Bulletin of the Green Section 
of the U. S. Golf Association

Vol. II 

Washington, D. C., February 16, 1922 

No. 2

SUPPLEMENT
The Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the 
Green Section, Chicago, January 14, 1922.

The morning meeting in the Drake Hotel was called to order at 10 
o’clock by the appointed Chairman, Mr. W. A. Alexander. Mr. A. J. 
Hood was elected as secretary of the meeting.

Mr. Alexander : As you are all aware, that is the day that the United States 
Golf Association meets for its selection of officers at its annual meeting wmcn 
takes place tonight at nine o’clock in the main room downstairs.

This meeting is primarily and actually the- Greens Section of the United 
States Golf Association. This past year has shown a wonderful progress for 
the Greens Section. The conception of it was a wonderful thing.

In the past we have looked upon the United States Golf Association as the 
power to make rules, to cond ammaments, and to pass upon the different 
questions pertaining to rules and the sport end of the game. The present, 
or last year’s officials—some of them will not be present this year—conceived 
the splendid idea of giving something more vital to the association than that, 
and when you come to think that there is two hundred and fifty millions of 
money at least, at a reasonable estimate, invested in golf courses in this country, 
and probably fifty or a hundred men that have actually promoted that great 
investment, given their time, and any scientific knowledge to the expending of 
that amount of money for the economies and upkeep of golf courses.

If you or I were to run our offices the way golf courses have been run on 
the average, we would go to the wall. This Greens Section, in my judgment, 
having about 400 members out of the 600 golf members of the association, has 
rendered a service to golf the first year that cannot be overestimated. Please 
remember that it has been done right out of the clear sky, without any experi­
ence, and these men who have devoted their time, without salary or without 
any pay for their trouble, industriously and intelligently, have started, in my 
judgment, a movement that will be more valuable to golf in this country than 
anything that our good association has done since it was bom. I hope that 
you will give the Greens Section this coming year—all of you delegates that 
are here and all of you that are interested in the grand old game—your very 
best thought and service, and remember that these men are working for you. 
If this game is to be kept up then you have got to give the physical part of 
it the first attention, because if you don’t do it, you won’t have the grand old 
game of golf, and that’s what we are here for.

It is useless to have a roll call for the delegates present—there are not very 
many of the Greens Committee proper present—we know who of the Greens 
Committee are present, but we don’t know, of course, the delegates, and the 
only way to do it is to ask them please to arise one at a time and each to give 
his name and the club he represents.*

Mr. Alexander: The next thing, gentlemen, is to introduce to you the man 
who has had charge of the affairs of the United States Golf Association—the 
head of the association for the last year, and for seven years on the committee, 
first as secretary, then vice-president and president, respectively. This gen-
* Thirty-one delegates, representing as many clubs, were present, and in 

addition 120 visitors, making the total attendance 151. 

50 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Vol. n, No. 2

tieman has given his whole-hearted time to the game, without stint, and those 
of you who have been present at the tournaments all over the country know 
how well he has succeeded and how well he has served you. This gentleman 
passes out this evening, and is to be succeeded by another man, and I want to 
say to you that the man who succeeds him will have a pattern set that will give 
him all he can do. I know because I have witnessed him in action for seven 
years, and I take pleasure in introducing to those who do not know hint, Mr. 
Howard F. Whitney.

Mr. Whitney: Mr. Chairman and Delegates of the annual meeting of the 
Greens Section of the United States Golf Association, I first want to thank Mr. 
Alexander; it is worth the seven years’ work that I have had in this associa­
tion to have the little compliments he has just paid me now. I often thought 
that there, is more gratitude in working .for the game of golf than anything 
else I have ever worked for in my' life. I have made, through the medium of 
golf, the acquaintances of gentlemen I now number among my most intimate 
friends, and I want to say to you that no matter how much you do for the 
game, it will do more for you in the end.

It has been a pleasure to serve in the seven years that I have been with 
the United States Golf Association, and all the men I have worked with have 
all given their best for the best interest and welfare of this game, and there is 
nothing that has been as fine for the golfers of this country as the Greens 
Section. The golfing people of the country owe a debt of gratitude to Messrs. 
Piper, Marshall and Oakley, and others too numerous to mention, for what they 
have done in organizing this Greens Section as a central distributing plant and 
circulating library as one might say, for the benefit of golfers, aside from the 
saving of monev affected through this information on golf courses.

The fact that this year the association has gained 57 clubs and. 6 more, 
aggregating a total of 63 dubs, which has passed every record during the seven 
years that I have been .an officer of the association stands for itself. The largest 
previous number we had in any year has been 17. I think that is directly 
traceable to the Greens Section more than anything else. Now, I have a couple 
of more effusions to get off my chest during the day, and I don’t want to get 
speakers’ cramp.

According to the provisions in the by-laws of this association, the Presi­
dent of the United States Golf Association names and appoints twelve members 
of the Greens Section. After the Secretary has read these names, I would like 
to have Mr. Byers, who is going to succeed me as President, make a few re­
marks for two or three reasons—one is, I think it is good training—I think he 
will feel easier tonight if he begins here.

Secretary: The following members of the Green Committee of the U. S. 

G. A. have been appointed:

C. V. Piper, Washington, D. C., Chairman.
Dr. R. A. Oakley, Washington, D. C., Vice-Chairman.
E. J. Marshall, Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio, Vice-Chairman.
Dr. Thomas P. Hinman, Druid Hills Golf Club, Atlanta, Ga.
James L. Taylor, Ekwanok County Club, Manchester, Vt.
W. D. Vanderpool, Morris County Golf Club, New Jersey.
W. A. Alexander, Old Elm Club, Ft. Sheridan, Ill.
N. Stuart Campbell, Agawan Hunt Club, Providence, R. I.
Frederic C. Hood, Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Mich.
Dr. Walter S. Harban, Columbia Country Club, Washington, D. C.
Norman Macbeth, Wilshire Country Club, Los Angeles, Calif.
Alan D. Wilson, Merion Country Club, Haverford, Pa.
Mr. Alexander: Gentlemen, when I saw Charlie McDonald win the first 
championship at Newport thirty years ago, about, I thought when I got to 
Buffalo that I wouldn t see another golfer until I went back to New York or 
some place m the east again; in other words, I had no idea there were any 
golfers west of Buffalo. Gradually the seat of empire has wended its way 
westwardly, but it is principally through the efforts of Silas Strawn, that red­
headed old warrior, whom we all love, and by the cooperation and reasonableness 
of many of our splendid eastern officers of the United States Golf Association, 
that we got the association to recognize the west by permitting Chicago to hold 
its first meeting. I was present, and I want to say that I enjoyed it.

February i6,1922] UNITED .STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION

51

Since that time, from year to year, every once in a while some western 
man was able to show our eastern friends that he could play golf, whether it 
was at Nassau, the National, or Morristown, or wherever it was, we have always 
had for the last eight or ten years, and a little longer, somebody who made a 
good showing. This is not intended, Mr. Whitney and you good men who come 
from farther east, as anything but a comparison; in other words, we have dis­
covered that it is not confined to any one section. It is not confined to any class 
of men—rich nor poor. It is confined to men who can play the game, whether 
it be in the architecture, in the physical construction, in the moral atmosphere, 
or whatever it may be—the man who can play the game and play it straight— 
who is a good sport and willing to give and take, and this year we have the 
evidence that it is progressing westward, because we are going to have for our 
President next year a western man, if the line begins at Pittsburgh; a man who 
has served assiduously and industriously and conscientiously for five years on 
the committee; two years as Vice-President, who knows the game (it runs in 
the blood of his family, as you all know) 'and he has the business ability that 
this association is going to need more and more each year to take eare and 
handle the affairs that come before this association, and they are manifold, as 
you all know. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. J. F. Byers.

Mb. Bybbs: Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to see such an out- 
turning for this meeting of the Greens Section. It must be a great source of 
satisfaction to Mr. Whitney, as the retiring head of the United States Golf 
Association, to have accomplished this great feat of bringing into life the 
Greens Section of the Golf Association. To my mind, it is the greatest achieve­
ment that the association has ever made, and one that will, in an economic and 
scientific way, do more for the game than anything that has ever been attempted. 
I don’t know whether many of you know the early history of the start of the 
Greens Section.

In\ 1915, I think it was, Mr. Piper, Mr. Woodward and Mr. Vanderpool 
went to Washington with the idea of interesting the Department of Agriculture 
in this endeavor. They met with a rather rude reception, and it was most dis­
couraging, but through the efforts of Mr. Piper, they at that time started a 
Greens Nursery, which slowly developed and gradually they came to the point 
where they were able to interest the Department of Agriculture in this great 
move. I would like to say that great credit is due Dr. Walter Harban, ex-Vice- 
President of the association, who has worked very closely with Mr. Piper.

In February, 1920, the United States Golf Association passed a resolution 
bringing this branch of the association into existence, and I do not think anyone 
can estimate the great value of it. When we are ill, as we are sometimes, we 
need a doctor. In the past when a golf course had gone bad, or we were trying 
to start a new one, we have not had a doctor—we have gone on experimenting. 
It has been estimated that annually the golf clubs spend about twenty-five mil­
lions in the maintenance and upkeep of their courses. Of that amount it has been 
figured that one-third at least has been wasted, for the reason that we didn’t 
have a doctor. Gentlemen, we have a doctor now, and a good one, and I think 
that the money saved and the results that will be attained in the future will be 
so astounding that the development of the game—it has grown very rapidly in 
the past—will come in leaps and bounds with the assistance of this Greens 
Section.

It has been the great desire of this association to bring all parts of the 
country together; to have uniformity; to bring the East, West, North and South 
in closer accord, and also in closer accord with Great Britain. I feel that this 
movement is going to be of great assistance in that line. We have different 
climatic conditions in the various sections of the country. These gentlemen are 
scientific and have studied the soils and climates in all parts of the country, 
and in that way I believe we will come closer together than we have ever been 
before.

Mr. Alexander spoke of Pittsburgh and questioned whether it was east or 
west. I feel that we are both. We are members of the 'Western Association and 
the National Association, and I think Pittsburgh is very happily situated. I 
don’t think there is anything more to say, except that I do wish to say that the 
golfers of the country owe a debt to Mr. Oakley, Mr. Piper, Mr. Marshall, Dr. 
Harban and Mr. Whitney.

Ms. Alexandee: Now, gentlemen, we have reached the B. T. point—Brass 

52 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.ii, No. 2

Tacks. Here’s a man sitting on my left that is the most important figure in this 
section at this moment, because you are all, or many of you, ready to ask him 
questions; your questions pertaining to your own club and your own interests, and 
he will be able to answer your questions. The Greens Section has probably done 
more for this game, and put the association further ahead than anything else. 
Men like Dr. Harban and Mr. Piper I hope will live to see the fruit it will 
bear, and if they live two years they will have more fruit than they can gather. 
These gentlemen are scientific men; they are not only physicians, but they are 
surgeons. They understand what they are doing, and they are working for 
you and for me and for this game, without money and without, price, giving all 
the time that is necessary to put the Greens Section where it belongs, and I 
make the prophecy here and now that in ten years from now, and maybe in 
less time, the great old game of golf will be relieved of the terrible stigma of 
being called “a rich man’s game,” and when that time comes you will find that 
the Greens Section of the United States Golf Association has accomplished that 
feat. If it does nothing but reduce the cost of construction and upkeep to such 
a point that your clerk and my clerk and the boy who can’t afford to spend 
the money that we have, can play golf when he wants to, and brings it down to 
what you might call “a poor man’s game” where he can play with as little 
cost as possible and keep its dignity as an amateur sport, and keep it clean, 
and if that can be accomplished, we will be rid of the stigma (and I think I used 
the word understandingly) that it is a “rich man’s game.”

I am ashamed of the money that I have in golf courses today, and to think 
that we cannot do the thing without spending $100,000. I am going to say that 
the association is going to find it out, and begin at the bottom and build up, and 
not at the top building down. We are going to evolve so rapidly it will astound 
you. We have today an association that will give you the information, and 
these men deserve your encouragement, and I hope that every one of you men, 
if you know of a club with a little nine-hole course anywhere that has not be­
come a member of this association (at a cost of $15.00, and it ought to be 
$100.00) that you will see that it joins and put its shoulders to the wheel.

I take pleasure in introducing Mr. C. V. Piper, Chairman of the Greens 

Section.

Mr. Piper: I would rather talk to you than read this annual report, but this 
is a business matter, so I will have to read the annual report so you may know 
what we have been doing, and as a member of Congress once said, see “where 
we are at.”

(Reads Annual Report of the Greens Section, published in full in the Janu­

ary Bulletin.)

Mr. Alexander: Gentlemen, the Chairman of the Greens Section made ref­
erence to the very man that should have access'to the Bulletin and all the 
information that the Greens Section can give, and nine cases out of ten never 
sees. It is not so in my case in any of the clubs I belong to, and there are many. 
And right here I want to pay tribute to that class of men who began straggling 
over here 25 years ago—young striplings from Scotland, from England and 
from Australia—awkward, long-legged, long-necked, sleepy-looking young fellows 
that when you looked at them you said, “Now, that’s a fellow I don’t know 
whether I even want to sit in the train with him or not”; in about a week 
you were sleeping with him. The golf professional, good and bad, has been 
one of the best friends we have ever had, and if it hadn’t been for him and the 
enthusiasm that he put in us, we wouldn’t be here today.

Again, the green-keeper. The man that you elect your chairman and put 
in charge of your greens, and take him out of his office, his bank, or his pro­
fession and he selects a green-keeper, but the chairman goes to Europe, or he 
goes to his business; every time he sees his green-keeper he tells him he can’t 
do this or that, and doesn’t tell him anything that he can do. The one serious 
trouble about this whole thing is that it is anybody’s business—it is anybodv’s 
business and nobody’s, and that’s the reason it is never a concentrated effort— 
each year brings new officers, and when the new administration comes in, out 
goes the old bunch; the green-keeper, everybody lauds his efforts up to the first 
of June, and by September everybody’s cursing him. You have got to select 
your men as you would select a private secretary, or treasurer in your office, 
and put him where he has an opportunity to learn and serve you, and then co­
operate with you.

February io, Im] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

53

I can remember when we built golf courses—I built one when I had never 
heard of such a thing as a golf architect, and I thought it was one of the best 
on the earth, and it was, by the way. Walter Egan played there; it made 
Chandler Egan, and did a lot for golf.

