19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

I have had the privilege, for more than 50 years, to coach athletic teams in three sports in connection with my work and feel that the real solution to most of our problems lies in the proper physical outlet and control of our teen-age boys and girls. I am firmly convinced that, given the proper environment and opportunity, they will respond.
FRANK L. BOYDEN
Headmaster
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield, Mass.

HEALTH THROUGH ENJOYMENT
Sirs:
It seems to me that the sports that boys and girls can continue to enjoy as adults are the ones that will make the most difference in the physical well-being of the nation as a whole. And besides sports, there are many activities, ranging from walking to housework to weeding, that contribute toward physical well-being if entered into actively enough. I will wager that skiers, as a group, will come out high in Dr. Kraus's strength test, and so will any other group of active sports enthusiasts.
JOHN S. HOLDEN
Director
Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Inc.
Carbondale, Colo.

BROOKLYN'S BETTER WORLD
Sirs:
How I laughed at Brooklyn's unique golf course (SI, Aug. 22) and even unique-r golfers. You can trust that borough to take a centuries-old sport and come up with something that would have thrown the game's founding fathers into a deep coma. It bears as much resemblance to the game as played on St. Andrews' noble links as the Dodgers' Sym-Phony Band does to Toscanini's group, but the world is better off with both than with only the staid and proper part.
IAN TREADWAY
Minneapolis

ANOTHER VIEWPOINT
Sirs:
I live directly across the street from this so-called looney hatch and I consider the article on the Dyker course completely untrue and a figment of Miss Perry's overactive imagination.

I have caddied on this course (while in prep school) and have played on it and as a result should and do know the people who patronize it. Contrary to popular belief Brooklynites speak just as any person does that lives in or around New York City. In my opinion the speech Miss Perry included in her article ("Hey Hoibert," "Get the pernt," etc.) was used by her (as it is by many writers) for color—for a laugh. I know of no resident of Brooklyn who speaks in this manner.

In all, your article showed the residents of Brooklyn as a bunch of thugs—stealing, cursing, dirty—with no manners and completely undesirable.

If the editors of SI felt they were doing Dyker Beach Golf Course a favor, I am afraid they were completely mistaken. It was in very bad taste and completely untrue.
ROBERT P. YOUNES
Brooklyn, New York

BROOKLYN HAS THEM
Sirs:
Brooklyn's Mad Golf Course was an exceptionally good piece of literature! It was not only very funny, but most interesting in describing the different personalities (and Brooklyn has them) that you find on this course.
MARTY SIGMAN
Brooklyn, N.Y.

SPEAKING OF TASMANIA...
Sirs:
Jane Perry's Golfer Dykeriens, who tried the train-boat-plane-schedule gambit to get to play ahead of turn, certainly picked a place as far as you can get from Brooklyn when he picked Tasmania as the place to which he was "sailing in two hours." But he was far off the beam when he added, "There ain't a golf course in the whole damn country."

Australia's Island State (pop. 310,000) has at least 25 golf courses (some nine holes) which results in a bit more room to play than at Dyker, and, with a climate like the more temperate parts of Ireland, golf is a year-round game. The best courses are rather like the best in Britain.