;v:vi. ^K-*' -^t^ » in: >'i^ ■•■.•• "^ -. — »■,<;».;'■.■■•-•.'' ,1 -■'■ How to Play Golf /<^ HOW TO PLAY GOLF BY Ch H. J. WHIGHAM ^*'^*'^*' HERBERT S. STONE & COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK MDCCCXCVII ^^ T^<.-^^^ ■lam t^m?' , VV3 7 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY HERBERT S. STONE & CO. 2993 To CHARLES BLAIR MACDONALD Who has done more than any one else to promote the best interests of golf in America, this volume is dedicated. The author begs to acknowledge his in- debtedness to Mr. E. Burton Holmes for the use of the chronomatographe pictures illustrating this volume. Contents PAGE Advice to Beginners . o c 3 The Long Game . . c . 41 Iron Play . , , „ c 87 Putting ...,<,. 129 Miscellaneous Suggestions . 151 Training and Tournament Play 171 The Making of a New Course . 187 Development of the Game in AlNIERICA 219 Aiviateurs Abroad .... 243 Rules 273 Etiquette of Golf . . . 309 CHAPTER I. ADVICE TO BEGINNERS. THE term beg-inner, as applied to the g-ame of g'olf, covers a multitude of varying- aims and aspirations ; and since ad- vice is surely wasted upon those who either do not need it or have no desire for it, we may, for economical purposes, classify be- g-inners under three heads, and state di- rectly the particular kind of novice to whom the following- sug-g-estions are offered. The first class, then, is composed of boys under the ag-e of discretion, who learn g-ames by a natural process of imitation and assimila- tion; in the second are found all those of dyspeptic habits who have been ordered by their physicians to take a round of g'olf, either as a tonic or a counter-irritant; the third, and by far the larg-est, class includes men and women of all ag-es and tempera- ments, who by accident or intention, have taken an interest in the g-ame sufficient to inspire them with a desire for improve- ment, and yet find a difficulty in acquiring- any accuracy of form or execution on ac- count of the lack of practical information upon the subject. 4 Professional Teaching. The Dangers ^^ i^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ most sym- of Professional pathetic class that I d esire chief- Teaching, ly to address a few remarks, with just a word of explanation in advance. Many may object to the presumption that information really is lacking*. There are standard works upon the science of g'olf, and every links in America, or indeed in any other well reg'ulated community, is provided with a first-class professional direct from the royal and ancient home of the g*ame in Scotland. And yet the Bad- minton book in its g-eneral tone is, like all scientific works, more an aid to experts than a consolation to beginners who have been led astray in their youth by devotion to baseball or cricket. As for the profes- sional, the disadvantages under which he imparts his instruction must be taken into consideration before his advice can be accepted with absolute faith. Generally speaking*, he is young*, and without experience in the matter of teach- ing. He is ignorant of the ways of the people he has to deal with, and having hd respect for any game but his own, he is un- able to distinguish between errors which come from innate viciousness and those v/hich have been induced by familiarity with the bat or the racket. Lastly, he can seldom Choosing Weapons. 5 account for his own proficiency. Golf with him is more a second nature than an accom- plishment; he succeeds in his art not of malice prepense, as Aristotle would say, but simply because he cannot help it; and the fact that he is a g'ood player is no crite- rion whatever of his ability as an instructor of others. Of course there are many professionals who are excellent teachers. But I have seen so many novices, both in America and Eng-land, who, in spite of professional coach- ing- — -or because of it — are attempting- to play g-olf in a manner that never can be anything- but a source of g-rief to themselves and pity in their friends, that I have determined to lay down a few simple maxims which are not based upon any dog-ma or theory, but upon actual observation. The Choice of Let us beg-in at the very be- Weapoas. g-inning*, then, and having- taken it for g-ranted that the tyro really wishes to play g'olf, and not some other inferior g-ame, let us put him in the rig-ht direction at the start. He must not, in the first place, buy a complete set of clubs, because he cannot possibly expect to play with more than three of them under two months' time, and the rest will only distract his attention. 6 Score Counting must be Avoided. Score Count= Secondly, he will be wise to ing must be keep off the regular course as Avoided. long* as possible, for as soon as he plays eig'hteen holeshe will beg'in tocount his score and trouble the handicapper. This is the most prevalent disease among- young* g*olf ers, and one that will check his prog*ress more than anything* else. I may be par- doned, therefore, for dwelling* a moment tipon the subject. The averag*e beg*inner finds it very difficult to understand why he should be warned ag^ainst this score count- ing* habit, arg*uing-, with some show of plaus- ibility, that the lowering* of one's record is a strong* incentive toward improvement in the g*ame. He forg*ets, however, that apart from the fact that his endeavors to g*et be- low the hundred will make him unfit for human companionship, the mere anxiety to succeed in a nominal and numerical way must have a bad effect upon his style. He will adopt any and every method whereby he may the more readily reach the hole; some friend will g*ive him a piece of advice which will make him more accurate for the time being*, but will sacrifice for him all hopes of ever hitting the ball in the right way; so that, finally, by the time he has surprised himself by going the whole round of eighteen holes in ninety-nine strokes, Use a Wooden Club. 7 without a sing-le effort of the imag-ination, and has won several useless and inartistic cups, he will find that he has forfeited all possibility of becoming- a first-class player. It would be a g-ood rule, then, for every beg*inner to refuse absolutely to count his score until he has played six months; and above all let him remember that it is better to miss the ball fifty times in succession in the rig-ht way than to hit it once by some inauthentic trick. Use a Wooden It will be best for our novice Club. to retire with his caddy or his adviser to some remote locality with plenty of old balls and only one club. That club must be of the wooden variety. The shaft should be strong-, but not too clumsy, with just a little spring- at the lower end. The head should be a bulg-er. It is a mystery to me why every beg-in- ner is taug-ht to play with an old-fashioned, long--headed driver. It would be just as sensible to offer a young- tennis player one of the old lob-sided rackets to learn the g-ame with. The bulg-er is not only the best kind of head for experts, but it was especially invented to obviate the faults w^hich are most inherent in young- players. The compact form of the head makes accu- rate hitting- far more easy, and the bulg-e is 8 The Position of the Hands. intended to counteract all tendencies to slice and pull. The ang-le of the head with the shaft should not be too obtuse. Tastes vary, of course, on that point, but the g-eneral fault in wooden clubs is that they err in not be- ing- sufficiently upright. The Position The club having- been selected, of the Hands, attention should be g-iven to the grip. There are only two possible positions for the hands in driving-, and they are shown on the opposite pag-e. The position of the left hand is the same in both cases. The shaft of the club must be g-ripped firmly in the palm in such a way that when the ball is addressed, the fing-ers, with the except tion of the third joint of the first fing-er and the second joint of the thumb, are invisible. There is no other way of holding- the club in the left hand. And yet I have seen num- bers of beg-inners who have been coached for weeks, holding- the left hand underneath the club to such an extent that the first and second joints of the fing-ers are plainly vis- ible above the shaft. The most casual trial will prove that the latter method is quite incompatible with an easy swing-. With reg-ard to the rig-ht hand, there are two opinions among* the experts. Gener- ally speaking-, the best players hold the club POSITION OF THE HANDS WITH THE CLUB IN THE FINGERS OF THE RIGHT HAND lo The Position of the Hands. lightly, but not loosely, in the fingers of the rig-ht hand in such a manner that the thumb lies across the upper surface of the shaft, with the first joints of the fingers barely visible. This has always been the accepted book form, and the beginner will probably find it wise to adopt it, unless the second way is distinctly easier for him. In the second illustration it will be ob- served that the club is grasped firmly in the palm of the right hand, and the hand is held under the shaft, so that the second joints of the fingers are clearly visible above it. Although I should favor the first posi- tion, there can be no doubt that the second way has been made enormously effective in the hands of many of the best players, both professional and amateur. It is a marked peculiarity of the St. Andrews players, who probably learned it from the Kirkcaldy brothers; but it is certainly not confined to St. Andrews. Mr. John Ball, Jr., to men- tion no others, holds the club tightly in the palm of the right hand ; and if the poll could be taken, it would be very hard to say upon which side the majority of first-class golf- ers would be found. Two of the finest drivers in Scotland, Mr. Edward Blackwell and Mr. F. G. Tait, certainly incline to the POSITION OF THE HANDS WITH THE CLUB IN THE PALM OF THE RIGHT HAND 11 12 The Stance. second method, and yet the first is invari- ably recommended in books. The books and the professional advisers can hardly do otherwise, how^ever, because one of their first maxims is that the club must be held loosely in the rig-ht hand. Now, it is plain it cannot be held very loosely in the second way. The fact is, that the old maxim, which is thrown at the head of every beginner, is responsible for an untold multitude of misfortunes. I would rather say, hold firmly with both hands and choose whichever method pleases you best, only remembering- this, that the first admits of an easier and rather more graceful swing, while the second enables the player to em- ploy the whole force of the right forearm — and that is the secret of most long driving. At present, however, we have nothing to do with long driving. We shall be very well content if the ball is struck clean, irrespect- ive of the distance. The Stance. Let the novice grasp his club in one of the manners described, and stand square to the ball, not stooping too much, nor yet uncompromisingly rigid. The books tell him that he may stand, as regards the ball, in one of two ways, basing their arguments upon the best form. But driving from the left leg has gone out so THE STANCE POSITION IN DRIVING 13 14 The Stance. much in the last few years that the open style may be reg-arded as the only one which it is worth while to teach beginners. He must take his position, then, with the ball placed rather more toward his left than his rig-ht leg-, and at such a distance that he can place the head of the club comfortably behind it without stooping- or stretching- out the arms, and leaving- as obtuse an ang-le as possible between the arms and the shaft of the club. The feet should be from two to two and a half feet apart, according- to height, and the rig-ht if anything- advanced a trifle in front of the left. This style has g-enerally been referred to as driving- off the rig-ht leg-, as opposed to the method of driving- from the left leg-, already mentioned. But that is in reality an abuse of lang-uag-e. When the rig-ht leg- is advanced so far that the weig-ht of the body rests almost entirely upon it, the expression is perfectly correct; but that is not what is at present intended. The beg-inner must accustom himself to stand fairly erect, with the weig-ht of the body equally distributed between each leg-; he will then drive not from one or the other, but from both, and that is the only correct method. The Swing. 15 In swinging* back he will let the weight fall naturally upon the right foot until the top of the swing is reached. In coming forward again, the weight will follow the club, and when the drive is finished it will rest almost entirely upon the left foot. But this must be done unconsciously. As soon as the beginner allows himself to think about changing his center of gravity his swing is sure to get out of gear. It will be quite sufficient, then, if he will stand cor- rectly in the first place, and swing as I shall instruct him. The Swing. Here is the crucial point. He will probably be persuaded to imitate the long swing of his professional adviser. If he does so, he is almost certainly lost. There are exceptions even to this rule, but generally speaking, no man or woman whose muscles have become set, should ever at- tempt a full swing until it comes of its own accord. Begin wdth what your professional calls a half shot. That is to say, let the arms go back just as far as possible without making a break in the motion. The club must swing backward and forward as smoothly as the pendulum of a clock. The left wrist and elbow should be kept almost in a straight line, and only the right wrist and i6 The Swing. elbow should be bent as the club moves backward. Practice this stroke until you can hit the ball accurately, and you will be astonished how far it will g^o with only a very small expenditure of force. Your young* golfer, however, is a very ambitious individual, and he will not be con- tent to foreg'O his cherished St. Andrews swing- unless he is g-iven g-ood reasons. He will g-enerally arg-ue that form must be acquired at any cost, and confront me with my own statement that it is better to miss the ball in the rig-ht way than to hit it in the wrong-. First, then, let me ask him whether it is not far better to achieve a half swing- than no swing- at all. He must remember that driving- is en- tirely a matter of swing-. As soon as he beg-ins to hit at the ball he is hopelessly ruined. He must at all costs learn to sweep the ball away as if it were an object of no weight at all. Consequently, if he can learn a true half swing-, he is at least on the road to grace; whereas the contortions which he g-oes throug-h in acquiring- what he im- ag-ines to be the proper St. Andrews style do not constitute a swing- at all, and he will probably spend months and months attempting- to sandpaper it down into some- thing- like a regular sweep. In the mean- The Swing. 17 time his less ambitious brother in golf will have outstripped him with ease; not, be it understood, in the matter of score — for that is of no importance — but in the effect- iveness of his play and the evenness of his swing". Of course it is not intended that the late beginner should not in time develop a real St. Andrews swing. The only question is, How^ can he do it most easily? When he has played long enough and watched the mo- tions of all the first-class golfers he may come across, he will gradually find his swing lengthening out without any conscious ef- fort on his own part and without any break in the motion. A golfing swing is rather like the human voice. There is a definite break which years of practice only can smooth away. In train- ing the voice the teacher develops both the lower and the upper register, and in so doing works one into the other so as to con- ceal the break. The teacher in golf — at least, where he has to deal with adult pupils — should adopt just the contrary method. He should develop the lower register only, and go on extending it until it gradually glides into the upper register without en- countering the break at all. That is the theoretical reason for en- 1 8 The Swing. couraging- the half swing*. Fortunately, in this case the practice bears out the theory. At the present moment three of the best American players, according- to public form, are A. H. Fenn, A. Tyng and H. Harriman. There are several younger players who are quite as good now, and probably will very soon pass the older contingent in the race. But these college boys, like Betts, Reid, Terry, Walter Smith, Ba}^ard and many others, hardly enter into the present dis- cussion. They have learned the game early enough in life to imitate the regular pro- fessional swing without danger. Of the older golfers, however, Fenn and Tyng have certainly earned the right to be considered in the front rank, and Harriman I class with them, not because his record is so extensive, nor because he happened to defeat Tyng in playing for the amateur championship, but because his style strikes me as being the best exposition of the method which ought to be followed by adult beginners. Turn to the photographs of these play- ers, and you will observe that not one of them has a full swing, Fenn and Tyng being most remarkable in this respect. But you will also see that in each case the stroke is followed through to the finish. Thus the The Swing. 19 head of the club is kept traveling- as long as possible in the line of the ball's flight. Another point will strike you if you look carefully at the different illustrations: You will see that in Harriman's case the hands go back very nearly as far as in the pictures of the Scotch players. And yet the casual observer would never suspect Harrimanof having- a full swing; which goes to prove that the eye is often deceived, and that what looks like a very long swing is in reality not so very much longer than the stroke which I recommend to the beginner. The argument, moreover, does not apply to American players alone. In the first rank of English and Scotch golfers it would be hard to find a single expert who did not learn the game as a boy. But among those who began later in life, the best are cer- tainly those who use little more than a half swing. Two good instances come readily to mind: Mr. Oswald, who was last year captain of the St. Andrews golf club, is one of the steadiest players on any links. He is not absolutely first-class, but there are very few players who can give him odds with safety; yet in driving, his hands hardly reach the level of his shoulder. Mr. Walter De Zoete is another and even more extraordinary case in point. He plays with 20 The Finish of the Stroke. an easy half swing", and he has passed the ag*e when men expect to be pre-eminent in sports; yet there is hardly a g-olfer, young- or old, who can beat him over his native heath at North Berwick in Scotland. The Finish of I hope, then, that the advan- the Stroke. tag-es of the short swing- for those who begin golf comparatively late in life, are by this time sufficiently apparent. Having* adopted this method, the beginner must remember that the finish of the stroke is at least as important as the beg-inning-. It is absolutely necessary that he should keep the head of the club traveling- in the line of the ball's flight as long as possible, and this can only be done by letting- the weig-ht of the body follow the stroke until it rests entirely on the left leg-. The rig-ht shoulder must also come forward, and the tendency to draw back both the shoulders and the arms after the ball has been struck must be overcome at any price. Examine the different positions at the end of the stroke, and you will see that there is more of the swing- after the ball is hit than be- fore; the practical explanation of which is that in order to secure a g-ood finish the club must be traveling- very fast when it reaches the ball. If, on the other hand, the stroke is ended as soon as the ball is struck Summary. 2 1 the swing- must be gradually becoming slower before the club reaches the ball, and the drive is robbed of most of its force. In actual practice you will find that as the club goes back the heel of the left foot is torn, as it were, from the ground. Simi- larly, when the stroke is finished, if the weight is carried through correctly, the right heel is sure to rise. But in both cases the action must be unconscious. Do not pay any attention to a professional adviser who tells you to turn your heel. There is absolutely no virtue in the motion unless it is spontaneous. Practice your swing* con- stantly and the rest will come in due time. Summary. To put it shortly and nega- tively, then: Don't beg-in by counting- your score. Don't use an iron club, nor an old fash- ioned wooden one. Don't hold loosely with your right hand. Don't raise either heel from the g-round until it comes naturally. Don't, above all, as you value your g'olf- ing future, adopt a full St. Andrews swing. So much in the way of suggestion to the real beg-inner. In the next chapter I shall address a few remarks to those who have advanced far enough to play a definite kind of game, whether good, bad or indifferent. Driving — American Style Mr. W. R. Betts Mr. a. H. Fenn Mr. J. A. Tyng Mr. H. M. Harriman 23 MR. W. R. BETTS YALE GOLF CLUB I. Al the Top of the Swing II. Coming Through III. The Finish 24 II 26 Ill 87 MR. A. H. FENN PALMETTO GOLF CLUB I. A I the Top of the Swing II. Coming Through III. The Finish 29 II 30 Ill 31 MR. J. A. TYNG MORRIS COUNTY GOLF CLUB I. At the Top of the Szviiig 11. Coining Thj^oiigli III. The Finish 32 33 II 34 Ill 35 MR. H. M. HARRIMAN KNOLLWOOD GOLF CLUB I. A I the Top of the Swing II and III. Coming Through IV. The Finish 36 37 II 38 Ill IV 40 CHAPTER 11. THE LONG GAME. THE young- g-olf er who has learned with some difficulty to play a moderately steady game is certain to experience re- lapses from time to time, and it is the object of the present chapter to point out the most fruitful sources of error in driv- ing- from the tee and throug-h the g-reen. Faults to be When he is alternately hitting- Avoided. his ball on the top, and striking- the g-round several inches behind it, he will probably be told that he is pressing- or tak- ing- his eye off the ball. But neither of these reasons is sufficient to explain con- sistent bad play. The most frequent fault which assails all g-olfers, both g-ood and bad, consists in standing* too much in front of the ball. That is to say, the ball is placed opposite the rig-ht foot, instead of being- very nearly opposite the left. The consequence is that the club comes down upon the top of the ball or behind it, as the case may be, instead of meeting- it just as the head is on the rise. The effect on the swing* itself is extremely detrimental, for not only does the player strike the ball at the wrong* point of the 41 42 . Faults to be Avoided. circle, but he beg'ins to chop down upon it instead of sweeping- it away. Whenever, therefore, you find yourself hitting* your ball on the top or else g-etting* it very hig-h in the air, examine carefully your position, and you will g-enerally find that your ball is too near your rig-ht foot. Another fault which manifests itself in various ways consists in falling- back at the end of the stroke. The arms and shoulders, instead of following* the line of the ball's flight, are drawn quickly round to the left, and the consequence is a terrific pull; or else the ball is struck on the toe of the club and flies off to the rig-ht. The effect in both cases is disastrous, and the two shots are so entirely unlike that the novice does not recog-nize the fact that both are caused by the same error in style. Very often, too, the driving* is loose and fails in the matter of distance because the player is not standing* up squarely to the ball. His hands are g-etting* too low, the ang-le between the arms and the shaft is too pronounced, and the sole of the club is not placed evenly on the g-round when the ball is addressed. Very often, too, the club is being* held too loosely, the thumbs are straying- down the shaft instead of across it, and the club is allowed to turn as it strikes the ball. Faults to be Avoided. 43 All these errors, however slig-ht, will have a bad effect upon the flig-ht of the ball. So that g-enerally speaking-, when a player is driving- poorly, he oug-ht to brace himself up, take a firmer grip of his club, stand more erect, and be sure that he is soling- the head of his club squarely behind the ball, so that both toe and heel are on the g-round, and the surface of the face makes a rig-ht ang-le with the surface of the earth. In attempting- this cure, he may perhaps g-o to the other extreme and become almost rig-id. But that is the better fault of the two. It is only when a man is at the very top of his game, when eye and hand are in exact accord, that he can with safety loosen every muscle in his body in order to g-et every ounce of weig-ht into the swing*. When a player g-ets to this state he is a long- way beyond advice. He can hold his club with the very lig-htest g'rip, he can swing- rapidly and with all his mig-ht, and it does not matter very much whether he looks at the ball or not. This is a state of thing's, however, which rarely comes to any one except the first- class player. The averag-e g-olfer must be content for the most part to purchase accu- racy at the expense of a little flexibility. After all, driving is mainly a matter of 44 The Refinements of Driving. following- the stroke through with the arms and shoulders, and for that reason the half swing- should be continually practiced, be- cause there a man is bound to follow throug-h in order to g-et any distance at all; so that when you are driving- short or slicing- badly, g-o back to a half swing- for an hour or two and learn to get the arms and shoulders well away after the ball. The Refioe= The rules for driving- off the ments of fee and brassey play are rather Driving. similar to the rules for the fourth hand at whist. All you have g-ot to do is to hit the ball. But there are a few refinements v/hich may be brought into play with a little practice. Allowing for A great many golfers who Wind. have risen well into the second rank, find that their game deteriorates tre- mendously in a high wind. Even the best players are often disturbed by the ele- ments, and it seems to me that their diffi- culty arises from a very simple and very common fault. In golf, as in archery, the man who stands most firmly on his feet will always, other things being equal, beat his opponents on a stormy day. It is obvious, therefore, that the higher the wind the more easily must the player swing his club, otherwise Allowing for Wind. 45 he is bound to lose his balance. Yet the constant tendency is to use an extra effort, especially in playing* against the wind. Remember, then, the swing* must be par- ticularly easy, and special attention must be g*iven to the follow throug-h — your object being to hit the ball absolutely clean. On a calm day a ball may be sliced or pulled or hit high in the air, without great loss of dis- tance. On a windy day, the slightest inac- curacy is ten times exaggerated, and the man who is accustomed to drive with a cut will find himself hopelessly out of the run- ning. Consequently, your first care on a windy day must be to swing absolutely true, and this is impossible if any attempt is made to force the stroke. Secondly, do not try to drive a low ball against the wind. It is no uncommon thing to hear even a first-class player excusing himself for a very bad shot, by explaining that he was trying to half-top the ball, so as to keep it near the ground in its flight. He ought to know" that, wind or no wind, a ball that is half-topped will not fly so far as one that is clean hit. Moreover, in placing your ball in such a position as to hit it half on the top, you are almost certainly interfering with your swing, and the result may either be a ball that runs along the ground into the 46 Driving with a Cross Wind. nearest bunker, or one that spouts into the air and is instantly checked by the wind. Remember that a really clean-hit ball from a low tee never flies very hig-h, and the cleaner it is struck the better will it keep its course, even in the teeth of a g-ale. In driving* ag*ainst the wind, therefore, it is sufficient to bear in mind that you must swdng- easily and in your natural way. Any extra effort of any sort will assuredly prove disastrous. Similarly, with a strong- wind behind you, do not try to drive an abnormally long- ball. If you do, you will probably lose your balance and fail to hit the ball clean, in which case all the advantag-e of the wind is lost. Driving with a A wind that blows across the Cross Wind. course is rather more difficult to deal with. Under such circumstances a ball that is driven absolutely straight will suif er a certain hindrance. You may, how- ever, make such a use of the wind that it actually helps rather than impedes your stroke. Technically speaking*, you can play for a pull with the wind blowing* from rig-ht to left, and play for a slice with the wind blowing- from left to rig-ht. These terms are a little misleading-,, be- cause in reality you must pull or slice, as Driving with a Cross Wind, 47 the case may be, only to a fraction of a hair's breadth. It is easy enough to pull your ball badly. You need only stand in front of it, aim well to the right, and the pull will come. But then you will find that your ball travels no farther than if you had hit it straight down the course. The proper method is far more artistic. You must aim very slightly to the right, place your ball a very little farther back than usual, grip your club firmly in both hands, and then hit your ball straight and clean, without thinking of the pull at all. As soon as you begin to think about it, you will draw your arms and shoulders round to the left at the end of the swing, and the result will be a very bad pull indeed. All you have got to do is to hit the ball true and follow the stroke through to the finish, and the wind will do the rest. When the wind is in the other direction, you must be particularly careful not to slice, because however much you may allow for it, a slice is almost sure to land you in trouble. And yet it is very hard to avoid slicing with a v/ind blowing over your left shoulder, because in aiming well to the left you forget to change the position of the ball in addressing it; consequently it is too far back, and a true swing is impossible. 