But the golf architect has come to stay. He says, “I have got to have 
so much money and so many men, and then I will do so much for you,” and 
when he gets through he has given you a wonderful golf course, and it costs 
$100,000.00, and he has seen that your fairways, your greens, your ^traps and 
everything are just as they should be, just as you would take a business, firm 
or corporation, and he comes back next year and he finds that on the day he 
left your course began to go down; you spent $100,000 and it began to disinte­
grate the day he left you. If you are going to run a golf course like that you 
will never have a good golf course.

When you get a good green-keeper, keep him; when you get a good mower, 
or tractor, or seed, or anything from seed to a tractor, keep it. Utilize the 
information that you have got, and keep -what you have, and don’t waste the 
millions that have been wasted on golf courses any more—and that’s what this 
Greens Section is going to help you do.

We have golf architects in this country—there are one or two here today, 
who are giving us the best that is in them and you should listen to what they 
have to say, and when you get through with them and they leave you, you should 
remember what they say and get your money’s worth out of it. I can’t em­
phasize it any more emphatically than to say, if it’s worth building a course 
at a great expense, it is your business to see that it is kept up afterward. For 
example, I will give you one little point. I have friends, one sitting in front of 
me right now, who say to me, “Mr. Alexander, to maintain your putting-greens 
pour the seed into them.” In talking it over yesterday with Mr. Piper, he 
agreed with me that 99% per cent of the seed you put on a putting-green is 
wasted and lost. Two hundred thousand dollars is wasted for putting-green 
seed alone in this country every year. That’s just one little speck of the infor­
mation that the Greens Section will be able to give at all times. The time is 
near when we will have men going from one course to another, just as a sales 
agent calls all over the country and attends to the jobbing houses. We will 
go to your golf course and check up with you on the progress that you are 
making, without price, except your yearly dues, and you will have a steward 
that will be of more value to you than any green-keeper you have ever had, that 
will come from this association, and the economies that will evolve out of it 
cannot be estimated.

The next thing in order will be questions that the delegates or any of the 
men present wish to ask the Chairman of the Greens Section—the buffer—.the 
man who knows and the man who will tell you to the best of his knowledge, is 
here to answer any questions you have to put to him, unless there is some other 
business on your minds that you would like to speak of in connection with 
this meeting.

QUESTIONS OF DELEGATES

Mr. Northrup: I represent the Evanston Golf Club, and was surprised not 
to hear the Chicago District included in the names on Mr. Piper’s report— 
possibly the reason for Chicago not being in the report is that they are not 
down yet.

Mr. Alexander: It is fair to say, Mr. Northrup, that Mr. Piper wrote me 
last fall, just as the season closed—too late to organize the Chicago Section of 
the Greens Section of the United States Golf Association, and I so wrote him 
that it was too late to organize then.

Mr. Northrup: I would have been glad to hear the name Chicago.
Mr. Alexander: We will have it; it will be organized this spring, and I 
promise you it will be a live one. We are not going to sit around and lose 
the opportunity that is before us; and.it is partly my fault—I was very busy, 
and did not feel very well, and for that reason I did not tackle it.

Mr. Northrup: Chicago generally leads in most things, and for that rea­

son I thought we ought to be on the map.

Mr. Piper: It was sleepy old Philadelphia that led in the movement this 

time.

54 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Vol. n, so. 2

Me. Alexanee: The next thing in order, gentlemen, is this notice: “Tickets 
for the dinner at seven tonight may be procured in Room 18, mezzanine floor. 
All delegates are requested to secure their tickets after the Greens Section 
meeting. The committee cordially invites all members of golf clubs belonging 
to the association to be present at this dinner.”

Gentlemen, you are not only to ask questions of the chairman, but if you 
have anything to offer in the way of discoveries you have made that are for the 
good of the game or the upkeep of the course, whether you are a professional, 
delegate, president or keeper of greens of a club, we will thank you to give 
them to us.

Mb. Northrup: I have a few questions; one is, how would you prepare 

a fairway for seeding?

Mr. Piper: What kind of soil have you got?
Mr. Northrup: I am speakipg of almost any kind of soil; my idea is, would 
you plow deeply or shallow, or would you disc and not plow at all, and would 
you plant your seed very shortly after you plowed, or would you work up your 
soil for, say, several months before seeding?

Mr. Piper: It makes a whole lot of difference as to the kind of soil; if 
you have pasture land I would not do any plowing. Ordinarily in preparing 
land for growing good turf you want to plow the land. There is no advantage 
in plowing over 5 or 6 inches—there is nothing to deep plowing. Then that 
should be harrowed over thoroughly; for you want to get a fine, well settled, 
firm seed bed; then seed—a slight rolling would do no harm. It makes a 
whole lot of difference as to your soil; if you have poor soil, you should use 
fertilizer.

Mr. Northrup: In certain soils it seems to me it is a good idea to plow 

and cultivate and recultivate for some little time before seeding.

Mr. Piper: That’s always desirable.
Me. Northrup: In other words, it is not a good idea to put your seed in 

after you plow. How would you prevent the ground from cracking?

Me. Piper: The ideal way to do that is to get your soil in a condition that 
it is a light or sandy loam and it won’t crack. A heavy clay or gumbo will 
crack in spite of anything.

Mr. NorTheup: The weather was rather dry on our course and it cracked 
very severely, much to the discomfort of our members. I covered it with an 
inch of sand in the playing season and that kept the moisture and that was 
there nearly a month and then when it rained it was washed in and our grass 
came right up fresh and nice.

Mr. Pipee: Plowing in with sand or fertilizer is good. At the Grosse Isle 
course they plowed in 4 inches of cinders. Any material that will break up 
the stiffness of clay will be good.

Mr. Northrup: Do you think the fairway should be played while over­
hauling; do you think it is possible to prepare the fairway and play at the 
same time?

Mr. Piper: You can improve your fairway by top-dressing methods, which 

is very satisfactory and does not interfere seriously with play.

Mr. Northrup: We had a good many complaints from our members that 

they could not get as good scores.

Mr. Piper: You will never get away from complaints of members.
Mr. Noethrup: Do you advocate the cutting of greens short in hot weather?
MR. Piper: Keep it short at all times; there is rarely danger of injuring 
the roots. You can avoid such danger by having your fairway grass an inch 
high and that’s about as short as you can have it and play the course.

Me. Noethrup: We were cutting our course just as short as we could, and 

our grass was green and some of the other courses were considerably burned.

Mr. Piper: The sun alone doesn’t hurt the roots.
Mr. Northrup: Do you advocate a rolling machine after the mower—a 

heavy roller in connection with the mowing machine?

Mr. Piper: The problem of rollers is a complex one, and the attitude we 
take depends on the character of the soil. On heavy clay soil you can overdo 
rolling—when you get a soil that puddles and bakes you have a very bad soil. 
On the lighter soils it is almost impossible to overdo rolling. The weight of a 
heavy roller per square foot is not anything like as much as people imagine.

February is, 19221 UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

55

On nutting greens that are kept moist the use of heavy rollers as they formerly 
used them to keep it flat is very injurious to the grass. That s where the idea 
came about that heavy rolling is injurious, and it is, under such conditions, the 
wetness of greens in low spots is due to lack of drainage.

Mr. Northrup: We have investigated and tested our seed pretty thoroughly 
(claimed to be 90 per cent pure) and we find that a good deal of clover is in 
it. I wonder if you have any idea Where it comes from?

Mr. Piper: I think if they abandoned this pavement outside for a few years 
clover would grow on it. Clover seeds are in every foot of soil, and'it rarely 
comes in grass seed unless you buy mixed grass seed. Clover springs up—the 
old saying is, “wherever the white man’s foot touches.”

Mr Nobthrup: What are your ideas about inoculating the soil where you 
get your seed; don’t you believe seed does better where native grown than 
bringing it from the east?

Mr. Piper: There are some cases where a change of seed does give ad­
vantages, and there are other cases where it gives none. So far as grass is 
concerned, we do not know of any evidence pointing to advantage in changing 
seed; where you have peculiar climatic conditions there may be; otherwise there 
is apparently no advantage whatever.

Mr. Northrup: I have one matter that may interest you. In 1920 I got 

from England 100 pounds of Creeping Bent.
Mr. Piper: From whom did you get it?
Mr. Northrup: It was brought over by our professional. I prepared about 
four acres of ground, seeded in the spring of 1920, and I have just completed 
harvesting this year’s crop, and I have about 2,000 pounds from this 100 pounds. 
I am rather interested because I got a price of ?150 per 100 pounds the other 
day for Creeping Bent.

Mr. Piper: Ninety per cent of the seed that you have got out of that crop 
is Rhode Island Bent. Rhode Island makes up about 60 per cent of the Ger­
man Seed Bent.

Mr. Alexander: I want to see you later about that last matter you men­

tioned, Mr. Northrup.

Delegate: I would like to ask what you consider the best method of water­
ing putting-greens; don’t you think a thorough soaking whenever necessary is 
the right thing?

Mr. Piper: A thorough soaking whenever necessary is the right thing; con­

tinual light sprinkling is not.

Delegate: We have a running creek and we have dragged that creek— 

have you any suggestions to get rid of the weeds?

Mr. Piper: The usual way to get rid of ordinary weeds is hard labor— 
mostly hand labor. I don’t see any short-cut to get rid of them. How fast does 
the creek flow?

Delegate: It rises and falls.
Mb. Piper: You can kill the vegetation by running crude oil down the creek. 

Some poisons will do the same—oil is the cheapest.

Delegate: This is still running in the warm weather. Would it do me 
any good to put in a series of small dams; I mean simply a number of boards 
8 or 10 inches wide at intervals on the bottom?

Mb. Piper: Where are the weeds?
Delegate: On the bottom; we play across this creek and they bother us in 

finding the balls that are lost there.

Mr. Piper: Do you lose them in the mud or weeds?
Delegate: In the weeds.
Mr. Piper: A very cheap way to kill the weeds is by spraying with ar­
senite of soda—it is fully explained in one of the Bulletins—spraying it twice 
a season will kill all these tops.

Delegate: I would like to ask how many clubs in this vicinity are mem­
bers of this Greens Committee; has any effort been made to get the members 
in this district to join?

Mr. Alexander: We have about 15 to 18 out of 45.
Delegate: If we are going to have any benefit from a district Greens Sec­

tion we should not wait for spring; you said we were going to in the spring.

Mr. Alexander: We will start it right away; we have got it lined up 

56

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE (Vo1.ii,no.s

already; we have some of the men selected. I have already asked a man to be 
chairman of that committee; he is here today.

Delegate: Would yarrow make a good substitute for grass?
Mr. Piper: In the East we have two very distinct varieties of yarrow. The 
European yarrow does not make good turf, while a native one does make 
exceptionally fine turf. It is, however, subject to a disease in the East that 
injures it very badly. One of the greens at Pine Valley is half yarrow turf. 
I would not go to any particular effort to get a yarrow green.

Delegate: In 1907 at the National we were attacked by pearlwort and dur­
ing one year we spent ?5,000 trying to exterminate it In 1911 we made a wonder­
ful putting surface with yarrow. I thought being so much expense involved 
keeping and cultivating grasses, if we could get a substitute for grass we could 
cut out a lot of expense.

Mb. Piper: Mr. Macdonald told me he was going to quit fighting pearlwort, 

but I urged him to continue as he was certainly gaining on the weed.

Delegate: The yarrow did a lot to kill it.
Mb. Piper: It would do no harm to use the good yarrow, by planting plugs 

of it through the greens.

Delegate: We had a condition at--------------  this year we never saw be­
fore. In the hot weather a small moth appeared on the greens and laid its 
eggs on a blade of grass and a worm developed like a June beetle, only smaller, 
and grew to the size of a 3-penny nail and killed the grass, and we tried a num­
ber of things.

Mr. Piper: There are quite a number of caterpillars that injure turf (some 
years worse than others); spray with Paris Green. They feed on the leaves and 
it will get them. 

•

Delegate: We did that and it didn’t work. It didn’t strike the roots. It 
wasn’t the army worn, it was something like the June beetle—it was a moth 
and laid its eggs on the grass.

Mr. Piper: I can’t understand why Paris Green didn’t get them.
Delegate: We used Paris Green, Bordeaux, Corrosive Sublimate, and others.
Mr. Piper: When you have any troubles or experiences of this kind, send 
specimens of the insect to us. Unless we know what the insect is, it is dif­
ficult to advise. 

.

Delegate : In Philadelphia we had trouble with the grub and we used Sodium 
Cyanide and it killed the grubs and everything else. We used it on the fair­
ways and greens.

Mr. Piper: The exact proportion used at Merion I have forgotten, but 
it killed the grub worms over large areas. The grass on the putting-greens’ 
was injured slightly, but not on the fairways. Later it all recovered.

Delegate: Our greens were burnt a little, but in a week recovered.
Delegate: To what extent do you advocate treating the greens for earth­

worms? I thought it was overdone in some cases.

MR. Piper: Whenever the worms are troublesome, go after them; worms 
are all right, but you don’t want them on the putting-greens. Sometimes even 
on the fairways the whole top of the ground is covered with their casts. This 
last year at Washington the worms worked very early in the spring and didn’t 
work again until late in the fall.

Delegate: Don’t you think the encouragement of bird life will solve the 

problem?

Mr. Piper: Encourage the birds by all means. The robin is the best bird 

to eat worms.

Delegate: Is the use of weed raking devices injurious? I wrote in and 
was referred to Mr. Taylor and never received any reply. His daughter wrote 
that he was sick and would reply as soon as he was well.

Mr. Piper: I saw one course in California that is using a weed rake very 
successfully. The rake is built much like a steel comb. In connection with it 
the green is first disked each way to cut off runners and then the raking follows. 
We have hopes that special weed rakes will do much to lessen the cost of weeding.
Senator Brooks: One question that was asked a few moments ago was in 
regard to rolling of the fairway and cracking soil in hot weather. Our course 
has some soil which is very heavy, lumpy and almost borders on the gumbo, and 
we had a great deal of trouble with soil baking and cracking. On the higher

February i6, Isas] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

57

places on rolling ground, these ridges would be particularly dry and hard and 
brittle.

This last summer we performed some experiments. We have not had time 
to determine what the results will be, and will tell better in the spring. We built 
a roller about 30 inches in diameter and about 6 feet long in sections, so that these 
sections were on a shaft in the center and they were flexible. We make the 
roller by placing a cylinder-of sheet iron on its end on the floor, and the sheet 
iron was perforated on the outside with holes, and then we would take the lower 
course of holes, and take about a 20-penny nail and put the nails through the 
holes in the sheet iron, and then pour in a section of cement and the nails would 
protrude about 1% inches; then we would pour another section. We went over 
the ground and spike rolled these places and immediately you could see that in­
stead of the ground being very hard and brittle, the surface was broken up. 
Then we would top dress, and before cold weather came that spot was doing 
very nicely, and was apparently going to produce a great improvement on the 
fairway.

