Famous Golf Links

PEEFAGE

THE bulk of the following articles appeared in the ' Saturday Eeview.' For the remainder I am indebted to kindness which I "beg grate- fully to acknowledge—especially to contributions from Mr. H. STANLEY SMITH (Canada), Mr, J. E. HUTCHISON (Pau), Dr. STONE (Mon- trose), Mr. S. MURE FEKGUSSON (Felixstowe), the Eev. Ii. FOSTER (Malvern), and Mr. J. 0. T. SMITH (Jersey). Mr. F. F. QUICK has given most kind assistance with the camera.

II. G. H. CONTENTS

I'AUtt I. ST. ANDREWS . . • . 1 II. WESTWARD HO ! . 11 III. PRESTWIOK 25 IV. HOYLAKE 38 V. MtJSSELBTJKGH...... 50 VI. OABNODSTIE AND TROON . 6.1 VII. SANDWICH 74 VIII. NOBTH BERWICK, LUFFNESS, GULLANK 84 IX. GKEAT YARMOUTH ..... 94 X. WIMBLEDON 104 XI. POBTBUSH, NEWCASTLE, AND HOLY WOOD 114 XII. MACHREHANISH . . . 124 XIII. BEMBRIDGE 187 XIV. FELIXSTOWB 147 XV. MONTBOSE 158 XVI. JERSEY 164 XVII. PAU 171 XVIII. GOI-F IN CANADA .... 179 WORCESTERSHIRE GOLB' CMJB 193 ILLUSTRATIONS

PULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

ST. ANDREWS : THE OLD BRIDGE Frontispiece

ST. ANDREWS : THE BAY . To face page 8

WESTWARD HO 1 AMLEDORE HARBOUR 14

PRESTWICK : ISLE OF ARRAN IN DISTANCE . 26

HOYLAKE : THE LAST HOLE „ 40

MUSSISLBURGH LINKS : ' MRS. FOREMAN'S '. 54

CARNOUSTIE . 64

SANDWICH: THE FIRST TEE „ 76

NORTH BERWICK: THE CRAIG, LEITH . . » 86

GREAT YARMOUTH .... 98

PORTRUSH : THE ' CliATER ' . 118

MACHREHANISH 128

BEMBRIDGE : THE FERRY .... 188 PELIXSTOWB (from a Photograph liy O. J.

Emeny) ...... 148

MONTROSE : BOYAL ALBERT GOLF HOUSE . 154 •x ILLUSTRATIONS

JKBSEY LINKS To face page 168

PAU : THE PYKENEES IN THE DISTANCE . „ 172

ROYAL MONMEAL GOLF CLUB ... „ 188

MALVERN : THE PLANTATION HOLE . . „ 194

WOODCUTS IN TEXT

HOLE-CUTTEIt . . . ..'.*". .11

TAILPIECE • ,24

INITIAL LETTER ...... 25

INITIAL LETTER . . . - , , . . . 88

SPINDLE BOCK . ..' 60

BELL BOCK LIGHTHOUSE ...... 01

BASS BOCK 84

LrriTAL LETTER 94

ONE OF THE AGENCIES OUTSIDE otra MATCH . . 104

ST. ANDBEWS CATHEDRAL 137

EUNKEKS 158

INITIAL LETTEK 171

COOK as THE GREEN . 201 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

ST. ANDREWS

ANCIENT and royal as golf is, it has rushed into popularity with almost too great speed. People are learning to play after a fashion on amateur and self-made links all over the country. A park, a few fields, any place where there is grass, is turned into links by the simple process of digging a few irregular holes here and there. The face of nature is examined in the search of ' hazards '—trees, whins, brooks, walls, gravel-pits are all made into hazards. The worst of it is that a hazard should be such as a man can play out of, if skilled, or fortunate, at one stroke. Many of the improvised difficulties cannot be played out of at all if once you fall into FAMOUS GOLF LINKS them, and hence comes ' lifting the ball,' a modern solecism. Again, in those inland links tlie grass is often so long that no wooden club can be employed. The beginner ploughs his way with a mashie. It is natural that the heart of the neophyte should turn seawards, to the places where the good links, the only true kind of links, are to be found, with all the pleasure of short grass and all the orthodox perils of bunkers. Without sand-holes or bunkers what is called golf is merely a substitute for golf. It is our purpose, then, to describe the best of the links, old or new, where golf is truly at home in her native seats. ~Eo golfer, if he could lierp it, would begin anywhere except at the metropolitan city of the game, at St. Andrews. Here the sport lias been practised, as documentary evidence shows, since the fifteenth century, behind j which stretches the wide prehistoric past. •I' St. Eegulus may have heard the cry of 'Pore!' in Pictish when he landed with the bones of St. Andrew under Kilrymont. Here the air is full of golf and of golf-balls; here it is thought justifiable homicide if after shouting Jl ST. ANDREWS 3 ' Fore!' you chance to hit anybody. No one has any business here who is not a player, and the atmosphere whirs all day •with the swing of the club. Here the smallest children display an excellent style ; nay, so prevalent is the supple swing that an elderly beginner may be tempted to strive after the grace and elasticity which seem native to the St.. Andrews Links. But the old, or even the mature, can never swing with this freedom, and they must moderate their just ambition. The quantity of professional advice is so copious, the quality so frank, that error is rapidly discouraged if the learnei' minds his tutor. Again, however, St. Andrews is no place for making experiments in except in winter, This is the season when the neophyte should practise on links not crowded and free from Glasgow holiday-makers. The links occupy a crook-shaped stretch of land, bordered on the' east by the sea and on the left by the railway and by the wide estuary of the Eden. The course, out and in, is some two miles and a half in length, either way, allowing for the pursuit of balls not driven quite straight. Few pieces of land

B a A FAMOUS GOLF LINKS liave given, so much inexpensive pleasure for •so many centuries. Tlie first liole is, to some- extent, carpeted by grass rather longer and rougher th.an the rest of tlie links. On tlie left lie some new liouses and a big hotel; they can only be ' hazards' on the outward tack to a very wild driver indeed. OB the right, it is just possible to ' heel' the ball over heaps of rubbish into the sea-sand. The natural and orthodox hazards are few. Everybody should clear the road from the tee ; if he does not, the ruts are tenacious. The second shot should either cross or fall short of the cele- brated Swilcan Burn. This tributary of ocean is extremely shallow, and meanders, through stone embankments, hither and thither between the tee and the hole. The number of balls that roll into it, or jump in from the opposite bank or off the old stone foot- bridge, is enormous. People ' funk' the burn, top their iron shots, and are engulfed. Once you cross it, the hole, whether it be to right or left, is easily approached. The second hole, when the course is on the left, is guarded near the tee by ' the Scholar's Bunker/ a sand face which swallows ST. ANDREWS t, a topped ball. On the right of the course are whins, much scantier now than of old ; on the left you may get into long grass, and thence into a very sanely road under a wall— a nasty lie. The hole is sentinelled by two bunkers, arid many an approach liglits in. one or the oilier. The putting-green is nubbly and difficult. Driving to the third hole, on the left you may alight in the railway, or a straight hit may tumble into one of three little bunkers in a knoll styled ' the Principal's Nose.' There are more bunkers lying in wait close to the 'putting-green. The driver to the fourth hole has to ' carry' some low hills or mounds; then conies a bunker that yawns almost across the course, with a small outpost named Sutherland's, which Englishmen profanely desire to fill up. This is impious. The long banker lias a buttress, a disagreeable round knoll; from this to the hole is open country, if you keep to the right, but it is whinny. On the left, bunkers and broken ground stretch, and there is a convenient 6 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS sepulchre of hope here, and another beyond the hole. As you drive to the fifth hole you may liave to clear 'hell;' but 'hell' is not what it was. The first shot should carry you to the broken spurs of a table-land, the Elysian fields, in which there yawn the JBeardies •— deep, narrow, greedy bunkers. .Beyond the table-land is a gorge, and beyond it again a beautiful stretch of turf and the putting-green. To the right is plenty of deep bent grass and gorse. This is a long hole, and fall of difficulties, the left side near the hole being guarded by irregular and dangerous bunkers. . • The sixth, or heathery, hole, has lost most of its heather, but is a teaser. A heeled ball from the tee drops into the worst whins on the course, in a chaos of steep, difficult hills. A straight ball, topped, falls into ' Walkinshaw's grave,' or, if very badly topped, into a little spiteful pitfall, which Englishmen, regardless of tradition, clamour to have filled up. It is the usual receptacle of a well-hit second ball on the return journey. Escaping ' Walkinshaw's grave,' you have ST. ANDREWS 7 a stretch of very broken and rugged country, bunkers on the left, bent grass on the right, before you reach the sixth hole. The nest, the high hole, is often shifted. It is usually placed between a network of bunkers, with rough bent immediately beyond it. The first shot should open the hole, and let you see the uncomfortable district into which you have to play. You may approach from the left, running the ball up a narrow causeway between bunkers ; but it is usually attempted from the front. Grief, in any case, is almost unavoidable. At other times the high hole is on the crest of a dune, which commands the estuary of the Eden, and a singularly beautiful series of distances, losing themselves towards the north. Here the object is not to play your approach shot into the middle of the smiling landscape and the waters of the Eden. As far as the high hole, or seventh, you play straight along the crook formed by the links. The two last holes are played, as it were, across the handle of the stick, at right angles to its length. The eighth, or short hole, is merely a 8 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS loft with, a cleek, or iron, on to the excellent putting-green. A wide bunker, however, yawns between the tee and the green, and catches a topped ball. With a west wind * it is difficult not to overrun the green and fall into grief beyond. The hole has pretty often been done in one, when the player is tradi- tionally supposed to give his caddie a bottle of whisky. Three strokes is the usual figure. The last hole continues in. the same line as the eighth, straight back towards St. Andrews and her crown of towers on the sea-cliff. A heeled ball is punished in heather, and there is a vindictive little round bunker almost within putting distance of the hole. In this a famous player, on a medal day, is said to have lost his temper and thirteen strokes ! The homeward route is on the same course, the holes being some thirty yards to the left of the holes played at when going out. Thus the bunkers and other hazards group themselves in new arrangements. For example, at the second hole from home, the wall, the road, and the bunkers make a kind of trilateral fortification, and few have pluck and strength to swipe clean over the corner of the wall. i io FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the width of the course, and the ' sporting' character of the putting-greens. The queer round ' divots ' with which Tom Morris fills up small bald places are very curious and disgusting ; so are the small bald places on which he lias not exercised his art. 'Life is a wale,' especially the teeing ground at the seventeenth hole. The beauty of the wide aerial landscape, the delicate tints of sand and low, far-off, hills, the distant crest of Loclmagar, the gleaming estuary, and the black cluster of ruined towers above the bay make part of the charm of the St. Andrews Links; but they little affect the golfer. He simply plays on 'the Town kirk' or 'the College kirk.' II

WESTWARD HO !

»HE Eoyal North Devon Golf Club is entitled to special honour among golf clubs, for beneath its auspices, on the links of West- ward Ho! was started that new life of English golf which has spread ' far and sure' and HOI/E-OOTMSB replenished the earth. An. English Club—'the Eoyal Blackheath —is the oldest golf club in the known world —older even than the Eoyal and Ancient of St. Andrews. For years it kept alive the sacred spark which it had brought from the Northern Altars—alive, yet almost extinct, in. a moribund immortality. I 12 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS 1 On the sacred Blackheath soil the golfer would fain cast off his hobnailed shoes and go in pious ' stocking soles ' —only it is so flinty ! The Scot there golfed and joked under unfavourable conditions — ' wi' deeficulty.' i Wherefore, the game did not commend itself ,s to the Sassenach as other national products i did. England imbibed Scottish whisky for it years before she took to Scottish golf. \\ A St. Andrews resident (therefore, need i 5 it be said ? a golfer) early in the sixties visited Westward Ho !—a new watering-place on the North Devon Coast, hard by Bideford town and Appledore and the river beside which the

, t Eose of Torridge changed her mind. \ I The Scotsman wandered on the Northam Burrows and from thoughts of Amyas Leigh i | and Salvation Yeo his mind leapt to a possible | \ present and he said, ' This is a golf links.' Sal- j! vation Yeo's grave is in Northam Churchyard, 11 and past it the heedless urchin daily hurries U as he goes down to the links to carry clubs. if] For the golfer was not deceived. It was a links, and of all known links perhaps the best modelled by nature to charm the golfer's heart. WESTWARD HOI 13 With local support a club was formed —a gold medal given. Inspired by the gold medal, or by the golden news of golf, the Blackheathens came in flocks. Their leader was the late Mr. George Glennie, a sterling golfer in every sense. They took away the gold medal, but with it they took far and wide a good report of the new links. The club made progress. Luxuries which the modern golfer deems necessities were not there. There was no club-house. The golfer left his decent garb in a room of a farm on the edge of the Burrows or Common, walked half a mile or more to the first tee, and there beside the great pebble-ridge—the natural barrier of the sea which churns upon it—drove off his ball. The holes were marked by crows' feathers picked up on the links. The highly sophisticated golfer of these latter clays would not endure it. But if civilisation had done little, nature had been bountiful. Nowhere could the golfer find such perfect lies throughout the green, such glorious sand bunkers to carry from the tee. 'How about the putting-greens in this 14 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS state of crudity?' the golfer of to-day may ask. There were no putting-greens — or, the whole course was putting-green. If the golfer was not in a bunker, he was on as perfect a natural putting-green as the heart of golfer could conceive. So it was then, and so it is to-day. The grass, on very sandy subsoil, grows close-curling down upon the ground. The mowing-machine could hardly have improved it—could hardly touch it. The Nortliam Burrows—better known now as the Westward Ho ! golf links—are common land over which the' Potwallopers' of Northam and Appledore, the adjacent villages, have !l; pasturing rights. * Potwalloping' is a form of :|,." tenure of which some know the derivation; jti but the golfer is careless of derivations. He if: does not even know from what pre-Adamite j|t, source was evolved the very name of his jj; science or cult which the profane call' game.' \ \ But the ' Potwallopers' grazed sheep on the j \ ' Burrows, and what mowing was wanted the jji;- sheep did, and so it was best for them and . best for the golfer. The Club passed through stages of in-