48 On Long Driving. Remember, then, in playing* for a slice you must endeavor before all things not to slice at all. Aim to the left and keep the ball well in front of you when you address it — that is to say, almost opposite to your left foot. On Long Long- driving* has so many fas- Driving, cinations, especially for the beg"in- ner, that any discovery of a royal road toward acquiring* the habit would be ex- ceeding*ly welcome. Unfortunately there is no possibility of any such discovery. Long- driving* is simply another expression for clean hitting*. No man who does not swing* true will ever be a long* driver. He may occasionally by some accident g*et the whole weig*ht of his body into the stroke and hit the ball a very great distance, but that will not constitute him a long driver. It is the average that tells, and not the one good drive out of ten when the others are all bad. And a true swing can only be ac- quired by steady practice. At first per- haps only the arms can be brought into play. But by degrees the shoulders and the hips will become more supple. Ex- amine the accompanying illustrations care- fully, and you will see that at the top of the swing every ounce in the body almost rests on the right leg. As the club comes down, On Long Driving. 49 the balance is restored and the weight is almost evenly distributed as the ball is struck; but it is moving forward all the time until at the finish of the stroke it rests entirely on the left leg-. And yet, although the weig-ht changes, the body does not appear to alter its position to any great ex- tent; the shoulders revolve upon an almost immovable axis. There must be no for- ward movement of the whole person as there is in baseball or cricket. The weight certainly moves, and that is where the strength of the stroke comes from, but it must be transferred almost invisibly, and the momentum must be applied to the ball chiefly through the medium of the right shoulder and forearm. Now, all this may sound very vague, but if you study the illustrations you will under- stand partly what is meant, and if you will go out and watch a good driver at work you will understand a g-reat deal better. In fact, if you want to succeed in the game you should never miss an opportunity of seeing* a really first-class player exercising his art; it will do you far more g-ood than a thousand verbal lessons. And then, when you have learned to use your shoulders in the right way, and find that you are really getting the weig-ht of 50 Brassey Play. your body into the stroke, you may be able to employ your wrists. There is a certain snap of the wrists which cannot possibly be described, but which nevertheless is the secret of all very long- driving-. In order to bring- it into use, it is necessary that the muscles of the arm should not be taut; and that is equivalent to saying that the player must be at the very top of his g-ame. Con- sequently for all practical purposes the wrists may be forgotten in driving-. When the time comes to use them, the player will be beyond the reach of advice. Brassey Play. The term brassey play is g-ener-- ally applied to all the strokes made through the g-reen with a wooden club. And yet the less the brassey is used the better it will be, both for the green and the player. Courses are, or should be, kept in such good condi- tion, at the present time, that a driver may be used in nearly every case. But many players employ a brassey simply from habit, or because they desire to save a favorite club. A moment's consideration will suffice to show that the brass on the sole of the club is a certain handicap be- cause it alters the balance. Why not em- ploy the old fashioned spoon? In fact, why not duplicate your driver almost exactly, simply shortening the shaft to some slight I Brassey Play. 51 extent, and perhaps laying- back the face a very little? It stands to reason that a man can play more accurately with one club than two, and where he has to employ two, they should be as nearly alike as possible. Of course, on roug-h g-round, where the lies are hard and cuppy, the brassey is almost a necessity, for no other club will stand the wear and tear. But for a good green it seems more reasonable to employ either a driver or club very similar in weight and lie, the only difference being in the shaft, which for playing through the green should be rather shorter and less supple. Beyond this there is very little to say about brassey play which has not already been pointed out in discussing the drive from the tee. Only one rule should be in- sisted upon: the worse the lie, the more easy should the swing be; and particularly so in playing a hanging ball. In the latter case, remember to sole the club squarely on the ground, and not with its face upward. In other words, play the ball as if it were not hanging at all, and the natural curve of flight will raise it suffi- ciently for all practical purposes. Occa- sionally, when the ball is hanging and there is a steep face immediately in front, it may 52 Brassey Play. be necessary to aim to the left, hit the ball rather on the heel, and allow for the curve. But this is rather a desperate method. In such cases it is generally better to discard the wooden club and use an iron. Driving — Scotch Style Mr. H. J. Whigham Mk. C. B. Macdonald Mr. F. S. Douglas 53 MR. H. J. WHIGHAM ONWBNTSIA CLUB 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 ai 63 64 66 67 MR. C. B. MACD(3NALD CHICAGO GOLF CLUB 71 73 n 76 77 78 79 80 8i MR. F. S. DOUGLAS FAIRFIELD COUNTY GOLF CLUB 82 83 »iri::#ip«i»pi»liiiiiii ^^irmmr- £^^m;Mm^: ^^^ 84 CHAPTER III. IRON PLAY. THE approach shot in all its various forms is the most difficult and the most important part of the game of golf, and yet it is the stroke which the beginner, as a rule, practices least and attempts most erroneously. There are two reasons for his short- comings in this respect. In the first place, he starts at the wrong end. Instead of learning to play a very short approach to begin with, and then going on to extend the capacity of his half stroke, he regards any kind of iron shot as a modification of a full drive, and so attempts to play up to the hole with a flabby and half-hearted full swing ; whereas, if he did but know it, he could cover the same distance far more easily with a third of the exertion and with far greater accuracy. In the second place, the tendency to enter handicap competitions at an early stage of his career has the effect of crip- pling his stroke even more in the approach than in the drive. He is determined to get to the green somehow or other, and so he 87 88 - The Choice of Club. g*enerally purchases an abomination of mod- ern golf, known as a lofter, with which he certainly avoids bunkers, but only at the expense of correct style and future pros- pects. Two thing's, then, must be borne in mind in the beginning*: The shorter your swing, the greater your accuracy; and sec- ondly, the less your club is lofted the stead- ier your game will be. The reason for the latter proposition is very obvious. With a club that is excessively laid back, the slightest error in hitting the ball, either too high or too low, will make an enormous difference in the distance. With a club that is not laid back so far, the ball may be hit high or low, and travel almost the same distance in either case. It is true that most good players use the mashie to a large ex- tent, but you will generally find that the mashie which is used by a good approacher is a very different weapon from the shovel- faced lofter which is generally put in the hands of a novice. And even the mashie may well be discarded until the use oi the light iron has been thoroughly acquired. It is hardly necessary to state that it is ad- visable, as far as possible, to employ only one club for all the approach shots within a The Choice of Club. 89 hundred yards of the hole. Occasionally a steep bunker has to be neg-otiated when the hole lies only a few yards beyond it, and then a mashie is practically a necessity un- less you have acquired the art of putting- a strong- back spin upon the ball. But shots of that nature need not trouble the begin- ner very seriously. He may be well con- tented if he can learn in the space of a few months to play a good straightforward ap- proach where he can drop his ball twenty yards short of the hole and let it roll the rest of the way. Let him take, then, what is known as a light or medium iron, a club which is quite suf&ciently laid back for all practical pur- poses, and leaving the mashie severely alone, let him devote himself for an hour or so each day to playing the approach shot. And in order to avoid any tendency to force the stroke, let him begin at a dis- tance from the hole — say thirty or forty yards — which he can cover with a very small expenditure of force. Position. In playing this stroke, the stand should be changed from that required in driving. The line of the feet should be at an angle of nearly 45° with the line of the ball's flight, so that the player may face the hole; and the ball should be more nearly opposite 90 Position and Grip. the rig-ht foot than the left. The player must be careful, however, to give his arms perfectly free play, and on no account must the rig-ht elbow^ rest upon the hip. The Hands. In gripping" the club the player may adopt the same position of the hands as in driving-, but it would be better in play- ing- so short an approach as this, if he would relax the g-rip of the left hand and hold the shaft of the club in the fingers instead of the palm. But if he does so, he must not let the thumbs stray down the shaft of the club, nor must he hold the shaft loosely with either hand. If he does so, he will find that the head of the club is apt to turn ever so little as the ball is struck, and the result is very disastrous. As for the stroke itself, disabuse your mind entirely of the idea that you are play- ing a wrist shot. There never was a more misleading term than that which is invaria- bly applied to every shot in golf which does not necessitate a full swing. There are occasions, of course, where a very delicate lofting stroke has to be played, and an ex- pert may in such cases play entirely with his wrists. But as a general rule, even a short approach of thirty-five yards employs the forearm, and even to a certain extent POSITION OF THE HANDS FOR THE SHORT APPROACH 91 9^ Use of the Arms. the shoulder. The wrist in reality enters very little into the stroke. Nothing- can be more important than to recog-nize this truth, for the chief difficulty which most young* players experience in learning- to approach arises from the fact that they imag-ine that they must swing- with their wrists only, which is in itself a phys- ical impossibilit}^ The stroke must, in reality, be played with the left arm almost straig-ht. As the club g-oes back the rig-ht elbow is bent and the rig-ht wrist moves perceptibly. The head of the club should travel very near the ground, and in a straight line backward. In coming- forward the left arm is still kept very nearly straig-ht (but not rig-id), and after the ball is struck the rig-ht arm straightens out to the finish until the player is pointing- with arms and club stretched out toward the hole. Examine very carefully the illustrations of the approach shot at forty yards, and you will see that, in the first place, the arms are free of contact with the body; secondly, the wrists chang-e their position very slig-htly during- the stroke; thirdly, the arms are employed rig-ht up to the shoulder; and fourthly, the hands travel a long- way after the ball. Use of the Arms. 93 Observe, on the other hand, the wrist shot as it is played by nearly every beg-in- ner, and you will see that the arms do not work freely because they are not supposed to enter into the stroke, the wrists are bent backward and forward, and the hands are held back at the finish instead of being- allowed to follow the flig-ht of the ball. It is the left arm especially that is cramped by this attempt to play with the wrists. Re- member, then, particularly to let the left arm g-o out after hitting- the ball, otherwise the head of the iron is broug-ht round to the left instead of following- through. If you play the stroke in the proper way you will have no difficulty whatever in rais- ing* the ball from the g-round. Therefore it is quite unnecessary to use a lofter, or even a mashie, unless you are compelled, on account of the proximity of a bunker, to drop the ball very dead. Above all, do not lay the face of your iron back in addressing* the ball, thinking* thereby to lift it the more easily. If you do, you will only succeed in hitting* it with the edg*e, and the effect will be most unwelcome. Sole your club square- ly on the g*round, and the force of impact will do the rest, g*ranted that the ball is struck in the manner already recommended. Approach at Fifty Yards I. At the Top of the Swing 11. Follow Through III. The Finish 94 9.^ II 96 Ill 97 98 Longer Approaches. Longer When you have learned to play Approaches, a thirty or forty-yard approach with fair accuracy, you may begin to move farther away from the hole; but do not lengthen your swing more than is abso- lutely necessary. When you have once begun to hit the ball clean with the arm stroke, you will be astonished to find how far the ball will travel with a very small ex- penditure of force. Circumstances of wind and weather will naturally be taken into consideration; but generally speaking, when you find yourself between seventy and eighty yards from the hole you will have to alter your grip. Instead of holding the club in the fingers of both hands, you will have to go back to the original method employed in driving. But this will in no way change the stroke itself. The only difference be- tween playing a forty-yard stroke and one of eighty yards, is that the swing is rather longer in the latter case. One other point may be observed as the approach grows longer. So far no mention has been made of the weight of the body, because in the shorter strokes the body is hardly employed at all. Gradually, however, as greater dis- tance has to be covered, the weight of the body begins to be called into use. There is very little difference in the length of the The Weight of the Body. 99 swing, and the position of the feet is only slightly modified, the left foot coming for- ward a little, and the right moving back. But as greater force is required, the body has to be employed ; that is to say, the weight is thrown first on the right leg as club goes back, and then on the left as it comes forward. This is the whole secret of obtaining distance with the half shot, and sincepreciselythesame means are employed in driving, the young player ought not by this time to find the difficulty insuperable. Of course it sounds easy enough until an experiment is made, and then the weight of the body is found to be very unmanage- able. Either there is a tendency to sway the whole frame backward and forward, which is entirely wrong, because it makes accuracy impossible, or else the weight of the body is thrown into the forward stroke too soon, with the result that the club comes down behind the ball, with much detriment to the turf. You must change your center of gravity from right to left in exact accordance with the forward movement of the club, so that there is no sledge hammering or jerkiness in the stroke. And this is the most diffi- cult part of the whole matter. In fact, you cannot attain the proper rhythmical move- loo The Weight of the Body. ment if you are conscious that you are throwing- your whole weig-ht at the ball. There is only one thing- to be done, and that is to think more of the finish of the stroke than anything- else. Remember that hands, arms, shoulders and everything- except the toes of your right foot must be sent after the ball and continue to point in the direc- tion of the hole long- after the ball has left the club. If you really succeed in doing- this, the weig-ht of the body is naturally moved from right to left without your fore- knowledg-e. Approach at One Hundred Yards I. Position II. At the Top of the Swing III. Coining Down IV. Coining Down V. Follow Through VI. The Finish 101 11 :.. ._ , f^i r4 103 Ill 103 IV 104 105 VI 106 The Three-Quarters Shot. 107 The Three= This half stroke will take you Quarters back to a hundred yards from Shot. the hole with ease, and then you will find yourself in a dilemma. A full shot will take you too far, and a half shot will hardly reach the green. The books advise you to play what is called the three-quar- ters shot. As every one who plays g*olf at all knows, this is quite the most dang"erous stroke in the g*ame. It is, in fact, the stroke which most beg*inners use for every kind of approach — that is to say, they take a full swing- and spare their strength. There is, however, one way of getting* out of the difficulty. At a distance of a hundred and twenty yards, let us say, you find that a full shot with your light iron will go rather too far, and the half shot which you have been practicing will not go far enough. You still may have recourse to your driving iron, which with the same half shot will send the ball the whole distance required, because it is straighter in the face, and therefore causes the ball to run farther after alighting. But then another obstacle may arise: there may be a bunker in front of the whole, so that it is impossible to play a running shot. In that case play a three- quarters shot with your light iron. But don't forget that even so, the follow through io8 The Three-Quarters Shot. is the most important part of the stroke. The reason that the three-quarters shot is so often a failure is simply this : The player beg*ins by taking- a full shot, and tries to shorten the distance by checking- his swing- at the moment of impact. In other words, he does not carry his club throug-h to the finish. No stroke of that kind can ever be used with safety, although it may occasion- ally ''come off," more by luck than g-ood guidance. Again, some of the books regard as the distinguishing feature of the three- quarters shot that the arms and shoulders are used as in the drive, but the weight of the body is not called into play. Now, this I conceive to be entirely misleading. I have already pointed out that except in the very short approaches the transference of the center of gravity from right to left is as important as in driving. And no full shot can be played with safety, simply by using the arms alone. In attempting the three- quarters shot you should stand very much as you do in driving, except that the right foot may be rather more advanced, and the ball may be moved a very little farther back. The club should then be swung back, as in driving, except that the hands should not rise above the line of the shoulder; and since the object is to loft the ball, the arc The Three-Quarters Shot. 109 described by the head of the club should be part of a smaller circle than that described by the head of the club in playing- the half shot; or, to put it more simply, the head in g-oing- back should not travel so close to the g-round. Then it may be well to pause for the fraction of a second at the top of the swing- in order to avoid undue haste, to which one is particularly liable in this shot. Finally, let the follow through be as complete as ever, except that the hands and club should not travel on quite so low^ a line as in play- ing- the half shot. In other words, the arc described by the club after the ball is struck should correspond to the arc described in the backward swing. The Three-Quarters Shot I. Position 11. At the Top of the Swing III. Follozv Through IV. Follow Through V. The Finish no Ill II 112 Ill 113 IV U4 115 ii6 Back Spin and Cut, The Refine= If ^^^ J^ung- player has learned ments of Iron to play the half stroke in the Play- manner described, and has also mastered the three-quarters shot so that he is fairly certain of the results, he will still find that there are difficulties to be overcome. But he need not trouble himself very much about them until he has acquired accuracy in the straig-htforward part of the short g-ame. Not until then should he en- deavor to play the hig-h or lofting- stroke or strugg-le with the vag*aries of back spin. Still, every g-olf er oug-ht to be fully equipped in every point, and he oug-ht to know how to deal with various courses requiring- various styles of play. Back Spin and I have hardly seen a course the Cut in America where back spin is Stroke. ^ positive necessity. On the straightforward courses like that of the Chicag-o Golf Club it is possible to approach almost every hole with an ordinary lig-ht iron, because the g-reens are larg-e enoug-h and the bunkers at a sufficient distance from the hole to permit a considerable run after the ball has landed. There are other courses where the g-reens are small and ab- normally keen, in which case no sleig-ht of hand will enable a player to pitch his ball on to the g-reen and keep it there. In time, The Cut Stroke. 117 however, seaside courses will be laid out in this country, similar to the g-reat links in England and Scotland, where the greens though large are excessively keen com- pared to most of our inland putting greens, and where the hole is protected by bunkers in such a way that it is absolutely necessary to play many of the approach shots with a spin in order to stop the ball on the putting green. Needless to say, in golf, as in almost every other game, no cut should be adminis- tered to the ball unless it is unavoidable. One's object, generally speaking, is to make the ball travel as far as possible, and not to check its movements; moreover, a ball that is struck clean without any cut will roll more truly after landing than a ball which is played with a spin or from a very lofted club. Nevertheless, the cut stroke in golf is just as much part of the game as it is in billiards, and for that reason it is a pity that it is not oftener called into play by the courses which at present exist in America. In fact, it is really the mastery of this stroke which creates the distinction between the really first-class golfer and the average scratch man. Fortunately it is not hard to explain the manner of playing the shot, although it is li8 The Cut Stroke. exceeding-ly difficult to acquire any degree of certainty in playing- it. In the ordinary approach shot the player is recommended to keep the head of the club traveling- in the line of the ball's flig'ht, both in the backward and the forward swing-. He is also advised to draw the club back as near the g-round as possible. In playing- the cut stroke he must neg-lect both these commandments. The club must be drawn across the intended line of flig'ht, starting- away from the body and coming toward it, as the ball is hit; moreover, the hands must be raised in going- back and after the ball is struck, so that the swing is more vertical than horizontal, to use an un- mathematical, but easily comprehensible, expression. Strike the ball, if possible, nearer the heel than the center of the club, and aim slightly to the left of the hole. Also, in addressing the ball, face the hole more squarely even than in the ordinary short approach. Go out and practice this stroke, and, after half an hour, you will probably despair of ever being able to play it successfully. There is nothing that I can do for you except to tell you to go on practicing. There is no hidden mystery in the matter, and no easy method of ac- quiring the habit. If you cannot become The Cut Stroke. 119 fairly proficient in the shot, you are not skillful enoug-h to reach the summit of am- bition, and that is an end of it. Moreover, if you are unable to play the stroke with a very reasonable degree of certainty, you had better discard it altogether and use some other means of staying near the hole when the green is very fast. You may either use a very lofted club — but that, too, is un- certain — or you may harden your heart and play simply to keep out of difficulties by using the ordinary method of approach and allowing your ball to run past the hole. If there is a bunker on the other side as well, you are indeed in a hard position ; but, gen- erally speaking, there is some means of safety if sufficient ingenuity is brought to bear on the situation. The Cut Stroke I. At the Top of the Swing II. At the Top of the Swings Front View III. The Finish 120 m II 122 lit 123 124 Running Up. Running Up. There is another kind of ap- proach which is used with great effect on g-reens like St. Andrews in Scotland, and that is the running--up shot played either with the cleek or the wooden putter. This method of approaching* the hole is never of much service on inland courses, where the g-rass is not of a fine enoug-h nature to allow the ball to travel smoothly over it for any distance. But on seaside courses it is an invaluable part of the g*olfer's equipment, for it enables him very often to keep his ball near the hole when the keenness of the g-reens would make a lofted shot very dan- g-erous; it is also particularly useful on windy days when it is risky to let your ball rise into the air. Here, ag^ain, the stroke is very simple, although hard to acquire. Nothing but practice will give you the fac- ulty of judging the strength, and that is the all-important part. For the rest, it is merely necessary to hit the ball clean, allow- ing, of course, for any slope in the ground, but remembering that a ball which is struck true with a wooden putter will keep its line marvelously well over any little roughness or undulation. That is why it is often ad- visable to use the wooden putter, or the Mus- selburgh iron, as it used to be called rather contemptuously, at any distance up to forty The Full Iron Shot. 125 yards or so from the hole, where there are a number of small hillocks intervening- which are sure to turn a lofted shot off the line, but hardly affect a truly hit put The wooden putter is more effective for this stroke than a cleek, because it is less likely to put any spin on the ball. But a cleek may be used in the same way where the lie does not warrant the use of the wooden club. The Full Iron So far I have not mentioned Shot. the full shot with the iron or cleek, because, properly speaking, that comes under the head of driving*. The only thing* to remember in using* the iron club in distinction from the ordinary driver is that a rather shorter swing* is advisable. A cleek or iron is naturally a more clumsy weapon than the driver, and therefore the tendency to press or to leng*then the swing* is more likely to have a disastrous effect. Do not forg*et, then, that overswing*ing* is particularly dang*erous with an iron club, and pay special attention to the finish of the stroke. One other point is worth mentioning*: It is constantly observed that the best players are apt to take a g*ood deal of turf with their iron shots, and the beginner 126 The Full Iron Shot. generally desires an explanation of this seeming" misdemeanor. Of course, when the ball is lying- in a hard cup it is impossible not to take a cer- tain amount of the earth with the ball. But even with a g-ood lie you may often see an expert cut up a reg-ular blanket of turf. First of all, then, do not try to imitate him until you understand why and how it is done. If you watch him closely you will see that the turf is cut after the ball is struck, and not before ; and if you ask him to explain it he will tell you, probably, that he was not conscious before the shot of any intention in the matter. The reason is that in playing- many long approaches it is necessary to land on the g-reen without run- ning- very far, and in order to achieve the combination it is necessary to play a chop stroke; not, be it understood, the kind of stroke described above as the cut shot, for there the club is drawn across the line of flight, and the stroke is only advisable in playing with a half swing. Here the club is swung in the ordinary way, as in driving, except that the motion is rather more verti- cal than usual, and the follow through is checked by contact with the ground. The advantages of the stroke are two-fold: In the first place, you can check the roll on the Summary. 