Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1929, Page 101

he Sunday Star _fllaga;ine WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBI‘IRVZQ 1?29. y Fiction Features 24 PAGES. SRR PART 7. quping Golf Courses From Sky' Army, Navy and Marine Corps Club, New Air-Planned Sports Center Near National! Capital, to Keep Officers in Khaki and Maritime Blue Fit to Fight. Standard mapping equipment used in mapping for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps golf course. + restored to ideal dimensions as captains and colonels, lieutenant man:ors and admirals, mop perspiring brows a® Washington's newest sports center, proving ground of physical fitness for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. 4 One of the post-war edicts of the military and naval powers that be in these United States was that the officers in khaki and mari- time blue must exercise regularly in order to keep fit to fight. Washington, *he Federal stop- over city of our national defenders from here, there and elsewhere, logically became the hub of this physical training system. Uncle Sam discouraged the idea of regular “gym” classes for officers stationed in the Capital City. Reason one: There was no avail- able gymnasium ifor such official workouts. Reason two: The authorities believed that the most beneficial results would obtain if the offi- cers were allowed to select the particular out- door games and sports in which they would prefer to participate. A USCLES of our national defenders / are no longer getting flabby while 2 / expanding belt lines are being HUS it came to pass that at least one after- noon each week was designated as exercise period for this or that officer. He could walk, ride, golf, swim, hox, wrestle or do whatever he liked best—just so it was exercise that would keep him in good physical condition. Many of the officers selected tennis, golf, swimming and polo as their favored outdoor sports. Some few who could afford it joined private country clubs. The others played at East Potomac and Rock Creek Parks. Polo enthusiasts thronged the fields in West Potomac Park and at Fort Myer. The stern test of time, however, proved that this miscellaneous scheme of “exercise as you please” was not working as well as might be. Officers complained about the high costs at Washington country clubs. Others remonstrated over the congestion at the public parks. The majority yearned for a specialized sports head- quarters exclusively for officers and their guests. Which yearning eventually hatched out the By Gene. 4. Day. . splendid idea of the Army, Navy and Marine Country Club, now developing along substantial conservative lines on the Arlington side of the - Potomac, Sportsmen from the dawn of outdoor recre= ation have “gone up in the air” during the course of their play. That is to say, they have become “rattled,” lost their tempers over trifles or otherwise acted abnormally because of the ups and downs of that particular game. - Our - national defense system went “up in the air” in reality in the mapping. and design of the budding country club, aviation center, polo headquarters, equestrian rendezvous and swim- ming hub which is now developing as the cher- ished day dream come trie of thousands of military and naval- gentlemen. - HERE was one officer who by his consum- mations had qualified admirably to bring to pass something quite out of the ordinary in the lagout of that proposed sports center. True to tell, Maj. R. D. Newman was a cavalry officer of long experience,. but when it came to a matter of laying out golf courses, tennis courts; flying and polo fields and landscaping grounds he abandoned his saddle in favor of a seat in an airplane. Maj. Newman is the originator of a new and practical system of architecture and landscaping from his vantage point in a racing airplane cruising skyward. Five years ago the major was stationed at the Cavalry school at Fort Riley, Kans., when the agitation for a golf course at that post .came into being. For some 25 years Maj. Newman has been a devoted admiresr of the goddess golf. He had followed the elusive white spheroid from tee to gréen time and again on the leading links of America, England, Scotland and Wales. He took up the sport as soon as he was big enough to swing a club and even today is still fascinated by it. Brieflyy Maj. Newman knew his golf from all angles hetter than any other officer then stationed at Fj)rt Riley. To him was delegated the task of designing the new golf course. : This cavalry officer was also a seasoned bird- man, who had delved deeply into the science of military mapping from on high, the matching and translation of rosaics and the use of aero- " photographic cameras, * Why not lay out the golf links from the’ upper air? was the rare thought which occurred to him. An idea, incidentally, which he decided to put into practice after careful study. The «se of the airplane facilitated links design wonderfully well. Flying at elevations of 1,000 and 3,000 feet, the ma >r was able to study the terrain more comprehensively than was possible on foot or horseback. Frrthermore, in record time he reproduced the land layout in minia- ture form on negatives made with a mapping camera from skyland. These aerial pictures depicted every bump and dent, hill and dale, stream and road, tree and fence as well as other landmarks and identifications of the property photographed. : A That pioneer airplanned golf coursé_—the first of its kind in history—was a success. ‘The * links was designed and constructed in record time. And all who have played it admit that it is a real test of golf. Its fame was heralded in due course to every military reservation where the greensward game is a topic of con-’ versation. - - WHEN,the authorities of the West Point Military Academy ultimately decided that a golf course was needed as a Supplement to the sports facilities of that' institution, the services and skill of Maj. Newman were requi- sitioned, forthwith, to duplicate his achieve- ment at Fort Riley in go!f course architecture from the air. . And later he mapped the links at the Fort Meade, Md., military post from on high, = Not to mention another course whose layout and construction he has superintended at Bolling Fleld. This latter links is remark- able in that ihe various holes encircle the flying fleld without mutual interference between the golfers and aviators. - : You can pretty well appreciate that our national defenders would have none but Maj, Newman design the Army, Navy and Marine Corps courses in view of his successss in similar assignments at various Army posts. If you wege familiar with the lay of the land bordering the former Knights of Columbus Country Club in Arlington County, Va., you will understand that it was one of the wildest, moss impenetrable sections around Washington. It hardly seems possible that a swampy wilderness almost as untenantable as some of the jungles of Africa wduld be located within three miles. birdline of the White House, yet such was the case. Just to prove the neighborhood was as wild as most of the territory to be incorporated in the proposed Shenandoah National Park, it is notable that a 600-pound deer inhabited the woods bordering the seventeenth fairway at the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Club dur- ing the first year of play. This deer was as wild as the March wind. The greenskeepers scattered hay for his nourishment during the Winter when snow covered the ground and pro- hibited grazing. The wild deer was revered’ as the club’s uncrowned mascot until the gun of a poacher laid him low. I'r would have been a difficult matter to.lay out the links, aviation and polo fields and to landscape the property from the ground be- cause of the rugged topography and. the dense, growth of, tregs, shrubbery and underbrush. The task would have been a very costly one if professional and landscape golf course archi- tects had been hired for the work. As was, however, Maj. Newman waited until the iate Autumn when the leaves had fallen and then flew several times over the property, familiar- izing himself with the terrain and making oblique and vertical aerial pictures as well as strip mosaics of the land topography. Flying. around the proposed country club three times at an altitude of 3,000 feet pro=- vides all the necessary general informatiom,