USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT WITH AN EYE TO MUIRFIELD These five members of the USGA Curtis Cup Team, which will meet the British ladies at Muirfield, Scotland, in June, played in the Titleholders' tournament at Augusta, Ga., and posed for the nearest thing to a Team photograph yet taken. From the left they are: Miss Marjorie Lindsay, Miss Claire Doran, Miss Dorothy Kirby, Miss Patricia O'Sullivan and Miss Grace DeMoss. USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION PERMISSION TO REPRINT ARTICLES HEREIN IS FREELY GRANTED (UNLESS SPECIFICALLY NOTED OTHERWISE) PROVIDED CREDIT IS GIVEN TO THE USGA JOURNAL Vol. V, No. 1 April, 1952 Through the Green ................................................................................. 1 Sportsman’s Corner ................................................................................. 3 The Case for Foxburg’s Old Course ..................... John P. English 5 The Ladies Look to Muirfield............................................................... 9 The Rule about Obstructions ......................... Joseph C. Dey, Jr. 12 “Golf House” Is for You ................................ 14 Keep Thinking ....................................................... S. Max McCready 15 Silver Anniversary for the Boys ....................................................... 16 Preparing Merion for a Championship.............. Joseph Valentine 19 Records in the Golf Shop............................ George Calderwood 20 The Referee: Decisions by the Rules of Golf Committees........... 21 Turf Management: USGA Green Section Physical Condition of Putting-Green Soils and Other Environmental Factors Affecting Quality of Greens ...... Richard Richardson Davis 25 Permeability of Various Grades of Sand and Peat and Mixtures of these with Soil and Vermiculite ........................ William L. Garman 27 Effect of Porous Soil Amendments on Water Retention Characteristics of Soil ........................ Robert M. Hagan and John R. Stockton 29 Excerpts from Typical Advisory Service Reports ...................... 31 It’s Your Honor: Letters ..................................................................... 33 Published seven times a year in February, April, June, July, August, September and November by the UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION 40 East 38th St., New York 16, N. Y. Subscriptions: $2 a year. Single copies: 30c. Subscriptions, articles, photographs, and correspondence, except pertaining to Green Section matters, should be sent to the above address. Correspondence pertaining to Green Section matters should be addressed to USGA Green Section, Room 331, Administration Building, Plant Industry Station, Beltsville, Md. Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1950, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Edited by Joseph C. Dey, Jr., and John P. English. Advisory Committee—John D. Ames, Chairman: Isaac B. Grainger, Curtis W. McGraw and Bernard H. Ridder, Jr. All articles voluntarily contributed. Printed in U. S. A. USGA COMPETITIONS FOR 1952 Curtis Cup Match — June 6 and 7 at Muirfield Golf Club, Muirfield, Scotland. Women’s Amateur Teams, British Isles vs. United States. (Dates entries close mean last dates for applications to reach USGA office, except in the case of the Amateur Public Links Championship. For possible exceptions in dates of Sectional Qualifying Rounds, see entry forms.) Championship Open Amateur Public Links Junior Amateur Entries Close May 19 *May 29 June 30 Sectional Qualifying Rounds Championship Dates Venue June 2 June 12-13-14 **June 15 to 21 July 15 Team: July 5 Indiv.: July 7-12 July 23-26 Amateur July 21 Aug. 5 Aug. 18-23 Girls' Junior Aug. 4 None Aug. 18-22 Women's Amateur Aug. 7 None Aug. 25-30 * Entries close with Sectional Qualifying Chairmen. ** Exact date in each section to be fixed by Sectional Chairmen. Northwood Club, Dallas, Texas Miami Country Club, Miami, Fla. Yale G. C., New Haven, Conn. Seattle G. C., Seattle, Wash. Monterey Peninsula C. C„ Pebble Beach, Cal. Waverley C. C., Portland. Ore. USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 1 THROUGH THE GREEN Question The following query has been received from a lady golfer, indicating that it is now open season on the Rules of Golf and each quivering paragraph is susceptible of being shot down without warning: “If, because of a shortage of caddies, I am sharing a caddie, am I disqualified if our caddie tells me something about my opponent derogatory to her? “Can’t I shut my ears and not listen?” Briton Wins with Our Ball How does the larger United States-size golf ball compare in performance with the British-size ball? A comment on this was given by Leonard Crawley, former British Walker Cup player, in a recent article in the British publication “Golf Monthly”. Writing about the competition for the President’s Putter at Rye, Eng­ land, which he won, Mr. Crawley had this to say: “Having convinced myself that the larger ball, as used in America, is easier in winter conditions even at Rye, I used it in all seven rounds at upwards of 75 per cent of the holes I played, and not one of my opponents noticed it, or at any rate none of them commented upon it. I used our little ball against the wind at the long holes, but never at the long 14th where the lies on the fairway are always very difficult. Our greens at Rye at this time of year are terrifically fast, and if there is one factor more than any other that helped me to win round after round, it was that with the shorter irons and the big ball, I was much more accurate than any of my opponents.” Sir Guy Campbell, writing in “Golf Monthly” of March 1952, heartily ap­ plauded Crawley’s use of the American ball and seized the opportunity to com­ ment: “In using the big ball Crawley was no doubt influenced by what he had seen in America as well as by personal experi­ ment. “The fact that he did use it in compe­ tition against his-peers playing the small heavy 1.62 in. and 1.62 oz., yet with no sense of