127 ball to a certain extent without playing- across the line of flight, which is particu- larly difficult when a full swing- is employed, and at the same time the direction is more certain; secondly, you not only do not spoil the carrying- power of the stroke, but you actually impart an extra strength by the force of impact with the g-round, and so you succeed in playing* a shot which is often exceedingly useful; that is, one with a long- straight carry and a short roll. Do not, however, attempt this stroke in soft ground, and do not consciously attempt to cut the turf, for in that case you will probably do it before you hit the ball, with quite the wrong result. Summary. To sum up, then : In learning- to approach select an ordinary lig-ht iron, and use that alone. Begin with short ap- proaches and a very short swing, and g-rad- ually leng-then the stroke as it becomes nec- essary to cover more distance. Do not attempt a three-quarters shot until you are proficient in your half strokes. Always remember that the shorter the swing- the g-reater the accuracy; and the more uniform the style of your clubs, the less room is there for error. Be particularly careful not to force, and never take your eye off the ball until the 128 Summary. stroke is finished, for the shorter the stroke the more apt are you to look at the hole in- stead of the ball. Above all, finish your stroke out to the end. The follow through is of supreme importance in approaching*. When you have learned to play the straightforward approach — and not until then — you may be- gin to practice the cut stroke, the high loft- ing stroke and the running-up game. CHAPTER IV. PUTTING. EVERY sort of instrument, from a re- spectable wooden putter to a croquet mallet or a billiard cue, has been used, and used successfully, on the putting* g-reen. No style or position is left untried, no mus- cle unturned which may help the ball to its much coveted resting* place. Some g*rip the shaft at the top, some at the bottom; some stand severely erect in the attitude of command, some crouch low over the recal- citrant g-utta percha, that they may the bet- ter coax or control its movements. One eminent player uses his cleek as if it were an eg-g*spoon, another astonishes his part- ner in a foursome by putting in neglige fashion with one hand. Every way is right which fulfills the purpose in view, and each individual is convinced that his style is the best. It is rather rash, then, to offer advice upon a subject which admits of so much di- versity of opinion. The novice will listen to the expert when he lectures upon driving 1^9 130 Position. or approaching-, for there his superiority grants him a privileg-e to preach. But when it comes to putting*, the part of the g-ame which to the outsider is not only very dull, but absurdly easy, and when the preacher misses in practice an eig-hteen- inch put which any child could kick into the hole, the beg*inner is very apt to reserve his judg-ment and cleave to his own self- cultivated style. Still, even in putting* there is a rig*ht and a wrong- way. Take the test of experience, and you will find that in the long* run the man who puts in the approved method wins the day. The man who handles his putter as he would a spade may do won- ders on ordinary occasions when nothing* depends upon the result; he is hopeless as soon as the strain beg"ins to tell. Position. Beg*in, then, by standing* just as you have been instructed to do in playing* a short wrist shot; that is, with the line of your feet at an angle of 45° with the line of the hole. Place the ball a little in front of your right foot; in fact, the feet being* closer than in driving*, the ball should be almost as near one as the other. The Hands. The hands should grasp the shaft just as they do in the short approach; the club should be held in the fingers of The Hands. 131 each hand, and the hands should be as close tog'ether as possible. Some of the best players, both in putting- and approaching*, allow the rig-ht to overlap the left, in order to have but one fulcrum. This method is not recommended to the average player, because it requires a delicacy and firmness combined, w^hich only comes w^ith long- practice. Be careful not to g'rip the club too loosely, nor to allow the thumbs or fore- fingers to stray down the shaft. In putting-, as in driving-, there comes a time when you are totally unconscious of any g'rip on the club at all; the driver or putter becomes part of the player, just as a g-ood rider seems to be one with his horse. For the ordinary mortal, however, the club is some- thing* extraneous and apart, and the method of g-rasping- it is a matter of considerable importance. The most common fault in putting comes from slackness. Whenever your ball does not travel straight from the club, and es- pecially when you find yourself varying greatly in strength, look to your hands — you are probably holding too loosely, so that the head of the club turns ever so slightly as the ball is struck, which accounts for vagaries in strength and direction. Of course you must not hold your club 132 The Choice of Club. as in a vise, nor must you allow either hand to dominate the other. The grip should be even with both hands — just tig-ht enoug-h to obviate any turning* of the head, and not so tig-ht as to stop the circulation or freeze the muscles. The position of the feet and hands should not be varied with the club, but in other respects there are a few differences in attitude, according* to the kind of putter you employ. The Choice of You may put with a cleek, a Club. putting- cleek, an iron putter or a wooden putter. By a cleek I mean any weapon of the driving- iron tribe which you may happen to fancy. It may be a straig'ht- faced driving- iron, a driving- mashie or a conjmon cleek. What differentiates it from a putting- cleek is that it has the ordinary driving- shaft, and the ang-le of the head and the shaft is more obtuse. The putter of every description is an uprig-ht club, re- quiring- rather a different attitude of body. It may sound rather an absurd statement, but g-eneral practice, I believe, will bear me out, when I maintain that if you are going- to use the iron club at all for putting-, the ordinary driving- cleek is a better weapon than the iron putter, which is made es- pecially for the purpose. Advantage of the Cleek. 133 The Advantage In the first place, the iron put- of the Cleek. ter, pure and simple, is useless on g-reens that are at all roug-h and heavy, because it keeps the ball closer to the g-round than any other club. Secondly, the face is so smooth and straight that, unless the stroke is very accurate, the ball is apt to g-lide from it to rig-ht or left. Thirdly, both the head and the shaft are dead; they g-ive no life to the ball, as the wooden putter does. You will observe that these objec- tions w^ould have no weig*ht if you were playing- on a billiard table; but putting- greens are not billiard tables. Even the best of them have their roug-h or g-rassy spots, and therefore the club that does not keep the ball too close to the g-round is pref- erable. Also, if you are to use an iron club at all, there should be that driving- power which, in the wooden putter, is supplied by the material from which the head is made. But there is yet another reason for the use of the ordinary cleek, which I have never seen advanced in any book on the subject. In the second chapter I recommended a certain uniformity of weight and lie for all the wooden driving- clubs. For a similar reason I believe that the more your putter resembles your light iron in weight and lie, the more regular will be your short game. 134 The Stroke. The Stroke. In putting you should beg-in, as in approaching, about thirty yards from the hole, and work in the opposite direction. Saving the fact that in one case you are playing with a cleek, and in the other with an iron, the stroke should be almost identi- cal. The club should be drawn back close to the ground and in a straight line; the backward movement — it can hardly be called a swing any longer — should be delib- erate, but not too long. Most beginners are inclined to draw the club too far back, both in putting and approaching. The left wrist should bend very little, but both the right wrist and elbow should be brought into use. In following the stroke through, the hands should be brought well forward, and the head of the club should point to- ward the hole. Practice this stroke from the extreme edge of the putting green, and then as you come nearer the hole you will find that there is only a difference of degree between play- ing an approach of seventy yards and nego- tiating a put of seven feet. It is hardly necessary to add that the eye must be kept fixed upon the ball, especially as you get nearer the hole. When you have a bad attack of inaccuracy in your short puts, as every golfer has from time to time, you will 2 M Xfi O "A > hd O > » d 135 136 The Stroke. g-enerally find that you are looking at the hole instead of the ball. The mistake is peculiarly apt to happen in playing- your short puts, because the hole is so close that it catches your eye unawares. Look hard at your ball, then, and make up your mind to hit it clean. If you succeed you will very seldom miss the hole at short range. Only one thing more: In putting with a cleek it is advisable to strike the ball rather toward the heel of the club, because the balance is in that direction. With a wooden putter strike rather nearer the toe than the heel. If you use your cleek for putting in the manner suggested, you will observe that there is nothing of the pendulum motion which is often recommended in the books. The club does not swing evenly backward and forward in front of the body, but is pushed, as it were, away from the body toward the hole. This style of putting is really more like the forward stroke in cricket than anything else; and just as in cricket you keep the left arm and shoulder forward to avoid a pull, so in putting you should, if anything, bend your left elbow a little in dachshund fashion, and thus keep the left shoulder well over the ball. And The Iron Putter. 137 whatever else you do, do 7iot rest the rig-ht elbow on the hip. Your arms should work perfectly freely from the shoulders, and the body should in no way enter into th e stroke ; if you allow yourself to come forward at all except with your arms, in striking- the ball, the results will be most disastrous. And since it is obvious that the body must move if the elbow is resting- on the hip, you must discard that method of play at all risks. I cannot conceive where it first orig-inated. There is hardly a sing-le g-ood putter among all the first-class players in Great Britain who does not keep his arms entirely free ; and yet I have seen numberless beg"inners in this country who have been told to put in that way by their professional advisers. The Iron In using- a putting- cleek or an Putter. iron putter or a wooden putter, it is necessary to stand more erect because the club itself is more uprig-ht; therefore you must be closer to your ball, and your feet should be less far apart. The best way of using- any of these three weapons is rather different from the method recommended above. Your reg-ular putter is a different club entirely from an iron or a cleek, and so you have to learn what is practically a new stroke. POSITION FOR THE IRON PUTTER AFTER THE STROKE 140 The Pendulum Stroke. The The best putters who use the Pendulum iron club employ the wrists to a Stroke considerable extent, and let the head swing* backward and forward like a pendulum. There is no doubt that this is a very effective method, especially on very true g-reens. The only objection that can be raised ag-ainst it is that it requires g-reat delicacy of touch. The club is not pushed after the ball, as in the first case, but is swung- by the action of the wrists; and you will find that the smallest predominance in the streng-th of the g"rip with either hand will cause the ball to reflect from its proper line. In order to preserve accuracy the shaft must be held equally firmly in either hand, and neither arm must be broug-ht too much into the stroke. There is, it seems to me, another objec- tion on g-eneral principles to the use of the iron putter, and that is the difference al- ready shown between the short approach and the put. You cannot blend the two as you would if you used a cleek to put with. The best iron putter is probably the Park patent with the bent neck. It enables you to hit the ball rather more squarely, and does away in g-reat measure with the tendency to let the ball g-lide off the surface. The Wooden Putter. 141 The Wooden But of all the putters, there is Putter. not one which is so trustworthy as the oldest of all — the wooden putter. New clubs for use on the g-reen are invented from time to time, and win adherents, but in the long- run the wooden putter holds its own. And this is the reason: If you are going- to use a short, heavy, uprig-ht club at all, it is better to use one that g-ives a cer- tain life to the ball. This is particularly essential in playing- long- approach puts, where the elasticity of the wooden face keeps the ball running- over any casual roug-hness which may come in the way. Moreover, unless your g-reens are very true, the wooden club has a g-reat advan- tag-e in that it does not keep the ball quite so close to the ground as the iron putter. A great many players find it advisable to use an iron club for short puts, even when they employ the wood everywhere else. That is simply a question of taste. Confidence is the main requisite for steadiness in holing short puts, and if you are not certain of one club, it is better to take another that you imagine you can rely upon. The position and method for the use of the wooden putter are practically the same as in the case of the iron putter or putting cleek. Do not forget, however, to hit the POSITION FOR THE WOODEN PUTTER 143 Distinction between Courses. 143 ball slig-htly toward the toe of the club, or at all events, avoid striking- it with the heel. The Distinction Great latitude, as may be ob- between served, is permissible in the Courses. choice of clubs for use on the putting* g-reen. There is this much to be said, however: On courses in Scotland and Eng-land it would be perfectly safe to recommend the wooden putter in prefer- ence to all others, since the best links are all by the sea. In America, so many of the courses are inland, or rather, so few are near the sea, that a strong- distinction has to be drawn between seaside and inland putting- g-reens. Unless the soil is of a sandy nature, it is wrong- to beg-in life with a wooden putter. After a g-reat many years it may be possible to g-et the same fine g-rass inland as is found on seaside courses ; but even that is very doubt- ful. For the present at least, the coarser and more stubbly nature of the best lawn g-rass debars the effective use of the w^ooden putter. And yet you will find it very diffi- cult to play your long* puts with the ordi- nary iron putter, especially if the g-reens are at all heavy. The ball stays too near the ground, and its streng-th is affected by any unevenness, and especially by long- grass. The best club for inland greens is 144 Distinction between Courses. therefore the genuine cleek with a driving- shaft, cut short if necessary for conven- ience' sake; it enables you to get the neces- sary distance without any great exertion, and it also allows the ball to travel more evenly over strong grass. It must be remembered, of course, that in recommending any particular club for putting purposes, nothing more is intended than an expression of opinion. I know num- bers of excellent players who disagree with me and who support their judgment by an irritating display of accuracy on the green. Still, since beginners have no prejudice in favor of one club or the other, it is just as well that they should choose that one whose use has been sanctioned b}^ the majority. Now, on sandy soil the wooden putter prob- ably has the preference among first-class players, and the cleek or some similar iron weapon is a good second. The regular iron putter, with its straight face and upright shaft, is not patronized to any great extent by the faculty. If you are going to use an iron putter at all, it is better to get what is known as a putting cleek, a sort of cross between a driving cleek and an iron putter, or else one of Park's patent clubs, with the crooked neck. The Line of the Put. 145 The Line of And finally, remember to look the Put. at the ball. Too much care over the line of your put is a dang-erous thing-. Make up your mind as to your direction first, and then when you address the ball, look once at the hole and once at some in- tervening* point of the line which you have chosen, and then devote yourself entirely to hitting- the ball clean. Many players ex- amine their puts from both ends. But I hardly think that this is a g-ood plan unless you cannot decide easily upon the line by looking- at it behind the ball. In ordinary cases it is only confusing- to examine it from both points of view. Be very careful to place the head of your club evenly on the ground, and hit your ball with confidence, and you will be surprised to find how many times it will find the hole. Summary. To sum up, then: Choose the club that suits you best, but do not use a wooden putter on inland g-reens unless they are in perfect condition. Do not rest your rig-ht elbow on your hip. In using- a reg-ular putter stand erect and swing- the club more or less like a pen- dulum; in using- a cleek, or any driving- club, g-et rather more over the ball with the shoulders and push the arms toward the hole. 146 Summary. Do not put entirely with the wrists. The arms and even the shoulders should enter into the stroke. Do not study the line of your put too long-. Think more of hitting* your ball clean than of anything- else. Keep your eye on the ball. PhoUxjraphed by R. W. Hawks, Edinfmrgh MR. JOHN BALL, PUTTING 147 Photographed by R. W. Hawks, Edinburgh MR. F. G. TAIT, PUTTING 148 i Photographed hy B. W. Haw'ks, ErUnburgh MR. F. G. TAIT, AFTER THE PUT i49 CHAPTER V. MISCELLANKOUS SUGGESTIONS. IT is always hard for the experienced player in any g-ame to sympathize with the difficulties of the beg-inner. In golf, the only way in which the expert can in any way put himself in the duffer's place is by play- ing- a few holes with a set of clubs such as is usually sold to the unsuspicious novice. He will then come to the conclusion that there is nothing- extraordinary in the in- ability of the strug-gling beginner to achieve the desired result; on the contrary, it is surprising that with such implements he succeeds in doing anything- even passably well. Golf clubs are turned out by the million in these days, and anything- short of a broomstick is considered good enough for the young player to g-o out and break. The Selection There is a certain hindrance of Clubs. in the way of the novice, from the very nature of things. He would probably use up a larger number of the fine shafts and delicately turned heads that are made for men who know the difference between a good club and a bad one. And so he is 151 152 Selection of Clubs. g-enerally persuaded by his friends to select a badly shaped lump of wood, miscalled a driver, thinking- that one weapon is as g*ood as another for his purpose, so long- as the chances of breakag-e are as far as possible eliminated. And yet it is quite a mistaken idea to suppose that every beg-inner must sow his wild oats to the extent that is usually taken for g-ranted. If he g-oes out deter- mined to drive the ball at least a quarter of a mile at first sig-ht, and is content with nothing- short of a full set of contortions in imitation of what he imag-ines to be a St. Andrews swing- — and after all, that is the course that most beg-inners do pursue — then his only chance of reducing- his account with the club maker to reasonable propor- tions, is to choose what Virg-il would call no small part of a tree, and do his best with it. In this way he may avoid g-reat pecun- iary loss, but his best will be exceeding-ly bad. If, on the other hand, he has read the first chapter of this book and has inwardly dig-ested it, he will beg-in quietly with a half- swing-, and will so restrain his force that it will be quite unnecessary to break any clubs at all. Indeed, if the beginner really takes the advice there offered to him there is no reason in the world why he should not be far less destructive to his clubs than the Weight of Club. 153 g-ood player who hits cleaner, but with far g-reater force. Accordingly, if you really mean to play the g*ame for what it is worth, do not be content with whatever your club maker may offer you. The ordinary price of a driver in Scotland is five shilling's and six- pence, in this country between a dollar and a half and two dollars. But it may be taken for g-ranted that at least seventy-five per cent of the clubs which are sold at that price are quite unfit to play with. The driver which you have made to order for double the price is g-enerally worth a whole stack full of the ready made article. If possible, then, the beginner should either procure a club from some more experienced friend, and have it copied, or he should in- sist upon the club maker supplying* him with a club of reasonable proportions. The Weight. In order to choose most wisely, think first of all about the weig-ht. It would not be an exag'geration to say that two-thirds of the men who are attempting* to play g*olf in America at the present time are using clubs which are far too heavy for the pur- pose. I constantly hear it said when any remonstrance is offered: '* With my style I need a heavy club," or, *'I am too weak to use a light club," or, '' With my strength I 154 Weight of Club. really oug-ht to be able to play with a heavy driver," and so on in a similar strain. If you really do find that you can do better vv^ith a heavily weighted club, you should at once chang-e your style of play; there must be something- radically wrong- with it. For there is a universal consensus of opinion among- g-ood players upon the subject. Some, of course, use heavier clubs than others; it stands to reason that a man with very powerful arms and wrists can swing- a club which a weaker player could not use at all. But even allowing- for differences in individual streng-th, a careful examination of the drivers of all the g-ood players in the world would show a surprising-ly small variety in weig-ht. There is an easily understood reason why the beg-inner is naturally inclined to select a heavy club. He has not yet learned to sweep the ball away instead of hitting- it as he would with a sledg-e hammer; and ob- viously if the ball is struck at as if it were a resisting- object the heavier the club is the better will be the result. But this is not g"olf. It is possible, of course, to hit an occasional long- ball with the sledg-e hammer stroke, but leng-th must be sacrificed to accuracy, and the player who adopts this method g-enerally g-oes from bad to worse, Weight of Club. 155 until he ruins his chances of ever becoming- even a fairly g-ood performer. The best players are also addicted at times to this hitting- or chopping* tendency, very often for the simple reason that they have un- consciously been using- heavier clubs than they are accustomed to. Whenever this is the case it is not at all a bad plan to extract a little lead. But with the beginner or the young- player who is not yet certain of his style, a more radical chang-e is generally necessary. If he finds that he cannot g-et the necessary distance out of a driver of medium weig"ht, it is almost certain that he is not sweeping- the ball away at all; he is checking- his swing as the club comes down instead of letting it follow through. In such a case there is nothing for him to do but to go back to first principles. Having stated the reasons for using a light club, it is necessary to say exactly what the term implies. Advice of this sort is seldom of much service unless it is ac- companied by figures. And yet the actual weight of a driver varies so much accord- ing to the balance and lie, that it is almost dangerous to be too definite. Still, a general estimate may be of some assistance. The weight of a driver head should not exceed seven ounces ; the shaft should be no 156 Weight of Club. heavier; add the two and you will g'et a fairly g-ood idea of what the whole club should weigh when a fraction of an ounce has been added for the g-lue and string- used in splicing- the two tog-ether. I am perfectly certain that if beg-inners would observe these limits very carefully, they would not only g-et better results, but they would not risk their entire future prospects by ruining- their styles at the outset. One cannot insist too strong-ly upon this point because, for the reasons al- ready g-iven, it is exceeding-ly hard to im- press upon the young- player the danger of using a heavy club. Even the more ex- perienced golfer is apt to forget the differ- ence that a fraction of an ounce will make in a long match of thirty-six holes. Just as in carrying a gun, an ounce or two is a mat- ter of no importance when the morning is young, but the difference tells enormously at the end of a long day; so with a driver that is a shade too heavy, the first eighteen tee shots may be struck perfectly clean, but the last nine in the afternoon are apt to be very erratic. And especially if a player does not pos- sess great strength of wrist, should he be warned against the mistaken idea that ex- tra weight in the club will make up for lack The Shaft. 157 of muscle behind it. If the strong- man should use a light club it is far more neces- sary that the weaker player should avoid a superabundance of lead. The main object is to hit the ball clean, and the distance will take care of itself. No one can be sure of a clean, steady stroke if he is using- a club which is too heavy for him. The Shaft. First, then, make up your mind as to the weig-ht of your wooden club ; and then look at the shaft. It is the fashion from time to time to adopt a thick, stiff shaft, but no one has ever explained why that should be preferable. The shaft should be as thin as possible without becoming too supple. There is a danger too of a very thin shaft losing its shape quickly, although that is not an important consideration, because it depends far more upon the quality of the wood. A good piece of split hickory ought to taper down where it joins the head with- out becoming supple at all. There should be a certain amount of spring, but do not select a club with the spring high up in the shaft. In trying it you ought not to feel any suppleness at all in the grip. In other words, the spring should begin about half way between the leather and the head. Very few shafts answer to this description, because so much unseasoned wood is used 158 The Shaft. in the manufacture of golf clubs that it is safer to leave the shaft in a more or less clumsy form to avoid bending- or breakage. Nevertheless, even the beginner should get as good a club as possible, and if he can find a thin shaft which is not at the same time flabby, he may be fairly certain that he has got a good piece of wood. The shafts of all clubs, it may be re- marked, should be made from split hickory. Various other woods have been substituted, but they have nearly always been found wanting. Hickory combines lightness and spring with strength and durability in a way that no other wood can equal. Seeing that hickory is one of the commonest woods in America, there should be no difficulty in securing good shafts in this country. In selecting the head of a driver, the most important thing, next to the w^eight, is the angle which it makes with the shaft. Here again, individual taste must be consid- ered ; but, as a general rule, the angle is far too obtuse. The result is that the player cannot stand erect and still keep the sole of the club level upon the ground. Remem- ber that your steadiness in driving is greatly increased by standing fairly erect and using what is called an upright club; Shape of the Head, 159 that is to say, one with not too obtuse an ang-le between the shaft and the head. The Shape of As for the shape of the head, you the Head. should use a bulg-er with plenty of wood in it. There is a tendency among- bad club makers to turn out drivers with a g-reat deal of material in the neck, but too narrow a surface in the face. Just as the shaft should taper toward the bottom, so the part of the head which joins the shaft should be made as fine as possible, in order to impart the requisite spring-. For the purposes of the beginner ■ it is all important to secure a g*ood driver, because he ought to content himself, for a time at least, w4th practice in driving-. And at all stag-es of the game there is nothing- which adds so much to the pleasure of the g-ame, as the possession of a club which g-ives the player every chance of success in striking from the tee. But a careful selection of the other clubs in the set is really just as im- portant, as soon as the elementary part of the game has been mastered. The Brassey. I have already pointed out that the brassey should resemble the driver, both in weight and lie. The more uniform you can make your clubs in that respect, the greater will be your steadiness. And for that reason I would again suggest that you i6o Iron Clubs. should discard the brassey wherever the character of the turf warrants it, and use instead either a second driver for playing* throug'h the g-reen or the old fashioned spoon which has almost g-one out of use. A spoon is simply a driver with the face a little laid back in order to raise the ball more easily, and with the shaft a trifle shorter and stiffer. Whether you employ a brassey or a spoon, it is best not to lay the face back too much, be- cause any artificial aid in raising* the ball from the g*round is rather to be deprecated. The natural movement of the swing should answer the purpose unless the ball is lying* in a hole or on the downward slope of a hill. As for the superiority of the driver or spoon over the brassey, there can be little doubt that the brass on the bottom of the club must alter the distribution of the weig'ht, and so destroy the uniformity of your wooden clubs without any compensating* ad- vantage, except in cases where the g*round is so hard and rough as to injure the sole of the wooden club. Iron Clubs. In the selection of iron clubs there is great scope for variety of taste. I have already warned the beginner against the use of a very lofted club, for reasons just stated with reference to the spoon. If you play the stroke properly, you should not re- Iron Clubs. i6i quire much assistance from the club itself in order to loft the ball over any ordinary ob- stacle. And so your approaching- club should be the lig-ht iron, which you may employ for any distance, from a hundred and twenty yards down to thirty or forty. In addition to that you will need a cleek or a driving- mashie for distances of about one hundred and fifty yards, and a driving- iron is useful in neg-otiating- distances which are rather shorter, and yet too long- for the lig-ht iron, and also for playing- all kinds of approach shots in a high wind. The preference among- g-ood players seems at present to be in favor of the driving- mashie as ag-ainst the cleek, partly because the face is shorter, and therefore more accommodating- when the ball is lying- badly, and partly because the extra breadth of the blade admits more latitude for error. The best driving- mash- ies are probably those which are made by Forg-an and Auchterlonie, in St, Andrews. They are made without the bulg-e in the back, which is rather a hindrance than any- thing- else. In fact, it is just as well to avoid all iron clubs with the bulg*e. They do not drive any farther, and the weig-ht is so much concentrated that the slig-htest 1 62 Iron Clubs. deviation from the center of the club in- volves a very bad stroke. In choosing- between a mashie and what is g*enerally called a lofter, it is much better to take the former. A g-ood mashie should weigh about as much as your lig-ht iron, and should not be excessively laid back. A lofter is made after the fashion of a soup ladle, and cannot possibly be used with g-reat accuracy. The beg-inner cling-s to it because he finds that he can overcome ob- structions with it, forgetting- that with a little practice he can obtain the same results by using- a less lofted mashie, where the occasion demands it, and as a general rule the ordinary light iron, which is not such a spectacular club, but infinitely more trust- worthy. Up to the present time there seems to be little sign of any great improvement on the part of American club makers upon the implements that come from Scotland, and for that reason the beginner cannot do bet- ter than look for the name of one of the great Scotch club makers. Irons are not like drivers. As far as the shape of the head goes, there is no reason why they should not be turned out by the thousand. The name of a club maker on the head of a driver means nothing at all, because only Iron Clubs. 