Number 5
A Plea For Greenkeepers

Many capable greenkeepers receive scant encouragement. I believe that I make this statement with more foundation for fact than any other for during the past thirty–three years I have been intimately in touch with the construction of holes of my design on more than a thousand golf courses in every part of the land. In every possible manner I have endeavored to impress green committees everywhere with the vital importance of the greenkeeper. Recently an article appeared in that excellent Graffis trade publication, –– Golfdom, written by a California greenkeeper, Walter Langton. His contribution is not carping but it breathes hope for his fellow craftsman. I lend a fervent Amen!

Some of the best–informed turf men that I have encountered anywhere are right here in California. Yet I have been shocked to learn of the scant remuneration they receive, in some instances but little more than men under them are paid for manual labor. Brains are surely worth more than this.

Inside the skulls of the capable modern greenkeepers there must be more than good old-fashioned “Horse–sense,” which is essential to be sure. But with the sources of information today, scientific research has crammed craniums with knowledge which has developed greenkeeping far above the old hit–or–miss methods of experiment to definite ways of certainty. I believe that the club officials are gradually recognizing this. The true greenkeeper is not an ordinary laboring man but a highly specialized thinker, –– and brains have always been worth something. They always will be.

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