handicap, but to the greatest demonstrable advantage, is as significant as it is heartening. For it is the first real blow at a missile, generally unsuitable, that has dominated British golf for over thirty years. “A ball that without bringing any good to the game has added materially to its cost in the continued increase in dis­ tance and maintenance charges of links and courses. “A ball that ought never to have been admitted, and should be ruled out as soon as possible. “If Crawley’s example is followed by other first-class players and thereafter by players of all handicaps, I have sanguine hopes that the big heavy ball will be gen­ erally preferred to the small heavy type. “That will lead to the disappearance of the latter—as great a contribution to the good of the game as its introduction was a disservice. “In fact, it may well point the way to the standardization of another missile that, in playing qualities and economy, satisfies the ideal still being sought; an ideal I hope to see realized before I die.” May and August The Merion Golf Club has kept track of the number of rounds played on its two courses for several years and there­ fore has a statistical basis for the as­ sertion that more rounds are played in May and fewer in August than in any other months during the Philadelphia season. This, of course, is in line with the theory that enthusiasm in the East is highest in the spring and that city dwellers most commonly select the hot weeks of August for vacations. 2 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 Last year 26,590 rounds were recorded on Merion’s two courses (and undoubted­ ly a number of rounds on the detached West course were not recorded). This compares with 26,450 in 1950 and 24,516 in 1949. “As usual,” Merion reports, “the least golf was played in February (281) and the most golf in May (3,889). Fewer rounds were recorded in August than in either April or October, bolstering the theory that August is the vacation month.” John English Back with USGA John P. English has returned from a military leave of absence to his position as Assistant Executive Secretary of the United States Golf Association. He had been recalled by the Navy in the late summer of 1950 and served in Washington until his release from active duty in February, 1952. During his last tour of duty Mr. English was promoted to the rank of commander in the Naval Reserve. He is a native of Boston, was graduated from Williams College in 1932, and John P. English served as Golf Editor of the Boston Herald and as an Associate Editor of True Magazine before joining the USGA staff in the spring of 1949. Are You Guilty? The Teaching Committee of the Pro­ fessional Golfers’ Association has ap­ pealed to America’s golfers to help elim­ inate one of the game’s major problems, slow play. The Committee urges all players to: 1. Be ready to play in turn, to make up their minds what club they will use while their companions are playing and then play their own shots without delay. 2. Give up unnecessary practice swings. The Committee points out they will do final scores more harm than good. 3. When playing with double caddies, take a club, or optional clubs, and re­ place their own divots if the caddie must follow the other player. 4. Allow faster players to play through, and ask slow-playing groups if you may play through. 5. Eliminate the habit of practicing putts after holing out, particularly if other players are waiting to play to the green. 6. Do scorekeeping at the next tee, not on the green while other players are waiting to play. 7. Give up the “Mulligan,” wherein a player who drives poorly from the first tee is given a second try. Help! The collection of USGA Rules of Golf booklets in the Museum and Library at “Golf House” is not complete, and the donation of any issues now missing would be greatly appreciated. The booklets de­ sired are those for any year prior to 1920, except 1905, and those for the years 1924 and 1925. To Prestwick The British Amateur continues to hold a strong appeal for United States golfers. Richard D. Chapman, of Pinehurst, N. C., plans to defend his title at Prestwick, USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 a Scotland, and entries also have been filed by Charles Evans, Jr., of Chicago, Janies B. McHale, Jr., of Philadelphia, Robert W. Knowles, Jr., of Aiken, S. C., Edward E. Lowery, of San Francisco, J. E. Ber- nolfo, Jr., of Salt Lake City, Louis B. Stoner, of Hartford, Conn., Clark Espie, of Indianapolis, and William L. Har- monay, of Mamaroneck, N. Y. The Championship will start May 26. Mr. Lowery plans to play also in the French Amateur, and Mr. Bernolfo has entered that and several other continental cham­ pionships. A Friend Retires After 15 years as a real working mem­ ber of the Public Links Committee, Ed Miles, of Atlanta, Ga., has decided to retire, and as always when our loyal friends make such decisions we experi­ ence a sense of loss tempered only by our high regard for his successor. Miles joined the Public Links Com­ mittee in 1937, before the present system of sectional qualifying rounds was in­ stituted, and has seen the Championship grow to its record of 3,586 entrants in 1946. He shared in the gratification when Wilfred Crossley, representing At­ lanta, won the Standish Cup and Atlanta the Harding Trophy in 1947 and when the competition was brought to Atlanta, for the first time, in 1948. It was a full and useful 15 years. “Having headed sometime since into the wrong side of the 50-year mark,” Miles explains cryptically, “I feel I should turn the task over to a younger and more ambitious worker. ‘Pop’ Herrington, you see, is just a little past 70!” ... in One Generation Gayle Talbot, of The Associated Press, came up with some significant observa­ tions in discussing the victory of Jack Burke, Jr., in the Texas Open last winter, with a score of 67-65-64-64—260. The victory was the first of Burke’s remark­ able string on the winter tour and it SPORTSMAN'S CORNER Alex T. Kyle Alex