WESTWARD HO! 15 creasing grandeur. A Scottish professional was engaged. The Prince of "Wales became patron of the Club. A tent was pitched in medal weeks at the first tee. In time this was supplemented by the luxury of a bathing-machine. To this succeeded an iron hut, a permanent fixture. Meanwhile nature, grudging the untempered blessings of the golfer's lot, had been busy. She had sent a wind to blow sand over a portion of the course, so as to make it unfit for human golfer. The Club, therefore, abandoned its old iron hut by the pebble-ridge and the sad sea- waves, and built, further inland, on the edge of the common, a large, commodious house, still of iron, much like a place of worship. To compensate for the holes which the sand had swallowed up, the course was extended inland. The golfer of to-day tees, for his first drive, on the edge of a harmless, necessary burn, almost under the shadow of the new Conventicle. Thence he wanders out over three flat holes, till he is beside the pebble- ridge. The holes are flat, but not uneventful, by reason of patches of short rushes and of FAMOUS GOLF LINKS water-ditches hazardously flanking and inter- secting the course. The lines of the ditche- are marked by white tombstones which, migb'u bear the epitaphs of many a round' untimely wrecked. Erom the third hole the golfer, turns his face to the eastward, and is upon the old golfing ground of the clays before the saiid- : '. , • storms. The fourth and fifth holes will lead him over yast sand bunkers, "whose steep sides are shored' with wooden walling to keep the sand from blowing over the turf. It is sand of a vesatiously light and blowable sort. To tee on the edge of one of these great Saliaras, with a tearing wind full of grit and chips of seashell blowing "blindingly in your eyes, is a treat you have to go to Westward Ho! to taste. The sixth hole is the ' alligator hole.' (Dace a golfer of uncertain aspirates looked forth upon this hole from the tee, which is set on a high place, like a sacrificial altar. The dread prospect appalled him. He turned to his adversary and said with im- pressive gravity, (I call this 'ole the halligator ' WESTWARD HO! :7 •'ole, because it's full of yawning jaws to cu>- * vour you,' The word of genius was not lost. ' The ' halligator 'ole' it remains—usually with ' the misplaced aspirate—to this day. But there is a way—not only that heller way of beyond and over of the lorii£ driver, (^ but a cunning, stealthy way—by which llie short driver may find himself lying fair nmonfrst the jaws. Westward Ho ! is laid out with kind* thought for all—on the greatest-Imp piness-ot- the-gfeatest-number principle—wlie thei." 1 o 11g driver or short. There is the big hole fortlm cat and the little hole for the kitten. Only for the crooked driver there is no hole at all, save the black-bunker hole ; he runs his head bluff against the wall. The ninth hole brings the golfer into first actual contact with a characteristic feature of the course—those long, sharp rushes, six feet high, sharp as needles and stiff as porcupine quills. They are good golfing hazards ; for in them the lies are shocking, but out of them you are safe. They have not that curse of in.denmten.ess which is the worst that the golfing hazard, is heir to. To get into these a 18 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS rushes is bad ; to get them into you is worse. They are acridly venomous; and, if they have bitten deep, and broken off, the golfer may for days be lamenting in finger-stall and poultice.' If the very best of golfers shall have done these first nine holes in 40, he may start with stout heart for the homecoming. Straight on Westward Ho ! are the driving directions for the tenth. Then eastward again, for Apple- dore, for the eleventh and twelfth. The thirteenth is a lusty hole. It is one of the very few where the golfer' has a free field to drive, with an open mind, as crooked as he please. The straighter course is, even here, the better, because any two sides of a triangle are together greater than a third; but error does not mean perdition. Two long drives will put the golfer within reach of the hole, with a third long one, The green is just over a little neck of the porcupine rushes, so that a mistake here means trouble. Then away over the old ' Cape' bunker, for the fourteenth hole ; and back over it again—without interfering with parties playing the fourteenth—for the fifteenth; and yet again over it for the sixteenth, which puts our heads straight for WESTWARD HO! lg home over the flat ground and the ditches and the tombstones and the burn. The last hole is beautiful. There is nothing more lovely than to sit under the veran- dah of the Coxiventicle and watch party after party come up to the burn edge. It is only a little pitch-iron shot over, but it is very near the end of the round, some people are looking on, some caddies are gutter-sniping in the burn, which, truth to say, is rather glorified by that title; so, instead of lofting over, the balls go topping in, and we, under the veran- dah, chuckle as we think how differently we should have played the stroke. Mercifully, •we have the good gift of forgetting how, just one short half-hour before, we perpetrated the self-same piece of folly. Now if the golfer shall have passed all these Saharas, and the porcupines, and the little sneaking burn, in eighty-two strokes, he will have clone full well; for eighty is the record—a highly tested record—for a competition round, on these links. In clays of old, and again quite recently. Westward Ho! has been the scene of much fine golf. Before ever it had a resident o 2 20 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS professional, old Tom Morris, the St. Andrews sage, had visited it. Asked, on his return home, his opinion of the new links—had little •; to say of it save that it was very fine golf, '] . and that there was a most shameful steep | hill to elimb before you got home to Northam '! after your day's work. But the new starting-place and the Con- venticle are not so far away, though the hill is still there. A brake goes between the Con- venticle and the Union Club at Westward Ho ! —a distance of only half a mile or so—and lands you practically at the door of your lodgings, which are as comfortable as Devon- shire poultry and cream and butter, and Devonshire cleanliness, and Devonshire kindli- A . ness can make them". It is all ver.y rural, and ) j it is funny to hear the little caddie boys talk- 9 ing the language of golf with the Devonshire % '•- accent. They are good urchins, and take an \l •"••. intelligent interest in you and your many golf- "| ing vices. Some have blue badges and some '. j red. A blue-badger is more costly than a red-. vff badger,- but neither will break a man of moderate fortune. , Beside the Conventicle is a smaller iron WESTWARD HO! 21 sited containing Charlie Gibson's club-malting shop and the caddies' room, and the room where the members of the Ebrtham Village Golf Club stow their clubs. The Allan brothers—those excellent professional players whose, names were so long and so closely connected with Westward Ho ! •—have gone. All who saw it will remember the fine match on Westward Ho! links between John Allan, the eldest brother, and Bob Kirk, when the latter, taking a left-handed club, in what seemed a hopeless lie, and playing a brilliant shot, by this -tour cle force won the match. Poor young Tommy Morris was there then, but on that occasion Allan and Kirk had the better of him. In later days Jimmy Allan, the youngest brother, played at Westward Ho ! parts of each of his two great matches — against Bob Kirk and Jimmy Anderson respectively. Against the former Allan played almost perfectly, and won with great ease ; but in the latter match Anderson, by his weariful steadi- ness, wore Allan down. Matthew Allan, the middle brother, is well up to the form of the other two. 22 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS 1 Last year saw a very fine tournament of professional golf at "Westward Ho ! Scarcely a notable name was absent. The lion's share of the prizes was won by Douglas Bolland. Holland is a Jehu of a driver, and in this competition was at his very best and longest. One after another he knocked his brother professionals out of time by the sheer power of his driving. ' We can keep our heads and play steady against him for half a round or so,' said one of them; < but after that we must begin to press, and then he has us.' . Bernard Sayers gave him his tightest fight; and in the scoring competition Sayers won outright, in a score of 82—a record which has seldom been equalled, in a scoring competition. - 2,870 yards out and 2,871 yards in, at its fullest length, is the official measurement of the course; of a scrupulous exactitude which recalls the Yankee who de- clined to hazard his soul for ' one blooming duck.' Amongst the leading names of Westward Ho! golf are Gosset, Molesworth, Hutchinson. With the first is the glory of the starting WESTWARD HO i ' 23 of the Club, and thence, it may be fairly said, the present abundant life of English •golf. The links of Westward Ho ! have the two essentials which, seem inseparable from first- class golf-grounds—Lthey are fearfully hard of access—six hours from town by rail to Bide- fordj and three miles drive on—and of so forsaken an aspect that only the'lack of a tree saves the non-golfing and non-poetical visitor from hanging himself of melancholia. The sea-birds wail over them, and tell each other how lonely they are. Nevertheless the golfer loves them, as a place where bunkers are wide and deep, rushes high and sharp, and lies good. The last is not ethical. At Westward Iio ! no one lies—not even the snow. Jupiter gives it to us hot, he gives it to us wet, but he very seldom gives it to us cold. Still, the golfer often has to use red balls, when Mora' strews the links with the too ubiquitous daisy. In summer the cruel iron cleaves a fragrant carpet of wild thyme and tiny flowers. Little blue butterflies play over them in swarms, and the air is thick with the hum of bees. Often, going barefoot, the caddie walks upon a bee 24 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS and the bee replies after his manner, and there is la'mentation, and cursory observation, and application of the blue-bag. For their landscape no links are so depen- dent on the weather. In the golden sunshine they are a dream of beauty. When the eternal grey fluff is scudding over the sky from the south-west and the Atlantic, and the sea is flooding in over the pebble-ridge, they could give Deadlow Marsh a stroke a hole for dreariness, and win easily.

\ Ill

PRESTW1CK

HOUGH St. An- drews may be more royal and of older standing, one probably may say of Prest- wick, "without fear of contradic- tion, that of all the golf-links in the kingdom it is the most picturesque. This is doubly true whether we consider the nature of the links themselves or the beauty of their surroundings. On the west coast of Scotland it is difficult to escape the picturesque, on the estuary of the Clyde it is impossible. If it be objected 26 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS that Prestwick is not literally on the estuary of the Clyde, it maybe answered that in the spirit, if not the letter, it is truly so.. From the summit of the Himalayas—• •that mountainous range of bunkery sandhills which is so grand a feature of Prestwick links—the eye of the harassed golfer may calm itself with contemplation of a wonderful panorama. On the south-west the Heads of Ayr, guarding the entrance to the town ,; j —further out, like a lonely sentinel, Ailsa \' Craig, the home of the gannet; due west, bathed In a purple mist, where ' Arran's peaks are grey,' Goat Fell and Holy Island; and a little to the northward the Cumbraes : I • and ah1 the glories of the Kyles of Bute. _; ' ' The Kyles of Bute, the Kyles of Bute ; ' • Where burning Sappho loved and sang,' ", , as the profane golfer has it in his shameful parody. But all this scenery, in the opinion of the golfer, is very pretty fooling, but has nothing