163 one out of ten wooden clubs is made of properly seasoned wood, and only one out of twenty is worth the price that is paid for it. But when once a club maker has secured a good pattern for an iron club, he should be able to duplicate it forever. Forg-an, Morris and Auchterlonie, to men- tion only three, can always be trusted in that respect, and Simpson, at Carnoustie, turns out some excellent lig-ht irons. For- g-an's driving- mashie is perhaps the pret- tiest and most useful club of the kind that is made, and all Auchterlonie's irons are g'ood. As for wooden clubs, it is best to buy them on the spot if you have a g'ood club maker. The Scotch professionals control the market in that respect, because it is al- most impossible for any one to make wooden clubs who does not understand their use. The wholesale manufacture of wooden clubs may meet the enormous demand which comes from all parts of the country, as far as quantity g'oes, but the quality is dis- tinctly lacking*. If you have not a g'ood professional club maker close at hand, you must do what you can with the ready made article ; but there is no reason why any golf club should not secure the services of a really good professional maker. 164 Choice of Balls. The Choice of The selection of balls is a more Balls. uncertain matter. The difficulty is two-fold. The professional club makers who make a limited number of balls out of good material cannot furnish supplies to the general market ; on the other hand, the firms which manufacture balls by the thousand are sure to become careless. At the present time there is no ball in this country which for all-round purposes surpasses that which is made by the Silvertown compan}^ The material is generally good, the molding is excellent and the paint holds very well. Unfortunately one often comes across a box of Silvertowns which are not seasoned, are carelessly painted and badly pressed. Always look carefully at the molding; if it is clean cut, the ball has probably been well pressed and will fly true. If it is shal- low and indistinct, the mold has probably been worn out and the ball is not properly pressed. A good clear marking is very essential, and the paint should be applied in such a way as not to fill up the interstices. There are a number of different balls in use in America which are more or less good. The Woodley Flyer and the Black A 1 are very similar in make, but neither of them comes up to the best of the Silvertowns. Just at present there is a great demand The Playing of Matches. 165 for balls made in the Agrippa mold. And there does seem to be some advantag-e in the marking*, as is evidenced by the fact that balls which are remade in that mold are g*enerally superior to any others. There is this objection, however, to the averag-e Ag-rippa ball, that it does not keep either its shape or its paint so well as a g-ood Silver- town. Consequently »they make up in ex- pense for what they g-ain in flying- capacity. It is a g-ood plan to lay in a store of balls so that you are certain of their being- prop- erly seasoned. But it should be remem- bered that it is possible to keep a ball too long-. From eighteen months to two years is about the limit; after that there is a loss in weight and elasticity. On the Playing When you have secured a good of Matches, set of clubs and the right kind of ball, and have even learned to play a steady game, there is still much that you can do to improve upon your knowledge and en- joyment of golf. First of all, play the game for the sake of the personal en- counter. For, after all, golf is a trial of skill, and not a solitary mode of exercise. For that reason, give up, as far as possible, counting your score, and devote your time to playing matches. In arranging a game you should, for your own advantage, play 1 66 The Playing of Matched. with your superiors, but it is both useless and discourag-ing- to encounter a man who can g-ive you very g-reat odds. One stroke a hole is the limit which can be g*iven in order to make a match interesting*, and even that is putting- it at a hig-h fig-ure. A match can be keenly exciting- between two men who differ by six strokes in the round, but anything- above that is apt to rob the g-ame of its interest. Still, if you are a very bad player, but can yet be relied upon to a certain extent, you may improve your g-ame immensely by playing- in foursomes with men who can g-ive you very great odds. It is astonishing- how successfully a pair, con- sisting- of a first-class and a fourth-class player, can encounter two players of the sec- ond class. But whatever you do, never play a man on level terms who ought either to g-ive you odds or receive them from you. That is a very common mistake which is constantly being made, because there are certain players who object, for some un- known reason, to taking- odds in any game. To obviate this habit, the custom of betting-, as long- as it is kept within well defined lim- its, is most beneficial. A man may be will- ing to take a beating on even terms when he loses nothing thereby, either in purse or in pride, and stands to win a good deal of Giving and Taking Odds. 167 g-lory should he chance to gain the victory. But if he is playing- for a stake, be it ever so small, the commercial instinct is aroused, and he will take all the odds that his oppo- nent will concede. In the latter case he may improve his game; in the former he cer- tainly will not. The only way to become a g-ood golfer is to play every match for all it is worth, and in order to do this you should always arrange the odds as fairly as pos- sible. Giving and The practice of giving and re- Taking Odds, ceiving bisques is by no means a bad method of handicapping in match play because it gives the inferior player a chance of playing his opponent on even terms as long as he likes, and at the end of the game if he has won the match without the aid of his bisques he is entitled to all possible credit. The better player cannot then argue that the game had no interest for him, as he might if it were really played without odds at all. And from the expert's point of view it is by no means a bad plan ; for he is forced to play the game from the very start. If he is giving his opponent half a stroke a hole, he is apt to play very carelessly in the holes where there are no strokes ; but when he is giving bisques he cannot afford to throw away a single chance, because he must 1 68 The Etiquette of Golf. not only divide these holes, but must win them if possible with a stroke to spare. But whatever the system of handicapping- may be, always take as much as you can g-et, and g*ive as little as will be accepted, and you will still find that if there is anything at all at stake, you will have to play a g-ood game to win. In that way you will soon become a good match player; otherwise you will probably improve more slowly, and in the meantime get much less enjoyment out of the game. The Etiquette The etiquette of golf should of Golf. also be most carefully studied. You may not be a good player, but you may at least equal the very best exponents of the game in your manner of playing it. As far as the rules go, be most scrupulous, even in an ordinary practice game, to observe the strict letter of the law, and never take any con- cession from your opponent. If he asks you to remit a penalty, that is another matter. You ought to be in a position, however, to refuse him everything that is not his by right. On the other hand, do not quibble about technical points which obviously do not enter into the spirit of the rule. For instance, no one, whose mind is not clouded by enthusiasm, could ever think of claiming a hole because his opponent accidentally The Etiquette of Golf. 169 drops a club in a bunker where his ball is lying- some distance away. Be very careful, however, to do nothing-, either in action or in words, which may annoy your opponent and so spoil his g-ame. There are many subtle ways of irritating- him if he is at alia nervous player, and to tell the truth, there are a number of prominent g-olfers who are not above < employing these questionable methods; not that they would intentionally put him off a stroke, but they seem to think that remarks which are quite unnecessary, and which may prove rather annoying-, are perfectly leg-itimate. In Eng-land or Scotland players who re- sort to these devices are very easily dealt with. No one plays with them. Here it is not so easy to act in that way, because there are so many tournaments and prize com- petitions that for at least half your season you cannot choose either your partner or your opponent. I have actually heard a player admit that he sometimes plays more slowly than is absolutely necessary, because it may assist him to defeat his adversary. If he only thoug-ht about it for a moment he would see that such a course is really just as reprehensible as a deliberate attempt to interfere with a player's swing-. He oug-ht, on the contrary, to be particularly careful 170 Duties of On-lookers. to avoid undue deliberation, which might unintentionally be a cause of annoyance. The Duties of It may be useful to point out On=lookers. here to onlookers in the game that they also have duties to perform. If they care to follow a match they are bound in all courtesy to study the wishes of the players. The most common fault which may be found is in the position which is nearly always assumed by ignorant bystanders when a player is making a stroke. They naturally stand behind the ball in the direct line of flight, which is the one place they ought to avoid. They should either stand behind the player's back where he cannot see them at all, or right in front of him, so that they do not catch his eye as he swings backward. And above all, they should not move or speak until the shot is played. There is ample time for conversation between shots without disturbing the player just as he is about to hit the ball. It would be most beneficial if a few suggestions of this nature were incorporated in the rules upon the etiquette of golf, and especially if a diagram were made showing exactly where the on- looker should stand when a stroke is being played. CHAPTER VI. TRAINING AND TOURNAMENT PLAY. THERE was a time when g-olf was played as a recreation. In those days any one would have ridiculed a definite system of training- for the big- events. But now that the game has become the main business of our lives, any course of exercise or rule of diet which may bring- enhanced opportunities of victory must be taken into the most serious consideration. And yet in matters of training- g-olf is unlike any of the other g-reat games which we pursue with short intervals for business. No one can consume an unlimited amount of to- bacco and still row in a college race with any chance of success. The captain of a foot- ball team would be foolish if he did not dis- courage pastry and strong drink. Even the devotees of the polo field must refrain from Pommery at every meal. With golf it is quite another matter. Some of our best players are tobacco fiends. One can hardly picture Mr. F. G. Tait without his pipe, or Mr. Hilton shorn of his cigarette. Our 171 172 Tournament Play. best scores are often made after nig-hts of whist and Scotch whisky; indeed, there are those who believe that the true secret of success is somehow bound up with liberal ideas upon the subject of the national drink of Caledonia. This view of the question impresses itself with startling* emphasis upon athletes in this country who have been accustomed to look upon the traditions of the training- table as upon the unalterable laws of the Medes and Persians. And they are apt to feel very indignant when in spite of careful diet they are defeated by less scrupulous opponents who, by all the rules of retribution, ought to be incapable of hitting the ball at all. As a general rule, training is simply a matter of habit. Most American oars- men would be rather surprised if they could see the members of a college eight, at Oxford, supposed to be in strict train- ing, drinking liberal potations of home brewed ale during dinner, and washing it down with a glass or two of the richest port that the common room can supply. And I imag-ine that the captain of an American football or baseball team would be scandalized to hear that in the case of the 'varsity cricket elevens and football fif- teens, in England, such a thing as training- Tournament Play. 173 in any shape or form is practically un- known. Possibly, the great Eng-lish uni- versities err rather in the direction of lib- erality. But after all, a game ought to be played for the sake of recreation, and not studied like a profession. Moreover, I doubt very much whether the winning* ca- pacity of any football team is g'reatly in- creased by any close restrictions in the matter of diet. One understands, of course, that smoking- should be prohibited among- college eights, because the consumption of tobacco, particularly on the part of young men, is apt to injure the wind. But in games where there is no continued strain upon the lungs, the question of smoking is totally irrelevant. However that may be, it is perfectly natural that golf, being a game of recent importation into America, has not yet become a subject for any strict laws upon the subject of training. Believing firmly, as I do, that in every sport latitude in diet and habits of life is strongly to be recommended, both because such a course is consistent with success, and because it is not reasonable to regard any game or sport in too serious a light, I have no intention of writing any prescrip- tions for use before tournaments. Even if such advice were desirable in dealing with 174 Tournament Play. rowing or foot ball, the circumstances which surround the game of golf would rob it of all its value. The players in this case are generally men of mature years and settled habits, who could not change their methods of life without serious discomfort. More- over, it must always be remembered that the mental condition is of far greater im- portance than physical fitness. You can- not play golf if you are worried in mind, and therefore my first exhortation to any one about to enter a tournament or play an important match is that he should divest himself entirely of all thoughts bearing upon any subject except the matter imme- diately in hand. Concentration of purpose is quite as necessary as strength of arm. Let no one suppose, however, that a sound physical condition is not of supreme importance. A blind man, a cripple or a habitual drunkard is not likely to win many trophies on the links. Whoever is looking for advice upon the playing of tournaments is at least a person of some athletic sense. He knows that the better his health is, the greater are his chances of success; he knows also that practice makes perfect, if he has read his copybook. These are truisms which are granted at the outset. But I desire chiefly Tournament Play. 175 to point out that the average man who leads an uprig-ht and sober life would act very foolishly to change any of his ordinary habits before a tournament. If he is a smoker, he should on no account discard tobacco; if he is accustomed to stimulants, he should drink just as much as, and no more than, he does on ordinary occasions. Possibly some one may confront me with the argument that both smoking and drink- ing are injurious to the health. If any one thinks so he would be wise to abjure them both, but he should abjure them ^^/<3: man and not qua golfer. If, on the other hand, these pleasant habits are not found to hurt the system in other departments of life, it is impossible to see why they should interfere with the game of golf. In fact, I would even go a step further and say that they are positively conducive to good play. Take, for instance, a man who smokes a certain amount of tobacco every day; when he comes to a tournament, or to a close match, he will find a great deal of help and consolation in his pipe or his cigarette, as the case may be. Another player, perhaps, is ac- customed during a hard day's golf to fortify himself in various ways at luncheon or at dinner, when the game is over. To such a person I would never say, Omit your whisky 176 Tournament Play. and soda during* a tournament. I should be much more inclined to admonish him to take two where before he took one. The mental strain of a tournament increases the ordinary fatigue of playing- at least one hundred per cent, and therefore those accustomed to stimulant of any sort should increase rather than diminish the dose. As for diet, there is hardly any thing- which a man who is playing- thirty-six holes a day cannot and may not eat with safety. Good food, and plenty of it, is the watchword for every golfer. It may be necessary, how- ever, to g-uard ag-ainst one error, for which Mr. Horace Hutchinson, in perfect inno- cence, is partly responsible. Some years ag-o, when first-class players were not so plentiful, and record breaking- was not a matter of every-day occurrence, Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville, in playing- for the medal of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, at St. Andrews, broke the existing- record for medal play, by completing- the eig-hteen holes in eig-hty-five strokes. It was hardly expected that such a score could be beaten. Mr. Alexander Stuart, however, had not started when Mr. Balfour-Melville 's card was handed in. With excellent dis- cretion he ordered himself a steak and a pint of champagne, which he discussed at Tournament Play. 177 leisure, and thereafter surprised every one by returning- a score of eig-hty-three, break- ing- by two strokes the record which had been established only two hours before. Mr. Horace Hutchinson, in compiling- the Badminton book ong-olf, was mindful of this occurrence, and, while publishing no names, he printed a picture strongly re- sembling* Mr. Stuart in the act of eating- that fateful luncheon, and held it up as an example to all future aspirants for golfing honors. It is years now since the medal record at St. Andrews stood as high as eighty-six, and so I may be forgiven for mentioning- proper names; Mr. Hutchinson may also forgive me if I point out that his advice on that subject is good relatively, but not absolutely. It was only a chance suggestion in any case; yet that picture of the steak and the man, and above all, the familiar pint bottle, has something so com- forting and attractive about it, that many readers have fastened their attention upon that piece of advice to the exclusion of everything- else. In reality, it is mainly a question of cli- mate. In the cold air of Scotland, no harm can come of seeking adventitious aid from Heidsieck's special cuvee^ or even the more democratic Glenlivet. In America we are 178 Tournament Play. accustomed to play golf in almost tropical weather, and under such circumstances stimulants should be administered after, rather than before, the contest. Any one who is in the habit of playing- games is aware that on a hot day, and especially after taking exercise, the smallest modicum of alcohol is apt to affect the eye, and there- fore it by no means follows that what may be done with success in Scotland can be ventured upon with impunity in America. In hot weather it is well to be rather careful between rounds, and when an important match has to be played in the afternoon, a light luncheon is particularly advisable.* In other respects, however, care in training may be greatly overdone. Even in rowing it is customary to administer champagne to a crew after a hard race; and in golf, where the strain is of far longer duration, a hard day's play may very reason- ably be rewarded by such restoratives as may be found most acceptable. The regulation of practice in the game itself is more important than any restric- tion of diet. Golf has been taken up, like most other pursuits in America, with an enormous amount of enthusiasm; and the constant tendency is in the direction of overplay. In England and Scotland there Tournament Play. 179 are very few weeks in the year when golf is impracticable, and only a month or two when the temperature is either disag-ree- ably hot or cold. Yet the best players very rarely devote more than four or five weeks in the spring- and a similar time in the autumn to the real practice of the g-ame. During- the rest of the year they may play an occasional match, but they are seldom on the links for two days in succession. In America, those who play g-olf at all do it for six months at a time, and they are sur- prised to find that they cannot keep up their form for the whole of that period. If g-olf is g"oing- to be a reg*ular part of your existence, two or at most three days a week is quite enoug-h for its exercise, if you desire to preserve either your skill or your interest. And even then it would be ad- visable to take an occasional week off and g-et away entirely from the atmosphere of the g-ame. When it comes to tournament play you should order all your practice with a view to reaching- the top of your g-ame just at the rig-ht moment. It is fatal to strike twelve a month before the important event. Consequently, if you find that you are actually improving* too quickly, you should be all the more careful not to overdo it. Most g-olf ers will tell you that they play i8o Tournament Play. the strong-est and most consistent g-ame about the end of the third week from the time that they began reg^ular practice; so that you must pursue a course of this na- ture (remembering- always that we are speaking- now with reg-ard to success in an important tournament, and not from the point of view of any pleasure that you may derive from the pastime). Granted that you have already developed your g-ame to the limit of its capacity, you should g-ive up playing- altog-ether about two months before the tournament in question, and for four or five weeks you should, if possible, keep away entirely from the sig-ht of a g-olf links ; even the discussion of the g-ame should be avoided. You require a complete mental and physical rest from this most arduous pursuit. You must not, however, g-ive up every kind of physical exercise. One con- stantly hears that tennis and cricket and baseball spoil g-olf. This is an entirely mis- taken idea. Of course, you cannot play cricket or baseball and g-olf interchange- ably. If you do you will fail in both. But if you have already acquired a good golfing* style, you may play any other game for a year, and then go back to golf and find that you have gained rather than lost by the di- version. The fact is that the constant Tournament Play. i8i practice of any sing-le g-ame develops only a certain set of muscles, and these muscles begin to lose their vigor when they are called too frequently into play; to speak technically, the man becomes stale. As soon as any symptom of this flabbiness becomes apparent, the g-olf club should be discarded for some other weapon. Play another g-ame, then, for four or five weeks, and then* with about a fortnight to spare come back to golf and- you will find yourself assailed by a new access of vigor and keenness. From that time on until the final contest you may play steadily and often, but it is well not to exceed thirty-six holes a day, or five days a week; in fact, even that limit is rather liberal. Do not play too many matches in the meantime that you are particularly anxious to win, for that will use up a large part of your mental energy; and employ at least a third of the time in practicing, with single clubs, the strokes that you find most difficult. , If you follow this advice you will prob- ably find yourself in the best condition when the tournament begins. But that is not all you have to consider. It is abso- lutely necessary that your mind should also be clear and untroubled. There is no game in the world where the mental strain i82 Tournament Play. is so great. It begins with the first day of the tournament, and lasts throug-h every hole until the final stroke is played. In entering- the g*ame, therefore, you must make up your mind to two thing's: First of all, you must g-ive your opponent no possible chance throug-h any careless- ness on your part. However easy the match may seem, you must play your hard- est. Remember that you not only want to win, but you want to win easily, so that you use up as little of your store of energ-y as possible. That is where many players lose themselves in tournaments where there are several rounds of match play. They forg-et that one victory only leads to another con- test, and they often allow a much weaker opponent to bring* the match to a close finish, thus wearing- themselves out needlessly. In the second place, concentrate your attention upon the g-ame itself, and never think for a moment of the final result. This is the hardest task of all, but it must be accomplished if you desire to win. As soon as you beg-in to think of the possi- bility of defeat, you will become over-anx- ious, and you will lose your freedom of style. It may seem almost impossible for a player to divest himself entirely of all hopes and fears for the future. But it is a Tournament Play. 183 faculty which comes readily with practice in tournament play. Some acquire it more quickly than others. There are several cases in the history of g-olf championships of victories won by very young- men. Mr. P. C. Anderson and Mr. Allen were both of tender g-olfing* years when they defeated all the other amateurs of Great Britain. It is seldom, however, that the necessary confi- dence and concentration come to a man until he has had several years of experience in big matches, and that is why there are probably more first-class players over the age of thirty than there are below it. There are other habits which even the youngest player may possess, with the ex- ercise of a little intelligence. There is a strong tendency among American players of the first rank in the direction of extreme caution and deliberation in tournament play. It requires no argument to prove that slowness is for every reason a thing to be discouraged for the sake of the general welfare. But apart from the good of your fellow-creatures, you have your own chances of success to consider, and you are assur- edly waging war upon yourself if you get beyond a certain point in exercising care. The fault arises not from your caution in 184 Tournament Play. match play, but more probably from a want of speed and freedom in ordinary practice. There is nothing- which retards a man's improvement in the g-ame so much as a lack of freedom. It is a matter of common observation that even a good g-olfer holes his short puts with far g-reater accuracy when he is not trying* than when he has the strain of an important match upon him. In the same way the indifferent player swing's more freely at a daisy than at a ball. Now, if you cramp yourself by excess of care in an ordinary g-ame, as so many young- players do, how much more will you check your natural impulses in a tournament! Therefore if you have the main end in view, you will prefer to play quickly and swing freely, even to the verge of careless- ness in your every-day round, so that when the occasion does really call for deliberation you will be able to put a certain restraint upon }^ourself without entirely losing your freedom. It is an extraordinary fact that a small and inconsiderable gutta percha ball has the most paralyzing effect upon the minds and muscles of sane and healthy men, causing them to tremble and grow rigid before it. This unnatural, yet universal, obsession can only be overcome by constant practice. Tournament Play. 185 You must learn to rid yourself of this ter- ror by pretending- to disreg-ard it. Go up to the ball and hit it just as if you were not in the least afraid of it. Assume a freedom of manner, even if it belies your feelings, and in time you will break down the influ- ence of the bug-bear to such an extent that even in an important match you will bear yourself with courag-e and indifference. You must be careful, on the other hand, not to overdo the quickness of your play in practice. That is to say, you may swing- freely and address your ball, espe- cially on the putting- green, with speed and decision ; but do not get too much into the habit of racing around the links, because if you do you will find the waiting which is a necessary part of tournament play, excess- ively irksome. Even with the best ar- rangements, the progress of the various couples in a large competition must be somewhat slow, and if you have not inured yourself to the tedium of long waits, such as you may suffer any day at the high hole at St. Andrews, or on any teeing ground at North Berwick, you will find yourself the victim of much inward irritation. Of two contradictories, therefore, in spite of the logic books, you must choose both. In practice, accustom yourself to playing 1 86 Summary. quickly and freely. Learn also in practice to play slowly. As a result you will be able on g-reat occasions to add something- of caution to your g^ame, without suffering- from what has been well termed ball shy- ness ; and you will also be in a position to wait for a slow couple in front, or for the many deliberations of your opponent, with- out losing- that equanimity which is in- dispensable to success. Summary. To sum up, then, I should advise every g-olfer to live a healthy life. There- after it is unnecessary to chang-e in any way your habits of existence with a view to success in a competition. Do not play too much, and above all, do not reach the top of your g-ame too soon. Learn to concentrate your attention upon each stroke, and not upon the g-eneral result. Finally, practice the utmost freedom of swing- and address in ordinary play, so that you may exercise deliberation in competi- tion, without becoming- abnormally slow. But do not accustom yourself so much to rapidity that the waits in a tournament affect your nerves. CHAPTER VII. THE MAKING OF A NEW COURSE. WHEN the number of Scotchmen who have crossed the Atlantic is fully considered, it is rather surprising* that the royal and ancient g'ame should have been imported so recentl}^ as 1890 or thereabouts. It was really two years later that a genuine interest in g-olf was aroused by the org-aniz- ing of clubs for the purpose of its propa- g-ation; and the United States Golf Associa- tion has only been in existence for three seasons. Once started, however, the devotion to the game became almost a craze. At the time of writing nearly a hundred clubs have joined the association, and the num- ber will in all probability be doubled in the course of the next twelve months. To an Englishman, who, in the last decade, has seen innumerable golf courses spring up like mushrooms over every county in Great Britain, the membership of the association may appear disappointingly small. But when it is remembered that it is as easy, 187 1 88 Difficulties to be Overcome. from a financial point of view, to form a hun- dred clubs in Eng-land as it is to place one on a firm basis in America, the strides made by the association in the short period of three years must betaken to indicate a love of the pastime which far exceeds the ordi- nary short lived boom so often accorded to any new fad in this country. The Difficulties The difficulties of securing- to be Overcome, a suitable course, and of main- taining' it when secured, can hardly be realized .by any one who has been accus- tomed to find g-olf links ready made along- the coast of Great Britain. Since most courses in America are of necessity in- land, and since the very best soil can only yield the requisite quality of turf, the land which is boug-ht by an incipient g-olf club, instead of being practically worthless for any other purpose, as is so often the case in Scotland, has a very hig-h value as farming- property. In the second place, the business instincts of the averag-e American make it incumbent upon him to seek his amusement within a thirty-mile radius of his down-town office; and, as every one knows, vacant lots within such a radius of any larg-e city are ruinously expensive. And so it is no un- common thing- for a g-olf club to pay down $50,000 in hard cash before a ball is struck. Necessary Expenditure. 