In some sections T ran the roller once over; others twice, and over bad 
places three times. We took some photographs. When we got through with our 
brittle ground of the nature very close to gumbo it was all soft and nice and 
you could play off that ground as well as you could on the fairway which was 
not in that condition.

Mr. Piper: This work of Mr. Brooks is very important. He has favored us 
with a full report of his experiments up to date; It is one of those cases where 
we need two years’ results before reaching definite conclusion.

In his experiments there were parts not treated, so he has an exact check 
on what the treating with the roller accomplished. Practically it amounts to 
what harrowing does. _ This whole problem of spiking, forking, and harrowing is 
a very involved question. You will all recall the old spiked roller that was on 
the market six or seven years ago. I don’t know any club that has continued 
its use.

It is highly important in trying out any methods of this kind always to 
leave a piece of untreated ground as a check on your experiment. If you perfo­
rate one piece of turf and leave another untreated, you can determine what the 
perforating accomplishes.

Senator Brooks: I did that. Another thing: We had an experience with 
fescue. We took a disc harrow and cut both ways and powdered that soil and 
then top-dressed, and in two years we had a wonderful piece of turf.

Mr Alexander: Mr. Hibbard asked a question about fungus or brown spot. 
I saw one of his greens go to pieces in about fifteen minutes as the sun came 
up one morning. From some experiments of our I prophesy that by next year 
we will have a remedy that will cure it.

Mr. Piper: In regard to the brown-patch, a lot of theories have been ad­
vanced. The disease works mainly during the hot, muggy weather of sum­
mer. The fungus spreads and makes circles; first small ones 2 to 3 inches in 
diameter, and in a day or two a foot in diameter. Early in the summer morn­
ings you may see a little mildew around these circles—the outer rim of grass 
will be of a smoky color. We know the fungus that causes the disease. It 
lives over winter in the shape of a little black body, which cannot be killed with­
out killing the grass. The only method, therefore, of stopping this damage is 
not curative, but preventive. We found that by keeping the grass constantly 
sprayed with Bordeaux mixture from about June 20th through the season, the 
fungus is kept from becoming active. That’s rather expensive, and we have been 
searching for a cheaper remedy. We have tried out some 30 or 40 chemicals; 
most of them are out of the question—one or two have possibilities. We treated 
one area with some salt of soda—it happened to be a commercial soap powder— 
it killed the grass tops absolutely about the first of August; in about a week it 
recovered and the patch was never again hit by the brown-patch that season. 
We suspect that if you get your soil strongly alkaline you may prevent brown 
spot:?. It is largely a theory as yet. We will do a lot of experimenting this 
season, testing out 40 to 50 alkaline salts; some of them doubtless will kill the 
grass completely. We are seeking some method of treating brown spot less 
expensive than Bordeaux.

Much to my amazement we found this fall that on the putting-greens in 
Florida and Louisiana even the redtop and Italian rye grasses were attacked 

58

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.ii,No.s

by a disease, apparently the same as brown patch. It has appeared down there 
only in the last few years, and it makes their problem of winter greens difficult, 
brown-patch, I think, is the most pressing of all turf problems.

Delegate: Do you think sweeping the grass early in the morning helps.
Mb. Ph®: No. If you could keep the dew off your grass; if it is dry in 
the daytime and you keep your umbrella over it in the night, you are not likely 
to have brown patch. The fungus works mostly at night when the grass is wet 
with dew. 

Pktroatk- Could you tell me at what intervals they use the Bordeaux, 

’ 

'

starting June 20?

Mb. Piper: We tried all kinds of intervals. The main thing is to keep 
your grass protected all the time. You will have to . use Bordeaux after every 
watering and after every heavy rain. During dry weather you can let it go 
for a couple of days, but the idea is to keep your grass protected all the time.

Delegate: The Greens Committee did a lot of good by suggesting.to the 
various dubs a division of responsibility among green-keepers; Brown will take 
the first six greens, Smith the next, and so on. Can additional sheets or copies 
of the Bulletin be sent to each man on each Green Committee? As it is now 
the green-keeper and chairman each gets his, and the chairman usually don’t 
like to let it get out of his possession.

Mb. Pipes: Any member can get additional copies for $2.00 per year. The 

only way others can get it is by subscribing. 

’ ’

।1

MB. Styx: We have a deep well, and the water is alkali; at Ravisloe, Home­
wood. With an alkali water, I don’t see how we can get the acid green which 
I understand i§. the proper condition for the greens fbr the fescues and bents. 
I saw the work that was done at St. Louis Country Club and I have a scheme 
that I wanted to ask you about. Does sub-irrigation work as well for watering 
the greens as the sprinkling? 

Mb. Piper: My present' judgment is that sub-irrigation isn’t worth its 
cost; I understand that in St. Louis their opinions are still up in the air about it.
Mb. Styx: This Scheme of mine is very different from the St. Louis one. 
The water is brought in by the pipes down below the frost line to the porus 
tile and the water will come up; you can regulate it by the flow, and then the 
water is withdrawn again from the ground by a syphon as soon as it reaches 
the height of your water table, and the tile through which the water would go 
would be a double section of tiles, so that the tiles could not fill up.

Mb. Pipes: It is very interesting, but I haven’t a bit of confidence in these 
sub-irrigation schemes. The soil is a pretty complex mass of material, and to 
try to regulate the drainage of the soil artificially may lead you into some seri­
ous soil trouble; I am rather skeptical about it.

Mb. Styx: This summer our old greens were very bad and covered with 

worm casts; the newer greens were good and there were no worm casts.

Mb. Piper: In regard to the acid-alkali question, the subject is pretty com­
plex. There are certain plants that will grow in a wide range of acid and 
alkali »>ils-—white clover is an example. The Bents and Fescues grow very good 
in acid soils, and that’s the advantage of acid soil in a putting green. Some 
years ago we tried to find some short cuts to get soils made acid. I put it up 
to a soil expert. He said: “We have always been trying to do the other thing— 
to get them neutral or alkaline.” He thought it would be no trouble to get 
them acid quickly. But in his experiment he found that if he made a soil 
acid it would after about three months go right back to where it was, as it is 
the tendency of every soil to go back to its natural condition of acidity or 
alkalinity.

Much of the use of lime is senseless. Lime used to be the cure-all. We were 
unable to get any results out of lime at all. I won’t say that is always the case, 
but it usually is. Dr. Harban was formerly a very strong advocate of lime. I 
finally induced him to leave half of a green without any lime to compare with the 
other half. Since that time he has not used a pound of lime. In other words, 
he conducted an experiment, and, guided by the results, he quit using it. There 
may be conditions in which the use of lime is desirable, but I have not seen 
them, especially for the bents and fescues. Even bluegrass does not show any 
such responsiveness as has been imagined.

Delegate: Do you think in the vicinity of New York about the 20th of 

June is the time to start using Bordeaux for brown patch?

February w, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

59

Mr Piper: Yes, -when the hot, muggy weather starts, then keep using it 

to prevent brown patch.

Delegate: How often?
Mr. Piper: Keep it protected at all times; if it is dry weather two or three 
times a week is plenty; if it is rainy it has to be done very frequently. After a 
rain you have to use Bordeaux again; it is a matter of continual protection; 
brown patch works mighty rapidly.

Delegate: Do you spray better with power sprayers than by hand?
Mr. Piper: Power sprayers work very rapidly, and one should use power 

sprayers where much spraying is to be done.

Mr. Barrett: I am a little bit with Mr. Alexander on this old devil, H. C. 
L.; as Chairman of the Greens Committee I get the devil when I ask for an 
appropriation—I am the original robber. We are about as pleasant as a skunk 
at a Sunday school picnic.

Take the ordinary maintenance account of the greens of the average club, 
and this will run about $15,000 a year; most of us exceed it. Put the appro­
priation at $15,000; 20 to 25 per cent is used for cutting this healthy grass— 
not, taking care of the diseases. The average course is cut about two or 
three times a week. The cost of cutting the course for six or seven months is 
approximately $3,500, or 20 to 25 per cent of the greens expenditures.

We have at the present time mowers of different varieties and types that 
were constructed many years back by wonderful mechanics and when there was 
anything the matter with it, they told you that the team of horses that you 
used went at too great a speed and wore it out, and you should have only one 
horse. If you used only one horse he asks you how fast it. goes, not as fast as 
you can run any way, he don’t walk 3^4 miles an hour and rest 10 minutes every 
hour; he tells you it must run about 3 miles an hour.

This is the same article that’s being sold to our club, put behind or in front 
of a tractor that can boast of a speed of 12 miles an hour. The consequence is, 
at the beginning of the season we pay $500 for a triplex mower and we buy 
that extra unit—$100 or $150—so it won't wear out so fast, and then you go 
along to the middle of September and get those complaints—“Why isn’t that ma­
chine overhauled; I am afraid it’s all gone.” Then we investigate in our way 
and we find that this mower has just chewed itself to pieces. I don’t pick on 
the salesmen; they are instructed from headquarters and go out and tell the 
people they don’t know the business.

I have four men who have been with us six or seven years and have driven 
teams. One of them is a graduate and because he owned a Ford car the last 
few years, we put him on the mower.

They say this triplex only needs oiling once a month; I want to assure you 
that the man oils it every hour, because he has to get off every hour and let 
the engine cook He oils it every hour. The consequence is that we are spend­
ing today on oil alone quite a sum; we are buying two or three sets of extras 
and at the end of the season today we haven’t anything. We used to keep 
mowers going for two or three years with the proper care and replacing of 
parts that were needed, and today we cafi’t get a set of mowers to last, and 
I have used two or three different makes. They all go to pieces in the one sea­
son. We used to make a machine last three years with $40 or $50 spent for 
repairs.

I think plenty of you will agree with me that we can get no satisfaction 
from the manufacturers of mowers today to make a mower costing $1,000 instead 
of $500. I am perfectly willing to pay $1,000 for one every three years instead 
of buying the $500 ones that last only one year. We all know the mowers can­
not run at any such speed as the old Ford wagon that delivers the groceries. 
They are merely a common casting; they may call them malleable, but they are 
just a casting; they are not tool steel, and won’t stand the friction.

It is possible for this organization to bring pressure upon the manufac­
turers to make a mower with a proper oiling system that will do this work, and 
when we do take proper care of it, will at least be economical so you won t 
have to go before your board every year and ask for another thousand for this 
or that. We ought to get our organization to do what they can to take care 
..
of this. 
Salesman: I will try to refrain from any business connections so that it 

.. 

, 

60

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Vol. n. No. r

will not be from the standpoint of a salesman, but we have heard that story 
from quite a few people.

There is one firm and they have on exhibition here their artide today, and 
they have a motor which they will guarantee will do just what that man wants 
it to do. ' It is not a triplex motor. They are not intended to go 3 or 4 miles 
an hour; they will travel most economically between 6 and 8 miles an hour, and 
will run for three years without repairs of any consequence; they will not cost 
$1,000 a set; they will cost $650 for five mowers, or $750 for five mowers with 
their attachments. It can be pushed or pulled.

Delegate: How many units does it operate in?
Salesman: Five units. We have found the pushing method more sat­
isfactory on a golf course in cutting around the corners and much more simple 
for the driver, and. for that reason they have be«n made either to pull or push.

The oiling of these motors is not left to the green-keeper or his assistant as 
the others were; in that there are pockets that win carry at least two weeks’ 
supply of oil that are self-feeding, and, in addition to that on the gearing end of 
it, they run in an oil-tight gear ease, and one feeding or filling at the begin­
ning of the year should carry the motor through the year without any addi­
tional feeding, and I think that is just such a mower as this gentleman wants. 
Practically au the other motors have been cased in a bronze or cast iron bush­
ing and the adjustments of the motor come against that bearing. This motor 
is encased in a grease-tight housing. The mowers will last him three years 
as he asks, and any man who knows the Timken roller bearing will appreciate 
it. The machine can be seen down in the lobby.

Mb. Alexander: You understand, of course, that the gentleman that has 
just spoken- is forgiven, but you must understand that this committee cannot 
recommend any type of machinery or appliances, except if you write in to the 
chairman he will give you the experience in writing and confidentially. I would 
guess he has the experience of this Greens Section on any tool or implement 
that is used for the construction or upkeep of a golf course. You can easily 
see that it would not do to speak for any article that is on the market in competi­
tion with others; it would not be fair, and in the future bear that in mind, please.
I want to say it is the same old story of not taking care of what you 
have. I am connected with one dub in which we have two men whom we keep 
all winter at $5.00 a day and they are busy every day of this winter putting 
everything from a monkey wrench to the tractor in order, and everything in 
connection with the upkeep in the way of machinery and tools they are held 
responsible for, and they see that they are in order, and I will guarantee we will 
take any machine and run it more than one, two or three years, because we 
take care of it all the time; it is painted or greased, or whatever is necessary.
And that is another thing we are going to develop, just as our friend who 
could hardly talk at all has said, it is just as much the province of this com- 
mitee to evolve an improved machine that will take care of our greens—that 
will last—as it is to evolve a grass or get rid of fungus.

Delegate: The brown patch always comes after a thunderstorm.
Mb. Piper: It comes after any rainfall or dampness.
Mb. Ling: I wanted to say, Mr. Alexander, it is a matter of record that 
your club m the past four years has bought two units for your trixplex machines, 
of which you have two.

Delegate: How are they drawn?
Mb. Alexander: Tractor.
Mr. Ling: Skokie hasn’t bought any in the last 5 years.

is a matter of personal preference. Two men can
x , 
take two automobiles; one will wear it out in a couple of months, and the other 
will make it last ten years.

Mk- Barrett: We did all that you told about, and maybe more, too, but I 
don t want to dig into this subject to create a demand that the Tnan nfact nrer 
do certain things. . I took this up with some of our automotive engineers and 
discussed this bearing surface and had them at the club and showed them the 
actual conditions and asked them if they could suggest to me an oiling system 
that we could use on this machine and I would place them on the machine 
myself.

Mr. Piper: Your soil is a light sandy loam; on such a soil will not the 

machine wear out a lot faster.

February io, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

61

Mr. Barrett: I have taken these machines apart myself, and nobody puts 
anything over on me from the superintendent down. I can take apart a mower 
and I know what they look like, and there is no sand in the bearings, I assure 
you, Professor Piper. I allow that sand will wear out the knives.

Mr. Piper: I was speaking in reference to the farm tractors; a farm trac­
tor won’t last anything like as long on a light sandy soil as it will on clay; 
the sand gets into things.

