McCall Field Country Club, owned by the employees of PECO Energy, is a modest facility in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby that provides its members with a good test of golf over its rolling fairways.

But no carts.

That's right. The employees of PECO, the utility that provides electric and natural gas service to millions of customers in Southeastern Pennsylvania, don't see any of that electric power -- or any other energy source, for that matter -- on the golf course. No carts are allowed.

"We're a small facility, only 80 acres," club manager Paul McHugh said. "It's a pretty confined course. It's always been our policy not to have carts on the course. If we did, we would need to put cart paths down and they'd ultimately erode, and we feel that would take away from the facility. The true beauty of the course would be ruined by cart paths."

The par-62 course of McCall Field, which sits just to the east of U.S. Route 1, literally across the Philadelphia border from venerable Cobbs Creek Golf Club, measures only 4,500 yards from the back tees with a rating of 62.7 and a Slope of 116. From the middle tees it's 4,200 yards with a rating of 61.6 and a 113 Slope.

Despite its relatively short length, the course is rather hilly. The first through fourth holes are up and down, with the fourth -- a 230-yard par-3 from the tips -- featuring an elevation change of 40 to 45 feet. Just seven holes on the course could be considered flat.

McHugh said the course does allow motorized hand carts, of which about a dozen members take advantage. Although there have been some inquiries through time concerning the possible adoption of electric carts, the board of governors of the PECO Athletic Association, which consists of the club's members, has drawn the line.

"They think it's a better course if we don't have carts," he said. "We recognize that some people do have health problems, but they can get an electric-assisted hand cart.

"Honestly, it's not been a significant problem. It's not a bone of contention at the meetings."

In addition, the club's economic structure does not make cart revenues a necessity. McHugh said the facility is a non-profit one, without a liquor license or swimming pool. The club grounds include the course, a clubhouse and conference center, tennis courts and softball fields. Employees pay a membership fee.

McHugh said about 1,500 members have bought bag tags at the club, and 800 members have GHIN handicaps. The older members, some of whom are well into their 70s, do not usually play the full 18 holes but concentrate on the ones without hills. He said the club does about 12,000 rounds a year, with 150 to 225 rounds played on a normal weekend day.

But although electrical energy isn't a problem for a huge utility like PECO Energy, none of these rounds are accompanied by a cart -- certainly an ironic regulation.

-- Joe Juliano

SAILING ALONGAT SALEM

History buffs, particularly those of a highly methodical nature, might be inclined to pass off the new pace-of-play regulations at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass., as little more than a tri-centennial celebration of those infamous witch hunts.

If they happen to be members at the classic Donald Ross course, they'd better get on their broomsticks and step on it. A vote by members at the 1995 annual meeting required the pace of play for a round of golf to be 4:15 and charged the golf committee with implementing such a policy.

It was implemented July 31, and it is strict. All rounds will be timed and a pace-of-play board will be displayed outside the golf shop bearing the names of all players who take longer than 4:15 to complete a round. A first warning letter will be sent to violators if an individual has been in an offending group more than once. The penalty for a third slow-play violation requires the member to play at non-peak times for a period of two weeks and be required to attend the same orientation program new members must attend.

For a fourth offense, the player is reported to the golf committee and board of governors, is required to play at non-peak times and loses the right to play in club tournaments for the remainder of the year. Subsequent offenses will be referred to the board for action.

Kirk Hanefeld, director of golf at Salem, reported no warning letters issued through the first months the policy had been in effect.

"We're using this as a guideline," Hanefeld says. "Our problem with slow play here has been no more severe than other clubs. This has probably helped already. Invariably the first five or six groups of the day will play in four hours or less. If you've got 100 or more players after that, [elapsed time] can grow to 4:30."

Thus, the new policy includes a presentation on pace of play to each group by the starter before the group tees off. During tournaments, non-playing member-rangers will use a flag system to alert players to their pace, using green flags to indicate a group is on pace, yellow to speed up and red assessing a slow-play penalty and a warning letter.

Steve Freyer, agent for Boston Bruins star Ray Bourque and many other pro athletes in several sports, is also a member at Salem and sees no legal roadblock to the club implementing this policy.

"First, as a player who likes to get to the ball and hit it, I'm biased in favor of the policy," he says. "When a person becomes a member of a club, he agrees to abide by its rules and regulations. I have no sense that it could be challenged. I played recently at 7:30 on a weekend morning in a group that finished in 3:20."

-- Joe Gordon

JUNIOR GOLF VIDEO NOWAVAILABLE

Many -- most? -- people beginning the game of golf in this country do so without any formal structure. You find yourself at a practice range, seeing how difficult it is to hit a stationary ball where you'd like it to go, then perhaps progressing to a par-3 course and eventually to a longer 18-hole facility. Along the way, through experiences or perhaps television, you pick up bits and pieces on etiquette and the Rules.