189 And that is only the beginning*. You may get two hundred acres of fine old pasture, per- fectly drained and full of natural hazards. You are far more likely to find the drainage conspicuous by its absence, the difficulties and obstacles of a kind that have to be re- moved at a considerable cost, the grass defi- cient both in quantity and quality. On inland courses you generally have to sod your put- ting greens, you certainly have to cut your bunkers, and you are fortunate if you do not find it necessary to root out a hundred acres of virgin forest. Even so, the battle is but half over. A steam roller must be purchased to remedy the effects of a severe winter's frost, and in the west, at least, a water system which will cost you upwards of $5,000 under the most favorable circum- stances, is absolutely essential to the proper enjoyment of the game. Add to this the minor fact that in the summer months you will probably run over the entire course with close cutting mowing machines, and you will have some conception of what it costs to purchase and keep links in America in first-rate condition. Necessary By this enumeration of ex- Expenditure, penses I do not mean to strike terror into the hearts of any struggling green committee who would disband at igo Advantages of a Good House. once if such a sum as $100,000, or even a tenth part of it, were declared to be the minimum basis of calculations. If your aims are modest, you may start your golf- ing- career on a much smaller capital; you may lay out a nine-hole course to beg-in with, and be content to make your improve- ments very slowly. My intention is simply to point out that unless you are very favor- ably situated, as you mig-ht be, for instance, on Long- Island, where the soil is sandy and bunkers are natural, you cannot get an eig-hteen-hole course into first-class condi- tion in the short space of two or three years, and at the same time build and main- tain a suitable club house without an outlay which will involve the expenditure of a sum very little short of $100,000. The Advantages The club house, it may be of a Good House, remarked in passing, is a very necessary part of the scheme; for in order to get the required list of members it is necessary before anything else to sup- ply those ordinary comforts and luxuries which will make up to the influential mem- ber for the tribulation that he goes through in trying to learn a game which he has not yet begun to love for its own sake. The history of golf clubs in this country is a constant repetition of the same story in Advantages of a Good House. 191 that respect. The club is generally started by the enthusiastic few who want to play the g-ame. In order to attain their ends they inveig-le a number of their companions into subscribing- for the purchase of the house and g-round. There is no question about the loyalty of these laymen if they can only be induced to g-ive the g-ame a fair trial. But there is always a period of trep- idation when they have learned to com- plain to the house committee, but have not yet become interested in their scores to the exclusion of every other interest in life. Somewhere in his philosophical writing-s Mr. Punch tells a young- wife that the best way to deal with a husband is simply to feed the brute. I would not go so far as that in plainness of speech, but I do con- sider it most important for the welfare of a new golf club, that those members whose subscriptions are desirable and whose golf- ing enthusiasm is not yet fully developed, should be brought into the fold by a nice regard for their personal comforts. Taking everything into consideration, then, I hardly think that I have overesti- mated the sum which a new club must spend before it possesses a first-class course. Whether that sum should be spent at once, or spread over a number of years, 192 The Scarcity of Good Courses. is entirely a matter for the committee upon ways and means to decide. The main thing* to be desired is that the members of the club should not shut their eyes to the facts of the case. For if they are mis- led into thinking- that they can obtain the required results in a less expensive way, they are not only deceiving- themselves, but they will probably waste alarg-e amount of money in half measures. Work slowly if you will, but always keep the main end in view, so that whatever improvements you do decide upon may have a permanent value. The Scarcity The enormous cost of making- of Good and maintaining* a fine course in Courses. America is probably accounta- ble for the fact that g-ood courses are very few and far between. There is, perhaps, another reason; and that is the fact that country clubs were in existence before g-olf was ever mentioned, and when the new pas- time was introduced the country clubs had to make the best of the property at hand, instead of looking* for the most suitable nat- ural location. Shinnecock Hills is one of the few sites for a g*olf club which seems to have been chosen with an eye to the best possibilities of the g*ame. Other spots have been selected either because they were The Scarcity of Good Courses, 193 close to already existing- clubs, or because they were within easy reach of the great cities. As a result there is not a single course in America which really compares with the best links in Great Britain. And the sooner we acknowledge that fact the better it will be for the game in this coun- try. Where we generally make a mistake is in believing that an inland course can ever be made the equal of a North Berwick or St. Andrews. Not that I would in any way detract from the praise due to the skill and energy which have been displayed in the laying out of some of our best links. Here, at all events, we have one of the important features of the development of golf on this side of the Atlantic. In Great Britain there is no such thing as an inland course which in any way approaches perfection, the rea- son being that there are so many seaside links within easy reach that the improve- ment of those situated away from the sea is hardly worth the expense. Here we certainly have inland courses which infinitely surpass anything of the same nature in Great Britain, and — what is far more to the point — really present a first- class test of golf. Visitors to America from the home of golf in Scotland have often ex- pressed surprise at the wonderful way in 194 Inferiority of Inland Courses. which natural difficulties have been overN come. And since most of our courses must of necessity be removed from the sea, it is most gratifying to observe the great im- provement w^hich has taken place in a very short space of time. But, nevertheless, it is necessary to keep the ideal constantly in view, and to remember that with the best intentions in the world we still fall very far short of perfection. The Inferior- There are two respects in ity of Inland which inland courses must al- Courses. ways, humanly speaking, fall short of the natural seaside links, and especially those which, like Prestwick, Sandwich and Machrihanish — to name only three out of a very large number — have been singularly favored by Provi- dence. The turf on the inland course may be as good as possible, but it will never yield that fine quality of putting which makes the short game on the great courses so interesting. Seaside grass is a thing en- tirely sui generis \ it is the only grass which presents that smooth billiard table surface, so familiar to old golfers. On inland put- ting greens the turf may be so excellent that there is never any excuse for missing a put of two yards; but the ball travels in a different way ; it never trickles from the Inferiority of Inland Courses. 195 club into the hole as the ivory trickles into the pocket of a billiard table. And that is where the real science of putting* is exhib- ited. The man who is accustomed to play on well kept inland putting g*reens is sure to find himself hopelessly at sea when he comes to play over the genuine g-olfing turf, where the ball must be struck with the most delicate touch. Secondly, it is practically impossible to reproduce by artificial means the g-reat sand bunkers which are peculiar to the coast of Great Britain. It is just conceiv- able that such bunkers might be con- structed inland, but the expense would be so enormous that the possibility may well be ignored. And so the awe inspiring effect of a large sand bunker stretching- for a hun- dred yards or more in front of the tee, and rising very often to the height of an ordi- nary house, is unknown to those who play only on inland courses, where bunkers are nothing but inconsiderable trenches, very ruinous, perhaps, to a score, but quite de- void of any power to destroy the nerve of the poorest player. I have often heard complaints made against the number of bunkers upon our best courses; and yet the fact is that there is not a sing-le course in this country which 196 Inferiority of Inland Courses. has one-third of the number of sand bunkers which may be encountered at St. Andrews, and not one whose bunkers piled all tog-ether would make a hazard of the dimen- sions of *'the Maiden" at Sandwich or the '^ Himalayas" at Prestwick. For that reason it will be readily under- stood that there is less distinction here be- tween a first-class and a second-class player than in Great Britain; for the character of the courses is such that innumerable drives may be missed without any serious penalty. Even where there are reg^ular bunkers in front of the tee, they are so small that they only catch a few out of the many bad shots which are played. It may be arg-ued, of course, that the same remark applies to St. Andrews, where it is possible to top at least twelve out of your eig-hteen tee shots and yet g-o unscathed. But then, St. Andrews is perhaps the only first-class course where such a state of thing's exists, and there are so many compensations in the shape of scattered bunkers throug-h the course, and the holes are laid out so perfectly in the matter of distance, that the one failing* is not so serious as it mig-ht be. The Remedies. There are two ways of getting over the bunker difficulty on inland courses; neither of them is altogether satisfactory, Dealing with Inland Courses. 197 but both may be employed with advantag-e. To begin with, whether your bunkers are large enough or not, it is always well to ar- range your holes at such distances apart that a bad drive will be of necessity pun- ished, whether it lands the ball in a hazard or not. Secondly, it is always possible, in summer, at least, to let the grass grow for about a hundred yards in front of the tee, so that a topped ball cannot run very far, and the second shot will in all likelihood be spoiled. The only objection to this plan is that it becomes monotonous, and also tends to a great loss of balls. If it has to be re- sorted to, the grass should be kept care- fully cut to such an extent that the ball cannot very well run through it for any distance, and yet will not be entirely con- cealed from view. For every other reason except to punish bad driving, long grass is a thing to be strenuously avoided in the fair course. It is a certain cause for the loss of valuable guttapercha, and therefore for the wasting of much more valuable time. Method of Having once settled the ques- Dealing with tion of the inferiority of all inland Inland courses, we may proceed to the Courses. discussion of the means toward producing the best results with the ma- terial at hand. igS Choice of Property. Choice of Beg-in by selecting- the best Property. soil that is available. Lig-ht, sandy soil is the best for the purpose, be- cause it dries easily after rain, and yet does not bake to the consistency of iron in hot weather. A clay soil is strong-ly to be avoided. If you cannot g-et sand, search for rich loam, w^hich is not so desirable either in droug-ht or in rain, but yet affords a fine deep sod. If possible g-et a piece of property devoid of trees. One of the con- stant incumbrances upon American courses is to be found in the shape of v^oodland. The desire to obtain picturesque surround- ing-s has g-enerally overruled more utilita- rian motives, and so a budding- golf club often invests in real estate which is quite unfit for the exercise of the game without an enormous expenditure of capital. Removal of When you have bought your Obstacles. land, which should be as undulat- ing as possible, without being mountainous, proceed to lay out the best course that the lie of the ground permits, irrespective of a building site for your club house or the picturesque grouping of woods. Then go to work ruthlessly and root out every tree which interferes in the most remote degree with your course. Remember that the course should be nearly seventy-five yards The Location of Holes. 199 wide at all points, and that there should not be a single tree of any description upon it. You will have to come to this state of thing's sooner or later ; so you may just as well harden your heart at the beg-inning*. You will probably encounter a g-ood deal of antag-onism from artistic souls, and will have to enjoy the reputation of utter vandal- ism; but that need not trouble you greatly. Your reward will come when the course is in a finished state, and in the meantime any one who desires to indulg-e in amateur forestry can retire to some reg-ion which not been devoted to the ends of gfolf. The Location In laying- out your holes do not of Holes. be bound down by any cast iron rule. The distances on the best courses abroad have not been decided by reg-ula- tion, but by the natural fitness of thing-s. Of course, if your property consists simply of an expanse of more or less level pasture — and that is, perhaps, the most promising- material to work upon — you can arrang-e the leng-th of your holes to suit yourself. But in most cases there will be one or two special features which should be utilized in order to make picturesque holes, such as may differentiate your course from any other. It is not a bad plan to select your short hole first. The most perfect kind of 200 The Location of Holes. short hole is one which requires an iron shot on to a g-reen where the flag- is full in view, with a yawning- hazard which stretches from the tee rig-ht up to the edg-e of the putting- g-reen. You will probably find such a hazard, or the opportunity for one, some- where on your property, and you should choose that for one at least of your short holes. And then as a general rule look out for hig-h spots and locate your putting- g-r eens there. A links is made particularly interest- ing- where you have the flag- plainly visible from the teeing- ground. There should be few, if any, blind holes upon a g-ood course. Moreover, one advantag-e of having- putting- greens upon the high places is the fact that some of your teeing grounds will also of necessity be on eminences commanding a view of the entire ground over which you have to play. There is nothing prettier in golf than the play from a teeing ground on the top of a hill, with a large bunker im- mediately in front. If, therefore, your property possesses any special features of this kind, do not fail to make use of them even if you have on that account to depart from the actual distances sanctioned by custom. Wherever your putting greens are not clearly determined for you by nature, you should have the ideal course The Distances. 2OI constantly in view, and althoug-h you may show a certain individuality in striving- after it, its services as a roug-h basis are invaluable. The Distances. The nearest approach to per- fection in the matter of distances was made by the orig-inal founders of the St. Andrews links in Scotland. A plan of the course, with the correct distances, will be found at the end of this chapter; there are also dia- grams of Prestwick and North Berwick, with the distances as nearly correct as is possible, in view of the fact that the teeing* grounds vary considerably. Study St. Andrews carefully, and you will discover that the holes are so distributed as to de- mand skill in every conceivable kind of stroke, and also to do away as far as pos- sible with the element of luck. St. Andrews. First of all, there are two short holes which vary, according to weather, between a full cleek shot and a half iron. Secondly, there are two holes, the ninth and the tenth, where the drive need only be fol- lowed by a very short approach. More than two such holes on an eighteen-hole course must be avoided, because they allow the player to miss his drive very badly without any punishment whatsoever. It is rather a mistake to have holes of such a distance 202 St. Andrews. that a missed drive may be redeemed by a fine brassey shot; but it is a great deal worse when the difference beween a g-ood and a bad drive only entails the difference between a long iron approach and a short one. Still, two holes of the objectionable length — from twQhundredto three hundred yards — are perfectly admissible in a full eighteen-hole course, provided that the other distances are good. Now, at St. Andrews there are two five-hundred-yard holes, two of four hundred, and ten between four hun- dred and three hundred. The long holes require two long drives and an approach, or three fair drives, the two of four hundred call for two very long shots with a wooden club, and the rest may be reached in two shots which vary between two full drives and a drive followed by a half iron shot. In every case, with the exception of the ninth and tenth holes already alluded to, the tee shot must be clean hit — not because there is a bunker to be negotiated, but be- cause even a slight error will make it very hard, if not impossible, to reach the putting green with the second shot. It requires no extended argument to show that this is one of the most important points to bear in mind when laying out a new course; for it creates at once a wide distinction between St. Andrews. 203 the first-class and the second-class player. Do not imag-ine, however, that your holes must really be of such a uniform character as this description might seem at first sight to imply. Although there are fourteen holes at St. Andrews which under ordinary cir- cumstances may be reached in two strokes, and cannot be reached in less, the second stroke is probably a different one in every case. It may either be a very long shot with a wooden club or a full cleek shot, or a full iron or a half shot. There are other ways, moreover, of varying the monotony by the arrangement of bunkers, and the situation of the putting greens. The sec- ond shot may have to be of the high or lofted variety so as to carry a bunker close to the hole, or it may be more advisable to play a running shot when there is no ob- stacle in the direct line, and the putting green is of such a nature as to make a lofted shot almost impossible. Such is the case very often at North Berwick, where the hole is situated upon a hard plateau so that a ball pitched right on to the green is certain to run past the hole. This, then, is the first principle to observe in selecting distances: Place your holes so far apart that, with only one or 204 Other Courses. two exceptions, they can be reached in one, two or three full shots. As you will see by the diag'ram and figures, there are two holes at St. Andrews which may be reached easily in one stroke, two which may be reached in one and a little more; twelve that require two g-ood shots, and two that can only be reached by the averag'e g-ood player in three ; and after all, you can- not improve upon that as a basis for imita- tion. Other Courses. Prestwick not being- laid out as St. Andrews is, with parallel courses out and in, has a different arrang-ement. There is only one short hole — the second — of the regulation type. The fifth and the seventh are both short in the sense that they can be reached in one stroke, but on calm days they call for the use of a wooden club. There are two holes of the objectionable leng-th, the sixteenth and the eig-hteenth, both of which need only a drive and a very short approach. But there is this to be said in their favor, that a really long- driver may g-et within putting- distance off the tee, and in the case of the sixteenth, there are several bunkers to be avoided, so that a g-ood drive is really very necessary. A course of this nature has not the uniform Other Courses. 205 perfection of St. Andrews, for its three short holes occur on the outward journey, making the first half round easier than the second. On the other hand, there is this objection to the St. Andrews course, that the short, easy holes come in succession in- stead of being- dispersed over the round. Sandwich is rather like Prestwick, except that the hazards are even more for- midable. There are two short holes in the first half round which may be reached in one stroke. These are the sixth and the eighth — perhaps the best short holes in existence except for the fact that they are both blind holes. The eighth hole resembles the fifth at Prestwick in that it usually entails the use of a driver to surmount the tremendous bunker, which is well named Hades. Be- sides these short holes there are two, the third and the fifth, which may very nearly be reached in one good drive, and the sec- ond only requires a short approach ; so that the outward journey is comparatively easy from the point of view of distance. The length of the carries, however, makes up for the deficiency in the total distance, and only very excellent play will account for a score below forty for the first nine holes. In the second half round there are two easy 2o6 Other Courses. holes, the eleventh and the sixteenth, but the rest are long* enough to balance the shortness of the first nine, and it is almost as easy to g-o below forty for the first half round as it is to improve upon forty-five for the second. It is better, perhaps, if possible, to dis- tribute your distances evenly betw^een the two half rounds, but the natural lie of the g-round must be considered as well, and I doubt very much whether the present course at Sandwich could be improved upon anywhere in the world. The turf upon some of the courses in the west of Scotland is better, and the distances at St. Andrews are more perfect. But there is something- about the enormous hazards and the con- stant variety of the g-reat South of Eng-land course which makes it a source of infinite joy to the g-ood player, even if it is less popular among- the weaker brethren. In laying- out an eig-hteen-hole course you may imitate any one of these three links with advantage. For a nine-hole course, take St. Andrews and copy either the outward or the inward holes ; there is very little difference between them in point of length; only you will have to alter the arrangement of your holes so as not to have the three shortest in succession. Improvement of the Ground. 207 The Improve^ When once your distances are mentofthe settled, you may set to work Ground. upon the ground itself. Hazards may be inserted at any time, and it is rather a mistake to cut up the ground hurriedly before you know exactly where your bunkers are required. Rolling. Your first object should be to get the turf all through the course in perfect condition. If your land has been lying fal- low for several years, your grass is proba- bly sufficiently strong to stand a heavy steam roller. You will find it less expens- ive to invest in the machine at once rather than waste time and money in working with a horse roller, which, in wet weather, does almost as much harm as it does good. Sea- side courses and those which are situated in temperate climates, hardly require such drastic treatment. But on most of the in- land courses of America which suffer from the severe frosts in winter, a steam roller will be found invaluable. From three to five tons is the best weight, and the width of the roller should be as great as possible. Roll the whole course as soon as the frost is fairly out of the ground, but beware against repeating the process too often. One good rolling in the spring ought to last a whole season. 2o8 Grass Cutting. Grass Cutting. As soon as your grass begins to grow you will find it impossible to keep it under control, if your soil is at all rich, without the help of a mowing machine. Most courses must be shaved close at least once a week during the early summer months, and that entails a considerable amount of labor. But there is no other way of meeting the difficulty. Of all faults in a links there is none more aggra- vating and more conducive to the ruin of the game than long grass in the regular course. It is only excusable in front of the tee to punish a topped drive, and even there it should be kept short enough to avoid a waste of time in looking for balls. Sheep are often recommended for the purpose of keeping the grass down ; but no quantity of them will have a visible effect on an in- land course in June, provided that your grass is in a healthy condition. And sheep are such a nuisance in other ways that it is better to give them up entirely, and rely upon your lawn mowers. Possibly you may lose thereby in the matter of revenue, but it must always be remembered that golf and husbandry are distinct pursuits. The Putting If your turf must be in perfect Greens. condition through the ordinary course, much more must your putting Mowing Machines. 209 greens be flawless. If possible they should be made out of the original sod, with all the natural undulations intact. In many cases, however, it is necessary to relay them with fresh turf; and if that is done, great care should be exercised in order that they may not be absolutely flat and square. Noth- ing* adds so much to the enjoyment of the g-ame as a certain variety in the shape and contour of the different greens. Some should be on high ground, others in hol- lows. A few should be on the side of hills, provided that the slope is very gentle; an occasional plateau may be selected, but in that case the green should not be too small. In size they should vary, but they should never have a radius of less than forty feet. Mowing The excellence of your put- Machines, ting greens depends, to a large extent, upon the kind of mowing machine you possess. The ordinary Philadelphia lawn mower of common use does not cut the grass close enough for golfing purposes, and so it is necessary to have a special ma- chine made, with the same width of blade but with smaller wheels, so that the knife may be brought closer to the ground. This slight change in the implement will make all the difference between good and bad put-* ting greens. 