I' s whatever to do with golf, and he has nothing t> whatever to do with it. It does not affect him, and except when he is very many holes up, or very many holes down, so that the PBESTWICK—ISLE OF AEKAN IN DISTANCE. PRESTWICK 27 match lias lost all its interest, and lie lias ceased to be a golfer, and become only an ordinary human being, he does not even look at it. But there is a beauty in the striking- features and up-and-down variety of the Prest- wick links which forces itself upon him despite himself; for it affects him not as a human being, but in his real self, as a golfer. The course is so hilly, so faced with bold precipitous bunker-cliffs, all the hazards are on so grand a scale, the sandhills are so mountainous, the burn is really worthy of its name! How many a golfer has been sadly disillusioned on his first sight of that famous Swilcan Burn of St. Andrews, of which he has heard so much ! ' A burn!' It has such a fine moor- land sound. You can almost hear it rushing down between its alders, over its boulders. And what has he found ? A muddy' little dribble worming along ignominiously at a crawl, between little stone-built walls, as if it would never get to the sea. An eel would scorn to live in it. But the Prestwick burn has a semblance of the real article. There are no aiders, but it bustles along at a good merry pace between green banks, and is a whole- 2S FAMOUS GOLF LINKS > i some-looking little stream, which will carry your ball far away down before you can over- , take it, if ever you do. A trout might live in 1 it. It is said that many do, and that their < flesh is of a peculiarly elastic firmness and i;j piquant flavour, which analysis shows to be due to tlie presence-of gutta-percha in large ;! I quantities. {; | Prestwick itself is a nice little collection of , \\i villas. It has a beach and sands. The brass ')' bands of the Happy Fatherland do not patronise it, nor any of the men whose diet is flaming tow. So that it is conceivable that a non- i i I , golfing visitor might support life at Prestwick, though it is inconceivable that any one could live long there and not take to golf. The golf is at 3^our very door—sometimes it comes if through your window, when the driving is more ' far' than ' sure.' The Prestwick Club- house is a more solid, habitable-looking man- sion than the Westward Ho! Conventicle, though it does not rival the stately majesty of the St. Andrews Club. Prestwick is a few minutes1 run by rail from Ayr, and from the Prestwick station to the Club-house goes a private passage sacred to ' members only.' •I PRESTWICK 29 , The profane vulgar are kept at a discreet distance. Prestwick has , many merits, but this is not its least—that its links are the private property of the Club. One could not be so selfish as to wish golf to be less popular, but its ' booming' popularity threatens to make the. game one of danger. On a certain Southern green a Scottish caddie under stress of many cries of ' Fore !' delivered himself of the dictum ? that ' It's no gowf at a'—it's just war.' And many links in these days tend to assume the character of a battle-field. But • •/'• Prestwick is not selfish. It welcomes the .f'f golfing visitor if he be properly introduced. >,," And besides the Prestwick Golf Club itself, ' - there is also the Prestwick St. Nicholas Golf Club. ••; St. Andrew is universally worshipped as .: the golfer's patron saint; but he has not ;' been without rivals. In the Flemish modifi- lo- cation of the game we find St. Anthony in p: honour, and with a club of his giving we find |'i a certain wheelwright of the name of Eoger {.* assuming the unquestioned position of, cliam- \'. pion under the title of the ' Grand Choleur,' •'• * FAMOUS GOLF LINKS and defeating Old Mck himself, from whom he won a whole sackful of souls. It has always been, rather an ecclesiastical game. It was perhaps at Prestwick that a match was played ' for his nose, between a monk of Crossraguel and a Lord of Culzean.' But the arena of this competition is described as ' Te Links atte Air,' and it is suspected that the links were at that time to the southward of the town of Ayr, whereas Prestwick is to the northward. Prestwick golfers of to-day do not play for such stakes as a soul on the round and a nose on the bye. They tee their balls just in front of the club-house, with a high wall, bounding the railway, on the right of the course to'the first hole. A straight drive meets no hazaxd, and from, a good lie you may loft over bunkery ground on to the putting-green. A heeled ball means perdition, and the railway; but your caddie can retrieve your ball, unless it lias gone into the window of a passing train, in which case you can telegraph for it to the station-master at Troon. You will not get it. The second hole is an iron shot. You may do it in one, but may think yourself lucky if you PRESTWICK 31 do it in three. A fine drive to the third brings you to the brink of the deep, deep bunker named, with fitting reverence, the ' Cardinal's Fob.' It is wide as well as deep. On its right rushes the burn, wherein dwell' the trout who batten on golf-balls. The Fob rises precipitous on the far side of the bunker, a great cliff of sand, shored up with timbers of black forbidding aspect. To be digging with niblick in this West-coast Cardinal's sacred Nob is as sad a plight as befell the luckless jackdaw beneath the ban of his Eminence of Hheims. It was in this famous bunker that, a new system of counting was inaugurated. ' How many have you played ?' asked a golfer, • who had patiently waited while his opponent played racquets against the black timbers. ' I don't know,' said the sufferer wearily. ' I went into the Nob at half-past eleven; I've been playing ever since, • and it's ten minutes to twelve now; you can calculate that for yourself.' It is the first authentic application of the ' time-test' to golf. If you fly the Nob with 22 FAMOUS, GOLF LINKS. a good second, you will be within "ironing ! I range of the hole for your third. ; ; For the fourth hole you tee on the near < | • side of a wall, and, presuming you do not top \ { into the wall, may go sailing along for two . } full shots over flat country, with the burn j meandering on your right and pernicious, ' benty ground on the left. The hole is cvCn- ' ningly ensconced in a bay of the serpentine burn. You make a solemn vow to yourself that yon will play well to the left; but the moment 3^011 have struck the ball, the burn seems to meander further out into the course, and, receiving your ball into its bosom, to return forthwith to its channels. It seems to do all this, but' probably it is only seeming, and, at all events, you make up your mind that 3^011 will give it a good wide berth next time. And now you have come, to the foot of the Himalayas—those migltty mountains. * i There once was a boy at school at Westward ! ! Ho ! (it was in the days of the old course, , when they used to play over some high sandhills called the 'Alps') who translated 'summa diligentia' not in the hackneyed manner but PRESTWICK . . 33 in the improved form, ' Cajsar took- great pains about Iris, drive over the Alps.' 'Summa diligentia' might perhaps be translated variously, from the golfer's point of view, as ' with an easy full swing,' or ' from an elabo- rately made tee'; but surely the Prestwick golfer will rue it,, with much expense of lead- pencil and scoring-card, if he do not follow the imperial Eoman's example in his drive over • the Himalayas. For the tee is at the burn's edge, and the sandhills rise very high before you. You may hit a fair shot, and yet, if it be not lofted high into the air, may find yourself in the ravines of the higher BimaUvvas, above the line of perpetual bunker. Then, though the hole be short'—a really fine cleek shot will reach it—the score is likely to be long. The trans-Himalayan country is not of the same catastrophic nature as that we have- left behind. rJo efforts of genius are needed for the next five holes,—only straight and sober driving. The putting-green of the hole next after the Himalayas is terraced out of a benty slope which makes it full of that uncertainty which D 34 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the golfer loVes. At the eighth hole the railway again presents itself within the range of practical politics, but the ball must needs be very badly heeled. Putting out for the tenth brings us again to the foot of the Himalayas. This . time the drive is of more fearful import even than before ; for do we not know, do we not • ' see in our mind's eye, that rushing burn on the far sid? of the mountains ? The caddies are on before us, on the mountain top. As the ball flies over the "bunkefc there is a moment of fearful sus- pense ; then a glad shout of ' Over!' cheers us, or the fatal verdict of ' In!' dashes our hopes, and we say forbidden words. And so back again, between the bents and the burn, to a hole just over the little wall before which we teed when coming out. Then, comes a long sandy hole near the bents by the seashore, and then, turning straight Glubwards j for the fourteenth hole, we putt out close under { the windows of the Prestwick houses. We have gone the circuit and returned ; but the 11 autocrat St. Andrew decrees eighteen holes as «; the number for a golf course; and out we go again on a sort of ' inner circle' for four holes PRESTWICK 35 more. The fifteenth and sixteenth are over hazardous, broken ground, and the tee for the seventeenth is on the crest of an old friend, the Cardinal's Fob. It must be a very bad top for him to punish us this time, and we may hope to put ourselves with our second within reach of the great deep valley in which the hole is ensconced. The hole is at the bottom ; the valley's sides are of most beautiful velvety turf; there is a delicious excitement in hurrying up the steep side 11 facing us, to peep over and see how near • -i the hole our well-lofted shot has rolled. There ij is uncertainty—perhaps too much uncertainty •—but the delights of the expectation and i, i. ( j realisation stay with one long after all memory • ' of the flat holes has vanished. Then from a tee set up on high we drive to within an iron shot of the last hole, and soon the weary golfer is at rest. Prestwick used to be a twelve-hole course. All those holes beyond the wall, including of course the great Himalayas, are a modern extension. And the seventeenth hole, deep down in its valley, may be taken as a type of the holes of the old Prestwick course. Prest- D 2 36 FAMO US GOLF LINKS wick has lost something by its conformity to the orthodox eighteen, but has probably gained far more. , Prestwick is one of the three greens on which the open golf championship is played, the • others being St. Andrews and Mussel- burgh. It was played there in 1887, when Willie Park won with 161 for the two rounds. Two years later, at Musselburgh, Park again won. the open championship, after tieing with Andrew Kirkaldy in the lowest score ever I made on Musselburgh in the championship competition. In 1888 the Amateur Cham- pionship Tournament was held at Prestwick, and won by Mr. John Ball, junior, of Hoy- lake. But in 1890 the same gentleman, being then amateur champion for the second time, cut all previous records by beating all the professionals in the open championship, which thus, for the first time, was held by an amateur. ' The record for the links is 77, made by Willie Campbell. As a golf links Prestwick holds the position . in the West of Scotland that St. Andrews holds in the East. Its resident professional, Charlie Hunter, is an oracle second only to him of St. PRESTWICK 37 Andrews, old Tom Morris. Old Tom himself was for a while greenkeeper at Prestwick, and it is there that poor young Tommy picked up the alphabet of the game. The present Club was started in 1851 ; but the game was played there long before by Lord Eglinton and others. Its fine putting-greens and sandy and truly golfy turf are rife with the best traditions of the best players' and. best lovers of the game. It commands a view of perhaps the very finest scenery of the most picturesque part of the West coast, and it is of a Prestwick habitui that that immortal description was given— 'A bull-neekit, hog-backit, bandy-leggit chiel', and shapes fine for a gowfer.' FAM'OUS GOLF LINKS

HOYLAKE

H.VT every good golf links is at tlie mouth of a river is a com- monplace ; and this is true of Hoylakej only more so, for it is at the mouth of two. Links- ground — i.e. ground with a sandy subsoil, which is the only soil on which the real game of golf can be played—is the work of alluvial deposit. The river brings down the crude material for bunkers ; the sea, washing in, arrests it; so that gradually it reclaims itself, and a HOYLAKE 39 short, close grass grows over it to make it a golf links. Hoylake is a little watering-place in Che- shire. From Liverpool the best course to it is through the new tunnel under the Mersey. The journey only takes half an hour, unless you get bunkered by taking the wrong train. Trains are plentiful. It is hard to say whether Hoylake Links are at the mouth of the Mersey or of the Dee. From one end of the course you might drive a golf-ball into the one, from the other end into the other ; but the Royal 1 Hotel and the Club-house, which is under the game roof, and the first tee and the last hole \ 1 —the Alpha and Omega of all that is of interest to the golfer—are at the Hoylake end, 1 within range of the Mersey. Thence you may !| 1 see the great American liners outward or home- pj ward bound. The remark that the golfer will be inclined to make on his first view of Hoylake Links will be uncomplimentary. It is so flat. It I looks as if it were going to be uninteresting, But it is not so. It has corners of fields which I!I stick out in unexpected and cunningly vexa^ tious places; it has ' cops,' which is North-

stes 40 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS country English for banks ; and it has ditches. , Then on the Dee-side of the course there are great sandhills almost rivalling the majesty of the Prestwick Himalayas, and the whole length * and breadth of the course is the arena of a struggle for existence between the. alien golfer and the native rabbit. The place used to be called the Babbit "Warren. ' The Warren, it was considered,' we are told, by an ingenuous chronicler of the Club's history, ' would form. most admirable links.' It sounds ominous. Even to-day at Hoylake it is quite curious, considering how difficult it is to get a ball into a golf-hole, how easy it is to get it into a rabbit-hole, and this in the days when the golfer has got the upper hand, and driven the rabbit into the skirts of the course—his ' Ee- serves !',. What must it have been in those primeval days when, as the chronicler naively puts it, it Was considered that the Warren ' would form most admirable links' ? The chronicler was quite right in his con- sideration. The links are most admirable. The putting-greens are such as are nowhere equalled. They are not flat, but so perfectly true that the effect of their undulations may HOYLAKE be calculated to a nicety. The fairly-struck ball goes stealing along over them—long after it seems as if it ought to. stdp—as if it went on little invisible'legs, with a head of its own to guide it, ' like the ships of the Pheeacians.' One green., of course, differs from another in glory; but, on the whole, they are probably the best in the kingdom of golf. The Hoy- I \ lake rabbit, even yet, .does not .understand • golf—or, at least, certainly does not enter into its best' spirit—for he comes out at night from his 'Reserves,' and scrapes a little pit quite near the hole. ' Ole Brer-Babbit' is a scamp in the Old World or the New, and most likely 1 '. chuckles shockingly to himself as he hears what the golfer has to .say when his ball is just neatly fitted into a little scrape in the middle of the course. But ' Ole Brer Babbit' is less bold and ubiquitous than he used to be, and another form of vexation is quickly disappearing in the posts and rails of the old, disused racecourse. The golfer's wrath and niblick and the people's need of firewood have almost made an end of them. The hazards mentioned under the name of ' cop' and ' ditch ' and ' bank' do not sound 42 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the right thing, but they are really better than they sound, because the bottom of each ditcli is sand, and there is a ditcli before each ' cop.' So that, to all golfing intents and purposes, ' ditch and cop' may be translated ' bunker,' and the golfer be made happy. Moreover, of latter years the Committee have been making the tees for the homecoming holes further in among the Dee-side sandhills than in clays of old. Homecomers do not now drive into the faces of the outgoers, as they used to do con- sistently. The new. ground thus taken in is still rough, though quite playable, but is just the sort of country that will work into really: good golfing material, with hazards of bent, sandhill, and bunker. There are a few apologies for rushes here and there, but they are worn so bald and scanty that the golfer need scarcely treat them with deference. Two good drives on a calm day to the first hole at Hoylake will land you comfortably into a long bunker, just twenty yards short of the .hole."- So if your first is not an exceptional one, it is the better part of valour to play short with a cleek. Error, to the right ex. left, means,rabbit-holes and trouble. A HOYLAKE good drive to the next puts yon in reach of an out-of-bounds field on the right, and the rabbit 'Eeserves' on the left. Again you have to play very straight, for the bank of the field is aggravated by.a ditch; but, if all goes well, you are within a wrist-shot in two.. . The next tee is among the rabbit-burrows. A topped ball generally goes down one, but it is a moderate carry to the safe ground, and an iron shot lands you on the hole. The fourth hole gives you a bunker to drive over, with a few outlying rabbit-holes, or, if you pull your ball sufficiently, you may find or lose yourself on the high road. The road leads to "West Kirby, but it leads the golfer nowhere, for he is not allowed to play out of it. Off a good drive a good iron shot will land you on the green, a topped one in a bunker. ; The fifth hole offers every possible facility to the erratic driver for coming to grief. All the way out—in fact, until the ninth hole—you have only to pull your ball to get into an out-1 of-bounds field. Pulling on the first three, or four holes in will land you in benty sandhill, so that on the whole it is better at Hoylate to be 'on the heel' than ' on the, pull.'. This 44 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS fifth hole lias a ditch flanking the course on the right, as well as on the left; but the lies in the ditch on the right hand are not a cir- •cumstance, in point of vileness, to those in the ditch on the left. But there is also a cross ditch which a very long shot will reach. A cleek is a good club here, and again for the second shot a cleek, and, if you are^Mr. John Ball, junior, a cleek for your third, which will .land you on the putting-green over another little bunkery ditch. The next hole may be reached in one shot if you hit it. It is called the 'cop' hole because there is a ' cop' just before the hole, into which you will go if you hit your ball indifferently.' If you hit your ball worse than indifferently you may make in- timate acquaintance with a nearer and dearer —that is, more costly—' cop' just in front of the tee. And so you fare on towards the houses of West Kirby and the ninth hole. There is little to stop you if you do not get ' on the pull.' , There is Dun's grave—a bunker named after an eponymous hero who frequents it -'—to be avoided near the seventh hole. A HOYLAKE 4S very bad top may land you in a bunker goin°- to the eighth; but the former is but a drive and an iron shot, and the latter no more than a drive. The ninth needs playing. Two straight shots land you in a bad deep bunker. You have to choose between playing short with a cleek, or driving to the right. The former plan leaves you a long shot home, the latter takes you into doubtful country—in which dilemma we will leave you. Prom the teeing-ground to the tenth hole, set up on high, you have a beautiful view of the Welsh hills in the distance, and, nearer, the sands of Dee, where Mary went' to call the cattle home,'' but never home came she.' "We are not told about the cattle. The tide goes out over the sands for miles and miles, and comes in, they say, as fast as a horse can gallop. Perhaps the pace of a horse's gallop is variously estimated. Prom the tenth tee, two fair shots, with a little luck in the lie, may take you into the punch-bowl in which is the hole. The tee- shot for the eleventh brings you to the level ground again—that is, if it be struck. In all' 46 FAMO US GOLF LINKS •these holes a cruel fate awaits the topping sinner. The twelfth hole is a new one. The drive puts you within a wrist-iron of it, but a mighty sandhill intervenes ; and in the excitement of running to its top to see the fate of the ball it suggests, though with some long interval, the seventeenth hole at Prestwick. Away then, with a drive and a cleek shot, to a hole beside some rushes, and then comes a little pitch-iron shot hole, just over a sandy ditch. It may be done in one, but there is the little bunker just before it, and ' Ole Brer Rabbit' and his ' Eeserves' beyond. After the short hole, the course -runs tip between ditches to a hole named the Field Hole, lying just over a patch of rushes, with a bunkery ditch beyond. It is a good hole in four. A heeled shot to the next, the Lake Hole, puts you among the rabbit holes. Rabbits caught on this part of the warren are said to have flesh of the same piquant flavour of guttapercha as the trout of the Prestwick burn. But a straight drive enables you to get near home to the Lake Hole—along the old racecourse-—in a second. If the second be heeled, I r • I : I' i1.1'1