Now, a video, produced by the National Association of Junior Golfers, is available that better prepares juniors starting their participation in the game of golf.

The REACH program -- named for the areas that it covers: Rules, Etiquette, Appreciation, Conduct and History -- targets golfers participating in club-based, community and scholastic programs, camps, schools and inner-city golf education programs.

Funding and coordination of the video project were assisted by the USGA, the National Golf Foundation, the PGA of America Foundation, the NAJG, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and a number of individual PGA professionals.

"First and foremost," said Tom Griffin, NAJG executive director, "the youth with a desire to learn and play the game of golf will have an opportunity to be exposed to the best educational material ever available.

"Golf course owners, managers, members and professionals will come to recognize a new commitment on the part of the junior golf population to be well versed in the Rules, etiquette and care of the golf course."

The prepackaged program, which includes a three-video set, instructor manuals for each segment, junior golfer guides, wallet cards and certificates, is available by calling (800) 769-8901. The cost for the package, which has materials to cover 50 juniors, is $125 for professionals. A home-use version of the program is also available for $39.95.

IMPROVINGCUSTOMS

Anoticeable absence of name brands may have marked the Professional Clubmakers Society Symposium and Expo, held in late September in Louisville, Ky., but exhibitors insist there was no shortage of quality products.

Founded in 1989 by Louisville clubmaker Elmore Just, the PCS has grown so much that nearly 100 companies opted for displays this year, a far cry from the 18 that attended the first show five years ago. The giant club builders who supposedly dominate the industry were elsewhere, their exhibition spots taken by the likes of Barracuda Golf, Flashpoint Golf and Middleground Inc. Bubble shafts couldn't be found -- at least not by that name.

How much the custom club industry is growing is largely unsubstantiated, but PCS executive director Diane Ogle estimated that 40 percent of clubs purchased in 1996 have been custom made.

"It is definitely growing," said Jeff Jackson, executive vice president of Dynacraft Golf Products Inc., who quoted a figure of 35 percent. "Every year this show gets bigger. I'd have to say custom club making is here to stay."

"There are no hard stats that I know of on that," said Bob Seligman, editor of Golf Product News, "but there's no question that custom clubs is a growing area. There are more clubmakers getting into it."

The PCS has tried to provide credibility to the industry, and a major step toward that goal has been its Class A clubmaker examination. A written test of nearly 300 questions covering the areas of club-making, club fitting and club repair, it is followed by a practical exam in which six clubs are built to certain specifications, then dismantled and graded.

"The quest for knowledge is a lot more than it was before," said Jackson. "People want to do it and they want to do it right. There are some guys just starting out who buy heads, shafts and grips and just stick them together without knowing what's really going on. That's kind of a benefit of this organization. There are some guys who want to learn to do it right, which is good for the whole industry."

The PCS claims 1,600 members worldwide, of which 420 are certified Class A clubmakers.

The big advantage of custom clubmaking is financial: buyers can obtain clubs for 50 to 60 percent of the costs from original equipment manufacturers. Custom builders also insist their clubs are better suited for the individual. "I always check the loft and lie of every club that goes out," says Flashpoint president Steve Etters. "The major manufacturers can't do that."

How well custom clubs are built continues to be widely debated. "The actual assembly part is not rocket science," says Ogle. "I can even do that. Anybody can. Picking the right component parts that will work the best for that swing pattern and work in harmony with the other parts is different. There are so many variables in a shaft, and every manufacturer's shaft is different."

Still, crafting quality work isn't easy, and there are other downsides as well.

"A lot of the garage guys, the very small shops, really don't understand the industry," says Jim Laudenslager, president of Lauden Golf Inc. "It takes a while. I would say five or 10 years to really get into it the right way.

". . . Also, if you lose an iron head or leave a 7-iron laying around a green, you're not going to be able to replace it." -- Stan Sutton

ALTERCATIONSGONE WRONG

Violence has become all too commonplace in some sports, and now not even golf is exempt.

Earlier this fall, an argument between two caddies at Pelham Country Club outside Westchester, N.Y., left one of them dead, the victim of a stabbing, and last month, a 51-year-old man playing a round with his 12-year-old son died following an altercation with another player at the 18th hole at New Berlin (Wis.) Hills Golf Course.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Richard Stephens and his son were searching for a ball the youngster hit into a hazard. While they were looking, a ball hit by a player in the group behind them landed nearby. An argument ensued, and according to some reports the elder Stephens was kicked in the stomach and then in the chest. Other statements led authorities to believe the other player was struck first.

