Number 4
Golf Pro’s Not Servants

When golf was yet in its infancy in this country, during the ninety’s, the professionals, who competed in one of the Open Championships of the United States, were not permitted to enter the clubhouse on any pretext and were compelled to change their clothes in a barn. There are two differences between that day and the present. Then, the gentlemen golfers were still wearing red coats and may of the pro’s had not smoothed off the rough edges. A few of them have not been entirely successful in accomplishing this even now, but they are few indeed.

Today our professional players do not smell of pitch and they wash their hands before sitting at table. To see them in the clubhouse it would be hard to distinguish them from the gentlemen about them— why, God bless my soul, they are gentlemen! And the fine thing about it all is that with the passing of the years and the genuinely fine quality, which has been established in the ranks of the professionals, old barriers have been set aside and there are many instances of the conferring of an honorary membership upon the club's pro.

An associated press dispatch from England rather suggested this editorial comment. It told of the visit of the Prince of Wales to the course, where the American pro’s were playing and of his hearty invitation to Walter Hagen to have a beaker with him. Without any doubt, the Haig quaffed his brew by royal grant with no more agitation than is wont when performing in similar fashion with gentlemen in his own country, and we venture to express the belief that he spilled not a drop of it on his waistcoat in embarrassment, and we are positive that he did not wipe his mouth with his coat-sleeve.

Yes, time has changed many things for the better, and that it has produced this better understanding between amateur and professional golfers shows what a truly fine game we play.

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