Mr. Alexander.: Has anybody got anything else of value to give us?
Delegate: I would like to ask a question. Why are you compelled to use 
the spike roller instead of the old farmer’s disc;, can’t you accomplish the same 
thing with the farmer’s disc instead of the spike?

Mr. Piper: To a certain extent.
Mr. Brooks: Well, Mr. Chairman, if you had been up to the course where 
we made the>experiment last fall, we could have shown you. We took the disc 
harrow and filled the knifes just as sharp as they could be made, and then we 
put them as nearly vertical as we could get them and had very good results 
where the ground was comparatively dry. In passing from one of these places 
to another you go through a hollow where the moisture was retained and the 
disc would tear and mutilate the grass. We then took a garden harrow and 
we first had it very nearly vertical and then we dropped it down as near hori­
zontal as we could go, and had exactly the same result as we had with the 
disc. We then gave up the disc and the garden harrow and tried the puncture 
proposition, and even the puncture proposition we had to do some experimenting 
with. We found when the spikes were a bit long on the dry greens they worked 
perfectly, and in the hollow they would pick up pieces of sod and stick on the 
roller. We then put a series of slats in between the spikes so as to shorten 
them, and it worked all right.

Mr. Alexander: Before we go any further, I want to announce the meet­

ing at three, and what is to be done at that meeting.

Mr. Piper: At the afternoon meeting there are to be 13 members of the 
Greens Committee elected by the delegates present. There will be lantern slide 
illustrations and a description of the Skokie golf course by Mr. Ling, and then 
we will have more time to talk.

Mr. Ling: With reference to these landscape slides you called me up 
about a week ago. It was necessary to run around and pick up little kodak 
pictures, and I fear they may be disappointing.

Mr. Alexander: While Mr. Ling is on his feet, he has a suggestion to create 
a new motive power to push along this organization. Mr. Ling, I would like to 
hear from you on that subject.

Mr. Ling: I presume you are overestimating the value of the suggestion. 
Up at Skokie we feel there is nothing done for our club that will compare with 
the Greens Section. We discuss each Bulletin and they are th*mb printed and 
soiled before we get through with them. 

I think that about every club represented has a neighboring municipal 
or public course, and we are trying to help them out. I think in doing that 
we are getting the public courses to feel that we are really interested in them. 
In Glencoe they are starting a municipal course, and we will give them every 
help we can. Our members go over there, and at a directors’ meeting last night 
the matter came up and I made the suggestion that we take a membership in 
the Greens Section for the Municipal Golf Club at Glencoe. I believe, if the 
Greens Section think it advisable, they should send out a letter to every mem­
ber club suggesting that it pick out some public course or some struggling course 
and donate a membership, and if they can’t, send in the name and let the com­
mittee donate that membership. That will double our membership and then by 
the end of next year we will have so many members we won’t know what to 
do with them all.

Delegate: Last year I promoted a club and got 25 or 30 boys interested 
and got the club going. As Mr. Ling says, why not help to promote the Municipal 
Golf Clubs? I have been trying to do everything I can with Mr.------- —
put some of these small courses on the map. We have been interested in join­
ing the United States Golf Association, and have been somewhat misled and 
have been led to believe that the cost is prohibitive. The dues were $5.00 last 
year; we had 45 members; we joined the Municipal Golf Association last year 
and gave $25.00 for it, and were given to understand that if want to join 

\

62 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.n.No.s

the Chicago District, and the United States Golf Association, and the Western, 
by the time we get through we would have nothing left. If you will enlighten 
me on this United States Golf Association, I will carry the message back to 
the members as far as Municipal Golf Club as concerned.

Mr. Alexander: I want to give.you a bit of information that will inter­
est you. The president or manager (I think he was the president) of a 
municipal golf course on the North Shore told me that his course at 50c a day 
week-days and $1.00 on Sundays, had taken in last year $40,000! Fifty cents a 
day! I said: “You must be mistaken.” He said: “Positively, no.” I said it 
would take 500 people a day if they had taken in $40,000. It costs 50 cents 
to play golf! Don’t get an idea you can’t have golf cheaply, for you can. 
This man also told me that Indianapolis has three public courses. Just think of 
it, a town of about 100,000! I prophesy that these 23,000 acres that we have 
here of forest preserve will in the near future be dotted with municipal courses— 
public courses.

Another statement about the cost of golf. You hear clubs say, “We haven’t 
made a cent.” I know a golf club that made $100,000 last year—it has it in 
bank—Olympia Fields.

Delegate: How did they make it?
Mr. Alexander: I don’t know; I was told by &n ardent member of the 
club; they have three courses built and are going to build another, and have 
about 1,000 members.

The whole expense of golf will have to eome down. The social end of golf 
doesn’t help golf itself any more than whiskey helps a man win a horse race. 
Let me tell you that that is the thing this Greens Section is going to do more 
than anything else; it is going to reduce the cost of golf, and if we assist these 
municipal courses (the suggestion is a splendid one) and can propagate the 
game among the men who can’t afford expensive golf, you are going to get 
out of that class of men some Of the greatest golfers that the country eVer saw.

(Meeting adjourned at 12:30 p. m.)

AFTERNOON SESSION (3 o’clock)

The session was called to order by Mr. W. A. Alexander, chairman of the 

meeting.
4.1.• Chairman Alexander: Gentlemen, the first business before the meeting 
this afternoon is the election of thirteen members of the Green Committee of the 
United States Golf Association.

I shall ask Mr. Piper, chairman of the Green Section, to outline first what 

he has in his mind in that regard.

Mr. Piper; Gentlemen, the number of members of the Green Committee 
is now fixed at twenty-five. Twelve of these are appointed by the United States 
Golf Association. Their naines were read this morning: Piper, Oakley, Marshall 
Hinman, Taylor, Vanderpool, Alexander, Campbell, Hood, Harban, Macbeth and 
Wilson. There are thirteen to be elected this afternoon by the delegates

Now, I pointed out this morning in my report the great importance of 
having a good geographical distribution of the members of the Green Com- 
mitte. It would be very unfortunate to have thirteen members elected from 
around Chicago—not that Chicago might not be entitled to them, but it would 
make it very much more difficult to do the work of the Green Committee. You 
see, it is entirely possible, in these annual meetings, when most of the dele­
gates are from the nearby region, and one who wanted to organize them 
politically could elect a whole lot of members. I am sure, however, that nobodv 
wants to do that. There are very likely to be some nominations, however for 
members of the Green Committee, by the delegates who are here assembled 
After those nominations are made, I would like to indicate a list of name* 
of men whom we know thoroughly, who are well scattered geographically and 
whom I think would be very desirable men to have on the Green Committee

I want to do that, however, without interfering unduly with the nominn 
tions that naturally will come from the delegates here assembled. I am per­
fectly frank about this, because we all want to have just as efficient a mm 
mittee, from every viewpoint, as we can possibly get.

Chairman Alexander: Now, gentlemen, nominations are in order for the 
additional thirteen, to those who have already been appointed by the United 

February ig, 10221 UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

63

States Golf Association. Are there any nominations from the delegates here 
present? The Chairman has outlined the fact that they have selected some 
whom they think are suited for your nominations, but that does not interfere 
with your making a nomination now for any man whom you feel you would 
like to see put on this committee, whether he be elected or not.

This Green Committee Section does not pretend to know everything that 
there is to know about the operation of this Green Section any more than it 
pretends to know everything about golf courses in general.

Mr. White: Mr. Chairman, would it be at all out of order tt> have the 
Chairman’s list first? If so, that might avoid some confusion, and be something 
of a guide to us.

Mr. Piper: The only difficulty would be, if I suggested thirteen names, and 
there were some nominations from the floor, and elections, naturally I would have 
to eliminate some names from the list, and I do not care to do that publicly.

Brooks, of Minnekahda. 

Mr. White: Then, Mr. Chairman, I now desire to nominate Mr. W. F.
t
Chairman Alexander: Gentlemen, you have heard the nomination of Mr. 
W. F. Brooks, of Minnekahda. Those in favor having Mr. Brooks serve upon 
this committee for the ensuing year signify by saying aye. Contrary,- if any, no. 
Mr. Brooks is elected.

Are there any further nominations?
Mr. Barrett: Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire whether every dele­
gate present has a vote, whether his club is a member of the Green Section, or not?

Chairman Alexander: He has.
Mr. Piper: Only the delegates, however.
Chairman Alexander: Only the delegates, yes. Are there any further 
nominations, gentlemen? The field is still open. Are there any further nomi­
nations?

Mr. Chasmar (Columbia): Mr. Chairman, if there are no further nomina­
tions from the floor, I move that the nominations be closed, and the list presented 
by Mr. Piper, or referred to him, be taken up.

(Motion seconded.)
Chairman Alexander: Mark you, fair warning, the last call! Are there 
. any further nominations? If not, it is moved and seconded that the list pre­
pared by Mr. Piper be taken up and voted upon. All in favor of that motion 
signify by saying aye. Contrary, if any, by no. The ayes have it, and it is so 
ordered.

Mr. Piper: The list that has been prepared is as follows:
C. B. Buxton, Dallas Country Club, Dallas, Texas, at present a member of 

the committee.

William C. Fownes, Jr., Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh, likewise a mem­

ber of the committee at the present time.

F. L. Woodward, Denver Country Club, Denver, Colorado, 'also a member 

of the committee at the present time. 

•'

A. H. Campbell, Toronto Golf Club, Toronto, Ontario, a member of the com­

mittee at the present time, and selected by the Canadian clubs.

A. J. Hood, Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan, at present a member of 

the committee.

ber of the committee.

W. R. Willett, Louisville Golf Club, Louisville, Kentucky, at present a mem­

Frank B. Barrett, Hollywood Golf Club, New Jersey.
A. C. U. Berry, Waverly Country Club, Portland, Oregon.
Sherrill Sherman, Yahnundasis Country Club.
L. C. Menager, Florida Country Club, Ortega, Florida.
W. C. Ferguson, Glen Echo Country Club, Normandy, Missouri.
W. F. Brooks, Minnekada Country Club, Minneapolis.
That completes the total of 13.
Chairman Alexander: Gentlemen, you have heard the schedule. I do 

not think there were thirteen names read, though; only twelve.

Mr. Piper: That is right.

. Chairman Alexander: Then there is room for one more man. Is there 

a nomination from the floor?

Mr. McCordic: Mr. Chairman, I desire to nominate Mr. Ling, of the Skokie 

Golf Club.

64 

BULLETIN OF BREEN SECTION OF THE [Vol. n, No. 2

yet

Me. Ling: I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, but I must decline with regrets. 

I have a big job on my hands this year at Skokie as it is.

However, it would give me pleasure at this time to nominate Mr. McCordic, 

of Indian Hill.

Chairman Alexander: Gentlemen, you understand the Green Section, with 
great pains, has selected these men, with a view to the geographical division of 
the country, so that the Green Section will be balanced. That is what it is 
after. You have every right in the world to interfere with this program if it 
is not satisfactory. 

Now, you have heard the nomination of Mr. A. E. McCordic, of the Indian 
Hill Club, now Chairman of the Grounds and Green Committee at Indian Hill. 
Those in favor of the election of the nominees to serve for the ensuing year will 
signify by saying aye. Opposed, no, if any, no. The ayes have it, and they are 
elected members of the Green Section for the ensuing year.

.

What is the date of the meet, the Open at Skokie, Mr. Ling?
Mr. Ling: We have not been notified yet.
Chairman Alexander: The exact date has not been set.
Mr. Ling: No. In fact, we have not been officially awarded the tournament 

Chairman Alexander: Well, you know you have it. The open tournament 
of the United States Golf Association will be held at the Skokie Country Club in 
July. Mr. Ling is Chairman of the Green and Grounds Committee there. There 
is one thing the United States Golf Association has always done that I am 
sure you approve of, and that is appropriate sufficient money and furnish suf­
ficient knowledge from whatever sources are available, to see that the course 
that is favored with the championship tournament has every advantage of 
preparation.

Mr. Ling has been asked to show some slides, and give us some information 
about his course, for the benefit of those present today; and he will probably 
do so again tonight, in order that all may be posted as to the suitability of 
the Skokie course for this great tournament. We are now to have the pleas­
ure of seeing those slides, and be favored with what Mr. Ling has to say about 
the course. He has Mr. Macintosh’s representative here, Mr. Bassett, io ex­
hibit the slides.

(Various views of the Skokie course were then exhibited, and explained by 

Mr. Ling, as follows:)

Mr. Ling: I guess you gentlemen were all heiv -nd heard what T said 
this morning, about having only a week’s time to prepare these slides. We 
had to run to the members and get little kodak pictures, which were not taken 
as they would have been if we had gone out and taken views to show the course 
in the way we would like to show it. Some of the people who took these pic­
tures fancied the trees; some of them preferred the barn; and some of them 
liked a particular big tree, and just took a picture of the special thing wanted, 
so that as far - as other things are concerned they may seem only incidental. 
It is also customary, as you know, in making slides to have the photograph 
retouched, because red takes black, and the sand takes white, and so un; so 
these are a little rough.

Of course, this , will be old stuff to a good many of you who live here in 
Chicago. We are one of the oldest clubs in the Chicago district. We were 
established twenty-four years ago. Mr. McCordic, whose name you just heard, 
was one of the founders of our club. It is twenty miles north of this hotel, 
about a mile from the lake, and about three-quarters of a mile from Sheridan 
Road—a wonderful drive out along our north shore for those who come to 
the tournament by automobile. It is in the village of Glencoe, one-half mile 
from the railroad station, or five short blocks, and four blocks from the Mil­
waukee Electric. From a transportation standpoint, we are very well located.

Here you see the entrance to the club grounds. The clubhouse is on a 
ridge, and the property slopes away to the Skokie marsh. We are what you 
might call a flat course, like most courses in this district, but we have sux- 
ficient rolling ground to make it very interesting, and make good golf.

The course was rebuilt by Donald Ross about eight years ago. He did 
not leave a hole in the fairway. It was all rebuilt. We threw all of the 
old cards into the deck, and dealt out new hands, and he did a very good job. 
But the new ball has come in, and we had to set the tees back, and change the"

February ig, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

65

pitch and in the last four years we have been doing a great deal of work to 
strengthen the course, and make the game more interesting.

The next view is one of the clubhouse. The clubhouse faces southwest. 
It is a flreproof building. We have a large locker space, three hundred and 
fifty lockers. The grill room is an entire floor, and there is no putting on of 
coats or changing of shoes or anything; which we believe will be very convenient 
in handling the tournament. ■

The next view is another of the clubhouse, back a little farther, showing 
our “ocean.” From the third tee to the fence which you see over there, it is at 
least two hundred yards. It looks like it was about ten feet on the slide. The 
chap here in the foreground you probably all know.- I just happened to recog­
nize him. He is Mr. Gates, President of the Western Golf Association, and one 
of our enthusiastic members.