I I :!

11 •

.1 'it 'ill •P *J ""

48 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The Liverpool Golf Club was formally opened at Hoylake "by the late Mr. Robert Chambers in 1869. Mr. J. Muir Dowie took a very leading part in its formation, and. in :<1 1871 the Club took the title of Royal, Ii.R.II. the Duke of Connanght becoming its Presi- dent, with Lord Stanley of Alderley (in whose lordship of the manor the links are) as his •• Yice. Hoylake thus helped on the new life of English golf which had started at Westward Ho ! after languishing so long, at Black- heath It is a good central spot, more accessible than golf links are apt to be. Many professional tournaments have been held

j(, there; and the Hoylake Club deserves the ;! special gratitude of amateurs for its services "!_• in promoting the amateur championship com- ir petition, which was almost entirely due to its exertions. A deal of good golf has been and is played li at Hoylake. Mr. John Ball, junior, the first ' amateur to win the open championship, learnt all his golf—and that is a good deal—at Hoylake, as did Mr. H. H. Hilton and others whose names are famous. So that, though HOYLAKE . .. 49 the links are flat, it is clear that they axe no bad school for golf, with Jack Morris for head-master. Hoylalce is also famous for its shrimps and prawns. Its potted shrimps are almost better even, than its putting-greens. FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

MUSSELBUEGII

size Mussel- burgh is by far the smallest of great greens. As a past and • present centre of golf, as a training ground for amateur and professional SPINDLE BOCK alike, and by reason of the field it produces On medal and championship days, it is by far the greatest of small greens and second only to St. Andrews itself. But it is a sorely-tried little links. Behind the first teeing-ground stand three MUSSELBURGH SI substantial club-houses, whose members are quite sufficient to fill the nine holes without extraneous assistance. But many more there are who come with clubs (though not from Clubland) to claim their rights on this too public green. The amount of play which goes on in the winter months is a wonderful and a fearful thing. Those who decry Mus- selburgh (and it is not so popular as it is populous) should beware of ingratitude, re- membering that, if it had not been dowered with a soil too rich and a grass too coarse for the golfer's ideal, it would long ere this have ceased to be a joy for ever; a thing of beauty it never was nor can be. Wags from St. Andrews and elsewhere may sneer at it for a mud-patch, and insinuate that you cannot see the grass for worm-casts ; and they of Mussel- burgh must make what answer they can. This they can say, that, if its fair face is scarred by the multitudinous cleek beyond all other greens, and if its putting-greens are \ j neither so large nor so smooth as the heart of man could desire, still there is no green in the world which is better adapted for a crucial test of all-round merit; no green where j>ower B 2 52 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS and accuracy are more fairly handicapped (at North Berwick long driving counts for too little, at Prestwick and Sandwich for rather too much); and no green which, while it presents a goodly number bf legitimate and excellent hazards, is more free from those annoying little trap bunkers, which may or may not catch a misdirected shot, just as luck serves, How true the golf is may be seen from Willie Park's figures in a recent Open Championship, three 38's and a 39, when he tied with Kirkaldy of St. Andrews in a record score of 155. The largest and best known of the clubs is the Honourable and Ancient Company of ] : Edinburgh Golfers, whose minutes are pre- '. i' servedfrom 1774, but whose origin is prehistoric. It is an imposing anoTsomewhat solemn name. Cricketers of to-day call themselves Harle- quins or I Zingari, or by some such light \ j ; title. Not so the golfer of old. He re- , 1 I vered himself because he revered the game : ! . _ he played, and gave : himself a suitably | < serious designation. On the active list of the Honourable MUSSELBURGH • 53 j

f Company are to be found the names of r Mure, Tod, Balfour, Stuart, a,nd Laidlay— \ \ all players well known to fame. ISTor are ,'' •{!

the other clubs—the Burgess and Mussel- (r burgh—without their stars, of whom Mr. :] ilT,. A. M. Boss, the Burgess crack, is of the first }i> '|j.; magnitude. . If a team of ten were picked from the three clubs to challenge the amateur ;,< world, the opposing force would have to be carefully selected if it meant to win. It is now, perhaps, time to get on the j.. :jj green but the start at Musselburgh is often |i ,'iV.j a matter of some little time. On a crowded

Saturday it is apt to be rather disorderly ! 1 : •• ! work, and the best way is to leave it to your caddie to persuade everybody else's caddie that it is your turn to play. Par parenthese, the Musselburgh caddie is out and away the <|j j^i"' best in the world, and the dearest; generally ''' a good player, and as often as not a very fine ii, one. Do not listen to what he says, for you may |n not be able to endorse it all; but rough justice is ji generally done. Once an impetuous Irishman, !-' feeling himself aggrieved, struck off in defiance j,' of popular opinion. Instantly the sky was dark with guttapercha, and there were fifteen 54 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS couples playing the first hole simultaneously. When it is your turn to play you will see that there is a small bunker in the line of fire, but too far, as a rule, to carry. A medallist of Musselburgli told us he had been in it every medal day for the last ten years; he said so on - the last medal day of the tenth jeax, and he ,. certainly was in it then. Of the rest we know ;' nothing. If you succeed in steering a little to one side of it, another shot will carry over the bunkers on to the putting-green, known from its hummocks, as the graves; and if you do the hole in four you may be thankful—it is a tricky green. The second hole is the hardest on Mussel- burgh, as difficult and dangerous as may be found anywhere. Willie Fernie registered a ten for it the day he won the cliampion- pi' ship. Two bunker ranges cross the line— ',!' one a cleek shot from the tee and the i; other a cleek shot further on—leaving but the width of a racecourse (for the Lothians Eacing Club have their course over these links) between them and the high road, which skirts the whole southern side. To carry the Linkfield bunker, the first,

MUSSELBURGH 55 range in, one requires a very long and daring drive at most times and is often quite impossible ; the open path down the racecourse, which must be talcen at an angle, is desperately difficult; but, unless you get well past in one, the same dangers attend your second shot. Once safely beyond the Barricade bunker, peril is over and three more should be sufficient; but many of the best players play twice short, and content themselves with six. Five is an excellent score, and every one is glad to get it; but Mr. A. M. Eoss once had the luck and skill to do it in three each round for his Club medal. The third, hight Mrs. Foreman's — a tavern whither the clubless, not cleeldess, fraternity repair—is another fine hole. A drive, it should be a straight one, lays you on good, grass; a second carries you over the bunkers nearly up, where a rather difficult chip awaits you.. If it comes off it will give you a ' look at four'; if not, you may still have to play to get a five. A good many years ago Lord Moncrieff * and Mr. Crawford, playing as adversaries in a j foursome, finished by each holing a full shot "> played for the green. 5<5 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS It used to be.an article of faith among the ) • caddies that they were entitled to a bottle of whisky if their employer held a short hole in one; upon this tariff a nine-gallon cask might have made a suitable penalty for such an amazing fluke. Then you turn north and strike for the sea hole—a short one guarded by a small bunker generally just too far to carry: a really good shot will give you a chance of three, but there is sorrow in store for those who top or heel. -I This hole was lately the scene of a curious , accident. Mr. Maitland, having the honour > | from Mr. Norman1 Mitchell Innes, struck off a

d | bad shot and lay bunkered in a nasty place \ | just over the racecourse to the' left. . His .1 adversary hit a drive so similar that his ball H • lofted on Mr. Maitland's, knocked it oat of \\ the hazard, and• lay bunkered in its place. ' It was almost ungenerous of the lucky one , i to win the hole. : • • • . < ,| Now wheel westwards and homewards, and boldly strike over Pandemonium. ' Hell, my |j brethren, is a very large place,' declared from '•' Ms pulpit a divine well known on these links ; ' MUSSELBURGH '57 and so, too, is Pandemonium. Yet, though a place of torment for evil-doers who top and foozle, for the virtuous it has not many terrors ; even very moderate drivers are sure of salvation if they can but do their best. We know good old golfers who use sand-iron and baiiy to this day, and who did till very recently wear tall hats on the green; but the golfer who is honourable and ancient enough to call this dread place Pandemonium, alas! we do not know. A generation of sceptics has shortened the word to Pandy, and robbed it of half its, terrors—perhaps with a view of teaching themselves to face them without fear. And so what was' once a symbol is now a mere "bunker ! and after you have carried it, a drive or cleek shot, as may be, will bring you to the foot of the low, bank on which the hole is placed. You dare not, if you, might, be full up in two, for immediately behind lies the Barricade, wherein to finish is one of the ways to lose a medal, and not the least annoying! A good putt from the foot of the hillivill give you a four, but if your second is at all off the line the angle makes that good putt hard to play 58 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The next hole, the Bathing Coach, is a good length, but uneventful, though there are bunkers, and the ' greedy sea ' lies ever on the right; if you take nine to do it twice, it is well done. And now you may consider your position, for the worst is past. The three following holes should be done with good play in ten or eleven at most; 3, 4, 3 are the right figures. The drive at the eighth, or Gas Hole, has possibilities of grief, and the putting-green is treacherous; the last hole, a cleek shot, contains a small built-up bunker, which has spoiled some medal scores. Here the curious, but not so very rare, feat of driving into a spectator's pocket has been accomplished; and here, too, as in other places, the mis- appropriator of another's guttapercha has stood unconscious of the theft, and even assisted in the search. The lowest record for four consecutive rounds is 155 in the tie between Park and Eirkaldy in the championship meeting of 1889. Mr. Laidlay in a private match has done two rounds in 72, 34, and 3.8, the detailed figures of the first being 5, 5, 5, 3, 4, 3, 3, 3 ; as a boy MUSSELBURGH .59 lie did a strange round of 36, every hole in four; we have seen Mm do nine consecutive holes in S3, bnt the score was counted from the second hole. Willie Park has done 33 in a private match ; Mr. De Zoete, a player not practised on Musselburgh, and, though good, at no time in the first flight, has likewise accomplished 33, though not over the usual round, but another arrangement of the holes, known as the figure-of-eight course. His score, which comprised six o's and three 5's, is the more remarkable, as on this round there is no really easjr three, and only one hole which first-class and successful play will not make sure of in four. Musselburgh is a great school of professional golf. In the Open Championship, played annually in rotation over one of three greens, Eergusson has been three times, Park twice, and Brown and Burns once, returned the winner in recent years. And most of these professors are very good fellows; and more good fellows from Musselburgh than from any other place go away to1 take charge of new links. We leave the subject.and the place with 60 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS ' regret. It is not a beautiful spot ; indeed, ; j unless the weather is bright and the Fife \< coast clear, it is an ugly one. "But if you I visit it, you can play as good golf there as l\ anywhere else, and see more good golf than in ,'; most places ; and if you play with, a member of the Honourable Company, he will give you as excellent a lunch as golfer has yet succeeded in deserving. Is1 not the name of iFitzjohn known, throughout' the Lothians ? 6i