2IO Water. Water. Finally, you must have a water sup- ply available at each g-reen. The actual amount of w^ater to be used varies, of course, with the differences in climate. But there are very few parts of the United States where nature's water supply may not be supplemented with considerable advantage, and there are a g-reat many reg-ions where golf is out of the question on any other terms. In making your plans for a complete water system, there is only one thing to re- member. Green committees are apt to take an average rainfall as their basis, and imag- ine that four inches a month — which would be a large allowance from heaven in any climate — is more than sufficient when sup- plied by artificial means. One inch a week would certainly be ample for the purpose if it were distributed in cloudy weather, just as nature gives her moisture. But an arti- ficial supply is only needed in warm, dry weather, when the evaporation is tremen- dous. Consequently, what would be accept- able from nature will not nearly answer the purpose when it comes from a well. What you actually need depends entirely upon your climatic conditions. But it may be useful to point out that on courses in the Water. 2 1 1 west it is not at all too liberal to calculate upon a basis of half an inch a day during July and August. That, of course, is for the putting greens alone. Generally speak- ing, no attempt is made to water the whole course. And yet there is no reason why even this task should not be undertaken in regions where golf is almost entirely ruined by the drought of the western summer. Granted that your water system is ade- quate for the purpose of keeping your put- ting greens in good condition, it would re- quire no great expenditure to increase the supply and so be in a position to sprinkle your whole course once or even twice a week. Of course the sprinkling must be a thorough one, to have the desired effect, but there are numberless courses west of the Alleghanies which would be improved five hundred per cent in the hot weather by the outlay. In fact, an entirely satisfactory water system would make the whole differ- ence between playing golf and playing some other inferior game. I do not imagine that there is any course in the east which requires this hydrogenic treatment; yet even there a good supply of water can do no harm, and will very often prove enormously beneficial. 2 12 Hazards. Hazards. It only remains to speak of the various hazards which may be inserted in a course when the turf has been put in per- fect condition. Once more let me repeat that all obstructions, such as trees, ditches, boulders and quarries, so often spoken of with pride as natural hazards, should at all costs be removed. The ideal way to g-o about making- an inland links is to g*et, first of all, about two hundred acres of undulating- pas- ture land without a sing-le obstruction or ex- crescence of any sort. There is, as a matter of fact, no such thing- as a natural hazard upon an inland course, unless it be a stream or a pond of water. Having- g-ot your wide stretch of turf, which should be as smooth as velvet in every part, you may then put in all the sand bunkers you require; for sand bunkers are the only hazards, with the exception of water, which should be allowed under any circumstances. Long- g-rass may g-row off the course to punish wild driving-, and in some cases it may be left, as explained above, in front of the tee. In cutting- your bunkers do not be afraid to make them larg-e and varied in shape. Most inland g-reens are spoiled by the fact that the hazards are not big- enoug-h to catch all the missed balls which g-o in their direc- Hazards. 213 tion. Do not forg*et, moreover, that in many cases the hazard should stretch from the edg-e of the teeing* g-round to a distance of a hundred yards or more, so that a missed drive must positively bring- its pun- ishment. A bunker is very little g"ood un- less it is thirty feet wide, or is g-uarded by a hig-h face. Whenever you see a ball jump a bunker which lies across the line of fire, you may take note of it, and if the same accident repeats itself often, you should set to work at once and widen your bunker. In making- your hazards it is best to choose spots which are naturally suited to the purpose, such as hoUow^s in the g-round or hillsides; a reg-ular line of cops set down on a flat surface present the appearance of military earthworks and add neither to the beauty of the landscape nor the variety of the g-ame. In g-uarding- your putting- g-reens, do not always put a straig-ht bunker right in front of the man who is approaching*. Some g-reens should be protected in that way, others should be between hazards, a few should be entirely surrounded, and hardly any should be absolutely free. It is a g-ood plan also to have at least one or two holes where the bunkers are so close that the 2 14 Hazards. approach must be played with a certain amount of back spin. On most American courses the greens are either so small and keen that no mortal man can pitch his ball on them and keep it there, or else they are so larg-e and free from bunkers that the veriest duffer can loft on to them with ease. The happy medium has not yet been struck. Of course every g-reen should not be too closely g-uarded, but a few out of the eig-hteen should certainly call for a dis- play of skill in administering- back spin. And in order to bring* about this end, your greens must be keen. Provided that your water supply is adequate and your grass is strong it is quite impossible to make an in- land green too keen. As long as you keep your turf watered every night in warm weather, you may cut the grass as short as possible, and yet not make your putting and approaching too difficult. The expense of making bunkers on inland courses is natur- ally large. For that reason it is particu- larly desirable that you should go boldly to work at first upon your hazards and make them of a proper size. A bunker thirty feet wide will stop most topped balls, but that is practically the minimum. Many of them should be considerably larger. 1 ■ Summary. 215 Summary. These, then, are the main things to bear in mind, and I may repeat them shortly as follows: For the purpose of making- an eig-hteen- hole course, look out first for at least two hundred acres of the best pasture land, provided that you cannot g^et the g-enuine g-olf land by the sea. Avoid a clay soil. Make your course seventy-five yards wide at every hole and remove every tree, ditch and stone from its surface. Locate your putting* g-reens first with reg-ard to natural situation, and then model your distances upon the St. Andrews links in Scotland. Roll your course every spring-, and keep it close cut with mowing-machines in summer. Make your putting- g-reens as perfect as the abundant use of water and the mowing- machine will permit. Let all your hazards be sand bunkers, with the addition of a water hazard if nature supplies it. Make your bunkers larg-e and varied in shape — you cannot make them too larg-e — and g-uard all your putting- g-reens either on one or upon every side. N? YARDS NO YARDS / 352 JO 290 2 tl7 II 150 3 m 12 /3 5 5/6 /« H75 6 359 IS •675 7 d'to 16 3H'f 8 170 17 ^61 9 177 m 387 ^co/e of Varcfs ANDREWS. ^Sl 216 217 o < 'J- W^ ^.»0 f^ •O VT ♦ •? z $^^:?*^$ii^ 1 K^ n. > CNjAl Kj iO«ACM z ">■ csi 10 * "^ •* N 99«»V 218 CHAPTER VIIL DEVKLOPMENT OF THE GAME IN AMERICA. IF the courses on this side of the Atlantic fall far short of perfection, it must still be remembered that they are situated for the most part in regions where the averag'e Briton would have despaired of ever mak- ing- g-olf a possibility; and yet they do, in many cases, present a very fair test of the game. The Improve= And so the apotheosis of the ment of Inland inland course maybe regarded Courses. ^^ ^^^ ^j ^^^ great features of the development of golf in America up to the present time. The genius of the Amer- ican people is naturally inclined toward haste and impatience. That is why so many links in this country have been laid out in such a way that they will have to be entirely remodeled from the very beginning before they can rank in the first class. On the other hand, when the true idea ot the game is thoroughly grasped, there is no obstacle great enough to prevent speedy success in the perfecting of the unpromis- 219 220 The Governing Body. ing- material at hand. If New York and Chicag*o were suddenly transported to the desert of Arabia, I have not a doubt that they would in the space of twelve months be surrounded by a circle of excellent g-olf courses. You have, as a rule, merely to point out to an American Green Committee that a certain thing- is necessary, and you may count upon g-etting- it. And for that reason we have inland courses in America which come within measurable distance of some of the best seaside links. The Governing The org-anization of the g*ame Body. is also a peculiarity of its g-rowth in the States. Golf has been played in Scotland from time immemorial, and yet there has never been a g-overning* body which has had anything* more than a pre- scriptive right to control the national laws and practice of the g-ame. The committee of the Royal and Ancient Club at St. An- drews has g-radually assumed the reins of government, not from any desire to usurp authority, but simply because no other method of control seemed practicable. If there had been as many clubs in England twenty-five years ago as there were in Scotland, and if the interest in the game had been at all evenly distributed, there would have been no difficulty in instituting The Governing Body. 221 some kind of n»ational administration. But as it was, there were few g-ood players in Great Britain who were not members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and it would have been manifestly absurd, or at least very unnecessary, to sug-g-est that the St. Andrews committee was not perfectly competent to do all that was required in the way of government. Moreover, national associations have never been recog*nized as the ruling- princi- ple of Eng-lish sport. The g^overnment of the g-ame of g-olf having- been g-radually thrust upon the St. Andrews club, it g-rew more and more impossible to org-anize any national committee in the face of the con- servative element. The case of the Mary- lebone cricket club was cited to support the rule of a sing-le club as against the control of a national association. And so, in one way and another, the constitution of the game as it at present exists became crystal- lized. A step in the direction of a national committee was made some ten years ago when the Hoylake Club instituted the ama- teur championship tournament, but the time had gone by when the organization of such a committee upon democratic lines was possible. In the first place, only a few cfthe many clubs in the country were 2 22 The Governing Body. represented; and secondly, the deleg'ates sent to choose the course for the decision of the next championship, were powerless to assume authority upon any other subject. And so, for better or for worse, the St. Andrews Club has become the M. C. C. of golf, and all hopes of a g-eneral committee seem at present exceedingly remote — ex- cept, indeed, on such terms as would rob the institution of half its value as a repre- sentative body. It must not be imagined for a moment by those who know golf only as it is played in America, that this apparently hap-hazard kind of government has been detrimental to the development of the game. There are two distinct sides to the question; and it may be asserted with great safety that the game would have suffered enormously in the past if the influence of St. Andrews had not been predominant. There is no game in the world which admits of so much ignorance upon the part of its players as golf. And if, ten or fifteen years ago, men who had only pursued the gutta percha in the wilds of Tooting-Bec or the Cowley marshes at Oxford had been allowed the same vote in the control of the game as the first-class players of St. Andrews, the re- sults would have been most disastrous. United States Golf Association. 223 At the same time, g*olf has now reached a point in England and Scotland, where the mists of ig-norance have been widely dissi- pated, and the moment has arrived when the formation of a national association would in all probability be most beneficial. But in the meantime St. Andrews has the power, and why should she relinquish it? Philanthropic bimetallists are fond of ask- ing- England to abandon her gold standard. Those who make a similar request of St. Andrews find themselves in much the same predicament. Their theory is excellent, but what inducement have they got to offer? There is the dilemma; and we have to thank our stars of good fortune that we had no such difficulty to face when the game became popular in America. The idea of the national association had become fixed in the minds of all sportsmen in this coun- try by its success in other branches of ath- letics, and there was no traditional influence to overcome. The United On the other hand, there was States Golf a very serious danger that Association. American players, with their half digested notions of golf and their knowledge of most inferior courses, should go about to make some very radical changes in the rules and practice of the game. In THE LATE THEODORE A. HAVEMEYER First President U. S. G. A. 324 United States Golf Association. 225 fact, a tendency in that direction was no- ticeable when a rule was made that a ball might be lifted and teed in match play as it may be in playing* a medal competition. Here at the outstart was a direct blow at the ruling- principle of match play — which is the real g-ame of golf — that the ball must be played wherever it lies, unless it be in water. The new rule has since been re- scinded, and no farther attempt has been made to alter the St. Andrews rules as they stand. The only reason why this danger has been averted is that a national association was formed before any havoc could be cre- ated, and a committee elected, composed of men who had the best interests of the game at heart. The first president was the late Theodore A. Havemeyer, of whose services to golf and to amateur sport in general it is hard to speak dispassionately. It is sel- dom that a man of affairs, whose adminis- trative powers have been developed in the control of a great corporation, is willing to devote a large share of his time and care to the interests of a game. When this admin- istrative ability is combined with the most lovable characteristics of a gentleman and a sportsman, it will be understood that the 2 26 United States Golf Association. National Golf Association was extraordina- rily fortunate in the selection of its first president. By his recent death, every golf player in this country sustained a great and irreparable loss. But in the two years of his control he was able to place the g-overn- ing- body upon so firm and immovable a basis, and his influence was so strong* in preserving- the true spirit of the g-ame, that even his untimely departure could not spoil the complete value of his work. There is but little doubt that had a weaker hand been at the helm during- the young- days of the association, many radical chang-es might have been made in the rules which would have made a gulf between the American and British golfers, and in the end might have been found entirely unnecessary. As it is, nothing has been done which could offend the most conservative spirit, nor is any action likely to be taken in the future which will bring about a development of the game along divergent lines in the two coun- tries. It would be beyond the scope of the present work to dwell upon the merits of the men who, as members of the executive committee, assisted Mr. Havemeyer in his good work ; and yet one word must be said MR. H. O. TALLMADGE First Secretary U. S. G. A. 227 2 28 United States Golf Association. in passing- recog-nition of the services done to g-olf in this country by Mr. Charles B. Macdonald, whose energ-y of purpose and fine instinct for the best points in theg-ame have constituted him the arch-pioneer of golf in America; by Mr. Henry O. Tall- mad^e, the most indefatig-able of secreta- ries; by Mr. Laurence Curtis, whose clear judg-ment proved invaluable in preparing the new edition of the rules; and by Mr. Par- rish, who would certainly be elected treas- urer for life if he could only be induced to take the office. The attitude assumed by these men in the g-overnment of the association must have come in the way of a revelation to all British players, who are apt to have precon- ceived notions on the subject of American rashness and scorn for tradition. Not only has the spirit, but even the letter of the g-ame been preserved with the most scru- pulous care ; and yet at the same time new sug-g-estions have been admitted of such excellent propriety that even in the short space of three years American g-olf ers have been able to offer hints upon which the more inert and less org-anized body of play- ers in Great Britain will be compelled to act. ^«^?/> 2 td 2 W d td Q O 02 > n O o I 230 Championship Tournaments. TheChainpion= The conduct of the amateur shipTourna= championship meeting- was the meats. first instance of the advantage of bring-ing common sense to bear upon the subject. The system has still to underg-o a slight revision before it can be called per- fect, but the essential principles of the arrangement are incontrovertibly correct. The weeding-out process is so simple that when it is once suggested, one wonders why it w^as never introduced before. Not only is it absolutely fair to every one, but it requires that the champion shall show at least a certain skill in medal play, which, after all, is a department of the g-ame. In the second place, it will obviate in larg-e measure the luck of the draw. As things at present exist in Great Britain, a g-ood player may go through one or two rounds without the slig-htest exertion, if he is for- tunate in coming against weak opponents. Under the American system he has to work for his position from the drop of the flag*. He must play first-class g*olf for two rounds of medal play in order to qualify at all, and then he will have to meet in each round a foeman who is worthy of his steel ; for among- the first sixteen who earn the right to compete there can be very few who have not a g-ood chance of winning- outrig-ht. Championship Tournaments. 231 At least one or two chang-es will in all probability shortly be made in the rules of the contest. In the first place, all the match play rounds will consist of thirty-six holes. Heretofore only eighteen holes were played, until the final round, and there was always a chance of a fluke victory ; when every match is decided by playing thirty- six holes, the element of luck is almost en- tirely eliminated. Secondly, it is proposed in future to draw the first eig*ht of the sixteen ag*ainst the second eig-ht for the first match play round, so that it will be impossible for a weak player to g"et into the finals; and also there will be a further inducement for the best players to return as good a card as possible. Upon this inno- vation I need not lay so much stress. It happens that at present in America there are not sixteen players of equal merit, and there is likely to be a difference of at least a third of a stroke a hole between the first and the last of the sixteen. In a year or two, however, the number of first- class players will have increased so enor- mously that it will be impossible to name one of the first sixteen who has not a g'ood chance of winning-, and so the division of the draw would be unnecessary. But g-ranted that the first of these im- 232 Championship Tournaments. provements is determined upon, I cannot see how the arrang-ement of the contest can possibly be bettered. The tournament will last five days, however larg-e the entry may be ; all the bad players will be removed from the field after the first day; the win- ner must play five matches of thirty-six holes each, including- the preliminary medal round; there can be no possible chance of a lucky draw; and the man who finally be- comes champion will have earned the title by sheer superiority of skill and endurance. So much for the amateur championship. This means, of course, that the open event must be played on a separate occasion. So far that contest has been robbed of nearly all its interest by being- thrown in, as it were, at the end of the tournament, which is mani- festly hard upon the professionals, whose play, under the circumstances, attracts very little attention; and unfair to the ama- teurs, who cannot be expected to do them- selves justice after the wear and tear of their own competition. It is only rig-ht, moreover, to remark, in passing-, that American amateur form has been slig-htly discredited abroad for this very reason. In the championship tournament of 1897 the best amateur score was eleven strokes be- hind the winning- score of 163 made by The Rules. 233 Lloyd; and it is argued by writers on the subject in England that the amateurs in America are therefore considerably behind amateurs in Britain on that account. The fact is undoubtedly true, but not to the ex- tent that the figures would show ; simply be- cause the amateurs in Americahave entered the open contest, up to the present time, merely as a matter of custom, without the slightest chance of displaying their best form. Lloyd's score of 163 w^as an exceed- ingly fine one, considering the length of the course; but it must be remembered that in the same week, under stress of greater heat, the first three returns for the Chicago cup w^ere 81, 82 and 83, the latter score be- ing made by Mr. J. A. Tyng, an American player of only three years' standing. To be perfectly just to the professionals, I would say that only one or two of them show any superiority whatever over the best ama- teur form, and that both amateurs and pro- fessionals are from three to four strokes behind their colleagues on the other side of the Atlantic. The Rules. To return from this digression, let us look for a moment at the question of the rules of the game. It is here that the American association has an enor- mous advantage over the governing body 2^4 The Rules. at St. Andrews. With all possible respect and love for the Royal and Ancient home of the game, I am constrained to assert, having- the broad Atlantic between me and the niblicks of those who will g^ainsay me, that the various codes of rules sanc- tioned by the members of the club from time to time are monuments of judicial in- efficiency. The fact is that the ordinary Scotch player who has been born and bred in the atmosphere of the g-ame has no need of a written code at all. He plays the game by instinct and as the spirit guides him. That is precisely the reason why the old fashioned St. Andrews player was of neces- sity incompetent to draw up rules for the guidance of those who did not play by pre- cedent rather than precept. What might be abundantly clear to him, knowing the practice and tradition, would probably be most obscure to the Englishman and Amer- ican. That this is the case has been proved conclusively by the voluminous rulings and interpretations made by Messrs. Ruther- ford and Lockyer; and yet their work left an enormous field for discussion upon points which they did not even touch. Of course it is impossible to make the rules of the game absolutely sufficient for the pur- pose; but there is a wide gulf between such The Rules. 2^^ a state of perfection and the condition of thing's as they now exist. A careful study of the latest code of rules will convince any unprejudiced person that there are very few which, even to the experienced golfer, may not bear various meanings, and sev- eral which, if carried to their legitimate conclusion, are manifestly absurd. For- tunately the United States Golf Association has been able to issue a book of rulings and interpretations which does not altogether do away with the incongruities of the orig- inal code, but does at least settle a number of disputed points. In Great Britain this course was out of the question because ob- viously the Royal and Ancient club, having issued its edict, could not, without appear- ing ridiculous, publish an explanation of the same. Messrs. Rutherford and Lockyer's work might have been of some assistance, but it was without authority, and could not really be quoted in defense of any argu- ment. The United States Golf Association were very careful not to alter a single word in the text of the St. Andrews rules, and in this respect they acted very wisely. The interpretations in many cases answer the purpose of a new rule, and in the meantime we may hope for a new and better code from the committee which has recently 236 The Hazard Rule. been appointed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The Hazard A full discussion of the weak- Rule, nesses of the rules as they exist would be neither possible nor desirable at present. But one example may be taken as the text of a few remarks upon the subject. The hazard rule as it stands is the worst of all the St. Andrews regulations. It may, of course, be interpreted in such an extreme way as to make the game ridiculous. But even when taken in the broadest and most legitimate sense, its provisions are so unfair that here the interpretation of the executive committee is tantamount to a new rule. Ac- cording to the law as it stands by itself, any player who touches sand in a bunker while addressing the ball is disqualified in medal play. Consequently, supposing that a com- petitor for the amateur championship in America, or the open championship abroad, were blown over by a gust of wind while aiming at the ball, or should for any other reason rest his club inadvertently upon the sand, he would at once be removed from the contest. Such a rule defeats its own ends, because it is never, as a matter of fact, adhered to, especially in the case of bent and gorse. The interpretation made by the association is probably as satisfactory as The Hazard Rule. 237 anything- could be under the circumstances. But why should not the rule be altered and made more simple? First of all, nothing- but sand or loose earth should be regarded as a hazard. That, of course, was the orig- inal intention of the rule. It is only in sand or loose earth that the player can possibly obtain any unfair advantage by g-rounding his club, or by moving loose obstacles. There is no possible reason why a loose stone should not be removed when the ball is lying in a gorse bush if it is allowable to remove one in the fair green. There is a very definite reason why a simi- lar obstacle should not be removed in a bunker; because it is impossible to say in many cases where stones become small enough to be considered part of the sand. But on a good links there should be no stones whatever in any hazard, so that the break club question need hardly arise. First of all, then, confine your hazards to sand and loose earth, and you will not only simplify matters, but you will be conform- ing in reality with the true spirit of the game. Secondly, make it a case for dis- qualification, or the loss of the hole, when a player deliberately removes anything* in a bunker within a given radius of his ball. If a man is foolish enough to break the rules 238 The Hazard Rule. in a deliberate way, he deserves any punish- ment which may be meted out to him. But for g-rounding- the club unintentionally or intentionally behind the ball in the act of addressing- it the penalty of a stroke is quite sufficient. No one, however expert he may be, can calculate upon improving- the lie of his ball in addressing- it sufficiently to war- rant the loss of a stroke, and the rule about intentional removal of obstacles would still prevent him from deliberately scraping- away the sand with his club. A rule written on these lines would pro- vide ample punishment for carelessness, and it would also g-uard ag-ainst the success of those players — and there are a few of them — who are always anxious to take every inch of rope that the law will concede. This is only one case out of a g-reat many where it is easy to sug-g*est a g-ood rule where the founders of the code seem to have gone out of their way to make a bad one. Instances mig-ht be multiplied if necessary. My main object at present is to show what advantag-es may accrue from the g-overn- ment of an executive committee which is entirely national in its interests, which is not hampered by any uncertainty about its authority or any traditions of the past, and which, above all, is a thoroughly represen- Club Matches. 