Golfers With Room For Improvement

Some people say all golfers are nuts, but the golfers shown on these pages are, every one, fine, responsible citizens of southern California—and people in southern California are just as steady as your Uncle Elwood. What if a man does drive golf balls in his living room? What's so strange about giving a sand trap as a housewarming present? Come to think of it, wasn't Uncle Elwood the one who wore shorts to the opera?

TV producer Sy Gomberg (left) drives golf balls into a three-ply plastic backstop in his living room as his wife, a new type of golf widow, finds risky solace in a book. Buick executive Albert (Dev) deVarennes Jr. (above) plays nine paper-cup holes of golf before a rapt gallery of one dog. Some fairways ricochet off walls, some go under tables.

Because swimmers golf, or golfers swim, Mrs. Carl Buck has an 18-hole putting course outside her Beverly Hills home that uses a free-form pool as a wild water hazard.

No housewife should be without her own sand trap. Mrs. Bea Hoffman (left) got one as a housewarming gift, uses plastic golf balls, has cut her handicap from 22 to 16.

At the Los Angeles AC, Ned Weiner (right) spends his lunch hour on the rooftop driving range. Golf balls have been known to slice out of the cage and far down the avenue.