, i,

CARNOUSTIE AND TEOOW

N his weekly or bi-weekly intervals of leisure, the Dundee business man who is a golfer allows his attention to be distracted for ii. BELL BOOK LIGHTHOUSE the nonce from ' Hessians,' and hies him to Carnoustie to enjoy himself. The reader, by the way, who is unversed in the technology of the jute trade might perhaps suppose that such a person passed ' his time absorbed in contemplation of his ;i 62 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS boots ; but this is not so, and ' Gunnies,' ' Burlaps,' and ' Hessians' have a proper significance of their own—are, in short, esoteric mysteries which are not generally fathomable by the profane. In some twenty minutes to half an hour from Dundee Oarnoustie is reached, Monifieth having been passed on the way. The latter little village is able to boast a links which affords a good deal of recreation to the artisan clubs which principally play over it. The turf is good, though hazards are somewhat deficient; nevertheless, golf of a first- rate quality is required to negotiate the j course in anything approaching eighty or I1 under. This is due to two reasons, one of ) 'them being that the holes are often perched tj upon pinnacles on the tops of very narrow I tables ; there are thus numerous opportu- |; nities for see-sawing up one side and down ;' the other — a process which, if often re- s' peated, is not unlikely to induce a fit of { unreasoning exacerbation which will act pre- \ judicially upon nearly every subsequent stroke. • The second reason is, that the course having I been recently extended and new ground taken CARNOUSTIE AND TROQN in, some four or five holes at the end of the links are in a state of transition, their natural wildness not yet having had time to yield to the blandishments of golfing cultivation. Before reaching Carnoustie station the stranger will have had an opportunity of glancing at some three or four holes of the green, and also at the Club-house, out of the window of his train, which in a most inde- fensible manner hurries him close past his goal to a, distance of some half mile or so beyond it, leaving him to plod back through sand ankle-deep ere he can attain the portals of the Dalhousie Club. And the sand that is to be seen in the neighbourhood of this Por- farshire village is a revelation. The 'home- keeping youth' whose ' homely wits ' have not been burnished by Asian or African travel might well suppose such an agglomeration to be almost incomparable. Prom the opposite coast, some seven or : i.i eight miles distant, an enormous sandbank forms a distinctive feature of the landscape; in on close acquaintance it assumes magnificent proportions, whilst on its landward side the enormous thistles and barren vegetation are 64 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS suggestive of a very nightmare of wilderness and desolation. Some one of the old historians, Wyntotin or Eordoun, mentions the fact that some hundreds of years ago the whole coast-line was altered and the sandbanks deposited by a terrible earthquake, and it is supposed that two villages lie buried under the sand. Scattered about are old shot and shell in every stage.of. rust ; their presence explained by the fact that this is part of what is, perhaps, the finest artillery land-range in the kingdom, The big guns, too, add considerably to the excitement of the game, more particularly if the golfer is at all of a nervous temperament, for frequently, just at the moment of all others when his powers of suasion are being taxed to the uttermost, by, say a difficult pitch, or a putt requiring gingerly treatment, a sudden deafening explosion is apt to render his scheme a failure ; it is, then, not unlikely that the first. explosion may be followed by a second, this time on the part of the aggrieved player,'whose outraged feelings may thus to some extent be relieved. Other noises also tend to exasperate him ; for on the Tay lightship, some mile or two distant,

'4 \ CAKJJOUSTIE. CARNOUSTIE AND TROON is a siren, differing materially from its Homeric prototype in that, whilst the latter lured the mariner to destruction by sweet and melo- dious sounds, the former warns him from like fate by truly hideous wails long drawn out, such as might be supposed to emanate from the abode of lost spirits. This, it is true, only happens in fogs ; but then fogs are frequent, and the mariner as well as the golfer has to be considered. As a golf green, Carnoustie, if not to be compared in point of age to Blackheath or St. Andrews, can yet lay claim to a very respectable measure of antiquity : for one of the earliest reminiscences of ' old Tom' Morris is associated with it, as, whilst he was still serving his apprenticeship with Allan Bobert- son, the two went over there to lay out the course. There is no doubt that the natural apti- tudes of the green are considerable; if one or two holes are, perhaps, a little tame, still at others there are varieties of hazards bristling with lies in every way suitable for the opponent who is about to play the odds. In a general way it may be said that there 66 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS is not sufficient penalty for wide-driving : the course is not, as a rule, defined within any particular limits ; no borderland of whins, railways, or what not, exists to entrap a badly- heeled or pulled ball ; consequently goodish scores are often made, though the driving be indifferent. Still, some of the holes afford as pretty golf as can be wished ; and, taken altogether, the putting-greens are true enough to satisfy the most fastidious. The arrangement of the course has often been changed, very considerably so, owing to one cause or another ; but now, under the efficient superintendence of Bob and Archie Simpson, the holes will probably remain per- manently as at present laid otit. The first four holes are good golf—a drive and a wrist-shot to the first hole ; but these shots must be tolerably straight, otherwise we are engulfed in a pretty broad tidal burn, the banks of which are often haunted by boys, who rejoice over a foozle into its depths, for they then levy backsheesh for retrieving the gutta with monstrous landing- • nets. Irate golfers have sometimes wished to CARNOUSTIE AND TROOJV 67 sacrifice a boy instead of a ball to tlie local water-kelpie. Tlie second hole can, perhaps, be readied by a colossal driver in one stroke; but the majority of players are content to make a four of it, with a fair chance of a three, for the gently undulating putting-green is as true as a billiard-table. The third hole is, perhaps, the best on the green. Down a valley, flanked on the right by rabbit-holes, broken ground, and bunkers, on the left by bents and bad ground, the tee- shot requires to be very accurate. A well- struck ball is almost always rewarded by a perfect lie, and a good second will take the player home, the hole lying at the end of a narrow little valley, which makes it pretty easy to lie near the pin if once the entrance to the valley has been gained. The fourth hole is a long drive which must also be straight, and an iron approach over a small runlet, which is pretty sure to catch a bad shot. From this point the next four holes are not remarkable for enthralling interest ; unless, indeed, we except the seventh. which may claim distinction, partly on account 68 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS of its length, and partly on account of the uncertain lies with which it is plentifully garnished. <""\ It is, indeed, no joke ploughing along i in the teeth of a westerly gale, which blows •with concentrated fury down the funnel-like Tay Valley—perhaps, too, when one is unable to use a wooden club from start to finish ; for this hole and the next, as well as the two previous ones, have been re^ejitljjjnadej and have not yet been entirely shorn of their pris- tine savagery. Homeward bound, the more noticeable holes are the tenth, a short one, affording scope for a pretty pitch; the eleventh and the fourteenth, the latter, perhaps, the most interesting of the newer holes, requiring accurate driving before a five can be registered. Hummocks and uneven ground generally are the characteristics of the fifteenth, "which is a capital hole in four. Driving hence we again encounter the broad burn which forms the chief hazard at the first hole, and its services are again re- quisitioned at the eighteenth, for here it has to be crossed twice—first, from the tee, and again CARNOUSTIE AND TROON before the putting-green can be reached—the finish of the round is thus a conception of 4 distinct artistic merit. As to drawbacks : there ,„_._, are fajvtoojiiany rabbity though probably, now VZc J'/—i« o » that the links have been purchased by the Burgh of Oarnoustie from the tutors of the Earl of Dalhousie, they will be killed down ; then the turf is of a texture that does not with- ^ • stand a continuance of dry weather—it evinces ' ?, a disposition to disintegrate, and break up / into patches of loose sand, altogether abhor- ) ";.J rent to the man who finds a rasping' good tee- shot in a heelmark in the .'middle of one of them ; and, as has been remarked above, wide- driving is often not sufficiently penalised. Still, the stranger will find compensation in the excellence of the putting-greens, the unrivalled sands, the general scenery, and the , 'j I hospitable treatment he will receive from the " j Dalhousie Club ; whilst, if he is a keen golfer, , j i he will mark with a white stone that day •;• on which he equals or eclipses Archie Simp- son's record score of seventy-six for the •!.."| eighteen, holes. .'" J" Separated from Carnoustie by the breadth • • j, [;; of Scotland, the links of Troon perform the •'''•[ 70 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS same recuperative functions for the busy Glasgow man as the first-named green does for his brother of Dundee. Though not quite so readily accessible, still the journey is, comparatively speaking, trifling, and in about an hour after leaving St. Enoch's station the traveller will arrive at the little Ayrshire sea- port. He will probably be confronted by the initial difficulty, if he intends to stay, of securing suitable accommodation ; for in this respect Troon leaves much to be desired. As a links it is of mushroom growth compared to those already noticed, and it is mainly owing to the indefatigable exertions of the able Secretary of the Club, worthily backed up by the remainder of its members, that the green has come prominently into notice during the last four years or so. For the man who can putt, it may be stated at the outset, it is, indeed, the place to spend a happy day ; the greens are every one excellent, that of the eighteenth hole in especial being absolute perfection ; although every blade of grass in the neighbourhood be burnt brown, this green is always clad in verdure of freshest emerald green. CARNOUSTIE AND TROON 71 The first two holes are, perhaps, common- place, though just retribution overtakes the player who heels his balls whilst playing them ; subsequently the play becomes interesting, and for the next four holes, and, indeed, all the way out, direction must be ' ; studied as well as distance ; for the valley '' 5 down which the course lies is bounded on the \; right by bents of appalling tenacity of pur- * j1 pose ; indeed, the most suitable weapon to cope with them would probably be the adze so deftly limned in Mr. Furniss's singularly happy sketch of the Parliamentary Golf Links. At the seventh hole we get a real golfing treat. Viewed for the first time, the deep valley and mountainous bluff "which guard the small table on which the green is situated far above may well terrify him who for choice tops his balls all along the ground. In point of fact, he would remain, his further progress barred, whilst, like Sisyphus—but it is needless to pursue the subject in its harrowing aspects. From, this high point we drive down to a crater-like country, in which are direful bunkers ; two beauties, or two good ones, and 72 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS an iron pitch will land us in a pretty little hollow, whence we must climb up to make ortr way to the end hole. Here a topped ball is absolute perdition, a huge bunker having to be crossed from the tee. Perfect play to the ninth hole on a good day is from 87 to 40, and here is the boundary between Troon and Prestwick, on •which we now turn our backs. A bunker of portentous dimensions confronts us, its opposing face so precipitously steep that the venerable ' old Tom' found his mountaineering skill all but inadequate to scale it, when playing, in 1886, in a professional tournament; but the ascent is now made easy by means of a sort of hen's ladder and handrail. This hole was on that occasion productive of untold misery, and many a professional, the then champion, Willie Park, jun., included, was well into double figures ere he holed out. One would hardly have been surprised at putting up a covey or two of grouse out of the heather and bracken, which", together • with bunkers and railway, were the leading characteristics of the hole—and a six was not obtainable without a very fair share of good luck. It is now, however, vastly improved. CARNOUSTJE AND TROON 73 This point once passed, the remainder of the course is somewhat easier and not diver- sified by so much incident. If the homeward journey is accomplished in 40 or more there will be little cause for complaint. The record score is 73, frequently done by Willie Fernie. Extensive alterations of the Club are in pro-' gress, which, when completed, will afford much additional accommodation. 74 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

yn i SANDWICH I

SANDWICH is a Cinque Port, and j^et it is at a considerable distance from the sea. It does '.' not smell like a Cinque Port; yet this is not the fault of Sandwich—though it may be its misfortune—but of the fickle ,sea, which has gone away and left it. And Sandwich has not yet recovered its surprise at no longer' being a seaside place. Hostelries with names of nautical flavour still invite 'the jolly tar,' who never comes near them, even though in the rough weather the Downs outside be crowded with shipping, and the great tower of the ' Granville' at Eamsgate look protect- ingly across Pegwell Bay at the sometime Cinque Port. And Sandwich is full of picturesque old 'bits'—a bridge over a little stream, an old.gabled house with the curious T

SANDWICH 75 rheumatic crookedness that attacks old bricks and mortar. It is a warm little town of red tints mellowed by age. If the ancient mariner no longer frequents it, one may see instead figures ' as long and lank and brown' as he, very weather-beacen. But these are not so much wind-and-weather- beaten as bunker-beaten; for they are golfers. They ' plough' neither the ' ocean' nor the ' lea,' but confine their agricultural operations to golf courses and the adjacent bents and bunkers. Who the golfing Stanley was that first discovered in the ' Darkest Sahara' of the Sandwich links its possibilities for golf we do not know; but this we know, that six f; years or so ago the man who landed at Sand- ' wich Station with golf clubs was a thing to i ' ' marvel at. To-day, if you arrive at Sandwich as a harmless, objectless tourist, the porters _ > immediately take you under their patronage, on the assumption that you have lost your: clubs en route. if >"s j i- In each new locality golf at first is barely |' j J-J tolerated with contemptuous compassion. It h $ \ is wonderful how liberal the local mind crows j , f :[ j 76 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS •when it finds that there is money in the f game. The Sandwich golfer does not patronise the nautically-named liostelries so much as a more pretentious hotel called the ' Bell,' near the station. It has lately had a good many new bedrooms added to it, in which golfers , who have dined well dream of going round in \\ 18, but those who have dined not wisely but too well, are short in their putting, and tear , up their cards all night. >'J A cab, and a drive of a short mile from i the station or the 'Bell,' bring you to a ;' clump of trees, amongst which is a farm- K house, which some efforts of genius have li ' turned into a very comfortable rural club- i| •• house. Here the golfer puts on a shock- l,1 ing bad coat, and goes forth to golf. I'1. The first tee shot is without danger, if you ^ steer straight, and a second long one may 'f' carry you home. But you are as likely to be L|'|!' short in a little shallow bunker, which will I1 T not cost you many tears.

