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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1962)
r Learning just how hard to hit the ball and in what direction is a serious business if one is ever going to be a pro at miniature golf. Ron Edmonds (right) prepares to hit the ball through a circular obstacle while Ernie Clark (left) and Jim Allen watch. Everyone seems to enjoy miniature golf, including these three girls. They are (left to right) Miss Fay Roberts of Bonanza, Ore., and Miss Margie Andrews and Miss Barbara Cox, both of Medford. Besides small groups after churches and Scout organizations will spend the evening at the course. Don Eckenrode of Medford, one of the owners of the course, keeps the sand greens smooth by using a wooden rake (shown above). The owners are considering putting felt on the greens and fairways if a mildew resistant felt is perfected. Miniature Golf Becoming Popular Sport Features Medford, Sports IfeaTRIBUNE SECTION B MEDFORD. OREGON. SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 1962 PAGES 1 to 8 By JIM FRAKE Mail Tribune Staff Writer Recreation is more than a pastime; it's a million-dollar industry that is of primary importance to most Amer icans, particularly in the summertime. Summer recreation includes everything from swim ming to tennis, from baseball to water skiiing and bowl ing to golf. One form of family recreation that has long been a favorite throughout the nation, but which is little known here, is minature golf. In Florida, for example, at one course an estimate 500-700 games of miniature golf are played daily. There Is even indoor miniature golf in Brunswick, Me., and in many places golfing leagues have been organized. On Course in Valley Here in the Rogue Valley, there is but one such course, the Family Miniature Golf course on Highway 99 about seven miles south of Medford. Two local couples own and operate the course, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Davis, 5421 South Pacific highway. Phoe nix, and Mr. and Mrs. Don D. Eckenrode, 2147 Sunset dr., Medford. This is the second full year the course has been operated by the new owners. The two couples came from southern California primarily to build a miniature golf course. They purchased the present isile in 1959 and moved to Oregon in March, 1960. The course was opened in Sep tember, 1960. Davis and Eckenrode designed the course and did most of the actual construction themselves. There had been a gravel course at the site previously, but it, hadn't been used for some Hme, according to Mrs. Davis. Mo Longer In Operation In recent years there was another miniature golf course along the Rogue river, just east of Grants Pass; however, it is on longer in operation. Other than the one at Phoenix, the nearest miniature course is in Klamath Falls. In California, (he owners were avid golf fans and played at most of the many miniature courses located in and around Los Angeles county. Many of their ideas for the local course originated from visiting other links and reading golf magazines. The local 18-hole course consists of sand covered greens and runways. The average distance from the end of the approach to the hole is 50 to 60 feet. Par for the course is 54, three for each hole. Built by Course Owners Buildings on the greens and fairways were built by the owners themselves. The decorative obstacles include a barn, castle, well, pump, wind mill and light house. A .,.... ...... j. ,.... - 1 - r ' i ' ty A :f l . " i i a. " I fi''" V' - Miss Kathy Brvij and Gene Yost of Medford look pleased, but surprised, after Miss Bevis tees off at the Family Minia ture golf course south of Medford. water wheel, several benches and wooden pumps make the course more attractive. . - More ladscaping is planned, especially with colored gravel and planters. Davis also plans to redesign at least one of the holes. The course is illuminated for night play ing. Mrs. Davis noted that they are considering putting felt on the greens and fairways if a mildew resistant felt is perfected. In this climate, she explained, it is impossible to leave the felt outside without mildewing. The felt would be added at considerable expense, she added. If the new type of felt is marketed, it is possible that at least the greens will be covered with it before next summer, according to the owners. The course is now open daily from 1 until 11 p.m. Mrs. Davis emphasized that there ts always open play on the course, although they do cater to groups. Since they have been in operation, several church and Scout groups have spent the evening there playing miniature golf, she added. Groups of 10 or more are charged 35 cents per person for each game. The regular price is 50 cents, with the third consecutive game free. Half Are Touritti Reservations for groups are not needed, but they are appreciated. Mrs. Davis pointed out that as many as 50 people can play at one time by starting them at different parts of the course. - Nearly half of those playing miniature golf at tht Phoenix links are tourists, according to Mrs. Davis. She said many California residents stop on their way through the