![](https://pinestrawmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/PS0624_Poem-1024x465.jpg)
Feature Photograph: Courtesy Tufts Archives
To Donald Ross
(On receiving a picture of this famous
golf architect studying a 6-foot putt)
Brave Donald, in your suit of brown,
I see you studying your putt,
And well I know you’ll run it down;
It is a splendid picture, but
For all the woes you’ve worked for me,
Deep in a bunker you should be.
I smile to see your kindly eye;
’Tis good to see your figure fair;
Six feet away, I’ll say you lie,
And know your second put your there;
They took your picture on the green —
A pit had made a merrier scene.
I should have laughed to see you caught,
Your niblick tightly clutched in hand,
Standing where I so oft have fought
To battle with the stubborn sand;
It would have pleased me more to see
Your ball where mine so oft must be.
Yet, Donald, if perchance the day
Shall come to me when I can brag
That I, like you, have learned to play
My second shots up to the flag,
If I reach any green in two
I’ll have my picture made for you.
— Edgar A. Guest
(Edgar A. Guest, 1881-1959, was known as the People’s Poet.
He wrote this poem for the testimonial dinner honoring Donald Ross at the Pinehurst County Club on March 20, 1930.)