Next is a view looking down the eighteenth fairway. You see the first 
green here. It looks very simple. It is about four hundred and forty yards. 
About thirty-five yards back from the green are pits, which you can not see. 
We have a good get-away hole.

The next slide shows the bunkers in the first fairway. This is the tenth 
fairway, and the eighteenth fairway. The tenth hole is four hundred and 
forty-two yards. There is some heavy trapping hereabouts. You see also 
our second hole. From the tee it is a hundred and fifty yards. We have another 
tee, back a hundred and ninety-five yards. That will be the tee used for the 
Open. There is heavy trapping in here. There is a piece of fairway between 
the two traps, about fifteen feet wide. There is only one place you go from 
this hole to hit the green, and from the 195-yard tee it takes a mighty good shot 
to carry the distance and stay on the green.

This next one shows the landscape coming up the ninth fairway, and shows 
what you get into when you slice your ball into the woods and the rough. This 
looks as though it was about thirty-five yards; it is a hundred and ninety yards 
from this tee to the green. We also have a tee in here you can not see. This 
comes up off to the left, and drops down about four feet, and then comes up 
to the green, sloping up. It looks very simple; it looks as even though Mr. 
Alexander could stand over here with a niblick, and make it. (Laughter.) But 
playing it, you will find it different.

I think the next slide shows another view of the same thing. It is an entirely 
different view. You would not think it was the same green, coming up this 
way. There is an enormous trap down here, and another one over here, and 
another one over here. This does not look very wide, but the green is a good 
liberal width for the shot. Our greens are not oversized. They require a little 
more accurate approaching than on many courses.

Next you see the tenth hole here, with a big trap, guarding the tenth green, 
in the woods to catch a sliced ball. This trap is two hundred and five yards 
from the tee.

Next is coming up the eighteenth fairway, and down the tenth fairway.
Next you see the eleventh hole, 458 yards. You come right down through 
the woods. A good tee shot?—that is, a professional tee shot—will bring you 
right up where you want to go. The green is above the fairway there, with 
a big, heavy trap in front of it, and a trap on either side, and is not a very 
large green for the length of the second shot. The distance there is about 
240 yards. That gives you an idea of a typical tee shot. There is a great pre­
mium on tee shots on our course. They must be all placed in the right position 
to have the hole open up for a reasonably easy second shot.

Next you see the twelfth fairway, looking down from the twelfth green, 
from about fifty yards in front of the tee, back in a corner of the woods. You 
come in on an angle, in a narrow space. This green is pear-shaped, with 
heavy trapping all around—a difficult hole.

Next you see the fourteenth hole, the easiest hole on the course, 315 yards, 
down through some trees, with heavy trapping all around it. The tree here 
does not come out quite far enough to obstruct the view, or the play, so we put 
an enormous sand trap in there, and it will give the gallery a lot of entertain­
ment.

Next is our fifteenth green. This is one of the best holes we have, about 
450 yards, and the tee shot is very difficult and trying, with traps all the way 
along, and cross-bunkered to the left. The green is a table green. Since this 
photograph was taken, there has been heavy trapping all around. It takes 

66

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.ii.No.s

an approach of about 175 yards, or 160 yards, from a good drive to that green, 
to stay on it.

Now, next you see the only new piece of construction on the course. Ims 
is our new seventeenth green. Those of you who are familiar with our course 
will remember that the seventeenth hole is a straight-away, down through a 
narrow neck of woods, with traps fpr a slice, and with traps for a pull, and 
heavy grass in front of the tee for a long distance, with an approach shot over 
a wide trap; the distance being about 365 or 370 yards. This is a beautiful 
hole, and we debated very much about changing it. But it seemed necessary 
to break the monotony of having the holes about the same length; and after 
getting the best opinion we cou’d from men who know we asked Mitchell and 
Duncan, when they were playing our course, where they would place the green 
to make the hole longer and better; and we found a wonderful place off the 
present course. We are going to switch over to that, making the second shot 
a full iron, or brassie, for an amateur player, allowing for a beautiful spoon 
shot; with the woods along here. The green was built last year, and we got 
a good stand of grass there last fall, and there is not any reason why it should 
not be a corking good green for the tournament; But we are playing safe, 
because this is entirely off the present playing course. The old seventeenth 
hole stays just as it is, though, and in case this other should not come through, 
we have the hole here in absolute good shape, anyway.

Our course is sixty-five hundred yards. The professional record is 68. 
The course has been played at par or under in competition only twice. Twice 
professionals have played the course in par or under. It has never been played 
under par by an amateur, and has only been played in par by an amateur once. 
I notice nobody asks who the amateur was. (Laughter.)

Next you see the eighteenth hole, a wonderful finish, 495 yards. It starts 
down through the woods—out of bounds on one side, and woods on the other, 
with big traps for a slice; and after you get through with that, you get up to 
the tee shot, about 250 yards off from the green. The green is on the hillside. 
The arrangement here is very nice; traps on one side, out of hounds over here, 
water over there, and ’sand over there. Passing through, the space is about 
thirty yards. It is necessary, to get to this hole in par, to roll up to it and 
stay on the green.

That is all. (Applause.)
Chairman Alexander: These slides are extremely interesting. We thank 

you very much, Mr. ling.

Now, gentlemen, you are going to have another treat. In every community 
where there is a district golf association, or where there are several golf 
clubs, there is always some man in that community who is willing to work, and 
knows how to work. When a crisis comes, he is ready to take advantage of it, 
and when a calamity comes, he is ready to make capital out of it. You are going 
to hear that kind of a man talk.

He happens to be Chairman of the Green and Grounds Committee of the 
Inverness Club at Toledo, Ohio. When he had some little trouble with bugs 
—I will not tell you whether it was bugs in the ground, or bugs in the heads 
of some of the members of his club—that cost him money, he took his trouble 
and made capital out of it; and out of that trouble, out of that bug, out of that 
excrescence that came from that bug, originated the Green Section of the United 
States Golf Association, of which you gentlemen have the privilege of being 
delegates and representatives today.

It is a perfect joy to me to see the interest that has been taken here today. 
I only wish the gentieman who is about to speak to us could have been here 
this morning, when he would have had 150 men to talk to, instead of a lesser 
number, so that they all could have had the benefit of what he has to say for 
it is so rare for those of us who love the game, who love the camaraderie of it 
love its physical side, and everything it gives, to meet a man who has it all, 
that I am perfectly delighted to be able to introduce to you Mr. E. J. Marshall 
of Inverness, Toledo. (Applause.)

Mr. Marshall: Mr. Chairman, will you put those last words in writing? 

(Laughter.)

Chairman Alexander: They are in writing already, and I will mail them 

to you, if you will send me the check you agreed to send.

Mr. Marshall: Mr. Ross, the President of Inverness, is here, and I would 
like to have you put that statement in writing, telling what kind of a fellow

February iB, 1982] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION

67

I am, and give it to him, so that he can take it home, and let somebody else 
know it. (Continued laughter.)

Chairman Alexander: That’s a bargain! I just want to say to you, Mr. 
Marshall, that we do not ask you to spare anything or anybody. Go to it. 
(Laughter and applause.)

Mr. Marshall: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

ADDRESS OF MR. E. J. MARSHALL, INVERNESS CLUB, TOLEDO, OHIO 
TOLEDO, OHIO

Mr. Marshall: I really do not know what to say to you, gentlemen. There 
is one thing, though, that occurs to me before I start to try. to say something, 
and that is this: When you come to play at Skokie this Summer, play just as 
the gentleman said, and you will come out all right. Make just so many shots, 
and you will get there. (Laughter.)

I am very proud to see the Green Section develop as it has, and I can 
not tell you how gratifying it is to find fifty or sixty men, or one hundred-odd, 
as there were this morning, who are willing to give up their time to sit down 
and talk about bugs, and worms, and worm exterminators, and beetles, and 
fungi, and everything else that goes to make up the work of green keeping.
There is one subject in connection with the work of the United States Golf 
Association that is engaging our attention, and I would like to talk with you 
a little while, if I may, on that subject. I refer to the cost of golf. You have 
read a great deal about it. You have read that no one but . a rich man can 
afford to belong to one of the good golf clubs; that the ordinary fellow, the 
young fellow who really ought to belong, who really ought to make a player 
out of himself, can not do it, because he is working for a living, and it is be­
yond him. One of the aims of the Green Section this coming year, and beyond 
this year, will be to devise ways and means by which the cost of golf can be 
reduced. We do not know how we are going to do it. We just know that is 
what we are trying to do.

I want to talk with you briefly, if I may, as to the means by which that 
may be accomplished. I would like you all to think about it earnestly. I 
would like you all, when you do think about it, to contribute something that will 
be helpful in accomplishing that result. It must be done, because there is so 
much waste at this time, there is so much extravagance at this time, that com­
mon sense dictates that we must get down to earth again, and cut the main­
tenance of golf courses down where it belongs.

One of the things that we must agree upon among ourselves, and one of the 
things that we must get the players to agree upon, is what constitutes good 
maintenance. We must set a standard. What it shall be I do not know, but we 
must set a standard for maintenance.

Last year at Inverness we spent something like $21,000 for maintenance 
alone. When we saw a weed in a bunker, we had a fit, and promptly cut it 
out. Then when my- budget was getting low, and when I was fearful of 
results, and wanted to stop cutting weeds out of bunkers, and cleaning up, 
and trimming, Old Man Ross jumped on me and said, “No, you must keep your 
course up.” (Laughter.) When we saw a weed in a green, we sounded a riot 
call, and cut it out, and we spent $21,000 for straight maintenance, and nothing 
else.

I have in my pocket reports from two clubs, one in southern Michigan, 
and one in southern Ohio, two little nine-hole courses in two little towns, which 
were maintained, one for $1,500 and one for $1,800. Now, the standard lies 
somewhere between the $1,500 course and the $25,000 course, say. Just where 
it is, as I said before, I do not know.

At Inverness we kept a man busy a great deal of the time trimming up 
the approaches, running a power mower over the approaches, to keep them as 
slick and clean and dressy as the greens themselves.

Now, what constitutes proper maintenance? Where is the place to stop? 
When can you say that the course is right for the game? When is your 
rough right? That is the thing that we must decide. It may be that Inver­
ness is on the right basis, and $21,000 a year is the right standard. It may be 
that something short of that is the standard. I want you to think about it, 
and make up your minds, and talk among yourselves, and figure out where 

68

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.n,No.«

the nonsense and extravagance come in; so that when the standard is once 
set the object of the green-keeper will be to come up to that standard, or as 
to that standard as his finances will permit; and to go beyond that standard 
will be nothing short of wanton extravagance.

Now then, gentlemen, there is another thing I want you to think about in 
connection with the reduction of the cost of golf, and that is the standardization 
of accounts and method. As things go now, it is utterly impossible to compare 
my accounts with the accounts of Mr. Hood, or Mr. Alexander, or anyone e se. 
The bookkeeping is entirely different Th A method of reporting costs from the 
green-keeper to the accountant is entirely different. The accounts are not com- 
parable at all. You pick up the accounts of two railroad companies, or two 
telenhone companies, and you know what they mean, because they are kept ac­
cording to a fixed standard and system. You know what their depreciation 
account means. You can translate it; you can see it; you can visualize it. 
But when you pick up the accounts of two golf clubs, and put them side by side, 
they do not mean anything.

So one thing that we must come to is a standard system of accounting. 
There is no reason in God’s wor’d why the accounts at Skokie, and at the De­
troit Golf Club, and Inverness should not be kept on exactly the same basis, 
so far as the means are concerned. There is no reason why the whim of a 
bookkeeper at one place or the other should destroy the value of those figures. 
So here and there, wherever you can get together, at Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, 
and different other centers, where you can get two or three or four clubs to go 
on a common basis, and compare accounts. I hope that you will consider that, 
and do it, because it is going to be productive of good results. If your ac­
counts at the end of a year show that your labor figure was 512,000, and the 
other fellow’s accounts show that his labor cost was $10,000, if you are on a 
standard basis, somebody has got to have an alibi, and you want it to be the other 
fellow. He has got to show the reason why. It may have been that he was 
afflicted with some sort of calamity, but whatever it was he will have to ac­
count for it. He may have gotten a dose of grubs, or brown patch, or God 
knows what may have been the troub’e, but he must have his alibi already, and 
that performance will tell you who is the professional green-keeper that is 
worthy of his wages, and who is the amateur green-keeper, who is entitled to 
respect.

Mr. Hood has been challenged by me to put his accounts on the same basis 
as mine. I do not know whether he has the courage to do it or not. I do not 
think he has. (Laughter.)

Mr. Ji. J. Hood: Absolutely, and I will not be furnishing alibis, either. 

(Laughter and applause.)

Mr. Marshai.l: Now, if the Detroit Golf Club and Inverness go on the 
same basis for 1922, the same basis of accounting, the figures are going to be 
interesting. The two courses are not unlike. On the contrary, they are very 
much a’ike in construction and in every other way. They are both in good 
shape, if we do blushingly admit it. (Laughter.) On neither course is any 
great amount of work required, to get it in the very best shape. Mr. Hood 
is just as proud of his course as I am of Inverness, and anybody can look at 
either one of them any time he wants to look at them. Now, if we start out 
this year on the same basis of accounting, and I blow in $12,000, say, for labor, 
as I did last year, and he blows in $8,000 for labor, I will have to furnish an 
excuse for my showing, because there is not a nickel’s worth of difference be­
tween the two courses as they stand today. And it does not make the least 
bit of difference in working out the problem how much money is available. 
He has available all the money he wants, and I have all I want. The mem­
bership can afford it. That has nothing to do with it. The fact that the mem­
bers can afford it, and the fact that the money is available, is no very good 
reason why it should be wasted. The mere fact that we have the money to 
spend is no very good reason why we shou'd maintain our courses on a fancy 
or extravagant basis, or why we should go above the standard required for good 
golf.

Now, in conclusion. I simply want to say to you that we are all amateur 
green-keepers, in the Green Section. There is not one of us who pretends to 
know very much. If there is somebody who does think he knows something, 
there are always at least four fellows standing alongside of him, to convince him 
that he does not know anything. (Laughter.) But by association with each 

February is, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

69

other, and by the exchange of ideas, and the exposure of our faults, I think it 
is certain that we are going to achieve good resu’ts. We are going to bring 
down the cost of golf to a point that is sensible, where it will not be necessary 
for anyone to say that we are excluding the ordinary fellow, the fel’owof 
ordinary means. Then, in our crude, amateurish way, we will be contributing 
something to the game, and something to the sportsmanship of the game.

