They Help North Carolina Grow
Mister Golf
Itiiiiniii” a weekly newspaper anil
golf magazine. managing profes¬
sional golfers. pronioling tourna¬
ments anil giving bird* to strange
itleas are only a small part of bis
activities.
Ry RIM.
BOB HARLOWE is 60. plavs
Rolf like 40. writes like 30.
and thinks pretty much like a
17 vear-old.
That is the only way to explain
how he has managed to put his
magazine Golf World in the black
and on the way to success, because
no other conceivable combination
could have done what all his
friends said was impossible.
The little sheet was started in
June 1947 because the Pinehurst
editor believed that such a great
game needed a publication which
would give spot golf news as well
as intelligent and readable back¬
ground. Many another golf publi¬
cation had been started and had
folded. Most of them had been
monthlies; Bob figured a weekly
was the answer.
Bob Harlowe, however, had a
couple of secret weapons. One was
a redoubtable intransigency. in¬
herited from his forefathers and
persistent all of Bob’s life. The
other was his print shop in Pine-
hurst. where the Pinehurst Out¬
look had its seat, moderately
prospering as a resort-town
weekly and job-printing enter¬
prise. Intrenched with some good,
often idle, printing equipment on
hand, a headful of unused golfing
background, and thousands of
acquaintances in the field, it took
relatively little capital for Har¬
lowe to launch his weekly publi¬
cation.
At first, he tried to peddle it
through golf pros and clubs, sell¬
ing circulation in blocks. This was
not notably successful, but the
magazine began to take on because
of its interest and merit, and
subscriptions now stand at around
6.000, at $5 per year, with a pros-
pect of 10.000 within another 18
months. Anchored securely in the
winter golf capital of the country.
Golf World has a chance to go
places. If you listen to its editor
SHARPE
and publisher, it has no chance to
do anything else.
Harlowe had another secret
weapon; name of Lillian Harlowe.
Lillian is a handsome woman, who
is not so much interested in Golf
World as she is in Harlowe. When
you question any of the errant
diversifications of the career of her
amazingly diverse husband, her
eyes begin to take on a warning
glint, her nostrils dilate and her
mild vocabularly becomes full of
sharp phrases.
Harlowe and Golf World came
to North Carolina the long way
around. A native of Newburyport.
Massachusetts, he was the son of
a rugged Congregational minister
who irritated his vestryman by
suggesting that they were exploit¬
ing their mill hands.
Bob was writing for public
perusal almost as soon as he could
spell “cat”; first as Grafton cor¬
respondent for the Worcester
(Mass.) Telegram. Then, after a
year at Exeter Academy, he put
in four years at the University of
Pennsylvania, where he corre¬
sponded for the Philadelphia Press
and Public Ledger.
From there on out, it is obvious
that Harlowe was a great pro¬
moter. Ideas fly off him like sparks
from a forge, and it is not unusual
to see him with several ideas in
collision. He careens through life,
trailing loose ends in all directions.
Whilst he rides a fiery steed
to adventure, Lillian, mounted on
a sedate palfrey, follows at a
moderate gallop, picking up all
the pieces and fitting them to¬
gether again.
A golfer from boyhood, most
of Bob’s life has been devoted to
that game. From 1921 to 1929 he
was manager for Walter Hagen.
He was the original PGA tour
manager, and set up that million-
dollar layout. He brought the first
Argentine, Japanese, and Mexican
golfers to America. The Mexicans,
some of them peons, had to be
shod after reaching this country.
His two Jap proteges he taught to
discard their chopsticks and eat
ham and eggs with a fork. In that
space, he saw golf grow from a
six-point standing head on the
sport page to the status of front¬
page banners.
Golf reporter for the New York
Herald-Tribune, radio golf writer
for the Associated Press, and other
chores occupied him. But it was
inevitable that a man so saturated
with the game eventually would
come to Pinehurst. He did; to
write sports publicity for the
resort, later acquiring the Outlook.
The Outlook immediately began to
throw off its former slick-paper
look and become a breezy weekly,
devoted not so much to the con¬
ventional news of the community
as to that portion of it which
Harlowe thought interesting and
significant. For instance, the paper
very likely will ignore court week
at Carthage, but devote many col¬
umns to the tribulations of a man
who is trying to save his estate
from the sheriff's hammer. He had
a field day during the ABC raids
of a year or so ago.
His writing is spritely, even
youthful: often frankly biased, but
invariably readable, because the
man knows his situations and his
words. At any rate, the Outlook,
(Continued on page 36)
THE STATE. MARCH IS. 1950