valley, and she remembers at least one family from Kansas who stopped. Interest in miniature golf "slowed down" for a while, but is now "coming up rcpidly," the owner notes. En thusiasm for the game has even gone abroad with more and more courses in Europe. Miniature golf courses can become quite expensive. A 50 by 100 course, not including buildings and extras, could cost about $10,000 if contracted, Mrs. Davis esti mates. Additional landscaping and buildings on the fair ways would cost several hundred dollars more. Economic) Disaster Resulting by Exodus (Editor's Not: On Sept. 2, the barely iwo-monlh-old State of Algeria will hold its first ganeral election. Tht future Is, at best, un predictable. In the follow ing dispatch, UPI corres pondent Joseph W. Criggi reports on the terror and turmoil of the almost eight year struggle for Independence.) By JOSEPH W. GRICG United Press International Paris - (UPU - A busload of American tourists pulled up, at the Trocadero Terrace in Paris to admire the Eiffel Tower and found them selves face to face with the letters "OAS" daubed in red paint on the subway sta tion entrance at the tower's base. Parisians hurrying to work near Montparnasse railroad te r m i n a 1 were startled to see women and children peering from win dows of the derelict build ing that once housed the "Sphinx," the best known of Paris bordellos until the city government closed them all in 1947. When President Charles De Gaulle left Paris for an August vacation at his home in Eastern France, he traveled by special Air Force plane-not by auto as he used to do. All these incidents small and seemingly insig nificant' in themselves reflect how the long shadow of Algeria still looms men acingly over life in a Franch which handed inde pendence nearly two months ago to its former North African possession. The letters "OAS" stand for Organization de L'Ar mee Secrete or Secret Army Organization, the group of diehard European terrorists who fought witn guns and plastic bombs in a futile struggle to prevent Algeria becoming independent. The women and children peering from the windows of the "Sphinx" were squat ters, a few of the more than 500.000 Europeans from Al geria one half of the original European popula tion who have fled to France. Their exodus has meant, grave problems of housing and employment for the French government and the threat of economic disaster for newly independent Al geria. De Gaulle flew Instead of driving from Paris to his country hnme because there was less d&nger of I new at tempt on his life, already the target of more than one abortive terrorist plot in the last year, ' On Sept. 2, newly inde pendent Algeria will vote for the first time in general elections for a constituent, assembly from which its hiiWM f ! " TiW ? Aft,'. St fa m ff- ffi i ;V:" .1 - P 1 AWAIT TURN More than 500.000 Euro- aster for the newly independent state of peans from Algeria, one half of the original Algeria. Here, Europeans fill the Maison- European population, have fled to France. Blanche airport terminal in Algiers a: they Their exodus has meant grave problems of await their turn to board planes for France, housing and employment for the French (UPI) government and the threat of economic dis- 1 first representative govern ment will be chosen. Frenchmen hope this will mean the end of the polit ical chaos that has wracked Algeria ever since Inde pendence. They hope it will be the green light for the European refugees to re turn to North Africa. They hope it will mean real peace for France a country which had known no peace from Sept. 3, 1939, until Algerian independence on July 3 this year. End French Rule It took seven-and-a-half years of bloody war in Al geria to end 132 years of French rule. The Algerian war began on All Saints day, Nov. 1, 1954, when 30 bands of armed Moslem rebels struck simultaneously in different parts of the country, killing hundreds in the first orgy of violence. France rushed reinforce ments to Algeria. For more than seven years she main tained 500,000 men there, the flower of her army. De Gaulle was swept back to power in June, 1958, by a nation sick of the war and by a succession of feeble, ineffectual govern ments of tM French Fourth Republic. He was brought back on a pledge to end the Algerian conflict. Makes Up Mind It now seems almost cer tain that De Gaulle already had made up his mind that an independent Algeria was Ihe only answer. But his first words to tens of thous ands of cheering Europeans on a triumphal tour of Al geria soon after he took of fice were "Je vous al com pris" (I have understood you). The Europeans of Algeria took this to mean De Gaulle supported them. , When it became clear he was push ing for independence, their cheering turned to bitter hatred at what they be lieved was a great double cross by a man they had trusted. In January, 1960, armed Europeans In Algeria under Ihe leadership of cafe own er Joseph Ortiz barricaded streets and began a revolt designed to block De Gaulle's drive tor independ ence. French Army Rebels The revolt failed. Then in April, 1961, part of the French army in Algeria re belled once more against De Gaulle This time the rebellion was not led by cate owners and student rabble-rousers but by two highly honored officers, Gen. Raoul Salan, former French commander-in-chief In North Africa, and Gen. Edmond Jouhad, Algerian - born former French Air rorce chief of staff. This revolt failed, too, and Salan, Jouhaud and other rebel leaders went underground to create the OAS and fight De Gaulle with the weapons of terror ism. On March 18. 