T. Kyle, of Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, England, has won many honors in amateur golf, including the British Amateur Championship in 1939 and membership on three British Walker Cup Teams. Yet none of these earned him greater distinction than his conduct in the last Yorkshire Open Championship. Although Kyle has been playing winning golf since the late Twenties, he never developed a truly Damon-and-Pythias relationship with the Rules of Golf and in the Yorkshire tournament he had his caddie hold back a growing branch so that he might have a free swing at his ball. A week later, over a dinner table, Kyle and some golfing friends were discussing episodes of the game and Rule 17-3, which prohibits such moving, bending or breaking of anything fixed or growing, was injected into the discussion. "Why, I did that very thing the other day when I won the Yorkshire tournament," Kyle exclaimed. He then wrote to the tournament committee, in­ sisting that he be disqualified, and returned the prize. Honor, it is clear, can derive from defeat as well as from victory. prompted analogy to the also excellent play of Burke’s father a generation ago. “It indicates,” Talbot wrote, “that in one generation, from club-iaaking father to exhibitionist-entertainer son, the art of 4 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 golf has improved approximately seven strokes to the round. That is, better clubs, better balls and incessant play have transformed sonny into a scoring machine the likes of which his pappy could not have dreamed. “This is a case where the figures may be nailed down. Exactly 26 years ago, over the same Brackenridge Park course in San Antonio, crusty Macdonald Smith won the fifth annual Texas Open with a score of 288. And playing with him in perhaps the most harrowing, hilarious finish of all golfing history were Jack Burke, Sr., and little Bobby Cruickshank. “That was the memorable day when Wild Bill Mehlhorn climbed the tree over­ looking the last green and shouted well- meant encouragement to Cruickshank — something like ‘Sink it, Bobby.’ Wee Bobby, who a moment before had first money as good as banked, jumped and got the trembles and took four strokes from the edge of the green to finish an exceedingly angry second. “The only point in recalling the oft- told tale is to haul in the fact that Burke, the elder, was among those present and tc emphasize that he was at that time cne of the country’s best golfers. Six years before, he had finished in a four­ way tie for second place in the United States Open, one stroke behind the leader.” Uncle Joe Dickson The new president of the Kentucky State Golf Association is Joseph S. Dick­ son, of the Seneca Golf Club in Louis­ ville. His election is somewhat more in- •eresting than you might assume at first glance because he represents a public course and has long been a member of lhe USGA Public Links Committee. And in our opinion it proves once again that the game is the thing, not the course. How to Run a Rules Clinic The other day we received a letter from a member of an old-line golf club. He wanted to know whether in match play a lost ball automatically meant loss of the hole. There used to be a Rule to that effect, but it expired in 1920. It is strange to contemplate the num­ ber of 1952 golfers who play the game under 1920 Rules, give or take a few years. It is strange to realize how rare is the average club member who has a clear understanding of the Rules. Some golf committees are aware of this rather general ignorance, and now that an entire new Code of Rules is in effect they are holding clinics and discussion periods about the Rules for their mem­ bers. The Rules contain so many rights and privileges for the golfer that every golfer ought to be informed on the basis of self­ interest. The Rules contain so many pro­ visions designed to produce fair play for the other fellow that every golfer ought to be informed for the pure and simple sake of sportsmanship. How should a golf committee go about bringing the gospel to its members? Here are a few ideas on how a little clinic could be held: First, the person holding the clinic should have a clear understanding of how the Rules of Golf are set up, that is, their arrangements by sections and the general scheme of order. The Rules are not a hodgepodge but are rather closely inter­ related as a result of a good deal of study. Second, the principles underlying the various sections should be stressed before details of the individual Rules are gone into. For example, there are general principles governing the subject of penal­ ties, and you will find that there is uni­ formity among penalties. Third, invite questions and give an­ swers and try as much as possible to stick to one section of the Rules at a time; jumping about is apt to produce a con­ fused impression. It is preferable to have questions written in advance and sub­ mitted to the person conducting the cli­ nic. In this way the questioner is more nearly apt to ask sound and sensible questions, and the conductor has oppor­ tunity for a studied reply. Fourth, decisions on actual cases, as published in “The Referee” section of the LSGA Journal, could be studied profit­ ably. USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 5 The Case for Foxburg’s Old Course By JOHN P. ENGLISH USGA Assistant Executive Secretary The Foxburg Country Club, in western Pennsylvania, believes that it is the oldest permanent club and possesses the oldest permanent golf course in the United States. The claim is set forth in the notarized affidavits of five distinguished elder residents of three little neighboring communities, each of about 1,000 persons or fewer. If their memories are accurate, and in some cases they are linked to corollary events which can be confirmed, the first five holes were laid out and the club was organized some time during 1887 and the same land has been used by the same club for golf continuously to this day. The St. Andrew’s Golf Club, which has been at Hastings-on-Hudson, N. Y., since 