239 tative body. The members of the execu- tive committee are chosen not with refer- ence to the club they represent, but on ac- count of their personal fitness. There is only one criticism to be made upon the con- stitution of the association, and that ap- plies to the distinction between allied and associate members, a distinction which seems to have no very g-ood raison d'etre^ and will in all probability be removed in the near future. Club There is another development Matches, of the g-ame in this country in the direction of increased interest in club matches, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Golf has never been re- g-arded as a g-ame for team matches in the past; it never can, from the very nature of thing's, be regarded in that lig*ht in the future. There is absolutely no scope for team work in these encounters between clubs, and so, at best, they can only be taken as an excuse for friendly g-athering-s. Looked at from that point of view, they are entirely unobjectionable, and very often most enjoyable. Yet there is a certain dang-er in them, especially in America, which, however slight, ought to be carefully guarded ag-ainst. So far golf, both here and in Great Britain, has been free from 240 Benefit of Better Courses. any taint of semi-professionalism; and very naturally so, because it has always been regarded as a game for individual amuse- metit. Amateur championships are inven- tions of recent date, and club matches would probably never have crept into prac- tice if it had not been for the inter-univer- sity contests at Oxford and Cambridge. It is easily understood that where a man plays for his own amusement the element of semi-professionalism cannot exist; but as soon as club rivalry is introduced the in- ducement to resort to questionable methods becomes a factor in the game. It is very hard for golfers in England and Scotland to understand that such a danger can exist, because they have never looked upon club rivalry as a determining feature of the sit- uation. Here in America the spirit of com- petition is so keen in every walk of life that it is just as well to face the danger at the outset and make provision against it ; for it would be a thousand pities if the disease which has infected both football and base- ball should spread into golf. The Benefit Possibly the best way of deal- of Better ing with the subject is for the Courses. association to take absolutely no cognizance of club matches; in that way the club match may still be a source of enjoy- Benefit of Better Courses. 241 merit without becoming- a matter of public interest. And in the second place, I am confident that the gradual improvement in the various courses all over the country w^ill make g-olf more and more desirable for its ov^n sake, and not for the g"lory or re- wards which at present g-ive it a spurious value. There is not a doubt that inferior courses lead to a multiplying* of competi- tions of every kind, because interest mus\ be stimulated in every way to make up for the defects in the g^ame itself. It is an in- variable rule that the better the links the fewer are the competitions. This arg-u- ment applies not only to the hunting after prizes, but in a minor deg-ree to club matches. If your course is a g-ood one you will g*et far more enjoyment out of a week's g-ood match play than from any number of official events. CHAPTER IX. AMATEURS ABROAD. THERE have been so many discussions of a somewhat futile nature upon the relative merits of British and American players, that it may be interesting- to know exactly how g-olfers in America rank with the experts on the other side of the water. As I have already pointed out, the conclu- sions which mig-ht be drawn from the re- sults of the amateur and open competi- tions held in this country during* the last three years are manifestly unfair to the amateurs, for the very simple reason that the amateurs have never yet met the pro- fessionals on even terms. And had they done so, it must be remembered thatLloyd's score of 163 at Wheaton in the champion- ship tournament of 1897 compares very favorably with the winning scores over such courses as Hoylake and Muirfield, which are certainly two strokes easier than the course of the Chicag"o golf club; and it is not so many years ago that no amateur in Great Britain was expected to come within 243 244 Amateurs Abroad. ten strokes of the first place in the open event. As far as I can judg-e, it is impossible to compute the difference between first-class form here and in Scotland or Eng-land by a definite number of strokes. The class in America is so exceeding-ly small that the results attained are, comparatively speak- ing-, most indifferent. And yet the class exists and must be judg-ed on its merits. The difference really consists only in the matter of steadiness and confidence in tour- nament play. Mr. Charles Macdonald may be taken as a typical example of the first- class American amateur. His record for a sing-le season over the links of the Chi- cag-o Golf Club at Wheaton is almost as g-ood as that of any Scotch player over the links of St. Andrews. And yet in tour- nament play he would certainly be out- classed by the first six or eig^ht amateurs who are sure to put in an appearance for any g-reat event in Scotland. It may seem strang-e that a player who is capable of producing- an invincible g-ame on ordinary occasions, should fail when skill is most called for. In reality the explanation is very simple. No one who has lived in America up to the present time can pos- sibly have acquired the tournament habit; Amateurs Abroad. 245 for after all, the ability to play up to form in important events is not entirely a matter of nerve, but comes in great measure from long- experience; and as important tourna- ments have only recently been instituted in America such experience is entirely out of the question. The only difference between the first class proper in Great Britain, and the much larger class which includes the rank and file of those who are placed at scratch in the handicap list of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, lies in the possession of this same tournament habit; and it is ex- ceedingly rarely that any very young player makes his way into the real aristocracy of the game. Even when he does he is not by any means sure to keep^his position, as is proved by the fact that Mr. P. C. Anderson, one of the youngest of amateur champions, has failed to live up to the honors that he won a few years ago. Mr. F. G. Tait was considered a mere boy when he captured the coveted laurels in 1896 ; but he was twenty-five years of age, and had also had the advantage of constant familiarity with the best players from the time that he first went to school. The real first class in Great Britain is confined to those members of the bigbrigade who went down at Muirfield last spring before the MR. F. G. TAIT AND TOM MORRIS 246 Photographed by R. W. Haivks, Edinhurgh MR. F. G. TAIT, PLAYING A CLEEK SHOT 247 MR. A. J. T. ALLEN, PUTTING 248 Amateurs Abroad. 249 prowess of two comparative youngsters in the persons of Mr. Robb and Mr. Allen. In spite of their defeat, they are still the lead- ing- figures in amateur golf, partly on account of their past career, and partly because they are sure to supply most of the medal winners and champions for some time to come. The list includes the names of Mr. John Ball, Mr. J. E. Laidlay, Mr. Harold Hilton, Mr. F. G. Tait, Mr. Horace Hutchinson, Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville, Mr. Mure- Fergusson and the Messrs. Blackwell. To these we must add, in view of recent events, the names of Mr. AUea and Mr. Robb. Take these men and a few others, whom I may have inadvertently omitted, from the so called first class in Great Britain, and I do not think that there are any players out of the remainder who are likely to show better form than can be seen among the first-class players of this coun- try — always provided that the term first- class as applied to American golf really ap- plies only to those who have learned their game in Scotland. When we come to the average scratch player in American clubs, such as Mr. Fenn, Mr. Tyng, and a host of others who have shown skill in other 250 Amateurs Abroad. branches of athletics, we are dealing- with a different class altogether, composed of men who would rank for the most part with the converted cricketers of England, such as Mr. E. Buckland, Mr. C. Toppin, Mr. Croome and many others who have discarded the bat in favor of the driver. These players are rather better than the regular second-class performers according to the old system of division when the second class included all those who could play Mr. Laidlay or Mr. Balfour-Melville with a third of a stroke a hole. The cricketing- conting-ent can do better than that, and yet they are g-enerally too un- steady to be classed even with the ordinary scratch players at St. Andrews. To put it shortly, then, I should place our first class proper on the same level as the averag-e scratch players of St. Andrews, and our best native talent on a par with the cricket- ers in England. What the precise difference is between our first class proper and the British first class proper is still an uncer- tain quantity, but it depends a g-reat deal upon the ability of men of the Ball and Hil- ton class to play their best game when it is most required. The existence of this special class in England and Scotland is only of recent date, MR. J. E. LAIDLAY 251 Photographed by R. W. Hmvks, Edinburgh MR. J. E. LAIDLAY, PUTTING 252 Amateurs Abroad. 253 and so we need not despair of making* a similar advance in this country before many years are past. The improvement in American g-olf courses is a most important factor in the development of the g-ame ; but of greater v^eig-ht still is the fact that our colleg"e boys are only novs^ beg'inning- to take g-olf seriously. When they have had a few more years' practice the limits of our first class will be enormously extended; for youthful training- alone can produce the very best players. Among- those who belong- to the inner circle in Great Britain there is no more brilliant and successful player than Mr. J. E. Laidlay. The only distinction which he has not won is the open championship of Eng-land and Scotland, and that is a prize which has only three times fallen to an amateur. He has been amateur champion twice, and there is hardly a club of hig-h standing- in Scotland which does not claim him as a medal winner. Mr. Laidlay never, perhaps, attained that perfection of steadi- ness which for many years made Mr. John Ball almost invincible. On the other hand, he is accustomed to make so many extra- ordinary recoveries from seeming-ly hope- less situations that it has always been a great treat to watch his game in an im- 254 Amateurs Abroad. portant match. Not only is he marvelously effective in a hig-h wind — a thing which in itself g-oes far to distinguish the really first- class player from the average scratch man, but he is one of the few men who seem able to do a hole of almost any length in three when circumstances require it. To a certain extent Mr. Laidlay had for a few years a deteriorating effect upon in- cipient golfers; because he was the first great player to adopt the method of driving off the left leg. For several years he had innumerable imitators who could easily as- sume a similar position, but never exhibited the genius necessary for making it success- ful. For a short time, indeed, it was more common to see examples of this style on the links than the older St. Andrews fashion. The fad has had its day by this time, and it will be a long time, in all probability, before another first-class player appears with so extreme a method. It may be equally long before we meet any one who has so perfect a control over his iron clubs. The old course at North Berwick has been lengthened and improved beyond recognition, and so it will never again be possible to see Mr. Laidlay negotiating the many short holes which used to demand the utmost skill in iron play. There was Amateurs Abroad. 255 every kind of stroke then, from a full cleek to a mashie shot, and g-enerally it was necessary to pitch the ball upon a keen sloping- g-reen surrounded by hazards. No one has ever surpassed Mr. Laidlay at this g-ame, and it is doubtful whether any one ever will surpass him. Mr. Ball's full cleek shots are a marvel to all beholders ; Andrew Kirkcaldy can g-et as far with a half iron as most men can with a brassey, and Willie Campbell in his day was the g-reatest expo- nent of the mashie. But no player, either amateur or professional, has such a perfect command over every iron club in the set as Mr. Laidlay. As a driver he is brilliant, but inclined to be erratic on occasion, a fault which g-ives him ample opportunity of displaying- his g-reat power of recovery. On the putting- g-reen he is also a trifle un- certain. Few men hole a g-reater number of long- puts than he, and yet few among- the first-class players miss so many short ones. In this respect, at least, he is mortal, and that is possibly the reason that he has never w^on the open championship, which is decided by medal play. Mr. Ball has won both the open and ama- teur championships, the latter upon four occasions, and is also so fine a match player that he must be ranked as the most sue- 256 Amateurs Abroad. cessfuL and indeed the greatest amateur g-olfer of the day. If he is more liable to defeat now than he was a few years ag-o, it must be remembered that g-eneral form has improved wonderfully of late, and it would be impossible for any one to main- tain for very long* the unique position which he held in the g-olfing- world a short time ag-o. Of a slig-ht but wiry frame, he is possessed of g-reat physical strength and endurance. And here it may be well to remark upon the fact that the idea which many people still entertain reg^arding- the amount of muscle requisite for pre-eminence in the game is entirely erroneous. No one could call Mr. Ball, or Mr. Laidlay, or Mr. Hilton a physical g-iant; but they are all men of g'reat muscular power and perfect health, accustomed to an abundance of out- door exercise. Great height is not appar- ently of any particular advantage, althoug-h it is naturally conducive to long- driving-. The Messrs. Blackwell, Mr. Arnold Blyth and Mr. Mure-Fergusson, to mention no others, are instances of large, power- ful men who excel in the use of the wooden club. But, after all, there is practically little difference between the driving of the most powerful player, and that of a man like Mr. Hilton, who is, comparatively ^^^..^^.^^.^„^,»^ - 'f/'^LJ. MR. JOHN BALL 257 258 Amateurs Abroad. speaking-, of small stature. It is only in the case of Mr. ''Ted" Blackwell that the added distance begins to tell. Certainly Mr. Ball is as fine a driver as any one could wish to be, and he probably weighs less than Mr. Hilton. But then, he is a man of iron mus- cle, and that is the essential thing*. A weak player may drive excellently for eig-hteen holes or so, but he is bound to tire sooner or later, especially when any strain is put upon him. Moreover, he is very apt to be short with his iron clubs. Mr. Ball and Mr. Hilton can drive just at well at the end of four days' tournament as at the beg-inning-, because being naturally endowed with strength of limb, they always have some- thing in reserve. No one seeing Mr. Hilton finishing his fourth round in the open event could ever imagine that he had exerted himself at all. He never seems to drive a very long ball, and what is more curious, he generally drives rather high. Yet when the distance is actually measured he is just as likely to be ahead of a long driving opponent as not. It is in the short game that he is mostly to be feared. When the average scratch player holes a ball with his mashie at a distance of thirty or forty yards, the feat is looked upon as an egregious fluke, at ^ w o > d w i o d O 259 26o Amateurs Abroad. least by his antag-onists. When Mr. Hil- ton takes up his mashie, you are never quite sure that he is not going- to finish matters with one stroke until the ball stops rolling-. In playing- for the open championship at Muirfield, a few years ag-o, he twice holed the ball with his mashie in the last round, and once when he w^as lying- almost buried in a rabbit scrape. That, of course, was an extraordinary stroke of luck; but still it is not exaggeration to say that when he does g-et into the hole with a short approach shot, it is not always to be reg-arded as a mistake. One curious fact about Mr. Hilton's career is that he has twice won the open champion- ship, but never has quite succeeded in win- ning- the amateur event. This inconsist- ency is g-enerally laid down to his g-reat steadiness and precision, which have a more telling- effect in compiling- a score than in match play. And yet his actual fig'ures do not show this extraordinary steadiness. At Muirfield his last round was marvel- ously low, and so, too, he only succeeded in defeating- Mr. F. G. Tait at Hoylake in 1897 by accomplishing- the last eig-hteen holes in seventy-five strokes. The fact re- mains, however, that he has twice defeated all comers in the open field, and that is suf- ficient glory to last any amateur a lifetime. MR. F. G. TAIT, DRIVING 261 Photographed hy R. W, Hawks, Edinburgh MR. F. G. TAIT, DRIVING 262 Amateurs Abroad. 263 Mr. Tait has come nearer equaling- this feat than any one else, because twice in succession he has been within an ace of se- curing- the coveted position; so that, al- though he has never actually won the open championship, he has at least proved him- self worthy of the hig-hest rank. He has never won his spurs easily, for he had sev- eral hard fig-hts for the amateur champion- ship before he actually came to the front in 1896. In nothing that he has done, therefore, has he been in any way indebted to fortune. In fact, there is no player at the present moment whose chances for any event w^ould be reckoned higher than his. He won the St. Andrews medal at a very early age, but he had worked hard for the distinction. From his earliest years he was accustomed to play over the St. Andrews links, and when he first went to school he was in the habit of playing occasional matches with several of the leading amateurs; and that is a privilege which very few boys can ex- joy. Consequently his arrival at the top of the ladder was constantly expected, and in all human probability he is bound to stay there for many years to come. His apti- tude for sports is another proof of the fact that few golfers ever reach the summit of 264 Amateurs Abroad. their ambition who are not blessed with physical advantag'es. Mr. Tait was a g*ood cricketer at school, and a first-class football player at Sandhurst, and what is still more important, there is not a fellow-sportsman in any branch of athletics who knows him and familiarly calls him '* Freddy," who has not also the greatest admiration for his good qualities. But of all g-olfers in the world the most popular is Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson, who is just as well known by his writings as by his successes on the links. Mr. Hutchin- son was, I suppose, the first Englishman who ever won the St. Andrews medal, and the mere fact that he could do such a thing, and still retain the friendship of Scotch- men, speaks volumes in his favor. When he first astonished the inhabitants of St. Andrews by the marvelous accuracy of his driving, he was one of the most dangerous men in any field. Since that time he has been a victim to the all-devouring epidemic of influenza, and is no longer such a for- midable member of the small band; but every now and then he gives the public a taste of his old quality, and when that is the case, the victory is sure to be a popular one. Few men are his superiors to-day on the MR. HORACE G. HUTCHINSON 265 266 Amateurs Abroad. field of battle ; no one comes near him in the world of g-olfing- literature. From the time that he issued his first little work upon golf, which in itself was an epitome of what all such books should be, he has never failed of a larg-e and enthusiastic audience. The Badminton book is almost entirely the work of his pen, and to-day it is the only great classic upon the subject. Times have changed since it was first published, and yet there is very little of practical use to the golfer which he cannot find there to- day expressed in the most simple and read- able language. Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville is another golfer who has been many years before the public. It would be unkind here to say how many years ago he first won the St. Andrews medal; and indeed, if I did hunt up the date in the book of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, no one after seeing him would believe it. Nothing could have been more gratifying than his victory in the amateur championship of 1895. Not only did it come as a well merited reward to one of the best athletes that Scotland has ever produced, but it served to show that none, or at least very few of us, need ever despair of developing a really first-class game, even though we may have lived long on the MR. LESLIE BALFOUR-MELVILLE, PUTTING 267 268 Amateurs Abroad. shady side of thirty. Of course Mr. Bal- four-Melville had a great deal in his favor. He has always been a successful golfer, and in addition has done more for Scotch cricket than any other player. He also won laurels on the football field in his col- lege days and is an expert in every game that he takes up. But that does not alter the astonishing fact that after ranking among first-class golfers for nearly a quar- ter of a century he is still able to defeat young and old alike in the most important event of the year. Of the other great players volumes might be written, but a few w^ords must suffice here in passing tribute to the extraordinary game which Mr. *'Ted" Blackwell has de- veloped and retained, in spite of many suc- cessive years spent on a ranch in California without any chance of wielding a golf club. Mr. Blackwell is, with the probable excep- tion of Douglas Rolland, the only player of whom one can positively say that his driv- ing is superior to that of the average first- class golfer. There are several men who rank as exceptionally long drivers, but put them against Mr. Balfour-Melville or Mr. Hilton, who have no such reputation, and you will find very little difference in the average distance. An occasional advant- MR. E. BLACKWELL 369 270 Amateurs Abroad. ag-e of ten yards is really of very small value unless it is constant. With Mr. Blackwell it is not a question of ten yards, but more generally thirty or forty; and that is heart breaking*. There are many feats of driving- which have been handed down to g-olfing- history in illustration of Mr. Black- well's prowess. The most remarkable is perhaps one which he accomplished at St. Andrews several years ag-o, when he drove the long hole at St. Andrews in two shots each way, thus proving that the wind had nothing to do with it. On another occasion I saw him drive the wall hole at Prestwick in two shots three times on the same day. That this was an extraordinary perform- ance may be judged from the fact that the actual distance which has to be covered is over four hundred yards, with a wall at the end of it, so that the roll of the second shot cannot be taken into consideration. More- over, the hole is only driven in two upon rare occasions when there is a strong wind in favor of the play. On this particular day Mr. Blackwell had no wind behind him to speak of; and twice out of the three times he used only an iron club for the second shot. That is the kind of driving that makes a difference. Mr. Blackwell is not above the average in his short game, but Amateurs Abroad. 271 his driving- is so magriificent that he can well afford a few missed puts. It would be peculiarly interesting to en- counter Mr. Blackwell upon an American links, because either the climate here is in favor of long- driving- or American players drive an exceptionally long- ball. Last year Mr. McCawley, of the Philadelphia Country Club, won a long- driving- competition with a carry of two hundred and eight yards, and that with hardly any wind in his favor. Ag-ain in the present year Mr. H. M. Harri- man came in first with a carry and roll of two hundred and forty yards under rather more favorable circumstances, because the g-round was hard and level; but even so he had only a slig-ht breeze behind him. These fig-ures are absolutely correct, and yet they woiild be considered exceedingly high in Scotland. Driving is, of course, the easiest part of the game to the beginner; and yet it is consoling to know that in this respect, at least, we are not behind our friends in the old country. THE RULES OF GOLF AS REVISED BY The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews IN i8gi With Rulings and Interpretations by the Executive Committee of THE UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION IN 1897 Preface At a meeting of the executive committee of the United States Golf Association, held at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club at South- ampton, Long- Island, July 18, 1896, it was voted : ''That Mr. C. B. Macdonald and Mr. Laurence Curtis be appointed a special committee to interpret the rules of g-olf and to present their report for action at the annual meeting*." Owing- to the unexpectedamount of labor and investig-ation required, the committee were unable to make their report untilJune 10, 1897, when the following- codification of rules and ruling-s was duly presented to the executive committee and by them ratified and ordered to be promulgated and pub- lished as the law of the United States Golf Association. The special committee have made no change in the words of the rules as they stand in the code of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, revised in 1891 ; but they have appended to said rules the 275 276 Preface. ruling-s of the United States Golf Associa- tion, based upon the results of many de- cisions of committees or experts, or upon customs which have obtained in the best clubs in Scotland and England. They hereby acknowledge with thanks, assistance and advice received from the fol- lowing authorities: The editor of **Golf," and Messrs. Horace G. Hutchinson, Harold H. Hilton, Leslie Balfour-Melville, W. T. Linskill, H. J. Whigham and others. There will doubtless be found many points not covered in this work. Such are mostly those which should be made the sub- jects of local rules, or such as may be con- sidered to belong to the etiquette of golf. Such would be questions as to: Dropping a ball at the edge of a hazard where it is impracticable to drop it behind the hazard. (Rule 19 and Medal Rule 8.) Outsiders looking for a lost ball. (Rule 37.) Unplayable balls (Rule 38), or mud adhering to a ball. Discontinuing play on account of sudden severe storms, or for taking refreshments. (Rule 11, Medal Play.) Lifting balls lying on putting greens other than the one played to. Casual water through the fair green. Preface. 277 Boundaries, walls, fences, gates, rabbit holes, gopher holes, direction flags, etc. Strict definition of hazards on the course. Liability of players to suffer the full penalty when their caddies commit a breach of any rule. Restraint upon single players practicing on the course. Right of parties with caddies to pass parties without caddies, or a single to pass a foursome. Slow or inexperienced players blocking the course. Stringent rules for keeping scores in competitions. Charles Blair Macdonald. Laurknce Curtis. Rul es RULE 1. The game of g-olf is played by two or more sides, each playing- its own ball. A side may consist of one or more persons. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Two sides of single players constitute a match called a "Single." Two sides of two players each constitute a '* Foursome," and the players on either side are called ''Partners." RULE 2. The game consists in each side playing a ball from a tee into a hole by successive strokes, and the hole is won by the side holing its ball in the fewest strokes, except as otherwise provided for in the rules. If two sides hole out in the same number of strokes, the hole is halved. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. "Match Play" is decided by the num- ber of holes won. " Medal Play " is decided by the aggre- gate number of strokes. 278 Rules. 279 Unless otherwise stated, a match shall consist of the play of the g^ame over eig-hteen holes of the links. By agreement a match may consist of the play over any number of holes. In match play, the player plays ag-ainst an ''Opponent," and opponents have cer- tain privileg-es and responsibilities defined by the rules. In medal play and bog-ey competitions the players are all " competitors "and have special privileges (Medal Rules 5, 6, 7 and 8), and a distinct responsibility. (Medal Rule 4.) " Col. Bogey " is an imaginary opponent ag'ainst whose arbitrary score each player plays by holes; otherwise bogey competi- tions are governed by medal play rules, except that the player loses a hole: When the ball is struck twice, or is stopped by the player, or his caddie, or clubs; When a ball is lost; When a ball is not played wherever it lies, except as provided for in Rules 17 and 21. RULE 3. The teeing- g-round shall be indicated by two marks placed in a line at right angles to the course, and the players shall not tee 2 8o Rules. in front of, nor on either side of these marks, nor more than two club lengths be- hind them. A ball played from outside the limits of the teeing* g-round, as thus defined, may be recalled by the opposite side. The hole shall be four and one-quarter inches in diameter and at least four inches deep. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. The penalty for playing- the ball outside the limits, as thus defined, shall be: * In match play, the ball may be recalled by the opposite side (no stroke being- counted for the misplay). In medal play, the ball must be recalled (no stroke being- counted for the misplay) or the player shall be disqualified. The option of recalling- a ball is in all cases forfeited unless exercised at once be- fore another stroke has been played. RULE 4. The ball must be fairly struck at and not pushed, scraped nor spooned, under penalty of the loss of the hole. Any movement of the club which is in- tended to strike the ball is a stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. Rules. 