1962, a crase-fire agreement was signed at Evian. It went into effect at noon the following day, ending seven-and-a-half years of war between Algerian and French Gov ernment forces. It was not, as hoped, an end to blood shed. The French people on April 8 and the Algerians on July 1 voted their over whelming approval of the agreement. In it, the Moslem nation alists gave sweeping guar antees for the security of the million Europeans in a country where Europeans were outnumbered nine-to-one by the Moslems. The Algerians won sov ereignty over the Sahara with its vast, hardly-tapped nil wealth, with agreement that France and Algeria would exploit it jointly. The signing of the Evian cease-fire was the signal for a desperate all-out offen sive of terrorism and killing by the outlawed OAS. OAS Collapses Then, as suddenly as It emerged, the OAS col lapsed. First in Algiers and then In Oran Its leaders signed truces with the Mos lems. The terrorist bosses, the diehard renegade ex colonels, the swaggering Foreign Legion deserters and the hired gunmen dis appeared. But still Algeria's troubles were not over. As independence n eared, a massive flight of Europeans set in. The French govern ment was forced to organize an airlift and special sea transport to cope with the human flood. Instead of the 150,000 the French government had ex pected to flee over a period of many months, more than 500,000 joined the exodus, and it still continues. It has left the infant nation of Al geria almost without doc tors, civil servants, trained mechanics, office workers, shopkeepers and bank of ficials. Economic Disaster If the exodus continues, few of the one million Euro peans will be left in Algeria by the end of this year and the country will be faced with econ o m 1 c disaster. More than 80 per cent of its business activity form erly was in European hands. On top of all this, new troubles beset Algeria. Its Moslem nationalist leaders, who had maintained I solid monolithic front to the world while they fought France, were split during the peace by angry quar rels. The disputes broke Into the open after a meeting at Tripoli lato In June of the National Council of the Al gerian Revolution (CNRA), the highest body of tne nationalists. Political Bureau Ahmed Ben Bella, left lea n I n 41-year-old vice premier who had spent six years in French captivity until the Evian agreement, and .who enjoyed the sup port of the bulk of the Na 1 1 o n a 1 Liberation Army (ALN), announced forma tion of a political bureau in which most of the members of the still-exiled provision al government were not represented. Provisional Government Premier Ben Youssel Ben Khedda, a mild, scholarly former druggist addicted to dark glasses, squrricd back to his Tunis headquarters with most of his govern ment and promptly fired the army general staff and its leaders. This action, almost on the eve of independence on July 3, threw the young na tion Into political chaos, the worst of all possible birth pains. Set Up Headquarters ' Ben Khedda and his henchmen entered Algiers and set up headquarters. But finally, Ben Khedda with hardly any army capitulated. Ben Bella and his political bureau entered Algiers in triumph and it was agreed that the Polit ical Bureau and the now al most powerless Provisional Government would exist side by side until the Sept. 2 general elections and for mation of a new govern ment. ! There seems little doubt that the new government chief will be Ben Bella himself. One of Ben Bella's first acta after winning control of the political bureau was to cut the army down to size. He reasserted the lead ership of the civilian ad ministration and made it clear that the army must stay out of politics. Strong Leftist Views Ben Bella Is known for his strongly leftist views. Rightly or wrongly he has been suspected of commu nist leanings. There is no doubt he wants to turn Al geria into a one-party state run on socialist lines. There also is no doubt of his pas sionately Pan-Arab ideals. Ben Bella has stated re peatedly that he supports the Evian agreement with France, which provides for continuous close coopera tion between the two coun tries and substantial Fench economic aid in years to come. But French officials ask themselves whether such cooperation is possible if Ben Bella goes through with his announced pro gram of splitting up big French-owned estates and dividing them among land hungry Arabs. They also point out that the pledge of continued co operation was predicated on the continuous presence o 1,000,000 Europeans In Al geria. Whether the Euro peans who fled to France will return or whether the exodus will continue still ran not be foreseen.