Thank you. (Applause.)
Chairman Alexander: Not very long ago a certain championship match 
was held at the Minikahda Country Club at Minneapolis. A certain young man, 
whom we are all proud of, who lives in Chicago, learned how to putt-that year; 
and when we read the headlines the next morning, he was champion. He 
told me himself that one of the best courses that he ever played on was that 
particular course.

Now, the president of that club is present here today. He is a student of 
the game, and he is a student of the physical part of golf, which is the founda­
tion of everything. The physical has got to get under the mental before there 
is any mentality, as those of you who have large families have no doubt observed. 
(Laughter.) 
‘
I want you to listen for a moment to Senator William F. Brooks, President 

of Minikahda. (Applause.)

REMARKS OF MR. WILLIAM F. BROOKS, PRESIDENT, MINIKAHDA 
CLUB, MINNEAPOLIS

Mr. Brooks: You all probably noticed the Chairman of the meeting come 
over and whisper to me a moment ago. What he said was, “Are you really a' 
senator, or is it a joke?” I said, “It is somewhat of a joke; I am a state senator.” 
(Laughter.)

Your Chairman alluded to the championship, the national open champion­
ship, which was played on the Minikahda course in 1906. As you probably 
remember, Mr. Evans won that year. At noon on Saturday, when he went out 
to play the last thirty-six holes, I said to him, “Chick, if you win today, I will go 
to Merion to see you play the national amateur”—and I did. In that same year 
he also won, as you know, the amateur championship of the United States.

Now, during the discussion this morning there was one matter that was 
touched on which I think is of great importance to the promotion of the work 
of the Green Section of the United States Golf Association. That is this: In 
every club there are a lot of good fellows. They are good golfers, and they are 
good companions, and the club membership feels like honoring them, and they 
elect them to the board of governors of the club, and they put them on com­
mittees. In many instances those men are busy with their business affairs, 
and when- they come out to the golf course they want to spend their time 
having a good time playing golf. Now, I maintain that a golf club, as golf clubs 
exist today, is a business organization, doing a large amount of business, and 
serving a large number of men who want good service.

I think that every man who becomes an officer or director, or member of a 
committee, of any golf club, should understandingly and knowingly, before he 
accepts that position, decide that he is going to serve. The statement was made 
this morning by Mr. Piper that in many instances literature is sent out from 
the Washington office, and no reply is received. Now, the only manner in which 
the Green Section can serve the members is through the individual information 
which it receives from the members of the various clubs. That information is 
practical information. It is information on which all our decisions and recom­
mendations must be based.

Now, I want to suggest that probably every man in this room is a chairman, 
or at least a member of a Green Committee. When he goes back home he should 
say to the official of the dub who receives the mail matter for the dub, be it 
the secretary, or whoever it may be, that he wants to see the mail matter; 
and then when a questionnaire comes in, or when any inquiry comes in, when 
anyone is asking for information, if the members of that dub, and likewise 
the members of the various dubs, will just give the Green Section their unqualified 
support and assistance, it will do more to solve the problems that we are facing 
than anything else that can be done.

I have particularly in mind the questionnaire which was sent out here some 
time ago, in regard to power mowers. The great majority of clubs did not 

70 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE ivoi. n. No. a

answer it. A great many of the clubs answered in a very inaccurate way. 
We knew that they were inaccurate. Now, that information will not be avail­
able, unless it is put up to the Green Section in an intelligent and careful man­
ner. When we get that information then the Green Section can compile that 
information, and give it out to the members.

That matter is on my mind, Mr. Chairman, and it seems to me to be rather 
important. I believe it will do more to assist the committee than anything else 
that could be done.

In conclusion, I want to say that I am very much gratified at the meeting 
here today, to see the interest which has been taken, and note the splendid 
work Mr. Piper and the executive officers have done. I think that it is going 
to reduce the cost of operating golf courses; I think it is going to make our 
greens better, and our fairways better; I think it is going to make our courses 
more enjoyable and save us a lot of money.

Thank you. (Applause.)
A Member: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask what would be a fair aver­
age budget to ask for, for the maintenance of an 18-hole golf course, of a 
quality sufficient to attract perhaps a state tournament or a national tournament, 
say? I understand, of course, that there is just as much difference between two 
examples, almost, as there is between what one family can live on and what 
another family can live on; but, as Mr. Marshall says, there is a happy medium, 
and. I would like to know what a happy medium would be considered by Mr. 
Marshall.

Mr. Marshall: Don’t ask me. Ask Hood. (Laughter.) Hood is the 
supervising officer of twenty-six golf dubs around Detroit, and he is the re­
pository of more information on the subject of budgets and costs than any man in 
this room. He has worked out a budget that he thinks is fine, but I think it is 
rotten. (Laughter.)

Chairman Alexander :_ Gentlemen, it has come to me unofficially that Mr. 
Hood is the man who has given Henry Ford the germ of all his genius, who has 
furnished him his mental capital. (Laughter.) I take pleasure in introducing 
to you Mr. A. J. Hood, Chairman of the Green Section of the Detroit District 
Golf Association. As you see, he has more power than anybody here. (Laughter 
and applause.) He is genial, he is sincere, and he is not afraid of Mr. Marshall. 
All those things recommend him. (Applause.)

REMARKS OF MR. A. J. HOOD, CHAIRMAN, GREEN SECTION, DETROIT 
DISTRICT GOLF ASSOCIATION

. Mr. Hoot: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, Mr. Marshall is responsible for 
a good bit of upset in my mind. I hope Mr. Ross is here, because he always gives 
me some support, knowing Marshall pretty well. (Laughter.) I have accepted 
more abuse from the gentleman than from anybody else I know of, and been 
forced to like it (Laughter.)

Over in Detroit they had a district golf association, but they had no Green 
Section until along about the time the United States Golf Association got active 
with its Green Section. In anticipation of cooperation with the United States 
Green Section, I do not know how it happened to come about, but there seems 
to be always some fellow around whom everybody is willing to load the work 
onto, not because he is especially adapted for it, but because he will spend his 
time on it, perhaps; and for that reason I expect they picked on me, because I 
do not know of anybody else whom they could have gotten at that time who 
would have taken the job. (Laughter.)

Just about that time I met Mr. Marshall, and he gave me a few injections 
of ginger. He really forced me to do some things that he talks about, that I 
perhaps did not do of my own volition, or of my own motive power, so to speak; 
but at any rate, we got into the Detroit District Golf Association.

I might say in advance that the Detroit District Golf Association issues a 
publication. Twenty-six clubs belong to the Detroit District Golf Association, 
and this publication is its official medium for distributing information among 
those clubs. We have, I think, some five thousand subscribers. That is not the 
entire membership of all the clubs in the district, but they have that many sub­
scribers. It is a voluntary subscription, costing $1.50. We use this in con­
nection with our green work, and it helps educate the club members, who per­
haps would not come in contact with the information in any other way, relative 

February m, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

71

to the activities of the clubs. In this way we educate them to just what their 
chairmen and green-keepers are trying to do for them, cooperating with the 
chairmen and green-keepers of the twenty-six other clubs.

Now, I hope nobody is here from Cleveland, because they always dispute 
the population of Detroit, but Detroit is a city of about a million population. 
Now, then, we go out to Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Pontiac, Port Huron, on the Amer­
ican side, and across the river down to Essex Country Club on the Canadian side, 
taking in clubs covering a radius of one hundred miles, I should say. That 
is the reason we have twenty-six clubs included in this district.

Now, some of this may be old to you, because Marshall has done quite a little 
bit of talking, not only here but elsewhere. (Laughter.) But we have monthly 
meetings of green chairmen and green-keepers, and the members of the green 
committees and such other members of each chib as might be interested in the 
work of the green committee. That is all educational, for the more people 
you can bring in to observe what you are trying to do, the better progress you 
will make; and when you have a financial catastrophe strike you on your green 
budget, and you hit it up from one thousand dollars to five thousand dollars 
more than the members think you ought to spend, all that tends to help you out, 
that matter of education. So we attempt, as I say, to have these monthly 
meetings.

Toledo has cooperated with Detroit. I mentioned a radius of one hundred 
miles. Toledo, through Mr. Marshall’s instrumentality, has cooperated in these 
meetings by attendance, and their cooperation has been most enjoyable. The 
spirit of good fellowship created and- maintained as a result of these meetings 
is of simply incalculable value and benefit to the clubs. It puts your green 
chairmen and green-keepers on their mettle, to know that some time in the near 
future twenty-six so-called amateur experts are going to light on their clubs, and 
look them over. .

Mr. Marshall, as a start, invited these clubs over to Toledo, and we jumped 
on the trolley car and went over there. He was all dressed up in the finest 
golfing outfit you ever saw, -with knickers and all that—(laughter)—and he 
looked just too sweet for anything. (Renewed laughter.) He met us there 
with the glad hand, and a nursing bottle, I heard some one say—(laughter)— 
but I do not know about that. He took us out and showed us a course that 
certainly was in excellent shape. They had, I would say—although he may 
deny it—dressed up a little, and had the course in such shape that they could 
really be proud of it. There were not many complaints heard there as a result 
of that visit.

The next meeting we had was at the Detroit Golf Club. When I told our 
green-keeper, Alexander McPherson, an old landmark in the business, I guess, 
that we were going to have the members of these committee and these green­
keepers over to the Detroit Golf Club, he wanted to go to work and hire a couple 
of hundred men, more or less, and get his course in shape, to look like Mr. 
Marshall’s. I said, “Now, Mac, I am going to crucify you, and myself, to some 
extent, because it will hurt our pride a little bit. Marshall showed us the finest 
we could look at, and now we are going to show them just an ordinary course in 
daily operation, with all of the sloppy things that you have permitted here, that 
I have been talking to you about for quite a while; and I am going to show it up 
just this way.”

So they came over. We have thirty-six holes at the Detroit Golf Club. We 
had a little scheme devised, which we were going to work up to a very impressive 
climax, but the rain interfered and spoiled the whole show. (Laughter.) We 
took them around and showed them our worst holes first. The preceding year 
we had quite a bit of catastrophe on our putting greens, and we were trying to 
rejuvenate them. I think it was in the month of June when they got over there, 
but we took them to the greens we had had the trouble with, and we showed them 
all there was to see, good, bad and indifferent. But we were edging around to 
work up to some of our good putting greens, and some other things we were par­
ticularly proud of, but the rain came along, and we never saw them at all. 
(Laughter.)

So Marshall has had that on me ever since, and he thinks that because he 
made such a fine showing, and I made such a rotten showing up to that point, 
he can tell you everything there is to tell—and he pretty nearly does it, and I 
guess he is right at that. (Laughter.)

72

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voi.n.No.r

Well, now, as I say, we have these meetings and the benefit derived from 
those meetings is inestimable. It has its efleet in so many ways and it comes 
back to you through so many unexpected channels. For instance, the green­
keepers and the green committees get to talking about these things. If a green 
committee, or a green chairman, or a green-keeper is off his job, and not taking 
proper care of his work, somebody is going to notice it. You know, the green­
keepers have quite a bump of pride of their own, among themselves. They like 
to have the other fellows respect them for their ability. Furthermore, it helps 
them if they are successful in maintaining a course, one that will make every­
body speak of it approvingly, for that sort of thing builds a man a permanent 
home with his dub, if he wants to stay there, and it also prepares for him in 
advance some place dse, where perhaps he can get a better job. But in any 
event, it places him id good repute at his home dub. So I would say that the 
benefit of the meetings we have had over there is simply beyond computation.

Now, the effect of this cooperation is beginning to become manifest in many 
ways that would not at first be expected. We have already sent out a budget, 
for instance. As I told you, I believe some of these clubs are nine hole courses, 
and some of them are eighteen hole courses, where small dues prevail and where 
small incomes are received by the dubs. Many of those clubs are just flounder­
ing in the dark. You get just as many different figures on what should he the 
maintenance and upkeep of a golf course in first class shape, as you would find 
different characters of individuals if you went out on the street and picked 
twenty-six of them, to correspond with our twenty-six clubs.

,

Now, then, a great many of these clubs wanted our committee to send them 
a sample budget. I.called in three or four wise old heads in the district—Hutch­
ings, Standish and one or two others—and said, “Now, we will devise a budget, 
and we will try to give them a budget that will be something to shoot at as a 
low figure instead of a high figure”—believing that if we set a high figure, it 
would not be as effective as a low figure would be, set for the purpose of a 
minimum. 

Now, I may be a little bit radical in this respect. I have been ten years on 
the Board of Directors of the Detroit Golf Club. Without bragging about the 
club, we have thirty-six holes located twenty minutes from the City Hall, and 
the plant is valued at $3,500,000. I have sat on that board for ten years, two 
years as president and two years as vice-president, and my observation has been 
during those ten years, the price of golf has gradually increased, and it has 
gotten to a point where the members as a whole in our district are beginning to 
feel the burden of the dues that are maintained. I do not know how your dues 
run in Chicago or elsewhere, but we have several clubs with dues of $175 a year. 
Now, in the ease of twenty-five per cent of our members, the $175 will not cut 
any figure. They are men who have made their money and retired. They are in 
a vast minority. Seventy-five per cent of the membership is composed of men 
to whom it is a great burden, especially at a time like this, when business has 
been bad, to raise that amount of money. We are in a period of depression, and 
have been for some time, and I do not believe there are many people who can 
assure themselves that we are going to come out of it with any great rapidity; 
and the result is that the maintenance of these dues at these clubs has become a 
burden. In addition to that, many of the men belong to several clubs, so their 
burden is increased to just that extent.

Now, what we are trying to do in Detroit—and we are trying to work in 
conjunction with the United States Golf Association—is to get around to the point 
where we will know what we are doing on this green work. I maintain that it 
will take from ten to twelve men to run a golf club in good shape, if the club is 
properly organized and handled. You will find many people who will not agree 
with me on that at all, but I am absolutely of that conviction. But you have got 
to organize your work. As Marshall says, “If they all had our brains—and that 
is one way of telling me he knows I have not got any (laughter)—we could get 
this down to a proper basis; but in the operation of the average club, you know 
how it goes. Every man can not quit his business and devote all of his time 
to the golf business.

But what we are trying to do, as far as such a thing can be done, is auto­
matically to arrange the conduct of our operation of the golf course in such a 
way that the green chairman will know, the green-keeper will know, and the board 

February io, 1922] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION

73

or directors will know whether the amount of work is being done for which we 
are paying.