281 RULE 5. The g-ame commences by each side play- ing- a ball from the first teeing- g-round. In a match with two or more on a side the partners shall strike off alternately from the tees, and shall strike alternately during- the play of the hole. The players, who are to strike ag-ainst each other, shall be named at starting- and shall continue in the same order during- the match. The player, who shall play first on each side, shall be named by his own side. In case of failure to ag-ree, it shall be settled by lot or toss which side shall have the option of leading*. RULE 6. If a player shall play when his partner should have done so, his side shall lose the hole, except in the case of the tee shot, when the stroke may be recalled at the option of the opponents. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, if the player play the tee shot when his partner should have done so, the ball must be recalled (no stroke being- counted for the misplay) or the side shall be 2 8^ Rules. disqualified. If a player play when his part- ner should have done so throug-h the g-reen, the ball shall be recalled and dropped, and a stroke counted for the misplay. RULE 7. The side winning- a hole shall lead in starting- for the next hole, and may recall the opponent's stroke should he play out of order. This privileg-e is called the " honor. " On starting- for a new match the winner of the long- match in the previous round is entitled to the honor. Should the first match have been halved, the winner of the last hole gained is entitled to the honor. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. In Match Play, the stroke recalled is not counted. In Medal Play, the stroke may not be recalled. RULE 8. One round of the links, generally eig-h- teen holes, is a match, unless otherwise agreed upon. The match is won by the side which gets more holes ahead than there remain holes to be played, or by the side winning the last hole when the match was all even at the second last hole. If both sides have won the same number, it is a halved match. Rules. 2S3 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. In cofnpetttions : In Match Play, when two competitors have halved their match, they shall continue playing- hole by hole till one or the other shall have won a hole, which shall deter- mine the winner of the match. Should the match play competition be a handicap, the competitors must decide the tie by playing either one hole, three or five more holes, according* to the manner in which the handicap ceded falls upon certain holes so as to make the g*ame a fairly pro- portionate representation of the round. In Medal Play, where two or more com- petitors are tied, the winner shall be deter- mined by another round of the course; except that By-Laws 15 and 19 of the United States Golf Association provide that, in case of ties for the sixteenth place in the Ama- teur Championship medal rounds, or the eighth place in the Women's Championship medal rounds, respectively, the contestants so tied shall continue to play until one or the other shall have gained a lead by strokes, the hole or holes to be played out. RULE 9. After the balls are struck from the tee, the ball furthest from the hole to which the 284 Rules. parties are playing- shall be played first, except as otherwise provided for in the Rules. Should the wrong- side play first, the opponent may recall the stroke before his side has played. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. In Match Play, no stroke is counted for the misplay if recalled. In Medal Play, the stroke may not be recalled. RULE 10. Unless with the opponent's consent, a ball struck from the tee shall not be chang-ed, touched nor moved, before the hole is played out, under the penalty of one stroke, except as otherwise provided for in the Rules. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of one stroke. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke. RULE 11. In playing- throug-h the g-reen all loose impediments within a club length of a ball, which is not lying- in or touching a hazard, may be removed; but loose impediments which are more than a club length from the ball shall not be removed under penalty of one stroke. Rules. 285 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of one stroke. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke. Ice, snow and hail within a club length of the ball through the green may be re- moved; but on the putting green the ice, snow and hail may only be removed as per Rule 34, '' by brushing lightly with the hand only across the put, and not along it." RULE 12. Before striking at the ball the player shall not move, bend nor break anything fixed or growing near the ball, except in the act of placing his feet on the ground for the purpose of addressing the ball, and in soling his club to address the ball, under the penalty of the loss of the hole, except as provided for in Rule 18. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. RULE 13. A ball stuck fast in wet ground or sand may be taken out and replaced loosely in the hole which it has made. 286 Rules. RULE 14. When a ball lies in or touches a hazard, the club shall not touch the ground, nor shall anything- be touched or moved before the player strikes at the ball, except that the player may place his feet firmly on the g-round for the purpose of addressing- the ball, under the penalty of the loss of the hole. But if in the backward or in the downward swing- any grass, bent, whin or other growing- substance, or the side of a bunker or wall, paling or other immovable obstacle, be touched, no penalty shall be incurred. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, for moving anything, dis- qualification ; for touching anything, loss of one stroke. The intent of this ruling is to prevent the player from altering or improving the lie of the ball. The club shall not be soled, nor the sur- face of the ground be touched within a radius of a club length from the ball, except that the player may place his feet firmly on the ground for the purpose of addressing the ball; but nothing herein shall be con- strued as allowing a player to test in any Rules. 287 manner the consistency of the sand or soil in any part of the hazard, under penalty of disqualification. When a ball lies on turf in a hazard or surrounded by a hazard, it shall be con- sidered as being- on the fair green, /. e,^ the club may be soled. RULE 15. A " hazard '^ shall be any bunker of whatever nature — water, sand, loose earth, mole hills, paths, roads of railways, whins, bushes, rushes, rabbit scrapes, fences, ditches, or anything- which is not the ordi- nary g-reen of the course, except sand blown on to the g-rass by wind or sprinkled on the grass for the preservation of the links, or snow or ice or bare patches on the course. RULING OF THE U, S. G. A. Long grass or casual water on the fair green are not hazards. Woods are hazards. The fair green shall be considered any part of a course except the hazards and putting greens. RULE 16. A player, or a player's caddie, shall not press down nor remove any irregularities of surface near the ball, except at the teeing ground, under the penalty of the loss of the hole. 288 Rules. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. '' Near the ball " shall be considered within a club leng-th. Pressing- down the surface near the ball by prolong-ed or forcible soling* of the club shall be deemed a breach of this rule. RULE 17. If any vessel, wheelbarrow, tool, roller, grass cutter, box or other similar obstruc- tion has been placed upon the course, such obstruction may be removed. A ball lying- on or touching- such obstruc- tion, or on clothes or nets, or on g-round under repair or temporarily covered up or opened, may be lifted and dropped at the nearest point of the course; but a ball lifted in a hazard shall be dropped in a hazard. A ball lying- in a g-olf hole or flag- hole may be lifted and dropped not more than a club leng-th behind such hole. RULE 18. When a ball is completely covered with fog-, bent, whins, etc., only so much thereof shall be set aside as that the player may have a view of his ball before he plays, whether in a line with the hole or otherwise. Rules. 289 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. The *'etc." in this rule includes grass, bushes, plants, hedg-es, trees and foliag'e. RULE 19. When a ball is to be dropped the player shall drop it. He shall front the hole, stand erect behind the hazard, keep the spot from which the ball was lifted, or, in the case of running- water, the spot at which it entered, in a line between him and the hole, and drop the ball behind him from his head, standing as far behind the hazard as he may please. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule : In Match Play, if the ball has not been dropped in strict accordance with the rule, the opponent has the option of having- the ball dropped ag-ain. In Medal Play, if the ball has not been dropped in strict accordance with the rule, the other competitor must call for the ball to be dropped ag-ain, and the player must comply or be disqualified. The player must drop the ball himself, not his caddie nor his partner. A dropped ball shall not be considered in play until at rest. 290 Rules. When a ball is lifted from a hazard and dropped and falls back into the hazard, the player may lift again without further pen- alty. RULE 20. When the balls in play lie within six inches of each other, measured from their nearest points, the ball nearer the hole shall be lifted until the other is played, and shall then be replaced as nearly as possible in its orig-inal position. Should the ball further from the hole be accidentally moved in so doing", it shall be replaced. Should the lie of the lifted ball be altered by the opponent in playing-, it may be replaced in a lie near to, and as nearly as possible similar to, that from which it was lifted. RULE 21. If the ball lie or be lost in water, the player may drop a ball under the penalty of one stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. When the ball lies in casual water on the putting- green, it maybe lifted without pen- alty and replaced by hand to one side but not nearer to the hole. A ball in water in a hazard may be lifted and dropped behind the water or hazard, under penalty of one stroke* Rules. 291 RULE 22. Whatever happens by accident to a ball in motion^ such as its being* deflected or stopped by any agency outside of the match, or by the forecaddie, is a " rub of the g-reen," and the ball shall be played from where it lies. Should a ball lodg-e in any- thing* moving*, such ball, or, if it cannot be recovered, another ball, shall be dropped as nearly as possible at the spot where the ob- ject was when the ball lodg*ed in it. But if a ball at rest be displaced by any ag*ency outside the match, the player shall drop it, or another ball, as nearly as possible at the spot where it lay. On the putting* g*reen the ball may be replaced by hand. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. Wind and weather are not ag*encies '^outside the match.'' RULE 23. If the player's ball strike, or be accident- ally moved by, an opponent or an opponent's caddie or clubs, the opponent loses the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty incurred: In Match Play, loss of the hole. 292 Rules, In Medal Play, no penalty. If the player's ball strike the other com- petitor or his caddie or clubs, it is a "rub of the g-reen," and the ball shall be played from where it lies. If the player's ball at rest be accidentally or intentionally moved by the other competitor or his caddie, the ball must be replaced. RULE 24. If the player's ball strike or be stopped by himself or his partner or either of their caddies or clubs, or if, while in the act of playing-, the player shall strike the ball twice, his side loses the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke. RULE 25. If the player, when not making- a stroke, or his partner or either of their caddies, touch their side's ball, except at the tee, so as to move it, or by touching- anything- cause it to move, the penalty is one stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty incurred: In Match Play, loss of one stroke. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke. Rules. 293 Except at the tee, if the ball move while the player is addressing* it, the player loses one stroke. Except at the tee, if the ball be struck while moving-, the penalty is one stroke, /. ^., one stroke for the moving- and one stroke for the play. Except at the tee, if struck at while mov- ing- and missed, one stroke shall be counted for the moving* and another for the miss. RULE 26. A ball is considered to have been moved if it leave its orig-inal position in the least deg-ree and stop in another; but if a player touch his ball and thereby cause it to oscil- late, without causing- it to leave its orig-inal position, it is not moved in the sense of Rule 25. RULE 27. A player's side loses a stroke if he play the opponent's ball, unless: (1) the oppo- nent then play the player's ball, whereby the penalty is canceled, and the hole must be played out with the balls thus exchang-ed; or (2) the mistake occur through wrong- in- formation given by the opponent, in which case the mistake, if discovered before the opponent has played, must be rectified by placing a ball as nearly as possible where the opponent's ball lay. 294 Rules. If it be discovered before either side has struck off at the tee that one side has played out the previous hole with the ball of a party not engag-ed in the match, that side loses the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: lst« Playing* the opponent's ball with exceptions (1) and (2) above noted in the Rule : In Match Play, loss of one stroke. The ball must be replaced. In Medal Play, no penalty. The ball must be replaced. 2d. Playing- out with the ball of a party not eng-ag-ed in the match: In Match Play, if discovered before the next tee stroke, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, the player must go back and play his own ball, or, not finding it, re- turn as nearly as possible to the spot where it was last struck, tee another ball and lose a stroke (Rule 5, Medal Play), or else be disqualified. RULE 28. If a ball be lost, the player's side loses the hole. A ball shall be considered as lost if it be not found within five minutes after the search is begun. Rules. 295 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty mcurred : In Match Play, loss of the hole. Where both balls are lost at the same time, neither side wins the hole, which should be called halved, irrespective of the number of strokes that either side may have played. A player who has lost his ball may, before giving- up the hole, ask the opponent to show his (the opponent's) ball. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke and distance. The player must return as nearly as possible to the spot where the ball was struck, tee another ball and lose one stroke. But if the ball be found before he has struck the other ball, the first ball shall continue in play. RULE 29. A ball must be played wherever it lies, or the hole given up, except as otherwise provided for in the Rules. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty : In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, loss of two strokes, and ball may be teed. The exceptions are provided for in Rules 17 and 21. 296 Rules. RULE 30. The term "putting- green" shall mean the ground within twenty yards of the hole, excepting- hazards. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. If a hazard be within the twenty-yard limit of the hole, the g-round outside of such hazard may not be considered as putting- g-reen, even thoug-h it be within the twenty- yard radius from the hole. RULE 31. All loose impediments may be removed from the putting- g-reen, except the oppo- nent's ball, when at a g-reater distance from the player's than six inches. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. In Medal Play, on the putting- g-reen, the ball nearer the hole may be holed out or lifted at its owner's option if '4t be in such a position that it mig-ht, if left, give an advantage to the other competitor." (Rule 9, Medal Play.) RULE 32. In a match of three or more sides a ball in any degree lying between the player and the hole must be lifted, or, if on the putting green, holed out. Rules. 297 RULE 33. When the ball is on the putting* green, no mark shall be placed nor line drawn as a g-uide; the line to the hole may be pointed out, but the person doing- so may not touch the ground with the hand or club. The player may have his own or his partner's caddie to stand at the hole, but none of the players, nor their caddies, may move so as to shield the ball from, or expose it to, the wind. The penalty for any breach of this rule is the loss of the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. The putting- line shall not be considered to extend beyond the hole. RULE 34. The player or his caddie may remove (but not press down) sand, earth, worm casts or snow lying- around the hole or on the line of his put. This shall be done by brushing- lightly with the hand only across the put, and not along it. Dung may be re- moved to a side by an iron club, but the club must not be laid with more than its 298 Rules. own weig-ht upon the ground. The putting- line must not be touched by club, hand or foot, except as above authorized, or imme- diately in front of the ball in the act of addressing- it, under the penalty of the loss of the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule: In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. The putting- line shall not be considered to extend beyond the hole. The " player or his caddie " shall include his partner and his partner's caddie. RULE 35. Either side is entitled to have the flag- stick removed when approaching- the hole. If a ball rest ag-ainst the flag- stick when in the hole, the player shall be entitled to re- move the stick, and, if the ball fall in, it shall be considered as holed out in the pre- vious stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for putting at the hole with the flag stick in it and striking the flag stick: In Match Play, no penalty. In Medal Play, disqualification. Rules. 299 RULE 36. A player shall not play until the oppo- nent's ball shall have ceased to roll, under the penalty of one stroke. Should the player's ball knock in the opponent's ball, the latter shall be counted as holed out in the previous stroke. If, in playing-, the player's ball displace the opponent's ball, the opponent shall have the option of re- placing* it. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty under this rule: In Match Play, loss of one stroke. In Medal Play, loss of one stroke. Should the player's ball knock in the op- ponent's ball: In Match Play, the latter shall be counted as holed out in the previous stroke. In Medal Play, the latter must be re- placed. Should the player's ball displace the op- ponent's ball: In Match Play, the latter shall have the option of replacing- his ball, and must exer- cise such option at once and before any fur- ther play. In Medal Play, the latter must replace his ball. 300 Rules. A player having- holed out his ball in the like or the odd may knock away the oppo- nent's ball from the lip of the hole and claim the hole if he had holed in the like, or a half if he had holed in the odd. RULE 37. A player shall not ask for advice, nor be knowing-ly advised, about the g-ame by word, look or g-esture from any one except his own caddie or his partner or partner's caddie, under the penalty of the loss of the hole. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule; In Match Play, loss of the hole. In Medal Play, disqualification. RULE 38. If a ball split into separate pieces, another ball may be put down where the larg-est portion lies ; or if two pieces are apparently of equal size, it may be put where either piece lies, at the option of the player. If a ball crack, or become unplay- able, the player may chang-e it on intimat- ing* to his opponent his intention to do so. RULE 39. A penalty stroke shall not be counted the stroke of a player, and shall not affect the rotation of the play. Rules. 301 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. A** stroke" is any movement of the club which is intended to strike the ball. A player who while addressing his ball in- tentionally or accidentally causes it to move, shall be considered to have played one stroke (except at the tee). A " penalty stroke" is a stroke added to the score of a side for infringing* certain rules. RULE 40. Should a dispute arise on any point, the players have the right of determining the party or parties to whom the dispute shall be referred; but should they not agree, either party may refer it to the Green Com- mittee of the green where the dispute oc- curs, and their decision shall be final. Should the dispute not be covered by the Rules of Golf, the arbiters must decide it by equity. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Such decisions may be finally referred to the Executive Committee of the United States Golf Association. Special Rules for Medal Play RULE 1. In club competitions the competitor doing- the stipulated course in fewest strokes shall be the winner. RULE 2. If the lowest score be made by two or more competitors, the ties shall be decided by another round to be played either on the same day or on any other day, as the Cap- tain, or in his absence the Secretary, shall direct. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Except that By-laws 15 and 19 of the United States Golf Association provide that, in case of ties for the sixteenth place in the amateur championship medal rounds, or for the eighth place in the women's champion- ship medal rounds, respectively, the con- testants so tied shall continue to play until one or the other shall have g-ained a lead by strokes, the hole or holes to be played out. RULE 3. New holes shall be made for the medal round, and thereafter no member shall 302 Special Rules for Medal Play. 303 play any stroke on the putting* green before competing-. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. Competitors must always assume that new holes have been made, whether really made or not. Trial strokes may be played throug-h the fair g*reen, but no stroke may be played within twenty yards of any hole on the course where the competition takes place. In match play competitions, other than bog-ey competitions, a member may play upon the putting- g-reens. RULE 4. The scores shall be kept by a special marker, or by the competitors noting- each other's scores. The scores marked shall be checked at the finish of each hole. On the completion of the course the score of the player shall be sig-ned by the person keeping- the score and handed to the Secre- tary. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. The score must be handed to the Secre- tary or to some person desig-nated by the 304 Special Rules for Medal Play. Green Committee. A caddie may not keep score, nor may an outsider (a player not in competition) playing- with a competitor do so without the sanction of the club's ex- ecutive. It is commended, but not required, to mark down each stroke as played. RULE 5. If a ball be lost, the player shall return as nearly as possible to the spot where the ball was struck, tee another ball and lose a stroke. If the lost ball be found before he has struck the other ball, the first shall con- tinue in play. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. RULE 6. If the player's ball strike himself or his clubs or caddie, or if in the act of playing- the player strike the ball twice, the penalty shall be one stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. If the player's ball strike a forecaddie, it is a '' rub of the g-reen." RULE 7. If a competitor's ball strike the other player or his club or caddie, it is a '' rub of the g-reen," and the ball shall be played from where it lies. Special Rules for Medal Play. 305 RULE 8. A ball may, under a penalty of two strokes, be lifted out of a difficulty of any description, and be teed behind the same. RULE 9. All balls shall be holed out, and when play is on the putting* g-reen the flag shall be removed, and the competitor whose ball is nearest to the hole shall have the option of holing- out first, or of lifting* his ball, if it be in such a position that it mig-ht, if left, g-ive an advantag-e to the other competitor. Throughout the green a competitor can have the other competitor's ball lifted, if he find that it interferes with his stroke. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. Either player may judge whether the balls as they lie give the other an ad- vantage. If a ball at rest be caused by any agency outside the match to roll into the hole, the ball shall not be considered as holed out in the previous stroke, but shall be replaced as nearly as possible in the same position as occupied before it was displaced. Should a competitor hole out with a ball other than his own, he shall be disqualified. 3o6 Special Rules for Medal Play. unless he can g-o back and resume play with his orig-inal ball, or, failing* to find it, return as nearly as possible to the spot where it was last struck, tee another ball and lose a stroke. (Rule 5, Medal Play.) RULE 10. A competitor may not play with a pro- fessional, and he may not receive advice from any one but his caddie. A forecaddie may be employed. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. Each competitor may have a forecaddie. RULE 11. Competitors may not discontinue play because of bad weather. RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Penalty for breach of this rule is dis- qualification. RULE 12. The penalty for a breach of any rule shall be disqualification. RULE 13. Any dispute regarding- the play shall be determined by the Green Committee. Special Rules for Medal Play. 307 RULING OF THE U. S. G. A. Such decision may be finally referred to the Executive Committee of the United States Golf Association. RULE 14. The ordinary rules of golf, so far as they are not at variance with the special rules, shall apply to medal play. Etiquette of Golf THE FOLLOWING CUSTOMS BELONG TO THE ESTAB- LISHED ETIQUETTE OF GOLF, AND SHOULD BE OBSERVED BY ALL GOLFERS. 1. No player, caddie or on-looker should move or talk during* a stroke. 2. No player should play from the tee until the party in front have played their second strokes and are out of rang-e, nor play to the putting- g-reen till the party in front have holed out and moved away. 3. The player v^ho leads from the tee should be allowed to play before his oppo- nent tees his ball. 4. Players who have holed out should not try their puts over ag-ain when other players are following- them. 5. Players looking- for a lost ball must allow any other match coming- up to pass them. 6. A party playing- three or more balls must allow a two-ball match to pass them. 7. A party playing- a shorter round must allow a two-ball match playing the whole round to pass them. 309 3IO Etiquette of Golf. 8. A player should not put at the hole when the flag" is in it. 9. The reckoning of the strokes is kept by the terms ''the odd," "two more," ''three more," etc., and "one off three," "one of two," "the like." The reckoning* of the holes is kept by the terms — so many "holes up" — or "all even" — and — so many "to play." 10. Turf cut or displaced b}^ a stroke in playing- should be at once replaced. Index for Rules of Golf THE ITALICS REFER TO RULES FOR MEDAL PLAY. RULE. Advice 37 Advice , 10 Ball, accidentally moved by opponent, etc 23 covered by grass, bushes, etc 18 deflected or stopped by agency outside the match 22 displacing opponent's 36 furthest from hole 9 holing out 9 how to be dropped 19 in golf hole 7 in or touching a hazard 14, 17 in water 21 knocked in by opponent's 36 lifting 8 lifting partner's 9 lifting in three-ball match 32 lodging in anything moving 22 lost 28 lost 5 moved by player, partner, etc . 25 must be played where it lies, etc 29 on clothes, nets, etc 17 on putting green 22, 31, 32, 33 played by wrong side 27 played outside limits of teeing ground 3 resting against flag stick , 35 rolling 36 shielding from or exposing to wind 33 split, cracked or becoming unplayable 38 stuck fast 13 striking opponent, etc 23 311 312 Index. RULE. Ball, striking partner, etc 7 striking player, etc 6 struck from tee cannot be changed, etc 10 striking player, partner, etc 24 striking twice 24 striking twice 6 touclied Iby player when not making stroke, or by partner, etc 25 when considered to have been moved 26 within six inches of another 20 Breach of rules 12 Clothes, ball on 17 Cluh competitions 1 Disputes 40 Disputes 13 Dung, how to be removed 34 Earth lying around hole 34 Fixed obstacles 12 Flag stick 35 Flag stick to he removed 9 Forecaddie 10 Game, of what it consists 2 " how commences 5 Golf hole, ball in 17 Ground under repair, or temporarily covered up 17 Growing obstacles 12 Hazard, definition of 15 Hole, flag stick in , — 35 " sand, earth, worm casts, or snow lying around. . 34 " size of 3 Holes, new 3 Holing out 9 Honor 7 Irregularities of surface may not be pressed down. . . . 16 Loose impediments in playing through green 11 " " on putting green 31 Match, of what it consists 2. Markers 4 Medal rounds new holes for 3 Index. 313 RULE. Medal play, breach of rules 12 " " ordinary rules applicable H Mode of playing game 1 Nets, ball on 71 Obstacles fixed or growing 12 Obstruction on course , 17 Penalty stroke 39 Playing out of turn 6 Professional, competitors may not play with 10 Putting green, definition of 30 " loose impediments on 31 " no mark or line to be placed on 33 " play on 9 playing on before competing 3 three or more ball matcb on 32 Recalling stroke Rub of tbe green 22 Rub of the green 7 Sand lying around hole 34 Snow " " " 34 Stroke, definition of 4 Teeing ground 3 Three or more ball match 32 Ties 2 Water, ball in 21 Weather bad 11 Wind, shielding ball from or exposing to „ . . , o . . . . 33 Worm casts lying around hole = . , , 34 PRESS OF STROMBERG, ALLEN & CO. CHICAGO. ^77-^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ .0 029 714 101 6 i ;: ■ ■ -li 11'^ i pi \}]['M :a