;(i The putting-green is a joy. If you drive ; !' • a fine shot straight on the hole from the '' 1 second tee, you will have the satisfaction of

SAND WICH 77 seeing the ball strike the top of a high knobbly hill, and come trickling down into a bunker which nature has suggested and art has aggravated, at the foot of it. If you are sufficiently crooked to the left, you may lie fairly well, though heavy; but it is, perhaps, best to keep on the proper line, indi- cated for you by a flag, to the right. Here you will get a.good lie, and may reach the green with an iron club. It is a fine hole, well guarded, with hazards to right • and left, beyond, and short. It needs playing. With a good following wind, a slashing driver may go nearly straight on the third hole; but in ordinary cases it is far better to go to the right, on the line marked by the guiding flag. Even thus it needs no mean blow to carry you over the abomination of desolation of bents and bunkers. For the fourth hole 3^ou tee down in the low country, and drive up over a great grassy hill, which may remind the golfer from the Lothians of Gkillane. But it is Gullane on a small scale; for a drive—a real good one— will carry the hill, and, with a drive and an iron shot at the end of that, the golfer, i1 • I , 78 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS I •; rejoicing in the lovely undulating turf, may : I- find himself on the putting-green flanked and

; "t guarded by hazards on this side and on \'"' that. A straight and strong drive to the next 'i ' . will take him over his troubles and put him ! ' within ironing range of the hole, which brings him -face to face with the most notorious . I bunker on all Sandwich links—the- awful- visaged 'Maiden.' 'Hell' and 'Pandy' are i ' as unconsidered trifles beside the terrors of this fearful Maid of salient features. The ' Maiden' is a bunker, wide and deep, with a high, sandhilly face upon the far side. In the bosom of the bunker are pebbles which break the golfer's heart and niblick. From a prolonged tete-a-tete the golfer will come i . forth a confirmed misogynist so far as this < particular lady is concerned. Yet the hole is altogether but a short drive or long cleek shot. It lies in a little hollow. It is often done in two—in twenty-two perhaps more often still. There is no more lovely prospect than an adversary among the sand and pebbles, while you sit on the hill and alternately count his SANDWICH 7g struggles and take a glanoe at your own ball lying near the hole. The seventh hole is both big and bad. A long-carrying tee shot will take you over all I immediate bunkers into a probable bad lie on mossy crumbling turf. In course of time you pass over a ridge on to a flat mossy sandy i stretch beside the sad sea waves. Up this stretch you travel, over a monotony of uncertain turf, unrelieved but by a bank and bun- j ker thrown across the course at right angles. ' Three full shots would put you on the hole if you got good lies, but you do not; and should YOU survive to reach the green you will feel I inadequately rewarded, for it, too, is soft and I crumbly. Of this hole it is but fair to say that once its lies were worse. The eighth is a fine hole. It is but one fair, full shot; and its name is ' Hades.' Should this full shot not be fair, ' Hades' is as hard-hearted, nearly, as the ' Maiden.' You play over, or into, a high sandhill with a bunker before it, much as in the 'Maiden.' The putting-green (we believe an artificial one, and, therefore, all credit to its creators!) is big and beautiful. Prom ' Hades' the tee U . So • FAMOUS GOLF LINKS 5f I " slaot.must be a long and strong one to carry ! ! the bunker facing you ; and here again, once over, the lies are doubtful. But. from a fair ; lie a long cleek shot or brassy shot may take you nearly home, over country broken up with bunkers, to a fairly good putting-green 1 on ridgy ground. This is the half-way hole, I and if you have come this length in forty j , strokes you have done well. ; A fine drive to the tenth, over up-and-down \\ grass country, puts you within a long iron '-••,' • shot of the hole. Tour lies here are a little f uncertain, for ' pots' axe plentiful. The iron shot is full of incident, for there is a high ! sandy hill to carry, and a bunker beyond that again. But, all this vexation overpassed, the putting-green is a joy to the golfer's heart. Away then, towards the sea again, for the eleventh, with a long carry from the tee to clear the bunkers, and again doubtful ground to lie upon. But a cleek may take you over the ridge, and home, where again the moss ; and the sand are malevolent. Thence, slanting inland for the twelfth, a | good drive will land you in a shallow valley, whence a second long shot may put you on SANDWICH 81 the green. But the green is small. It is guarded all round with hazards. You will more likely land in the little bunker just short, and digging it out, be thankful to finish., on a tolerable green, in five. For the thirteenth you go seaward again, and in general this hole is a replica of the vexations of the seventh; but the carry is less tremendous from the tee, and, should fortune and three well-played shots bring you to the green, you will be in mood to acknowledge the putting of better quality, less spoilt by moss. Thence onward the course is all good, albeit the fourteenth and fifteenth holes are much abused; but this we suspect to be the work of golfers who do not do them in as few as they could wish. For the lies in each are good—each may be reached with tolerable comfort by a good driver in three, and neither is without incident. Incident is provided at the fourteenth by rough ground to carry from the tee, an artificial soi-disant 'burn,' which also flanks the right hand of the course, for the second, and, finally, a bunker before the hole for the third. Q 83 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS At the fifteenth is a bunker to carry from the tee, and another just before the green ? the greens at each are excellent. The sixteenth is rather dull. A drive and an iron shot over uneventful country bring you hole-high on a tolerable putting-green. But the seventeenth is, perhaps, the crown- ing glory of the course. With a long and straight drive all trouble may be passed or left on either hand, and a second fine one- will put you on the hole. But the hole is deep down in a green valley or punchbowl. You play on the line of a flag upon the hill-top and, if fairly accurate, have all the excitement of the seventeenth hole at Prest- wick in running up the hill to see how near the hole your ball has rolled. If off the line of the flag, and not in the right punch- bowl, you are worse off, by a full stroke, than if you had kept straight. The final shot up to the green is the exciting one at the home hole, for the tee shot is over unhazardous country, and, if well struck, brings you within reach with your1 iron, which has to lay the ball just over a straggling little bunker, and short of the fencing posts and rails. The putting-green fi Ill SANDWICH 83 is good, and with good play you should be in in four. '• ; If you have done the whole in 82 or 83 you have done full well, for 78 is best on i record, done by David Brown, of Musselburgh, i. ex-champion. This has never been beaten, | i though equalled, and even this was not done j ! when the tees were at fullest length. !l If you pla]?- much at Sandwich you will ;• | not allow topping tee shots to become a habit : I with you. At least you will find it a very j ! bad one. There is no links that exacts ' penalties quite so dreadful for that sort of crime. Considering that it is a golf links, Sand- wich is wonderfully accessible from civilisa- • Jf tion—accounting London as such. Express trains are timed to do the journey in 2 hours 18 minutes, and carry out the contract fairly. You may play golf at Sandwich on Sunday; but you are not allowed to take a caddie, because carrying your own clubs fulfils some of the conditions of a religious observance. On the whole, Sandwich is a very good links. A good many people say it is the best in the world, and some really think so. FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

YIII U NORTH BERWICK, LUBTNESS, GULLANE

EETAINLY tlie ideal golfer lias no eye for 5 tlie beautiful world into ' which he was born to golf; his glance is BASS HOOK fixed upon the ball. He has no ear for the sweet sounds of nature, or fain would have none ; they are i! distractions. To him the breath of summer, be it never so scent-laden, is a natural force, causing a not always calculable deviation of the projectile from its normal path. To him the skylarks, singing at Heaven's. gate, are NORTH BERWICK, LUFFNESS, GULLANE 85 but an inconvenient ' gallery,' unversed in that primal law—silence on the stroke. To- him—but men, as it happens, are not all ideal golfers, though some are almost ideally bad, and quite ideally, or perhaps one should say, idiotically enthusiastic. The average man, even though his oc- cupation be golf, may be excused for loving a lovely place. And never yet, we think, were eighteen small round holes excavated on a fairer green than North Berwick. The whole northern side is girt hj a blue sea mur- muring on a yellow beach ; but, naturally, there are times when, to one toiling with the ineffectual niblick, a beach becomes unbeauti- ful. Over the water lies the coast of Fife, far enough away to seem fairer than it is ; out of the water rise rocky islets, the Lamb and Fidra, and the great Bass Bock, with its myriad gannets. The links are closed at the east end by the town, with a picturesque fishing harbour. When there is a nasty cross wind, and the match has gone beyond re- demption, it is often soothing to watch the brown-sailed boats deftly making for the narrow gate of the little haven. Suave man 86 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS magno, &c.; but, doubtless, the heart of the fisherboy is lighter than the golfer's. However, we admit that it is not enough to be beautiful; one must be good. Now, North Berwick is not only beautiful and rather good, but it is very fascinating and seductive. It is not, certainly, an arena which one would \ choose for a contest between rival champions; it is too small, so small that there is practically no ' play through the green' at all, and that exquisite mixture of strength and accuracy which makes the really great driver is almost ; 11 wasted here. It is a fact, and a somewhat re- ; | markable one, that no second-class man is ,! 1' I quite the equal of a first-class player at any point of the game, except very occasionally ,, on the putting-green. There is one species of 11 second-class golfer who would be first-rate but for his mistakes. There is another—a large * I • one—of golfers who are obviously inferior in power to the great ones of the earth ; but in our experience they are also invariably a little ,; f inferior at all points, a little less long in the i; drive, a little less dexterous in the difficult lie, ;[' and a little less accurate in the approach. If ;t a second-class player could be found who was i r

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.! :•• •r* 3 i] NORTH BERWICK, LUFFNESS, GULLANE 87 inferior in strength only, and actually superior in accuracy, he could defeat at North Berwick performers in whose track he would struggle in vain on one of the larger greens. There are no less than eight of the eighteen holes which are within distance of the tee, and the majority of them are iron shots: and even the two long holes are Tritons solely by ' reason of the minnows. But there is fair compensation in the nature of the golf. Almost every shot is a sporting one, and most of the hazards are fair. All the obstacles in nature occur here. Salt water and fresh claim their prey in turns. You may be swallowed up in a wood, or buried in sand, or lost in bents, or unplayable among rocks, or jammed under walls; and at the High Bent hole, on a windy day, any one of these adventures is exceedingly feasible. The North Berwick golfer knows quite as well as Horace quid albus peccet Iapyx, and the stranger, man or maid (for there are golfing Galateas in the summer-time) will not be long in finding these matters out. You may not follow your ball and play it, if you have sent it beyond the southern boundary; but you 88 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS may follow it and find it, if you can. There is, however, a house with a garden, St. Anne's; and thereinto you may not go ; and, according to the known laws which govern the flight of guttapercha projectiles, it is always at this point that the beautiful little sphere (a new one, for in such circumstances you have always topped your ball at the previous hole and cut it) sails triumphantly away to the paradise of golf balls, never more to be flogged by you again. It is rumoured that a handsome royalty has been offered for the right to work the guttapercha deposits of St. Anne's, but that the owner prefers his flowers. The first hole affords a most sporting second shot on to a high rock-bound green, sloping at a dangerous angle to the sea; pray for a good lie off the tee, for they are not all good, and no kind of scuffle is likely to reach that ; green. The second is one of the longer holes, and the flag is guarded by a double line of hazards, road and dry ditch; a really long ! driver may carry everything in his second, j especially if there is an air from the east, but he had better play short than get caught. NORTH BERWICK, LUFFNESS, GULLANE 89 The third. is a drive over a ditch, and an iron shot on to a narrow plateau, off which it is all too easy to roll. From this point follow five . short holes in succession ; the first a full drive, the others iron shots of varying lengths. This is the most typical part of the outward course; nowhere arelioles more easily lost or won, and a succession of halves is not the rule. Twos and threes are so easy to do, and fours so much easier; even a very moderate player has done three successive twos. This is at once the weakness and the strength of the links ; it is very interesting and amusing, but it is not exactly golf; there is too much luck about it, and over and over "again one sees the worse shot prove the better, which is never pleasing to both the players. After emerging from the Shipka Pass, the narrowest and most dangerous part of the green, where many a promising babe is lost in the woods, there are five rather plain holes in the field beyond, ending in a neat loft over yet another wall on to the green of the twelfth or Pit Hole. Then three short holes—the High Bent, a leap in the dark for a stranger ; Perfection, so called because it leaves much to 9° FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

1 be desired; and the Redan, well named, well fortified, and as good a short hole as may be found anywhere. The Gate Hole, on a small plateau protected by a ditch, offers a difficult, rather fluky approach. Point Garry is a long, hazardous hole, with a good deal of luck in it and a putting-green too steep for anyone's taste, but far too steep for men with nerves in their bodies and money on their match. Last of all, a drive ' into crowds of children and nursemaids' (it is useless to cry ' Fore!'), an iron shot pitched or run, and two putts should bring you to the bottom of the last hole and to the doors of the New Club. A few figures will illustrate the typical quality of the links. Sayers and Grant, in their record of 67, did the ten holes out in these figures—4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, '2, 4, 4—36 ; but Mr. Laidlay has done these ten holes in the extraordinary score, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 3, 4, 5—33. When it is remembered that 74 to 76 is an excellent first-class score, it will be seen what possibilities there are at North Berwick. A subtle question for the disputant on law NORTH BERWICK, LUFFNESS, GULLANE 91 occurred at the Lower Bent Hole. It is held that, except under special rules, a ball 'not gathered' must be treated as a lost ball. One •of two adversaries held his putt. ' Take the ball out,' said the foe, but the ball was not there. Whether some god had done it, or the hole had tapped a gigantic rabbit-burrow, we know not; but deeper than any plummet in "the possession of the party could sound that ball was buried in the bowels of the earth. Was it lost or not ? Within a few miles of North Berwick there ^are two good greens, LufFness and Gullane.. They will never become very famous, for the turf, though good, is too light to bear the .amount of ill-usage which a links must endure to earn fame. Lufhess, however, is, fortunately, a private green, and to the members of the club and their friends it affords excellent golf of a higher stamp than that at North Berwick, but without the delightful surroundings. For • •it is a somewhat dismal place, flat for the most part, and with turf of a peculiar inky hue, as though the shadow of defeat brooded over the .game. It is at its best before the grass begins to grow ; but it plays better than either 92 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS Musselburgh or North Berwick in the summer- time, when one, to speak abusively, is a stone, and the other a hayfield. There is a fair number of hazards, and there are some well- protected holes, and it is a green which rather flatters the mashie and lofting-iron; but too many of these hazards are ditches which may let the worse shot hop over and swallow up the better. The putting greens are irregular, very good when at their best; and the rabbit-holes flanking the course are even more numerous, than the balls which they have devoured. Gullane, which borders on Luffness, is a public green, and inferior in merit. On the other hand, it is a much prettier scene; indeed,, the walk round is a very pleasant one, and it is justly famous for the quality of its putting greens. By the artifice of man it might be greatly improved; but too much golf will ruin it. East Lothian turf is thin, wherever it is. true sea-grass. On the whole, the resident at North Ber- wick, with khgge different links in his district,, is exceedingryTortunate. among golfers if he I knew his own advantage; though, no doubt,. II. ' • ••