So, as I say, acting on. that request for a budget, we compiled a budget, 
which we sent to all of the clubs in the district. I sent a copy to Marshall, and 
Marshall tells me I am nutty. (Laughter.) It is a budget of $13,000.

Now, to show you that we are at least sincere, even though Marshall says 
we are wrong, the Detroit Golf Club, with thirty-six holes, on my advice has 
made a budget for this year of $25,000. Last year we had a budget of $35,000, 
and spent approximately $31,000. We saved about $3,300 under our budget. 
Now, for five years the dandelions and the weeds had not been systematically 
taken out of our putting greens. We spent three thousand dollars, having as 
high as thirty-seven women working on the course, for a period of over a month 
at a stretch, when we came into July and August, with the avalanche of weeds 
that followed the hot spell. The result was we were doing intensive work that 
we should have done over a period of five years in a much shorter time. I main­
tain that if we did that work last year fqr $31,000, and spent $3,000 for special 
weeding now, with the price of wages, materials and supplies all coming down, 
we ought to run the golf course this next year for $25,000.

Now, then, right along this same line, we sent out an explanation, and I will 
give it to you just as rapidly as I can give it, because I do not want to take up 
too much of your time, but. at the same time, however, I do not want to talk s* 
fast that you will not understand what I am talking about.

We take the salary of a superintendent employed nine months, $2,250. 
Understand, that is the average. We take so many men employed on the green. 
We have watering and weeding, motors or horses—depending on which you use— 
totalling $13,000. Then this is the way we explained it to our members.

This budget contemplates the operation of a large eighteen hole golf course. 
It does not include cost of any construction work. The figures are based on put­
ting greens, having from seven thousand to thirteen thousand square feet of 
surface. This would give a total surface of one hundred and sixty thousand 
square feet for eighteen holes, which with a practice putting green, would total 
one hundred and seventy thousand square feet of surface to cut six days a week.
/ dd to this the tees, rolls and mounds around the putting greens, with a 
surface area of one hundred and fifty thousand square feet cut once a week, or 
twenty-five thousand square feet of surface per day.

/dd to this total putting green surface, making a total of one hundred and 
ninety-five thousand square feet of surface to be cut by hand each week day in 
season.

If four men are employed in season on this work, each man would have 48,750 
square feet of surface to be cut by hand, or approximately one and one-ninth 
acres of surface to cut each day. A workman should push a hand mower from 
two to three miles per hour. He must push it that fast to keep it running easy. 
It is a simple matter to figure out the cutting a man should do if he keeps steadily 
at work.

If each putting green contains only from two thousand to four thousand 
square feet of surface, two men could likely do the grass cutting, repairing, 
takinsr out weeds, et cetera.

From this it can be readily figured and determined just about how much 
time the putting green cutters waste. If the fairways are narrow, the expense 
would likewise be less.

The conclusion arrived at is, that a fair estimate of the annual expense for 
the maintenance and upkeep of an eighteen hole golf course is from eight thou­
sand dollars to thirteen thousand dollars, depending upon the size of putting 
greens and width of fairways.

The above estimate does not include special work or construction work that 

may be done on the course.

This budget has been prepared by a committee composed of some of the oldest 
and most experienced greens chairmen of the district. It is furnished at the 
request of some of our member clubs who have felt the need of it, with the hope 
that it may prove to be of some help or assistance in estimating budgets for the 
new year.

Now, acting right along that line, we prepared a uniform system of reports 
for each year, which is the thing the United States Golf Association is aiming 

74 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Voj. n, No. st­

at, and we got it up in a systematic way. Whether this, can be improved upon 
or not is for you to say. At any rate, we start with our superintendent’s salary. 
We are going to send this form to the twenty-six clubs in the Detroit district, 
providing it is not changed, and they are going to build up their accounts on this 
basis, and they are going to send us this report each year, or perhaps each month, 
if it is not too burdensome a job. Then we will compile a comparative statement 
of the twenty-six clubs, showing the expenditures, starting with superintendent’s 
salary, putting greens, number of men employed eight months, number of men 
employed six months, water, weeding, plugging, seeding; materials for putting 
greens; fertilizer for putting greens—state kind, quantity, cost, etc.; grass 
seed—-state kind, quantity, cost and total; top dressing, state kind, quantity, cost 
and total; sand, charcoal, miscellaneous, etc. First we have the putting greens, 
and then we have the tees—number of men employed, total cost, etc.; top dress­
ing, same; seed, same; sod, same, etc. Then the fairways; number employed for 
eight months; number for six months; top dressing, fertilizer, seed, number of 
horses, feed, shoeing, etc.; and then under bunkers—ditches, roadways, miscel­
laneous.

It is unnecessary for me to go into all the detail all the way down the line 
on that, but we are going to get this information, and by the time we get 
through we are going to be able to tell how many men it takes to run a golf 
club. Then we will take so many men, and we will say to one of them, “Here, 
John, you keep these four or five greens, or six greens”—whatever we decide, 
according to the number of men required. “You keep these greens. It is up to 
you.” Then we will take the other men and allot them accordingly. In that 
way you will start a spirit of competition among them, and if you set up a little 
system of bonuses for them, the result should be something worth while.

Now, this is what we are aiming to do, to help to reduce the high cost of golf. 
The prices of everything else in God’s creation have come down. Why should 
the high cost of golf be any exception? I sat on the board for ten years, and 
watched the costs mount; -Now, it is time we told a different story. Where is 
the limit? I claim, of course, that a dub should spend its money freely when 
that is necessary, that is what the clubs are organized for. But a lot of money 
is wasted. I would say from twenty-five to forty per cent of all labor on a 
coarse is wasted. It is a notorious fact that everybody soaks a golf dub on price.
Right along that line, let me give you an incident. We were organized over 
there, and I got D. M. Ferry & Company, a local seed house, to furnish us some 
seed. Simply because they were on the ground, and would have to stay there, 
and be accountable to us if they did not supply us with the right kind of seed, 
we contracted with them, and they sold us the seed at cost plus ten per cent— 
to all of the clubs in the district. About seventy-five per cent of the dubs in the 
district partidpated in that. For the dub of which I am president, I bought two 
thousand pounds of fescue at fifty cents, for fall seeding. Mr. Standish of the 
Lockmore Club did not do as we advised. I think he had some other seed con­
nection. He paid eighty-six cents for his fescue, for fall seeding. On two 
thousand pounds the difference would be seven hundred dollars. There is just 
one point, but as long as we have to buy grass seed, there is where an economy 
can be effected by proper cooperation. There is evidence already that grass seed 
is going to be higher. I claim it is speculation, but it is there. I claim that be­
cause I do not believe in the short crop figures. I think it is salesman’s talk 
altogether. Now, I claim that it is up to the United States Golf Association, 
and it seems to me it is in line with the general work of the United States Golf 
Association to take some action which will give the clubs the benefit of universal 
purchasing agents, if necessary, or so that we may establish connections with 
somebody who will buy the seed at cost on the other side, and sell it to us on a 
reasonable basis—somebody upon whom we may depend.

Further, $175 dues,-such as we have in Detroit, have got to stop. There is 
a limit to all this sort of thing, and if we do not start at the bottom and work 
up, as Mr. Alexander says, where are we going to get to? I could say a whole 
lot more to you, gentlemen, but I know you are tired, so I will cut it short right 
here.

Thank you. (Laughter and applause.)
Chairman Alexander: I just want to say briefly that whenever I hear a 
man talk like that, who knows his business, I wonder where golf would have 

February io, i.2M UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

7ft

been today and what the cost of golf would have been today, if every president 
of every golf club and every chairman of every grounds and green committee 
had studied his problems, worked out his budget, employed his men, and known 
exactly what he was going to do, as Mr. Hood has done? When I look back 
thirty years, and think how, when the game first came over here, it was played 
in sheep pastures, I wonder what would have happened if a billiard tourna­
ment, or a tennis tournament, would be held on tables or courts similar to some 
of our golf courses? What would be said if Schaefer were to draw up to a 
billiard table, and find it looked like some of the golf courses we have, with 
fifteen blind holes. In other words, the waste and the lack of knowledge of 
what we have, are perfectly criminal. I happen to be chairman of the grounds 
and green committees of three clubs, and I just want to illustrate in my own 
family the inconsistency of the whole thing.

One of my clubs had last year fifteen thousand dollars for upkeep and 
some construction, say, about two thousand dollars of construction. Another 
had nine thousand dollars. One had eighteen men on the greens and grounds, 
and the other had nine. The cheaper one had nine. The fairways upon the 
cheaper course are today better than those of the one that spent the most money; 
and that course is. one of the best courses in the United States.

Just think of the incongruity of that! You cannot explain it. How is 
it possible? But it is there. The answer is that in one case the unit of labor, 
the unit of action or intelligence in anything that has been done, has been 
utilized to the very last degree, while in the case of the other it still can be 
improved upon.

In summing up, with regard to the meeting and what has happened here 
today, I want to say that I am very deeply impressed with the interest that 
has been manifested, and I think back and wonder how it was that we began at 
the top and went down, instead of beginning at the bottom and going up, as 
we should have done many, many years ago. This great association of ours has 
done so much for golf, has been so patient in selecting golf courses, has been 
patient and painstaking with the rules, spending thousands of dollars in main­
taining the association, and doing everything in the world for the sport; but 
how in the devil can you teach a man to play golf by writing letters and telling 
him. It cannot be done. You have got to have young people, and we have 
got to have the proper foundation of a golf course.

We are just beginning to discover that we started at the wrong end of 
this game. If we could have had some Scotchman come over here and show 
us how to lay out a few good golf courses, and start off right at the outset, 
where would we have been today? Just think of the enthusiasm we would have 
had! But thank God, we are beginning now, and I make this prophecy, in 
retrospect of what I have seen here today, that in two years from now, 99 per 
cent of all golf clubs of eighteen holes, and 80 per cent of all golf clubs of 
nine holes will be members of this association, members of this Green Sec­
tion, and they will be hungry and thirsty for information that will help 
them to get what they should have, almost without cost—from fifteen dollars 
to fifty—and they will be as anxious to come to us for membership as we are 
to go to them.

Five years from now there will not be a single club three years old that is 
not a member of this Green Section, and five years from now the Green Sec­
tion will give evidence of having accomplished more than the United States 
Golf Association—all praise to it!—has accomplished since its inception thirty 
years ago. I make that prophecy, that this ball has just started rolling, be­
cause of the hunger and thirst for knowledge, and a consciousness of our ex­
travagance, our abominable extravagance, taking away from the poor man what 
he is entitled to just as much as the rich man.

Today in Washington they are trying to establish peace through disarm­
ament throughout all the world, putting all nations on an equal basis, so that 
the little fellow cannot be trampled upon any more than the big fellow. What 
we want to do is to establish just that same principle in the rules that you 
will hear from tonight. Some important things are going to happen. I prophesy. 
Everything we establish should be put upon a standard basis.

We have heard some fine things here today, and we want to get this thing 
in shape, and have printed every word that has been said here this afternoon.

76 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE [Vol. n. No. 2

That is the kind of stuff we want to get before our people during the coming 
year.

In conclusion, I want to thank you gentlemen for the interest you have 
manifested, and repeat the prophecy that this is just the beginning of standard 
golf; standard, with the tools, or the implements, that you will hear about to­
night; standard, so far as upkeep, construction and architecture are concerned; 
standard, so that we can play at Kokomo or under the shadow of the Taj Mahal 
in India or at St. Andrews, or anywhere else, and although we may meet a total 
stranger, we can play the whole way around with a napkin over our mouths, 
as many of us should have, anyway. (Laughter.)

1

That time is coming. This is simply in anticipation of it.' I thank you 
again for your attention, and I prophesy again that this thing is going to go 
on and get better every year. And although we may think we know a lot 
about golf, and think of the pleasure it has given us, and think of the large 
sums of money invested in it, and the large sums of money wasted in it each 
year, we are children in arms, and almost babes unborn, compared with what 
we will be five years from now, and from there on, until we reach ultimate per­
fection. (Applause.) 

Mr. Piper: There is a disease known among physicians as cacoethes 
scfibendi, which is Latin for the expression, “the itch for scribbling.” No mem­
bers of the Green Committee have it, except the chairman and the two vice­
chainnep. They have developed symptoms of it through stress of necessity. In 
the ordinary run of things, the newspaper man who has that disease will write 
one day on how to nurse babies, the next day on women’s dresses, the next 
day on how to run a farm, the next day on the Bolsheviki; and it makes no 
difference what he writes, he will write on anything.

Now, there is another disease, the name of which I do not know, but the 
fellow who has that disease will talk^ talk, talk, and never write a thing; and my 
God! how some of these men can talk. (Prolonged laughter.)

Chairman Alexander: Please wave the other way. (Renewed laughter.) 
Mb. Piper: I have tried to get something written to put in the Bulletin. 
Nothing doing. Now, these men have given you a whole lot of good stuff here 
today. A lot of it is stuff that all of the members of the Green Section should 
have. But I cannot get it.

Now, I want your moral backing behind a proposition which I think I will 
put up to the Green Committee, namely, that we demand from each member’ 
each year a certain minimum amount of good stuff for the Bulletin. We will 
make it a small minimum; say a thousand words. (Laughter.) And if he does 
not come across, we will slate him for the toboggan. I think that is the only 
way we are ever going to get these fellows who talk so wonderfully, to do a 
little writing. They may not be able to write as well as they talk, but if they 
write half as well as they talk, it will be awfully good stuff. (Laughter.)

Seriously, though, that is a real problem in connection with the Bulletin, 
getting men who know things, who have had the experience—referring not only 
to the members of the committee, but all of the clubs—is to do a little writing 
for us. There are many men all over the country who have mighty good in­
formation on some topic or another, but it is awfully hard to get it out of them.
Now, I think that is a real duty that every golf club owes to every other 
golf club. If one club has a good thing, it ought to pass it along. That sort 
of thing is going to help tremendously for the betterment of the game; and 
incidentally, it will very greatly help the chairman of the Green Committee with 
some of the things he has to contend against. He is getting in the position 
of the fellow who runs a country paper. He has got to scratch around pretty 
hard to get stuff to fill in with, and perhaps some of the stuff he uses as a 
filler is not quite as good as it should be, not nearly as good as some of the 
material we have heard today, but which we cannot get these gentlemen to 
write.

I hope that this little suggestion will have some influence on them in the 

future. (Laughter and applause.)