1897, holds documentary evidence that its first course was laid out and its club organized in Yonkers, N. Y., in 1888, one year later than Foxburg claims. It has been generally believed to be the oldest permanent golf club in the United States, although other courses are ac­ knowledged to be older. Foxburg is near the confluence of the Allegheny and the Clarion Rivers, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh in the foot­ hills of western Pennsylvania. The course lies beside the Petersburg Road (State Highway 338), which runs between Fox­ burg and St. Petersburg, and its fairways roll across the hills above the Allegheny and provide picturesque glimpses of the river valley. It has the simple dignity which grows out of its own modesty. The course and club came into existence through a chain of events similar to those which led to the founding of St. Andrew’s in Yonkers, except that the late Joseph Mickle Fox fulfilled for Foxburg the roles which both Robert Lockhart and John Reid played for St. Andrew’s. Fox was born in Philadelphia on Feb­ ruary 4, 1853, developed as a cricket player at Haverford College, where he was graduated in 1873, and continued to enjoy the game at the Merion Cricket Club. After his graduation and admis­ sion to the bar, however, he made his summer home in Foxburg in order to manage family properties in western Pennsylvania, where his great grand­ father, Samuel Mickle Fox, had accumu­ lated 118,000 acres at the time of his passing in 1808, and he retained the residence until his death in 1918. The house is still standing and maintained by caretakers of the Fox estate. When Merion assembled a cricket team to compete in a series of amateur matches in Ireland, Scotland and England in 1884, Fox was among those selected. The team sailed in May, the matches were played through June and July and the players returned to Philadelphia that autumn. Introduction at St. Andrew's These facts are matters of documentary record in histories and clippings held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and are relevant because they confirm the re­ collections of Foxburg elders that Fox had been introduced to golf and acquired his first left-handed clubs and gutty balls while abroad with the cricket team in 1884. The introduction is said to have taken place at St. Andrews, Scotland, and the team did in fact play at Edinburgh on June 7 and 8. Unfortunately, there are no first-hand documentary records concerning either the first rounds of golf in Foxburg or the subsequent organization of the Foxburg Golf Club, as there are in the case of the American St. Andrew’s. However, Fox­ burg residents who were associated with the early play have contributed confirma­ tory segments of the story. These basic recollections were notarized from 1947 through 1950. According to these recollections, Fox laid out a short course on the grounds surrounding his home, known as the Man­ 6 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 sion, in 1885. Subsequently, he sent to Scotland for more clubs and balls for his friends. In addition, he offered the pres­ ent site to make the game available to the community, participated in the or­ ganization of the Foxburg Golf Club and became its first president in 1887. The precise dates on which the course was laid out and the club organized cannot now be recalled. For purposes of comparison, Robert Lockhart visited Scotland in 1887 and brought back to Yonkers the clubs and balls which enabled John Reid and John B. Upham to play their original exhibi­ tion in the pasture across from Reid’s home on Lake Avenue on a date which participants later recalled to have been Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1888. The group also recollected that it had laid out its first course on North Broadway in April, 1888, after the great blizzard of March, and organized the St. Andrew’s Golf Club and elected John Reid the first president during a dinner at his home on November 14, 1888, a date which was recorded in the minutes which have been carefully preserved by the St. Andrew’s club. While Foxburg retained its original site through the years, St. Andrew’s moved three times, to the Apple Orchard in 1892, to Grey Oaks in 1894 and finally to its present location in 1897. The key witness for Foxburg is Harry R. Harvey, who with his late brother Frank stimulated the founding and pro­ gress of the club from its inception. He is now 85 and stated in a deposition notar­ ized on September 10, 1947: “That he was present at the organiza­ tion of the Foxburg Country Club, Fox­ burg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1887 and at the organization meeting he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Foxburg Country Club and served in these offices continuously until the year 1941, a period of 54 years; that in the year 1884 the late Joseph M. Fox, Esquire, was a member of the Amer­ ican cricket team which went to England to play the English cricketers and while there was introduced to the game of golf; that in the year 1885 the said Joseph M. Fox built a short golf course on the Man­ sion grounds near Foxburg; that in the year 1887 the said Joseph M. Fox offered the present site of the Foxburg Country Club links, rent free, and that golf has been played continuously on said links (enlarged from time to time) until the present time; that five holes were in play in the year 1887 and in the year 1888 the course was enlarged to nine holes.” Upon Harvey’s resignation as secretary and treasurer in August, 1941, the club arranged a testimonial dinner and the program carried the following notation: “Given in honor of H. R. Harvey, who has been secretary of the Foxburg Coun­ try Club, Foxburg, Pennsylvania, (the oldest golf club in continuous existence in the United States) from the time of its organization in the year 1887 to the time of his retirement this year, com­ pleting a term of fifty-four years’ service. We believe Mr. Harvey to be the earliest living golfer in the United