Show eel f 0 0 1 7 released by western newspaper union EORGE ade once wrote high G GEORGE east winds always prevail in the locker rooms those east winds are still blowing as gustily as ever I 1 carrying the s same a m e old arguments one of thera how would the golfers of 20 years ago mac smith walter hagen J jim im barnes jock hut chison johnny farroll farrell gene T tommy ammy armour harry cooper bobby cruickshank willie macfarlane byron nelson and others score it if they were play i ing ng tournament golf today the record books will show you that 20 years ago a golfer could win almost any tournament by shooting par golf the united states open at oakland hills in 1924 was won by cyril walker with of 74 74 74 75 bobby jones finished second with a total of 74 73 75 78 when the united states open was again held at oakland hills in 1937 10 golfers finished under walkers winning score of 1924 four others tied it and ralph guldahl won th the e title with strokes modern golf the masters tournament of 1942 highlighted the near perfection of of modern golf at the halfway mark of 36 holes ben hogan was eight strokes behind byron nelson in the old days a man that far off the pace settled for also ran money but not diminutive ben he burned up the stretch with phenomenal golf to wind up in a tie with nelson at eight strokes better than par the two men went into the playoff one of the greatest nerve shat in sport usually athletes in play offs are expected to crack a bit to yield to the overwhelming pressure they tighten up but nelson and rogan hogan reversed the usual form they played the toughest course coarse in the united states in beautiful totals hogan scored a two under par 70 nelson fired a 69 to win the title this mean that hogan and nelson were necessarily superior to the golfers of a score of years ago scores were impossible 20 years ago the modern golfer benefits from the many improvements that help produce low scores these advantages include steel shafted clubs a longer ball the dynamiter and infinitely better fairways and greens the dynamiter or blaster saves the average professional players a few strokes on nearly every round good golfers have lost their fear of traps they lay the ball near the p pin in i from almost any kind of a trapped tie lie one difference the old timers putted on hard greens their speed was no more constant than new england weather fairways after a dry spell were baked to a hard tough rough surface golfer plays on well watered soft greens fairways are well kept and smooth the rough is controlled many of the men who made golf popular in this country would sneer at the suggestion that jones hagen mac smith and the others could not have scored as low as the modern players they honestly believe that not more than two or three of players would have had the ghost of a chance in national competition 20 years gene ago golf they feel has been simplified to such an extent that it the test of skill it once was we straddle the fence on the entire question it is our belief that the best of the old timers if they were at the peak of their form today would be as good as the best of the modern players and we also believe that the present day top botchers not chers would have been topnotch ers 20 years ago golf is more than a matter of clubs balls and course condition two of the qualities most necessary to reach the top are determination and concentration these were the possessions of many old timers the individual still counts most mo s t byron nelson ben I 1 logan hogan jug mc are the same kind of play ers as hagen jones and |