Mb. Ling: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we had a directors’ meeting at 
our club last evening. A subject came up at that meeting which I think every 
one of you men who are here today, who are interested in golf, would be inter­
ested in. It is something I think we all ought to go home and do a little 

February is, 19221 UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION

77

thinking about. I refer to the golf end of our clubs. Our clubs are golf clubs. 
I think it is our duty to fight for golf, and oppose this insane social tendency of 
our goif clubs. We represent the golf end of it. We are not running dancing 
clubs. X like to dance a little; I liKe to go to my club and dance occasionally. 
I like good service also, but the dancing, and the social features, and the 
various side issues, I think, are turning the clubs away from the ma.n issue, 
which is golf. I do not think that most of us care about going up to our 
golf duLs, and having them look like the Drake Hotel, with a man in livery, 
or in uniform, at the door, with strains of music coming from an afternoon tea, 
ana a lot of rot like that. We like it once in a while, but when we want that 
sort of stuif, let us go where they make a specialty of it; let us take it away 
from our golf courses. We may have some reasonable and sane dances once 
in a while; that is all right; but if we want to do that constantly, let us go 
where they make a speqjglty of it.

I think it is time we started to revamp a little bit. As far as my club 
is concerned, I am afraid to give our figures. * We will spend eighty-one thousand 
dollars this coming year, under cur buaget, and I am allotted seventeen thousand.

CiiAikMAN Alexander: Doesn’t that beat the devil? (Laughter.) 
Mk. Piper: It is' perfectly normal, at that.

• Mr. Ling: And that is what you are doing in all your clubs, because we 
have the comparative figures from ail of the clubs in tiie Chicago district. I 
told them last night, “All right; put me down for seventeen thousand dollars, 
if it loo„s all right, but I don’t ca±e if I spend thirty-seven thousand.”

CixAiKMAN Alexander: Good for you!
Mli. lung: “And you can go ahead and have your dancing, and all that, 
and you are going to pay the bill. This is a golf club.” (Laughter.) They said, 
“Go ahead. The members don't seem to kick about anything you spend on the 
golf course.”

Now, as I said before, X do not believe in a club burying itself and doing 
away w,th a reasonable amount of wholesome social activity; but if I want to 
do any any amount of banqueting or dancing, or that kind of entertainment, 
1 know wnere to go and get it, and I do not want it around my golf club. When 
I go to my golf club, I want to be quiet and enjoy my game of golf. I think 
that this activity I have referred to is running away with our golf proposition, 
and injuring the game. I may be wrong, but I just offer this as a thought 
for you to take home with you. It will mean that there will be one of us against 
ten or twelve others on the average board, and we will have to do a whole 
lot of kicking to put it over. But there is a field for us.

TaU about cutting down the cost of golf. This is where the cost of golf 
comes in. tv hat is a matter of an extra three thousand dollars on a golf course, 
at a club where there are three hundred players? That is simply ten dollars 
apiece. It is nothing. Many men will lose ten dollars on one hole, and think 
nothing about it. But it all counts up in the money that is needed if you run 
your golf club like you would the Blackstone Hotel. We all like that sort of 
thing, cut we do not like it on our golf courses. (Laughter and applause.)

CiiAiEMAN Alexander: Good for you.
Mr. A. J. Hood: Will you permit me just one word more, Mr. Chairman? 
Right along this same line I have something here that has gone out to every 
cluo in the Detroit district. We believe that using this will mean a reduction 
in the general cost of operation, and not referring alone to the course itself. 
It is as follows:

‘ Recommendations from executive of Detroit Golf Association relative to 

fees and duties of professionals.

“First: That maximum charges for club cleaning, including storing and 
minor repairs, such as wrapping, filing, et cetera, be one dollar and fifty cents 
per month.

“Second: That maximum charges for lessons be one dollar for half-hour, 

and two dollars per hour.

“Third: That maximum charges for lessens given by assistant be sev­

enty-five cents per half-hour, and one dollar and fifty cents per hour.

“Fourth: That maximum and minimum prices on supplies be in accordance 
with recommendations of a committee of the Detroit District Golf Association, 
which recommendations will be made by the first day of April in each year.

7S 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE ivoi.n,Jto.2

“Fifth: That the professional keep a record of receipts, disbursements and 
profits, the same to be available to the club during the year, and at the end of 
the year.

“Sixth: That the professional agree to lend his assistance to the club 

in running tournaments, caddy operations, advising on course, et cetera.

“Seventh: That complaints to this association having made it apparent 
that professionals in general have received larger remuneration than justified, 
all dubs are urged to take this into consideration before making salary and 
privilege arrangements for the year 1922.

“Owing to the fact that there is a great disparity in the amount of salary 
being paid to the different professionals in the district, ranging from sums (being 
among those receiving the largest total remuneration) who are paid no salary to 
ethers who are paid salaries running into several thousands, the association does 
not fed that any general recommendations as to salary can be made, the value 
of the privileges being the bads upon which the salary, if any, must be based.

Eighth: That the contract of hiring between a club and its professional 

prepared by the Detroit District Golf Association be made use of by the clubs.

“Ninth: That a copy of the above recommendations be sent to the secretaries 
of the district with the advice that the form of contract will be forwarded as 
soon as possible.”

I made a contract a few days ago with one of the best “pros” in the country. 
I win not quote the figures, but they were so reasonable that few thought they 
could be true. In spite of that, Detroit has got the reputation of being a spend­
thrift town, and every fellow who wants to be a retired golf professional at a 
large salary, and go around the country playing in tournaments, and not give 
lessons at home, wants to go over there and anchor. That has been true of a 
lot of fellows.

But our golf expense has now gone up all along the line, and we are starting 
to retrench in every department. There is no reason on earth why we. should 
not systematically organize to keep expenses down, so that the majority, the 
75 per cent about which we were talking a little while ago, can stay on the job 
without having it a burden to them. As long as I am connected with golf 
over in Michigan, I am going to be fighting for this thing, and I have got a 
lot of support, I know.

Thank you. (Laughter and applause.)
Chairman Alexander: Is there anything further to come before the meet­

ing, gentlemen?

Mr. Barrett: I would like to submit briefly a suggestion or two along 

the line of economy, Mr. Chairman.

I have had my job for quite a few years, and have always tried to be 
economical. During the nast year, with four-dollar labor, I was able to take 
care of the greens for $16,000. I think our course is always in very good shape.
There is one thing I want to bring to the attention of the men who, like 
myself, are endeavoring to do the very best they can with the money they have 
to spend, and that is the matter of tees. There is a demand for clean tees, that 
they may be carefully played, and I think that is quite proper. Consequently, 
in reconstructing the Hollywood Club, which I have been doing for four years 
now, T built every tee so that it can be traversed by horses. I have built five 
tees in the last two years at least twelve feet in.height where necessary; but 
in each case, instead of building them with steps, I built them with a ramp, 
so that they can go right up on the tees.

Most of the clubs in my section keep two men cutting the tees continuously. 
They have two men on the job all the time cutting their tees. That means 
practically $200 a month, for cutting tees. That does not quite fit with me. 
That means a lot of money, $200. So I evolved the scheme of doing everything 
with a horse mower. I cut my tees in about six hours with a team and a 
Triplex. They climb a tee, cut the tee, and move on. I cut them three times 
a week, for about $60 a month, as against $200, so I save the difference, or about 
$140, which goes to the mower-----

Chairman Alexander: Or the soil. (Laughter.)
Mr. Barrett: In other words, I save that by the Triplex mower. I merely 
suggest that. I think it is a pretty good point. There are lots of tees in the 
United States. They do not all need to be twelve feet high. They can be on 
the ground, and that will save a good deal of money. We all know that a tee 

February io, Ims] UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 

79

.

closer to the ground keeps in better condition than one in the air; but you always 
have to humor the fellow who tries to tell you how to construct your go’f course.
Now, I try to keep my men going ad the year round. I have eight men, 
and I try to keep them going. In the wintertime I saw wood for the clubhouse, 
cart snow, et cetera. There are times, of course, when they do not work m the 
winter, on account of storms, but I cut a great many cords of wood for the 
clubhouse, for the six or seven open fireplaces, and it does not cost the House 
Committee a cent. 

Now, one other thing along the line of greenkeeping. It is not new to you, 
but I have been very strong for it, for four years.. I made up my ™lnd that 
the only way to grow grass is to put your material, not underneath, but on 
top. Frankly, in the last four years I have top-dressed the fairways of Holly­
wood to the tune of anywhere from 600 to 1,000 cubic yards of top-dressing 
per year. That is all figured in the course. I call it maintenance. I do not 
call it construction. Further, I top-dressed my putting greens about every 
two or three weeks, with anywhere from one to two cubic yards. I do not 
know whether this is in accord with the theory of the proposition, but I will 
simply give it to you from the practical end. That top dressing might be loam, 
a very light loam. It also might be humus. Now, take the ordinary work­
man, with the upright screen, and at the end of a very warm day he has 
screened about three-quarters of a cubic yard. On a cooler day, it may be as 
much as a whole yard. That comes pretty higjh, at four-dollar-a-day labor, 
or even at three-dollar-a-day labor, as it will be this year with us, starting today. 
So I looked around, and finally I worked out a scheme. I was going out to 
look at some property one day, and I had to go through a coal yard, and in there 
I saw a fePow screening coal. As soon as I saw what he was using, I said, 
“That is mine.” I asked him where he got it, and he told me, and I looked up 
the place and found that such things were a little out of the market, but they 
could make one to order for me; so I bought a revolving screen, such as you see 
at a gravel yard, for instance, where they sift the gravel into assorted sizes. 
This revolving screen is probably from twenty-six to thirty inches in diameter. 
They make it in half-inch or quarter-inch mesh, whichever you prefer. 1 took 
the latter. It is on an upright carriage, on wheels, which I also demanded, 
so that it can be drawn over the course. I put my gas engine on that. 1 
guess most of you have gas engines, or tractors, which you can put on for your 
motive power. I use my gas engine in the winter to saw wood, and I also use it 
for this purpose. With that screen, using about a four horsepower engine, it is 
my experience that six men will hand’e from forty to forty-five cubic yards of 
top dressing per day. Figure that against four dollars per day per cubic yard. 
Figure six men at $24 and give them $6 overhead, making $30. For $30 I 
can screen forty-five cubic yards of top dressing, be it humus or loam. That 
brings it down to a reasonable basis.

Then in that same connection I use my wagons. I also run a farm, 1 may 
say, of about forty acres, in connection with my club, including a twelve-acre 
garden, from which I supply the clubhouse with vegetables; and on the rest of 
it I grow corn and hay for the horses. That is all a part of my job. My four 
teams will carry that soil away practically as quickly as we can screen it, and 
they carry it on the fairways, where it is distributed. We dump it in heaps, 
and then the men—one man or two men, depending on. the distance from the 
sifting place—spread it as quickly as they can. * You will find some clubs that 
will cart their top soil up a hill, dump it, rake it, spread it, and pack it away. 
I do not believe you economize as much that way as you do by sifting it first, 
and then spreading it, because your turf absorbs it very quickly.
I simply offer that as a suggestion along the line of economy.
With regard to the garden, it may interest some of you men who are presi­
dents of clubs to know a little more about it. We run about twelve acres of 
garden, in which we raise all of the ordinary things, such as potatoes, sweet 
com, carrots, peas, beans, et cetera. For the last three years that garden 
has not cost the club over $650. We run the clubhouse pretty hard, too. We 
have a couple of hundred people out for luncheon Saturdays and Sundays, and 
Saturday nights we have three hundred and fifty or four hundred people at the 
dinner dances. We sell the sweet com and the potatoes to our own members. 
We undersell the market, and we get customers. For instance, we sell corn .for 
twenty-five cents per dozen. It is freshly picked for them. When a woman 
comes out to play, she leaves word at the office that she wants four dozen ears; 

80 

BULLETIN OF GREEN SECTION OF THE ivoi.n.No.2

and then when she comes there on her way back, it is waiting for her, and she 
takes it home with her in her car.

Then we raise hogs, also. Chicago has nothing on us.
Chairman Alexander: Have you any blind ones? (Laughter.)
Me. Barrett: Don’t ask me to. commit myself. (Continued laughter.) We 
paid a man $40 a month to take away our refuse every day. Well, it seems 
that every day with him meant every day he chose to take it away, and he 
only came about two or three times a week, and it was pretty disagreeab'e at 
times. So I told the Chairman of the House Committee that if he wotfd give 
me $40 a month I would take that away every day myself, at 7 o’clock in the 
morning. He agreed. I said, “All right, but dop’t forget to give it to me.” By 
the way, I never have gotten it yet. (Laughter.)

In the spring I buy ten pigs—more of them the last time—weighing about 
thirty pounds apiece. We take the refuse and feed it to the pigs, and at the 
end of the season I find I have saved the club a matter of $400. It takes two 
men a half an hour with a team to take that away and feed it to the hogs; 
and at the end of the season we have that saving. There has not been a year 
yet, including this year, with the low price of pork, that the club has not made 
upwards of $350 on its hog account.

Now, I kno.w that you presidents here are interested in the management of 
your dubs. There are lots of little things that you do not ordinarily think 
of. For instance, there is a matter of graft in grease in the kitchen. We ac­
cumulate our grease in a place outside, and at certain times we de’ive1- it to 
a soap man, and in return he delivers us washing powders and soaps for use 
in the kitchen, in return for the barrel of grease; and we save there probably a 
$400 item per year for the dubhouse.

I just wanted to offer these few suggestions to you, along the line of econ­

omy, which we were discussing. Thank you. (Applause.)

Me. Piper: I had the pleasure of being in Hollywood during the women’s 
tournament, in October, and I want to back up what Mr. Barrett has said. 
The turf conditions at Hollywood in October were exceptionally fine. It was 
wonderful turf, almost perfect. Perfect turf is the ideal that will probably 
never be obtained; but for all practical purposes, this was perfect turf. That 
was true of every one of the putting greens and the fairways, except one, where 
the grubs had made some trouble. A’l this was very interesting to me. because 
I visited some nearby dubs, and the contrast was simply appalling. There was 
the same kind of soil exactly, and that indicated to me that the greenkeeping 
at Hollywood was exceptionally good.

In regard to top dressing, it is one of the things you can not very we1! overdo. 
The number of applications, though, will depend pretty wdl on your soil con­
ditions. However, it is a pretty safe rule to fol’ow, that when you have not 
anything else to do, top dress. It will not do any harm, at any rate.

Chairman Alexander-.. I want to announce, gentlemen, that immediately 
after the adournment of this meeting, which will be immediately, the members 
of the committee are asked to remain for a few moments.

Now, unless there is something else to come before the house, a motion to 

adjourn is in order.

(The officers and directors of the Green Section were thanked by a unani­
mous vote for their services during the past year; after which, on motion sec­
onded and carried, the meeting stood adjourned.)