States.” Harvey was still playing the Foxburg course last summer, 84 years after his birth and 64 years after the present course is said to have been laid out and the club organized. Harvey’s recollection of the year in which the community course was laid out and the club founded is sup­ ported by other elder residents. H. J. Crawford of Emlenton, Pa., a USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 7 Linking the Past and the Present at Foxburg An early four-ball at Foxburg. From the left, the players are Harry R. Harvey, D. C. Hart, Charles Hart and H. H. Porter­ field. The date is not known. More recently on the same course. The players are Harry R. Harvey, Gilbert Chipley, Marcellin C. Adams and Charles Adams. banker who is more than 80, deposed on September 9, 1947, “that for a period I was a member of the Foxburg Country Club and to my personal knowledge know the said club was organized and began doing business in the year 1887, that the said club has been in continuous existence and operating without interrup­ tion since that date.” C. H. Adams of Parker’s Landing, Pa., 86, deposed on October 30, 1950, “that in my younger days I was a commercial traveler. In 1888 I made the territory adjacent to Foxburg, Pennsylvania, every thirty days. One of the places covered regularly was St. Petersburg, a distance of three miles beyond Foxburg. Return­ ing by livery team on an early spring trip to St. Petersburg, I passed a field on which a game new to me was being played. This I found to be the game of golf, and on several occasions I stopped to watch the players. This field is still part of the Foxburg Country Club golf course. I fix the year from the fact that in 1888 I first began traveling in that section. Also it was the year of the great blizzard of March, 1888.” The late C. A. Miller of Foxburg de­ posed on September 29, 1951, “that he attended Clarion State Normal School during the years 1887 and 1888 and made frequent trips on the narrow gauge rail­ road which passed the golf grounds of the Foxburg Country Club in the Borough of Foxburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania; that he usually returned home from Clar­ ion to Foxburg for week ends and says that during the spring vacation of 1888 he played golf on the Foxburg Country Club course with Mr. A. J. Dixon of Phila­ delphia, who he understands was one of the original members of the Foxburg Country Club; that he has been a citizen of the Borough of Foxburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, practically all his lifetime and that he believes the Foxburg Country Club has been in existence since sometime during the year 1887 continu­ ously until this time.” The opening of the Normal School in Clarion in 1887 and the existence of the railroad are con­ firmed facts. Miller’s brother, the late Hubert F. Miller, wrote in a letter dated June 16, 1949, “If you go back to 1887 . . . you will have to visualize a very crude golf course at Foxburg with only five play­ able holes for the first year or two, no regular income or clubhouse, no care­ taker, a few ‘natural’ greens . . . verily, an abandoned cow pasture. Within the area and quite near by were several producing oil wells and several large oil storage tanks . . . The real founder of the club was Mr. Joseph Fox who gave us the free use of the cow pasture, reserv­ ing room for a small ball park also, with­ out cost to anybody ... He certainly showed his personal interest in golf and baseball and maintained a private course around the Mansion. That was a year or 8 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 two before the Foxburg Country Club began to function. I played there by in­ vitation with several founder members of the Foxburg Country Club after 1887.” The late Mrs. Major R. Morgan of Fox­ burg, who was then 87, stated in 1948 that in the autumn of 1888 she had been mar­ ried and moved to Foxburg, where her late husband had regularly played golf with Frank and Harry Harvey, Fox and visitors from Philadelphia. “The men all played on land belonging to the Fox estate. This is the same land on which the Foxburg Country Club still has its course,” she wrote. “Several years after the men had organized their golf club, a ladies’ golf club was formed of which I was the first president, and with the ex­ ception of two intervals I retained that office for thirty years. Although we used the same course, this was an entirely separate organization with its own rules,” she added. “I do not remember a time when golf was not being played either on the course laid out by Mr. Fox around his residence or on the links adjoining the Petersburg Road on land Mr. Fox allowed the new club to use.” Early Record-Keeping The lack of documentation regarding these early dates is simply explained. Harvey relates that he took care of the simple details of running the club with the sole assistance of a small notebook into which he entered the names of the mem­ bers and the dates on which they paid their dues, originally one dollar a year. The dues eventually were used to pay one John Dunkle at the rate of $15 a year to cut the fairways with a scythe. Collect­ ing the dues and paying the “green­ keeper” were Harvey’s only duties in the early years, and when all financial en­ tries had been made, the records were considered complete for the year. Even­ tually the notebook disappeared, prob­ ably when Harvey changed his residence. There were no minutes and no news­ papers were published at the time in Foxburg, so there was no medium for other records of club activities in the earliest years. Although organized as the Foxburg Golf Club, the name was soon changed to the Clarion County Golf Club. When it became apparent that players were be­ ing drawn from the counties of Arm­ strong, Butler and Venango, it was de­ cided that it would be more diplomatic to revert to the Foxburg name. Since then, it has been the Foxburg Country Club. The course, which had been en­ larged from five to nine holes in 1888, later grew to 18 holes, but