Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/663

 New York City's Indoor Golf Course

It is played with stove-pipes, bricks, barrels and rugs in the rooms of a downtown club

���Indoor golf is played without the aid of caddies. No balls are lost, and no golf suits are worn. Nine holes of the course are laid out in the assembly room of the club and nine in the gymnasium

��WITH steam heat and elevators, in- direct lighting to take the place of sunshine, and art works on the walls to compensate for the lack of landscape. New York enjoys its game of golf in a luxurious club or hotel. This was demon- strated during the winter when the rooms of the Telephone Club were the scene of a spirited contest, with ninety-one entrants, playing for a silver loving cup and other valuable prizes over an eighteen-hole course.

The players start in the Assembly Room with a shot over the polished floor to the edge of the rug. It is not so easy as it seems; for the ball must be in position for a shot through a stove pipe elbow to the hole. Hole 2 is on the edge of the rug, with a neat little barricade of bricks about it in a semi- circle, with a small opening. To make the approach to the third hole difficult, bricks are placed under the rug about the hole to make a lumpy surface that sends the ball rolling erratically. The fourth hole is placed on an incline so that the ball glides back unless it is skilfully played.

A carom against a pillar is involved in making hole number 5. Hole 6 is entered through a length of straight stove pipe. Now you tackle a wooden incline with

��a four inch hole in order to reach No. 7.

Hole 8 is a typical side-hill putt proposi- tion, with a cup set at an upward angle. For hole 9 a shot is made through an open doorvvay to an antechamber, where a woven-grass rug provides a fast green.

This concludes the course in the Assembly Room. Now come the nine holes in the gymnasium, where hole number 10 is next attempted through a three-way device, which is likely to send the ball far afield if not carefully handled. After a carom to hole II, the twelfth hole is played up a carpet runner from the floor to the stage. The unlucky number which follows involves a shot down from the stage and up another incline to a level spot.

After this, hole 14, which is completely surrounded with bricks and requires the use of a mashie. seems not so difficult.

Hole 15 involves simply a straight shot along a runner to a hole on a raised plat- form. Sixteen is a relief to the tired golfer — a straight hole, without obstacles or concealed traps. On hole 17 are three bunkers, the hole being located between second and third. As a grand finale comes hole 18 — a barrel hung from the ceiling. For this a mashie and three trials are allowed.

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