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Show I SPORTLIGHT , Narrow Fairways Stymie Champs I : By GRANTLAND RICE 1 DUDLEY ROBERTS AND Bill Kent, two Easthampton golfers, golf-ers, arranged an 18-hole exhibition recently that I had wanted to see for a long time. It was the slugger against nature the big hitter against the hazards of water, sand and wind. It was a matter of power vs. control. The four men in the tour of Maidstone were Sammy Snead, P. G. A. champion, Cary Mid-dlecoff, Mid-dlecoff, Open Champion, Lloyd Mangnira, ex-Open champion, and Skip Alexander. These four had been shooting from 64 to 68 on much longer I I courses than Maid-stone, Maid-stone, which is only 6,400 yards. But at the finish their range in scoring scor-ing was from 70 to 76, and only one of the four equalled par, Snead had a 75 and Middlecoff a 76. (With a'nor- at Maidstone, which, as the years roll in, is an added feature. Each year the hills get higher. "Maidstone is a pretty narrow target," Sammy Snead said. "You can't turn loose like you can on those big fairways. And the greens are pretty small." Why not? Most greens are much too big. Putting is much too important. im-portant. Putting where a stooping gentleman of 75 might outputt Sammy Sam-my Snead. For the true test I believe In narrow fairways, smaller greens and shorter marches. The Snead - Middlecoff - Mang-rnm-AIexander show proved 1 was right. Control is more important im-portant than uncontrolled power. pow-er. There should be a serious penalty for every shot off-line. The Rules of Golf Golf happens to be a game, quite an ancient game, that has far more players than baseball and football combined. The number runs into several millions. It is a playing game, not a spectator's game. But in recent years, the rules of the game have slipped badly under poor control. The original rules of the game, being an outdoor competition com-petition covering some 200 or 300 or 400 acres, was that the ball be played where you found it without any caressing or lifting. Recently I was following a match with two ex-presidents of the U. S. G. A. They were John Jackson, Jack-son, an eminent lawyer, and Archie Ar-chie Reid, whose father was one of the six men who formed the Apple Tree gang at St. Andrews, Yonk-ers, Yonk-ers, in 1892. This was a match-play round. The sun was shining the sky was blue. As each player came to a green he promptly picked up his ball marked it and stuck the ball in his pocket. "Why?" asked messrs. Jackson and Reid, who know more of the spirit and purpose of golf than most of the players. "The ball is not supposed to be touched," Archie Reid said. "If it were raining and muddy and a special rule were made for the day, that would be different. Under the rules of golf, they have no right to lift the ball and clean it." Mr. Jackson concurred. Both were 100 per cent right. I should like to know why the presidents of the U. S. G. A. and the P. G. A. permit this drift. A ; mal wind they urantland Kice , . would have been two or three strokes higher.) It so happens that Maidstone is a links not a course. A links is a course by a sea or an ocean. No trees are involved. The only hazards haz-ards are winds, sand dunes and sea grass. Maidstone looks more like Scotland than St. Andrews does. It has more dunes and more water and more sand. If this be treason to Scotland, let Scotland come to Maidstone. Johnny Kieran, the sage, once a 76 shooter in golf, gave up the game years ago. "I would never have quit golf," he told me recently, re-cently, "if I had seen this links." The point is that Maidstone was too narrow, too well-trapped for Snead and Middlecoff, the two champions. At so many other courses around the country, Snead and Middlecoff, two of the greatest, could wander 40 yards off line and have a good lie. Not at Maidstone, where each wavering waver-ing or off-line shot exacted its penalty. You are in sand or sea grass or some form of seaside sea-side trouble. The greens at Maidstone are small and the fairways narrow. This is my idea of a great course. I don't care for the big greens and the wide, spreading fairways, now so much in vogue. Maidstone, at 6,400 yards, is much tougher than most courses at 6,900 or 7,000 yards. There are no hills to climb |