the newer nine subsequently were abandoned, leav- (Continued on page 14) The Foxburg ladies formed their own club soon after men had established the course and club and always have played a prominent part in the activities there. Mrs. Adam Miller here is addressing her ball in an era when golfing costumes were somewhat more cumbersome than they are today. USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 9 The Ladies Look to Muirfield The Captain and seven players who will represent the USGA in the seventh Match for the Curtis Cup will assemble at “Golf House” on May 21 and travel as a Team to Scotland. The ceremonies at “Golf House” will be brief, and they will board the MV Britannic in New York the same day. The Match, against a women’s amateur team representing the British Isles, will be played over the Muirfield course, near Edinburgh, June 6 and 7. There will be three foursomes at 36 holes on the first day and six singles at 36 holes on the second day. The USGA Team will be de­ fending the Cup, which it won at the Country Club of Buffalo in 1950 and in fact has never relinquished since it was donated by the Misses Harriot S. and Margaret Curtis, of Boston, in 1932. However, the only previous Match played in Scotland, that at Gleneagles in 1936, was halved. The Muirfield Course Muirfield, the home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, has rare­ ly felt the tread of feminine feet. The British Ladies’ Amateur Championship has never been played there, and the Scot­ tish Ladies’ Championship but once, in 1914. Consequently, there is no yard­ stick by which it can readily be meas­ ured as a test for women golfers. When the men’s championship tees are used, there are eight holes of more than 450 yards and the 18 holes total 6,806 yards. It is unlikely that it will be stretched to such length for this Match. The course, which is set apart from the hurly burly of traffic and noise, is laid out in a broad oblong on gently undulat­ ing ground and no hole impinges even remotely on another. The layout is such that it is necessary, in the course of a round, to play shots to every point of the compass. No matter from what direction the wind blows, and it can howl down the Firth of Forth or across from the hills of Fife, it makes every hole a dif­ ferent test in wind judgment. It is a course on which the player can never let up. All the Curtis Cup players have en­ tered the British Championship, which will be held a week later at Troon, June 16 through 20. Miss Louise Suggs, a mem­ ber of the 1948 Team which played at Birkdale, England, won the British Cham­ pionship in the course of her trip abroad with that Team. The winner last year was Mrs. P. G. MacCann, of Dublin, Ireland, who defeated Miss Frances Stephens in the final. The Team is scheduled to arrive at Liverpool, England, on May 30 and go directly to Edinburgh in order to have six days of practice at Muirfield. The ladies will be free to travel or practice for the Championship, as they prefer, in the week immediately following the Match, and they will have another free week following the Championship. The Players Mrs. Frank Goldthwaite, a member of the River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and Chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee, is non-play­ ing Captain. She represented the USGA in singles at the Chevy Chase Club in 1934 and also was a member of the Team which halved at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 1936. In the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship, she reached the quarter­ finals in 1938 and the semi-finals in 1941, and she has won the Southern and Texas Championships. She is the mother of three children, one of whom, Aniela, will accompany her. This will be Mrs. Goldthwaite’s first experience as Captain, and five of the seven members of the Team will be en­ joying their first experience as players. Only Miss Kirby and Miss Polly Riley, a clubmate of Mrs. Goldthwaite’s, have previously represented the USGA, as the following biographical sketches reveal: 10 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 Championships. She has been playing in Flor­ ida this winter and won the Palm Beach tourna­ ment. The pitch to the green is her favorite stroke. Miss Dorothy Kirby, who won the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship in her 13th attempt last summer, works in the sales de­ partment of a radio station in Atlanta, Ga., where she makes her home. She is a member of the Capital City Club. Her golfing career was successfully launched when she won the Georgia Championship at the age of 13, and it has included membership on the last two Curtis Cup Teams, two previous appearances in the final of the USGA Cham­ pionship and victories in the Southern, North and South and Titleholders tournaments. In addition, she gives generously to the game through service on the USGA Women’s Com­ mittee and has held various offices in the Wom­ en’s Southern, Western and Eastern Golf As­ sociations. Opponents customarily fear the worst when she plays a chip shot. In the 1948 Match at Birkdale, England, she lost to Miss Jean Donald, 2 down, in singles, but she and Mrs. Edwin H. Vare, Jr., defeated Miss Philomena Garvey and Mrs. Zara Bolton, 4 and 3, in foursomes. She also reached the quarter-final round of the British Championship that year. In the 1950 Match at the Country Club of Buffalo, she and Miss Dorothy Kielty defeated Miss Garvey and Miss Jeanne Bisgood, 6 and 5, in foursomes. Mrs. Goldihwaiie Miss DeMoss Miss Grace DeMoss is a senior at Oregon State College and the youngest member of the Team. Her home is in Corvallis, Ore., and she is a member of the Corvallis Country Club. She is particularly attracted to the challenge of hitting a long iron shot to a green and does it so successfully that she reached the semi­ final round in the 1950 and 1951 USGA Wom­ en’s Amateur Championships, losing to the sub­ sequent winner each year. She won the Cana­ dian Ladies Open Championship in 1949 and