Up Thumbs and Down

Crowds continued to flock to Tom Thumb Golf courses last week. City councils gravely debated whether it was a "real" sport and hence a violation of Sunday laws. A national open tournament on the original Chattanooga course was planned. And, more important, Garnet Carter sold his interests for $200,000.

Apparently chief profiler from his invention has been Mr. Carter, the Chattanooga innkeeper who observed his putting course was used more than the regular links (TIME, July 14). Last week revealed new details, a new chief character.*

Soon after Garnet Carter started using cottonseed hulls for greens, he was pounced upon by two young gentlemen named Drake de Lanoy and John N. Ledbetter. They had started using cottonseed hulls for miniature indoor courses, had likewise been pounced upon, by one Thomas M. Fairborn, golfing cottongrower from Mexico. Thomas M. Fairborn built a full-sized course on his plantation, had been annoyed by the way grass greens withered and sand greens blew away. He had observed that cottonseed hulls made smooth paths through the plantation, tried them for greens. Nobody pounced upon him. So he patented the idea, now sits atop the patent pyramid. The reason why Mr. Carter sold for only $200,000: he had kept only rights for southern territory, is at the bottom of the pyramid.

*Still persistent last week was the autastic rumor that Alfonse ("Scarface") Capone rules the Tom Thumb trade. A likely explanation was that Colyumist Walter Winchell, broadcasting gossip, once said something about as follows: "Tom Thumb Golf is the newest racket; first thing we know Al Capone will have grifted into it."

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