Judge, 1922-12-30 · page 9 of 37
Judge — December 30, 1922 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "On Betting at Golf" - Judge Magazine Commentary This page contains an essay by Walter Prichard Eaton critiquing excessive gambling among golfers, particularly wealthy New Yorkers and Wall Street types. The article illustrates how betting has corrupted golf from a skill-based sport into pure gambling, with foursomes spending so much time calculating wagers they hold up play. The satirical point: golfers who focus on winning bets rather than improving their game aren't truly playing golf—they're merely gamblers. Eaton argues that concentration on one's actual performance, not financial stakes, develops real players. The anecdote about brokers betting between holes epitomizes the problem. The bottom cartoon, drawn by Rene Clarke, is unrelated farm humor: a rural couple discovers birth-control literature left in their henhouse, blaming it for their sudden egg shortage—a joke about rural ignorance and the unexpected consequences of modern contraception reaching rural areas.
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How disputes would be On Betting at Golf by Walter Prichard Eaton PPARENTLY man is a betting animal, for many men have been known to bet who were never tit is wrong. sy to understand why Englander bets. He has F from childhood that gambling is the cighth deadly sin, The highest tribute, hy the w to the ethical ingenuity of the Puritans is the church raffle. We can well remember our own thrill of wicked- ness when, at the f twelve, we staked a dollar on the I ard football team, Our thrill was s« What lessened by the result of the g for that was before the d rt, however, without ever mimitting asin,“ bet merely for th > of betting. bet ona ball gam horse race, th ) run of a s' ner, Once we knew of a party of motor tourists who bet on the number of Ford cars they would meet, settled if golfers chose their own weapons! But no- son the and missed all the scenery. where is betting carried so crious writers have called it Menace of the Game.” A New York club with many Wall Street. mem- hers once had to adopt a rule against it. The arithmetic got so complicated that foursomes held up the play, reckoning their accounts on the greens. been stated that sums as high as 86, used to be wagered on a single match. I should just love to face a water hazard with 86,000 depending on my shot! Any- how, I should just love to have the $6,000 to wager on my shot. I was playing the other day in what J. M. Barrie so rightly calls a fearsome. Two of the players were brokers. Be- tween holes t talked stocks. On the tees they laid bets. “( me a stroke on this hole for five © would say. Dollar balls.” her got into trouble, he made one frantic attempt to get out—and of course didn’t. ‘Then he picked up his Drawn by Rene CLarKe. ball and began tw plan how he could get back something on the next he q pair ended the match with one owing the other a ginger ale. But the funny part of it was, they av- tually believed they had been playing golf. and having a good time. Now of course There is only one way to any other game. That ts to concentrate on the problems of muscular co-ordination the game presents, and solve them better than your opponent—if pos- sible. The man who picks up his ball because he thinks he can’t win a bet, in- stead of solving the problem of fp it out of trouble, is not a golfer merely a gambler. The more betters you have in your club, the fewer good players will you develop. T had intended to add something about the evil effects of gambling on the cad- . who are, after all, impressionable . But Lhaven’t time. I've got to hurry down to the links to play off a match with the headmaster of our school, for a ball a hole. “Gol ding it all! Cynthy left one of them birth-control papers out in the enhouse, an’ we ain't had no eggs for a week!” 7