betting should havo boon 20 to 1 that Oulmot would not win. But he won in most dramatic and brillianv j fashion. It was tho Dettlngen of golf, I K tho Scotch game's "most glorious vie- 'M tory." IR Chick Evans of Chicago is considered ! JB by many to be tho most brilliant golfer jj that America has dovelopcd. Evans has 1j beaten tho best professionals Jn na- ij tlonal and local championships. Vory 118 probably ho is tho best golfer in Amerl- ca today. Evans and Oulmet were poor boys, acting as caddies around Chicago fill and Boston. Travcrs, Oulmet, Evans III and Chandler Egan are probably the iln only young Americans who havo becomo ft ! golfers of the very first rank. Exports lJ have held that Evans has not the fight in him that a first-class golfer should ; have, but In recent years ho has out- Mw shono all competitors. Ho plays a great )f, doal more golf than any of his com- ' I n1 peers, and Oulmet, Travcrs and Egan fljll have given themselves moro and moro Mn to business and less and less to golf. jjfj$ Travcrs has aged and cannot stand ' B tho long, hard tournaments as ho did Jill twenty years ago. But no won a Brit- ' j Ish amatour championship, which. In JH itself, was almost as great a feat as . Oulmcfs triumph over Vardon and Ray U In the national American open cham- I. m I pionshlp. Which fact makes Travis, an ;B Australian by birth, America's greatest I'm golfer. 'jif Chandler Egan was a real champion. &l He won tho national amateur twlco In lf succession (1004-05) and tho Western amateur on Innumerablo occasions. Ho if jf was tho first young man to becomo IJj prominent in American golf. To his '$ tlmo tho champions, with tho oxception of Louis James, who scored a fluklsh B victory in tho national amateur In 1902, B woro middle-aged men, unless Flndlay II Douglas, born In Scotland, who won In Mi 1S9S, could bo accounted a young man. m&. Douglas learned tho gamo In Scotland. fjh. Since Egan's day, 1005. only young men havo won tho national amateur cham- siRu pionshlp savo In 1011, when Harold Hll- ton, tho middle-aged, many-laureled Sjlfjj Briton, won at Apawamls. 8a The greatest golfer, of course, Is Harry Vardon, who has averaged fours Bill Si year in and year out for thousands of j i holes played on thousands of courses. 11119 Vardon is now along in the early 50s. i He was born in the Island of Jersey In ffll fl tho English Channel and is of French 111 Hi descent flul Boys Moving TJp to Front. Willio Andorson, Scotch bred, was 11(11 probably the greatest of American pro- ilfiffl fessionals who have been domiciled In SP1 America. Anderson, now dead, won llfil Iho national open, championship four times, 1001-03-0-1-05. Two of Ar.der- 'fifSil son's championships wcro won af'.er he lilifl had tied llrst with Alex. Smith, a great golfer, and second with David Brown. llllfl Tho boys havo taken tho honors away piftll from the older men in golf. Travis, III! II id Ebon Byors, John M. Ward and W. c! i ll H Fowncs aro tho only vetoran3 who have IH 111 kept up with tho youngsters, in this 1111 111 regard it is a young man's game, yot III ill tho only young man now starring in iSIIH golf is Chick Evans. " if Golf I3 a good gamo for the reasons I havo set forth. It helps older men ill I to got some outdoor exercise that thoy ill III might not take otherwise. It is too I'll II I cxpenslvo in timo and money for the 1 11! I avcrago man to do moro than dub f H II around two afternoons a week. I nevor il l could seo any pleasure in dybblng 111 around. Tho fact that tho young- men i Hill give It up and go to work proves that 'Hill it is not adapted to hustling younff . jj J Americans. '1(9 III I would advlso every boy who hat ' athlotlo ambitions, and every young Jill HI man should bo ambitious to play a ''HI HI good gamo of somo sort, to keep up 'ill! I his end on the tennis court, tho Dllllord 14 table, the swimming pool, etc., to pos- I 111 H sess tho accomplishments of a gentle- ml Ifl man, to learn golf, and above all to llHlil read It. It is by all means tho best ill I written of all games. It is part of the 11 1 education of a gentleman to read up li IllH on golf. Reading golf will teach him inlllfl a lot about other games on which. Jjq ll 1 W will find ljttlo literature I I |