Initially, Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher said he would pursue the investigation as a homicide. Although no arrests had been made in the days immediately following the incident, a 26-year-old man from nearby West Allis turned himself in for questioning. He was released on $3,000 bond but due back in court later that same week.

RCGA ADDS ONEEVENT, ALTERS ANOTHER

It's going to take another round to get into match play at the Royal Canadian Golf Association's Mid-Amateur, and not as many players will make it.

Those are two of the key changes recently announced by the RCGA, which is also altering the format of its Club Champions tournament and adding a 10th Canadian championship -- a Senior Match Play -- to its schedule.

Starting in 1997, the RCGA's Mid-Amateur stroke-play qualifying will be extended to 54 holes from 36, with the low 32 scores qualifying for match play rather than the low 64 in previous years.

The first Senior Match Play Championship will be contested at Paradise Canyon Golf and Country Club in Lethbridge, Alberta.

TAKING AFTERTHE OLD ACE(LESS)

GOLFERS don't enjoy someone else's hole-in-one story, unless it's during the post-round celebration in the grill room. Still, you have to admire the tale of S.C. (Chuck) Severson Sr. of Marinette, Wis.

Sixty years of playing the game left him aceless, despite starting the game at age 3 with lessons from his father. So consider his pride May 3 when he witnessed the first ace of his son, Chuck Jr., at the 158-yard eighth hole at the Milwaukee Country Club. And consider his pride -- and growing frustration with his own game -- two weeks later when another son, Scott, made his second ace, at the 148-yard 17th at Cherokee Country Club in Madison.

There is justice in the world. "Not to be outdone," writes Chuck Sr., "I finally got my first hole-in-one June 26 at Riverside Country Club in Menominee." He canned his shot at the 141-yard second hole. By the way, neither son was in the group that day.

Tim Moore of Ada, Mich., on the other hand, makes the claim that his fourth career ace wasn't worth it.

After the 49-year-old stockbroker holed a pitching wedge at the 114-yard eighth hole at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz., he danced around the tee with such unrestraint he accidently landed on a granite tee marker. He initially believed he had only pulled or strained something, but upon his return to Michigan an MRI diagnosed the injury as a torn Achilles tendon, which required the application of a non-walking cast for five weeks, then a temporary cast after that.

As his brother, Terry, explains, "What makes it so bad is that it deprived him of six or eight weeks of the prime golf season, which isn't long to begin with in Michigan."

"The Phoenician sent me a plaque of the hole," Tim adds, "and every time I look at it a small part of me wants to throw it away. Was it all worth it? No way."

NEW SERVICE GIVES DEVELOPERS A VAST RESOURCE

Course superintendents and green committees that seek assistance when it comes to keeping turf healthy can turn to the USGA Green Section for its Turf Advisory service. But where do course builders and suppliers turn when they have a question on new construction, or superintendents and committees on renovations?

Until recently, the answers to those questions were scattered among many sources -- or in some cases not available. Thanks to a service being introduced by the USGA, the Construction Education Program will build a storehouse of information on proper preparation of a course at ground level and below.

"Many of the problems we run into on turf advisory visits were built into the course," explains Jim Moore, a 12-year Green Section veteran out of the Mid-Continent Region who will head the new service. "Superintendents and members wind up trying to fix these things after the fact. Sometimes it's a lack of understanding of the construction process, or making compromises of construction without understanding the ramifications of those compromises."

As an adjunct to the Turf Advisory Service, a hallmark of the Green Section's existing education program, the Construction Education Program expands on a little-used facet of the Green Section turf visits. "Not many people know that a small portion of our [turf advisory] visits are construction visits," Moore says. "We have courses that have us consult with them six or eight times on a new project."

The USGA's Web site, http://www.usga.org/, will play a crucial role in the dissemination of materials. The construction program page will be essentially a collection of information Moore assembled during his time in the Mid-Continent Section, an area dominated by Texas. Once available, the page will include a growing library of research findings, case studies and literature reviews. That information will be augmented by videos, CD-ROMs, educational seminars and other offerings.

"People who cannot afford a Turf Advisory visit, or who have an immediate need, can use the Web site to get a ton of information," Moore says. "A lot of this information simply isn't in one place right now, or just isn't out there."

Moore is ideally suited to the task. He combines computer literacy, an extensive background in course construction and maintenance, and the knowledge of more than 1,000 TAS visits.

The USGA made an attempt years ago to provide a similar service, TRACS, but its goal of providing on-site quality control could not be realized in the face of the number of requests. "TRACS could only have served two or three courses a year," Moore says. "Where TRACS would have provided quality control, this program teaches quality control."