! i NORTH BERWICK, LUFF NESS, GULLANE 93 he will perversely sigh after other greens, from St. Andrews to "Westward Ho ! But when was any man contented with his lot ? If he is contented with his play he will be exceptionally happy. 94 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

IX i W< &EEAT YARMOUTH

NINFOBMED people associate Great Yarmouth •with. bloaters. I' The East End of ! London, however, associates it with Paradise; Ml for is it not the Elysium of the East-End tripper —a favoured spot where ozone, periwinkles, nigger minstrels, and• fire-eaters are cheap? But to some men Yarmouth means a fishing- village, with liaddock hanging on nails against the cottage walls, and an abounding odour of I ,l fish in various degrees of ripeness. The actual Great Yarmouth differs from the Great GREAT YARMOUTH 95 Yarmouth of some men's fancy. It is a large and prosperous country town, with fine public buildings. Its staple industries of East-End trippers and bloaters are only obtrusive at certain seasons. It lias a great naval hospital and the largest church—which is not called something else : such as an abbey or a min- ster—in England. ' Besides these it has pecu- liarities which are all its own. It has a liar- bour in the middle of the town. The entrance. to the harbour is several miles southward ; but the open sea, westward, is only a few hundred yards from the harbour. And all Great Yarmouth is very flat. The sea used to rise at high tides and wash the streets quite clean—too clean. It cleaned them of everything portable, including women and children, and even grown men. So an enlightened Corporation laid out the houses in a peculiar fashion: with little rows between them broad enough to walk down—except for the very obese—and broad enough to allow the sea to flow harmlessly down the many channels, from the ocean to the harbour, and back again. There are more than two hundred of these rows. 96 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS Great Yarmouth is three and a quarter hours by rail, and by good trains, from Lon- don. ; but the railway Company, recognising the beneficence of golf, gives the golfer cheap fares. The Corporation is as enlightened as when it laid out the town in rows and looks on golf with fostering favour. The Club-house is about a mile from the main parade, on which the golfer lives and snuffs the sea-breezes. Mies with four wheels swarm about the hotels, and convey the golfer to the scene of his labours. The first hole is long and flat. Three full shots will take you to it—if you do not pull, by the wayj into or over a stream which skirts an out-of-bounds field, or slice your ball i into broken sandy stuff on the right. The second hole is something like a full drive and a cleek shot. On the right there is your old friend the field and the stream ; on the left, and for the topper, broken, sandy ground. There is a bed of whins to carry with the second, and whins again round the hole for an erratic or overstrong approach. Certain nervous golfers have been known to find great fault with a windmill about three t'l GREAT YARMOUTH 97 hundred yards from the tee. The windmill goes on turning round, after the manner of its kind, without any respect to the golfer. It is too bad. The third hole is but a drive ; but, if this drive be sliced or miss-hit, whins and sand will claim the penalty of the crime. The fourth is an excellent hole. A full drive, rather to the left, puts you within reach with a brassy. If you try a straighter course, you will find heavy bunker trouble. Nor is the approach brassy shot any light matter. If you go straight, there is a bunker face to carry. If you are to the left, and are at all too strong, you go into horrid whins, and the further you go to the right the worse you fare. So that for this hole the heroic counsel of the somewhat exacting partner is here the only available one—'Whatever you do be up, and for heevin's sake don't be mair than a foot past the hole.' The next hole is again a fine one. You must not top your drive nor pull it, or you will be niblicking among the whins, and you must not heel it, or you will be on the railway en route for Cromer, A like punishment H 1 1 98 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS waits on any mistake in your second; but if you have driven far and sure, you will be .within a pitch iron, over.whins and a brae, of the hole. The whins are rather near the hole, beyond, and to hole out in five is good work. The tee shot to the next is full of si before you. It is a far carry over, and over it or through it you must go. On the right is the railway, and to the left the bunker wanders on indefinitely. True, you may play short, but even then the carry is considerable, •and the lie doubtful. It is better, after all, to be in two than one. But let us suppose you are over, and not too far to the right (or you will be in whins), and you may reach the hole with an iron for your second. But,even this is full of terrors. The hole is on a plateau— to the left and beyond is bunker, to the right is whin, and between you and the plateau is broken ground of banks and braes. But the plateau slopes a little towards you. You may pitch on the green with a well-lofted shot and not overrun it. 3) 1 The seventh and eighth holes are much alike. A. long cleek shot will reach the "••"•'

!•• - GREAT YARMOUTH 99 former, a real fine drive the latter, and in both there is terrible punishment for the erratic or topped shot. At the seventh it may be bunker, it may be whin, it may be posts and rails, it may be a combination of the three. At the eighth hole it probably will be whin. The tee to the ninth hole is back by the railway. "With a fine following wind a raking long carry may put you on the hole ; but there is a bunkery bank to carry, besides •whins and trouble nearer to hand. The putting- green is a fine large one, which is fortunate, because to the right there is a hedge, to the left whins, and, beyond, a hedge and ditch out of which you are not allowed to play, and could not if yon. were allowed. And so you have reached the ninth hole, half-way; and, if you have played well, may be out in a tolerably small score, for the holes are not very long, and the putting-greens are exceedingly good; but if you have played evilly, you will have an intolerably large score, for the name of the hazards is Legion, and their quality severe. The tenth is a fine hole. To right and left of your carry from the tee are whins, H 2 ' \! ioo FAMOUS GOLF LINKS ' % and the course is none too broad. But if f t't, you lie well, and are at all favoured by the , ii | • wind, a raking 'long drive may take you home ; i 1 but a dire bunker intervenes, with a high post | ,,' and rails across its length, and to the right of i , the course beyond it the whins are thick and menacing. The putting-green, which lies in a great valley, is a beauty. The nest hole you may comfortably reach in one; but about that one there must be no mistake, for close before the tee are whins and, a little further, a terrible bunker. It runs right across—there is no shirking it— and it is deep and steep. The next hole is again within reach; but this time the carry is a long one; for just before the hole is a little bed of whins, most artfully ensnaring. Whins lie beyond the hole, again ; and, perhaps, the better way is to drive rather to the left, and putt, or iron up. A moderate drive to the thirteenth puts you in reach with a cleek, and any sort of carry from the tee takes you clear of the nearer whins. Thence- forward there is no great hazard; and this is perhaps the least eventful hole of the course. i A full drive and an iron shot bring you to the GREAT YARMOUTH 101 green of the fourteenth, •which is guarded by "whins beyond and on either side. The fifteenth gives you a carry over whins from the tee, and a pitch up with the iron over sandy and broken ground. Some of these home-coming holes are apt to be enlivened by a sportsman shooting sparrows in an adjacent market-garden. It is an added element of excitement, and calls for even more than the ordinarily requisite nerve for putting. The sixteenth hole is but a three-quarter shot. A high furze-covered hill brings you to severe grief if you are at all too short, and to the right are "whins which the golfer has not yet niblicked down. But the hole should be a three—though it often is not. The seventeenth is a trial. A very long drive to the right puts you in whins, and a drive, other than a very long one, on the straight line fails to carry a broken troublesome blinker. Most try to strike a compro- mise, and, aiming at the right shoulder of the bunker, commit themselves to Fortune's most indifferent charge. But, in the rare event of their faith, being rewarded, a second drive, io,2 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS steering a good course between the stream and the fields on the right and broken ground on the left, will put the child of

| ;: . Fortune within ironing range of the hole, Then he must be careful not to overshoot into the stream beyond, and is very lucky if he hole in five. To the last hole there is a fine free course to the left—impeded by nothing save an oc- ' ''" casional fishing-net. On the right runs the i' 1 stream. "Wherefore, in the perversity of golfing nature, it is but to be expected that the driver will here heel his ball and lose a stroke—and a penny to the urchin who retrieves it—in the stream. A second long one may put him within short range of the hole. A five finishes off the round respect- ably. The native people show the golfer no little kindness. Their fishing-nets are spread only on the confines of the course. About them there is a special smell and a special rule—> '! you lift without any penalty. Yarmouth is a greatly improved course, T,he turf used to be stuff unworthy of the name ; but walking and road-scrapings have GREAT YARMOUTH IQ3 consolidated the moss and the sand, and the lies and putting-greens are now excellent. To speak in general terms of Tarmoutli, one may say that it never rains there, that the wind is always in the east, and the bloater always excellent for breakfast.

[I FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

WIMBLEDON

OLE at Wimble- don has been , , • cynically described as 'a very good substitute for the game to be so near London.' By players in the North it is believed that the t mashey is here your only club, and that the amateur passes most of his time in hunting I J balls, now among whins, now in the bracken beneath the forest boughs. There is exaggera- tion in these ideas, and Wimbledon is really a paradise to the urban player, and not worse than a purgatory to him who is acquainted with better things. WIMBLEDON io$ The game began to be played unoffici- ally, about twenty-five years- ago, before the Common came into the hands of Conservators. They reduced the ' lawful days' to three a week—Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays— apparently in the supposed interests of the general public.

Trying to look at it inipartially? we do not think that the public suffers much from golf; and we are pretty sure that the golfers are long-suffering. They know that it is useless to bellow ' Fore !'—a word of un- known meaning to the saunterers. There- fore, when a string of ladies or a nurse with children wander, devious and slow, up the length of a hole, there is no remedy but patience. "We believe that this virtue is practised on Wimbledon, and assuredlyit ought to be practised. • Some persons, indeed, com- plain of the arrogance of golfers, and occasion-^ ally a family will squat on a convenient green, when much persuasive politeness is needed before they will budge. The Common is large; there is plenty of room wherein tea may be taken and nature admired without sitting, down on the putting-greens. On the I

106 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS whole, golf and the world of Wimbledon Common have reached a fairly satisfactory modus vivendi. The course has this peculiarity, that it

! i has two beginnings and two endings. The members of the Club who dwell in a house of iron start from the east end. They who i inhabit a house of brick, and are more luxurious in mince collops than their iron I brethren, start from the west end. Erom this f, end, then, we shall begin to describe the jj course, with apologies to the east-enders, who •| . are, we believe, the elder Club of the twain, } I though the less comfortable in their abode. ; \ Leaving the cottage Club-house, you cross 1 a rough bit of tussocky grass to the first hole. Tour caddy, by the way, may not necessarily s be an expert; he may be a casual person, not w ,h engaged on more permanent work. In that 4 I case you have to find the ball for him, and to instruct him in the difference between a lofting iron and a niblick. But many of the caddies are very quick at learning, and a few have developed a good deal of skill and interest in the game. The first hole is begirt at the opening WIMBLEDON 107

if by scrubby whins. Topping the ball, and j getting into these, you will become acquainted \ Avith misfortune. A fair drive should be I nearly up on the green, but will probably s1 fall in long hairy grass, whence it is not easy

