19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

GOLF FOLLIES
Sirs:
Alfred Wright's article (Developing Crisis in Pro Golf, Dec. 4) is utterly ridiculous in its attempt to make a circus of pro golf. Golf has always been and should remain a sport—not a commercial venture as suggested. A "Barnum or a Ziegfeld" would turn a great game into a zany farce.

I'm surprised that you would condone such an idea.
FRED CALLOWHILL
Holden, Mass.

Sirs:
The 1962 PGA championship, to be played at Aronimink Golf Club, just outside Philadelphia, next July, will probably be the most comfortable, the most "sittingest" tournament in the history of golf.

More than 7,500 bleacher seats, free to ticket holders, will be set up back of most holes and at other strategic viewing places. This is more seats than ever before available at any tournament. What's more, portable, battery-powered television sets will enable fans out on the course to pick up what's happening around the finishing holes.

We're stringing more than nine miles of nylon rope (to help save the fans from themselves). Forty extra acres of ground have been cleared for parking; and, as an innovation, each car will be assured of a reserved space each day.

Aronimink is not only beautiful, it is accessible. We have 600 volunteers working to make the championship a success—and comfortable, too.
JACK A. MACINNES
1962 PGA General Chairman
Newton Square, Pa.

BACKCOURT BONFIRES
Sirs:
Thanks for a magnificent preview of basketball (SI, Dec. 11). However, Coach John Benington of St. Louis must have really "foxed" your reporter on his Billiken back-court men, who, you say, are "considerably slower than the others in this fast league."

For the record right here and now, Benington has in Dave Harris and George Latinovich probably the fastest pair of guards in college basketball today. In their last game at Kansas, Latinovich and Harris, with the help of fine sophomore Gary Garrison, utterly decimated Kansas, getting about 15 points apiece. And these speedsters played less than half the game.
FRED HAYES
Clinton, Ind.

Sirs:
Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio has not been mentioned. This team last year led the nation in defense—both major and small colleges included—was ranked sixth among the nation's small colleges by UPI, placed three players on the little All-America team and won the NCAA Small College Championship 1960-61.
ROBERT B. DANNELLY
Tuckerton, N. J.

HONORS
Sirs:
I want to cast the biggest vote I can for your Sportsman of the Year. It is inconceivable to me that anyone besides Phil Hill could be selected. I place him ahead of Roger Maris, Wilt Chamberlain, et al.
COLONEL B. J. BROWN, USA
New York City

Sirs:
I wish to nominate a Sportswoman of the Year: Chris von Saltza, of the Santa Clara Swim Club. Even though she didn't do anything spectacular this year, she showed her great sportsmanship at the national swimming and diving championships in Philadelphia. To scratch out of an event, where she had her last chance to show to the onrush of young stars that she still had her Olympic touch, and give a teammate a better chance at making the team and representing her country abroad was by far the greatest showing of sportsmanship I have seen in a long time.
MICHAEL A. CONNERS
Milwaukee

FITNESS (FOR THE LAZY)
Sirs:
The current interest in isometric exercises is very pleasing. However, I should like to add a word of caution to the exercise series you published with my recommendations (Get Trim and Strong in Seconds, Dec. 4). Isometrics are not a cure-all and without proper evaluation and use this type of exercise may do more harm than good. Most individuals, especially those who lead rather sedentary lives, should include exercises in their daily programs that stress cardiovascular and muscular-endurance work as well as body-strengthening exercises.

Our laboratory here at Southern Illinois University is interested in all types of exercises. However, we have been primarily concerned with developing a measuring method, called multiple-angle testing, which is used to evaluate muscular strength and which aids in determining what exercise to prescribe.

Most people don't like to exercise. Therefore, we have been trying to develop an exercise supplement. Since this program is based on the individual's needs, it becomes meaningful and requires less time, as only the exercise that is necessary is applied.
JAY A. BENDER
Professor of Physical Education
Carbondale, Ill.

Sirs:
The really new idea is not isometric contraction but how much of any kind of contraction, i.e., with or without movement, is necessary to cause a muscle to grow stronger. Because the amount of contraction can be best measured when the exercise is isometric, Professor Müller of Dortmund, Germany employed this form of contraction in his studies begun in the 1940s. It was this work that led to the hard-to-believe finding that if a muscle is contracted just once a day to something like 40% to 60% of its maximal ability, that muscle will grow in strength just as fast as it can grow.
ARTHUR H. STEINHAUS
Professor of Physiology and Dean
George Williams College
Chicago