gained the final again in 1950. In sectional competition, she has taken the Pacific North­ west and Arizona Championships and is the present Oregon State and Oregon Women’s Golf Association Champion. A fine stroke player, she has led qualifying rounds in the Canadian, United States Collegiate, Trans-Mississippi, Western Open and Pacific Northwest Cham­ pionships. Miss Doran Miss Kirby Miss Claire Doran has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Western Reserve Uni­ versity and devotes part of her time to teach­ ing. Her home is in Cleveland, Ohio, and she represents the Westwood Country Club. She was runner-up in the 1951 USGA Wom­ en’s Amateur Championship and was Ohio Champion a year ago. She holds the stroke­ play title in the Cleveland District and has won the match-play title there six times. In Wom­ en’s Western Golf Association competition, she has gained the semi-final round of the Open and the quarter-final round of the Amateur Miss Lindsay Miss Murray Miss Marjorie Lindsay has devoted much of her time to both the playing and adminis­ trative phases of golf since attending Gulf Park College. She represents the Country Club of Decatur, Ill., where she lives. Last season she won the Western Amateur and the Illinois Championships and reached the semi-final round of the Western Open, Trans­ Mississippi and North and South tournaments. She was the 1950 Trans-Mississippi Champion and had won four previous Illinois Champion­ ships. In the last three USGA Women’s Ama­ teur Championships, she has reached the fourth round twice and the third round once. She also serves the Women’s Western, Women’s Trans- Mississippi and Illinois Women’s Golf Associ­ ations. Her pet weapon is the No. 4 iron. USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 11 Miss Mae Murray is a desk clerk in a mid- southern resort, but she has achieved her high place in golf as a representative of the Rutland Country Club in Rutland, Vt., where her Scott­ ish-born father is the professional. Miss Mur­ ray’s trip with the Team will take her to her father’s native land. She won five Vermont Championships and was runner-up in the Women’s Eastern Amateur Championship as a youngster before an unusual season in 1950. That year, in the fourth round of the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship, scheduled at 18 holes, she and Miss Fay Crocker of Uruguay played 27 holes in three less than women’s par before Miss Murray earned the victory; it was the most extra holes ever played in the Championship. Miss Murray went on to become runner-up. She was also runner-up in the Western and Eastern and a semi-finalist in the North and South tournaments that year. Last season she was runner-up in the Eastern and North and South tournaments, a semi-finalist in the Can­ adian Ladies Open Championship and reached the third round in the USGA Women’s Ama­ teur Championship. The chip shot is her favor­ ite. Miss Patricia O'Sullivan works with Miss Murray as a desk clerk in the mid-southern re­ sort but she, too, is a New Englander. Her home is in Orange, Conn., and she plays at the Race Brook Country Club. Last season she won her third successive Con­ necticut Championship, her second successive North and South tournament, her second East­ ern, the Titleholders’ tournament and was run­ ner-up in the Western Open. She lost in the third round of the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship. Between rounds she enjoys knit­ ting. In contrast to the majority, she has a fondness for playing from bunkers. Miss O'Sullivan Miss Riley Miss Polly Riley is a bookkeeper in Fort Worth, Texas, and plays at the River Crest Country Club. In addition to playing with the last two Cur­ tis Cup Teams, she has won the Southern Championship three times, the Western Ama­ teur, the Trans-Mississippi and the Texas Amateur and Open Championships. She has been a quarter-finalist three times in the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship but lost in the third round last year. She, too, played in Florida this winter and was a member of the winning team in the four-ball tournament at Hollywood, Fla. She is particularly adept at playing wood shots off fairways. In the 1948 Match at Birkdale, England, she defeated Miss Maureen Ruttie, 3 and 2, in singles, but she was later beaten in the second round of the British Championship. In the 1950 Match at the Country Club of Buffalo, she de­ feated Mrs. George Valentine, 7 and 6. A scene on the Muirfield links 12 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 Rule about Obstructions By JOSEPH C. DEY, JR. USGA Executive Secretary It was a sad, sad story the new golfer was telling: “My drive was right down the middle,” he said; “one of the few I hit in the fair­ way all day. But I found the ball nestling against a water outlet. “Well, I tried to hit it with my num­ ber three iron. Not only was it a punk shot, but I broke my club, and it was a new one.” “But why didn’t you lift the ball?” his friend asked. “Lift it? I thought you had to play the ball as it lies all the time.” That’s a good, safe way to start life as a golfer—to play the ball as it lies. But the fact is that there are times when the ball may be lifted and its position im­ proved, without penalty. The average golfer is inclined to re­ gard the Rules of Golf as being mainly prohibitions and obligations—you can’t do this and you must do that. But that dim view is an uninformed view. The Rules contain a great many rights and privileges which can be appreciated only by reading the code. An important Rule in this respect is the one which the new golfer in the sad incident above could have invoked but did not—Rule 31, deal­ ing with obstructions. This rule is a pro­ lific source of questions submitted to the USGA. Artificial or Natural? It should first be understood what is meant by the term “obstruction”. Defini­ tion 20 in the Rules provides: “An ‘obstruction’ is anything artificial, whether erected, placed or temporarily left on the course. “When