The Country Club prepares for the Open
The American Golfer August 1913

All are determined to take it away. Though the national open golf title under the auspices of the United States Golf Association is yet more than a month in abeyance, all of the details for running the tournament already have been threshed out at The Country Club, Brookline, where the open is to be held. 

Mr. G. Herbert Windeler and Mr. Herbert Jaques, of that club, both of them former presidents of the U. S. G. A., are firm believers in the efficacy of planning well ahead for such an event, even to the most minute details, in order that everything shall go smoothly and the tournament be run like clockwork. That was the basis they worked on when the amateur championship was held at The Country Club in 1910, when matters went so satisfactorily, and that is the way preparations are going ahead for the open, only on a scale perhaps a little more elaborate in some respects than for the amateur three years ago. 

The two members of The Country Club above-named also have had the advice and assistance of Mr. Harry L. Ayer, of the U. S. G. A. executive committee, who in the Massachusetts District is looked upon as a marvel in working out details for such events. Then, too, a number of The Country Club members have given their hearty co-operation in accepting the responsibility of looking after various details, so that whatever else may prove true of the event in the middle of September, the tournament should be smoothly conducted both as regards competitors and spectators.  

To most people it would be astonishing to learn what a mass of detail there is in handling a tournament such as the open bids fair to be, but the fact is that the most efficient management of a national championship is a science in itself. When the statement is made that the open this year requires more elaborate preparations, in some respects, than for the amateur championship held at The Country Club in 1910, the idea in mind is that there will be in the competition not only Harry Vardon, Edward Ray and Wilfred Reid from the British Isles, but also Arnaud Massy and Louis Tellier of France. The first direct reference to the coming of this pair of exceedingly fine golfers from France was made to your correspondent in a letter from M. J. Brady, one of the Boston homebreds who played in the international match at LaBoulie between the United States and France. 

Assuming that the Frenchmen do come, along with the British trio, it may readily be imagined that the galleries at Brookline will be the largest ever assembled for an open championship, if not for any golf event ever held in this country. 

Even if the British trio make up the sum total of contestants from across the water there is going to be tremendous interest in watching their play, for which reason officials of The Country Club are planning to handle large crowds, and in such a manner that there will be the smallest possible interference with the players, either those who carry the largest galleries or those next ahead or following behind. There are three points in the course where there is bound to be congestion unless there is the best of management, but plans have been evolved for those points which should prove effective.