walls, fences, stakes, railings or similar objects define the boundaries of the course, they are not obstructions, nor are artificially constructed roads and paths anywhere.” Thus, obstructions include such things as: pipes vehicles paper water outlets buildings bottles rakes shelters hoses The Rules make a distinction between artificial things (which are obstructions) and natural objects. For example, Defini­ tion 17 describes loose impediments as follows: “The term ‘loose impediments’ denotes natural objects not fixed or growing or ad­ hering to the ball, and includes stones not solidly embedded, leaves, twigs, branches and the like, dung, worms and insects and casts or heaps made by them.” In summary: An obstruction is an arti­ ficial thing. A loose impediment is a natural thing. How io Treat an Obstruction We are discussing obstructions here. Relief from an obstruction is provided for in Rule 31. The Rule has two sec­ tions. The first section presents no problems: “Any movable obstruction may be re­ moved. If the ball be moved in so doing, it shall, through the green or in a hazard, be dropped, or on the putting green be placed, as near as possible to the spot from which it was moved but not nearer the hole, without penalty.” Suppose a rake has been left in a bunker. Your ball comes to rest against the rake. As the rake is movable, you may remove it. If your ball is moved in the process, you must drop it as specified. The second section of Rule 31 deals with immovable obstructions: “If a ball lie on or touch an immovable obstruction, or if a player’s stance or stroke or the backward movement of his club for the stroke be interfered with by any im­ movable obstruction which is within two club-lengths of his ball, the ball may be lifted without penalty and, through the green or in a hazard, dropped, or on the putting green placed, not more than two club-lengths from that point of the ob­ struction nearest which the ball originally lay, and must come to rest not nearer the hole.” When the Rule Applies In the first place, we may apply the Rule if the ball lies on or touches an im­ movable obstruction. Or, secondly, we may apply the Rule . when all three of the following conditions exist: USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 13 1. There must be interference with the player’s stance or stroke or the backward movement of his club for the stroke. 2. The interference must come from an obstruction which is immovable. 3. The obstruction must be within two club-lengths of the ball. If any one of those three conditions is not present, you can’t invoke this section of the Rule. But assuming all three conditions do exist, what relief does the Rule allow? Well, you may lift the ball, without penalty. Then, everywhere except on the putting green, you drop it within two club-lengths of that point of the obstruc­ tion nearest which the ball originally lay, and it must come to rest not nearer the hole. On the putting green you place it as described above. Note that you don’t drop it within two club-lengths of where the ball originally lay. Suppose the ball originally lay a club-length from a protective screen which interfered with your backswing. If you were allowed to drop it within two club-lengths of where it originally lay, you might drop it a total of three club­ lengths from the screen. To make matters uniform and fair, the Rule requires dropping the ball within two club-lengths of that point of the screen nearest which the ball originally lay. Here is an example: Protective Screen Point X is that point of the screen near­ est which the ball originally lay. You are allowed to drop within two club-lengths of that point, not nearer the hole than where the ball first lay. Thus, if the straight dotted line is two club-lengths long, you may drop the ball anywhere within the territory bounded by the curved dotted line, provided the ball comes to rest not nearer the hole than its original position. You may not measure through the obstruction in determining where to drop within two club-lengths. Boundary Stakes Not Obstructions Under Definition 20, stakes or similar objects used to mark out of bounds are not obstructions. Therefore, they may not be pulled up. If they interfere with a stroke or stance, there is no free relief from them. This is a change in the Defi­ nition this year. Heretofore a boundary slake was an obstruction. Why the change? Various means are used to define boundaries: stakes, fence posts and so forth. Sometimes, on a sin­ gle hole, part of a boundary is marked by a fence and part by stakes. It is con­ sidered advisable to treat them uniformly. Since the inside edge of stakes and fence posts at ground level determines the line of bounds (Definition 21), the stakes and posts themselves are out of bounds. Rule 31 applies only to obstructions on the course. Further, if boundary stakes were clas­ sified as obstructions, some might be re­ moved to enable a player to play a stroke, and the player might neglect to have them replaced. Thus, the compe­ titors in a tournament might not play a uniform course. It was therefore felt that classifying out-of-bounds stakes as non-obstructions would discourage tampering with them, would simplify the definition with regard to boundary markers and would help in­ sure uniform playing conditions. (However, stakes defining water haz­ ards are obstructions under the Rules.) Incidentally, some clubs set boundary stakes permanently in concrete, or use concrete markers. This prevents a fluc­ tuating boundary and in the long run should reduce upkeep costs. Following are some points about ob­ structions which have arisen under the new Rules: (Continued on Page 18) 14 USGA Journal and Turf Management: April, 1952 “Golf House” Is for You People drift into “Golf House”, the new USGA headquarters in New York, on the average of three or more per day. Often men working nearby come in dur­ ing their lunch hours. They have signed the guest book from 28 states and six foreign countries. Our library is here for the use of golf-