108 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS not, in an open place about midway, the second is just as dangerous. The roots of whins have a wonderful way of catching a ball, and, once caught, it is rather a chance how you extricate yourself. Bad luck, or bad play, may mean a double figure at this, the third, or racecourse hole, and there is an inconvenient paling, behind which a ball often conceals itself, while whins, in the rear of the putting-greens, catch an over-eager approach. The fourth hole is short, and straight; it is possible for a drawn ball to get among more whins, and the ' lies' are very bad throughout, while tliere is some inconvenient heaf+her near the putting-green. Still, this is an easy hole. The fifth is on the other side of a narrow ravine, with steep sides, clad with rushes. There is -a little trickle of water filtering through between perpendicular little banks. It is an ill hole for him who tops his ball, as many use, or who drives into a birch-tree ; but a moderately fair stroke is within a very short distance of the hole. Whins lie behind it, as usual, and the long grass is particularly tenacious here. f WIMBLEDON 109 The sixth hole lies under the railings round the Windmill garden. It lias no hazards, but two roads and some most de- testable long grass. An overdriven approach will go into the garden or lie under the railings. To reach the seventh hole you walk a little, way to the edge of a deep ravine, with a pond in it and a wooded glade on the left. Miserable men stand with naked legs in the pond all day, hunting for balls—perhaps the most shiftless and wretched mode, not dis- honest, of making a few pence yet invented by idleness or descended to by despair. This is the worst point of the Wimbledon course, \ and sets the mind pondering on. social pro- blems. The difficulties of the hole are increased by this distraction. It is disagreeable to have to drive over a muddy pond, with men wading in it, backed by rough slopes and flanked by woods. The right shot is over the edge of the wood which opens up the hole situated outside . the Iron House. But many do not make the right shot rightly, and have to ransom their ball from the pond-wights, or to practise bush- no FAMOUS GOLF LINKS whacking among the branches and bracken, or are obliged to clamber in the muddy sides of the pond. At the Iron House the course turns back on itself. The first hole is on the edge of the ravine, and the old perils of wood and water encounter you again; while a road, apparently leading nowhere, and only cut for the purpose of spoiling the game and the Common, is an additional hazard. The hole is among some hummocks, where is much long grass. The next hole, across a high embankment and the road, with a wood on the right, is a short one, but has a particularly difficult and ridgy putting-green. Then comes an easy hole, up a slope ; you can scarcely come to grief unless you hit into the Windmill garden. The hole is on the further side of the slope, and is sentinelled by whins. The next hole has no hazards for a straight drive ; a wild one may go into the road on one side, or down into a rushy and moist ravine on the other. Next comes a long hole, with a tee-shot WIMBLEDON nr over the ravine, and a deal of rough ground, ending in a pretty whin-vexed putting-green •under one of the old butts. Then you play back over a ' racecourse,' through the whins, parallel to the other racecourse, and, like it, haunted by wandering and repining players who cannot find their balls. The next hole has for hazards a road, whins, some amateur ponds (in wet weather), and a small artificial bunker, the only bunker on the links. To fall into this is a kind of melancholy pleasure, recalling better things elsewhere. The next hole is over very rough grass, and a ' pot' or depression, full of nettles ; while a road, the palings of villa gardens, and whins of irreconcilable character interfere between the player and his haven. Then comes the short hole, a cleek shot over rolling ground covered with whins ; while the last hole is also short, and, except for still more whins, may be called easy. The worst of the course, as maybe gathered from this account, is the tough and fibrous nature of the vegetable hazards. The second drawback is the innumerable bad ' lies,' flinty, i .113 . FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

muddy, or, cupped in holes among tussocky i " ' grass. Through the green even the brassy^ ' . is often too delicate a tool, and iron weapons are In demand. *k goad player of iron - approaches has here many chances to dis- j languish, himself. A bad player is nowhere in 1 a less agreeable country than at Wimbledon, i The whins are as spiteful as anything inani- mate can be, they seem to stretch out their roots and branches for your ruin, A score of from 82 to 87 may be reckoned very good. , With all its peculiar difficulties, Wimbledon is • a blessing to London golfers, and the familiar landscape, the view from the height over the [ ' wide aerial plane of Surrey, is beautiful on a 1 .' fine day. In a spirit of paradox, some prefer • } Blackheath and golf among lamp-posts and } • perambulators. Wimbledon is much more I'll ' rural, and here golf is to the general public [ ' much less dangerous. A golfer is glad to get away from Wimbledon to Sandwich or St, 1 Andrews ; but he is also glad to find his foot on it again after a week on the flagstones. 5 On Saturday afternoon, naturally, the course is very crowded, and the wise will prefer to play, i if possible, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The *

It WIMBLEDON ilf \ " ' • i ; Club is as pleasant and comfortable as any •lln more orthodox links, and is much more homely and picturesque than, most, being an old red-brick cottage, with additions," such as 1% . dining-room. There is»a [pretty little garden , -» and tiny lawn, and a lawn-tennis court in a f' field behind the house. In^short, by making- s' believe a little, the golfing child of Nature may f do verv well at Wimbledon. I'

114 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

POBTEUSH, NEWCASTLE, AND IIOLTWOOD IN general, golfers are not reading men. Most of them, however, will have read the chapter on'Snakes in Ireland.' Not many years ago snakes and golfers were equally plentiful In Ireland. An article on Irish golf would th-en have been easier to write, as thus :—' There Is no golf in Ireland.' Unfortunately for tlxe writer and the reader, but happily for tkxe golfer, the telling of the Irish golf of to-clay cannot be done with such sweet brevity. Portrusll is the St. Andrews of Ireland. It is two hours and a half by train from Belfast. Undoubtedly the first impression of the pilgrim golfer will be the warmth of the reception given him by the golfers of the ' Loyal Nortli.' They will treat him with plenteous kindness, and whisky. His second impression will "be that the air is very bracing, and his third tlistt PORTRUSH, NEWCASTLE, HOLYWOOD 115 the putting-greens are very heavy. A straight and strong drive .to the first hole brings you short up on the bristly bunkery back of a sandhill, and you may dig about there for some time before you get the ball out on to the green beyond. But if you play on the proper line—a little to the left—you may outflank the , | sand-hill, and putt or iron up to the hole, so as to give yourself a remote chance of a three. If you are a stranger, you will be short with your iron shot, and then short with your putt, and most likely take five, and will begin to say that Portrush is ' not golf.' The second hole is two fair, full shots, over fine golfy turf, and with glorious views of the sea and the Deny coast. The hole is in a valley which need be no vale of tears if you hole out in five. The next hole is but a cleek shot, but •all sorts of things may happen before you reach it. Eor you tee down in the valley with the hillside before you, so that, if you do not loft well, you only burrow into the hill. There is another valley before you get to the putting-green, and, if ever you do get there, you wonder how you did it, so perched up is it t

I I' 3i6 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS ! | on a plateau with bunkery trouble so near. f Despite all the trouble, you may quite well do ! the hole in three. And by this time you will i, be beginning to realise that you spoke in haste } when you said the putting was ' not golf,' and ; will repent at your leisure as you begin to I learn the strength; for, though they are very heavy greens, they are also very true. You 1 can putt firmly on them. They are good I greens. ' A fine drive to the fourth hole will take you well over a burn, with whins and rat-holes and abomination of diverse sorts about it; and a lofting wrist shot will then put you on the hole. The fifth hole is a drive and an iron shot into the corner of a rather flat and un- |j profitable field. If the drive be topped, a I1 three-cornered arrangement of roads and i i 1 hedges will exact no one can say what penalties. Further, there is a scheme afloat for setting a trap in the field for a topped iron ,'* shot by digging a bunker. 1 The next hole is the ' long hole,' two full 'A drives and an iron shot. A heeled ball will lj,fj land you on the road which leads to the PORTRUSH, NEWCASTLE, HOLYWOOD' 117 Giant's Causeway. An electric tramway goes along this road, and to lie in one of the tramway lines is peculiarly objectionable. Beside the tram lines runs a bar charged with electricity for the use of the engines. If you steal the electricity by touching this bar, you will not wish to play golf any more that day, so powerful is the shock. It is a unique form of golfing hazard. On the left, to receive a pulled ball, are several acres of bracken which is supposed to be very bad lying ground; but, as no one has ever yet found his ball in it, this is a purely apriori view. But, if you are straight, and carry a little bank about fifteen yards from the tee, there is nothing to prevent you from taking your driver again, and putting yourself over another little bank, and short of a third which is just before the hole. The seventh is only an iron pitch on. to a green cleared among the bracken—soft, but true. It is felicitously named the ' Feather- bed' hole. With a raking, long cleek shot it is possible that you may put yourself on the green of the eighth hole in one, but not probable; for the green is perched up on- 118 • FAMOUS GOLF LINKS high among the benty sand-hills, and, if not very accurate, you will be digging among sand and bent and moss. Should you top ' |j your cleek shot, you have a deal of struggling *, before you reach the hole. To the ninth hole you drive away far among the sand-hills where a half-topped or crooked ball meets fearful punishment; but, if you are both 'far and sure,' you may find yourself within a short lofting shot of home. A drive, over formidable sand-hills will put you on the green of the next, which is close 'i; beside the road and the electric tramway. The tee shot to the eleventh is uneventful, i|',*,' unless you pull the ball into a corn-field or ,i l\ slice it into bracken and rabbit-holes; but i:' M the iron shot into the little green, well named 1 • |i the ' Saucer,' is full of banks and braes and I "I I** £ trouble for him who tops. The twelfth is but a full drive, and may well be done in three; but any error to right i\ or left, or any topping, is again cruelly \ punished. Then you climb up the sand-hills, : \'- and from the lofty teeing-ground see as appall- ,'{j ing a prospect as ever made golfer call for his ''I niblick. It would need the pen of a poet to

PQRTRUSH, NEWCASTLE, HOLYWOOD 119 do it justice. Several thousand feet below you (as it appears) is a bum which, babbles towards the sea. Its banks are precipitous with bunker, and fringed with a profusion of flora such as the golfing grounds of the Emerald Isle alone produce. But you ought to carry it all. If the wind is behind, the hole itself on the opposite high ground maybe readied; and in a recent competition this tremendous hole was done by two players in the final heat in 2 and 3 respectively. The next is only a little iron pitch—back over the burn and the flora. Now most golfers sometimes hit their iron shots on the shank of the iron; with some it is almost a habit. The effect is to send tlie ball to ' cover-point.' ' Cover-point' at this particular hole is a Eoman Catholic chajDel—again a unique hazard in the world of the golf. Por the next hole you cross the road, and tee in face of a great bunker named, from its shape, the ' Crater.' The hole is just beyond the Crater, and a very easy full sliofc should put you on the green. Ordinarily the bed of the Crater is in a quiescent state, but frequently bursts forth into sulphurous, volcanic i 120 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS '' activity, with showers of mud, when the golfer ! and his niblick are buried in its depths. '•• A drive and an iron shot over ground \• which need not vex you if you keep straight, i but with indefinite trouble for the wanderer, j bring you to the sixteenth hole, and from the high teeing-ground to the seventeenth you have a fine view of the boldly undulating , links and the blue sea almost all around you (for Portrush is a peninsula), and the Donegal highlands in the distance, northward. These high tees are a great feature of the links, with their 'switchback' undulations beneath •you. The ball soars away as if it were never going to stop ; but it does. It stops, if properly hit, within a little iron shot of the sevenleenthhole, which sits up aloft on a saddle- back, most vexingly difficult to stop upon. '' Then a drive off another high-set teeing- ,, ground, and a long iron or cleek shot over broken bunkers, bring you to the green of the eighteenth hole, and you can go to the little i iron Club-house and be rested and refreshed. The social needs of the golfer are well looked , „, after at the Northern Counties Hotel, some ''" quarter-mile distant. PORTRUSH, NEWCASTLE, HOLYWOOD 121 The Giant's Causeway is a great Sabbath, resort for the Portrush golfer, after morning church. It is some eight miles distant. The native giants sell you local curiosities, such as double-refracting spar, which makes a six- pence, held edgeways under it, look like two. But they will not give you a shilling for it. There is also a • well there with peculiar qualities which are only brought out by whisky. They are not allowed to sell you whisky, but if you buy some of the water they will give you some of the whisky; the water, thus qualified, is said to have effects similar to those of the double-refracting spar. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about the Giant's Causeway is in all the local guide-books. Newcastle, County Down, is not far from Belfast, and you reach it by sitting for some two hours in what is locally called an express train. It is a watering-place lying beneath the shadow of a large mountain whose name few golfers can pronounce, and none can be expected to spell. Attached to Newcastle is an eighteen-hole golf course. It would not be quite fair, even if it were possible, to describe JZ2 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the Newcastle links in detail, because' detail,1 at present, would include several million rabbit- holes. But when the golfer shall have driven the rabbit into the outskirts of the course, there is no reason why Newcastle should not equal Portrush. Its capabilities are very great, 11 and some of its hazards are on such a scale that, an indifferent golfer might get a day's work out of any one of them. Nine of the holes have been newly opened out, but the lies are not nearly as bad as they might be, and the putting-greens and grounds throughout the course will soon work down into very good material. The climate is mild and the W views are beautiful. The mountain behind you as you go out is partly wooded with pines, 11 and rises, dark and stern and grand, above i them. You see it at its very best from the end of the links when you turn ' two up.1 Even nearer Belfast, only a few minutes' run by train, at Holywood, there is a links of \ nine holes, on a stretch of ground mysteriously named ' the Kinnegar.' Etymologists trace the name to ' coney-gar,' or rabbit warren; but here the golfer has effectually displaced the coney. He has not yet displaced the PORTRUSH, NEWCASTLE, HOLYWOOD 1*3 Jj .Boyal Armagh Militia, whose tents are £ teed jj up' all over the Kinnegar during a month or I so in summer. But this matters little, because 1 the Kinnegar is only a winter course. The ' jjjj .grass grows long in summer, which is as much as to say that the soil is clay, not the real royal •sandy links of Newcastle and Portrush. Still there is broken ground and whin which form jHj J .good hazards, and in the winter months the •i.'T Kinnegar is no bad test of golfing qualities. There is a most comfortable little Club-house, •and the Kinnegar in Ireland is entitled to all the veneration in which Blackheath is held in •1 England, for it is the first soil in Ireland ever •cleft by the golfer's niblick. Southern Ireland is addicted to Home Rule, Wttu and plays golf on the DoUymount links near jj[| Dublin. These have the fame of being a real good golfing course, though flattiah, and without the beautiful 'switchback' arrangement of hill and valley which is the charm of Port- rush. The Irish caddie is a good native product. He is as zealous- as the Scottish functionary, •and preferable in that, knowing less about it, he, is less critical.

I " I I \ 124 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

'• ' MACHREHANISH

THE student who when asked to construe Hor.. • \ Lib. in. scxx. confidently began, ' I have eaten, a monument harder than brass,' was met by , \ the rejoinder of the examining professor,' that his digestion was too good for their college^ fare,' and was incontinently plucked ; but the original discoverer of Machrehanish as a golf- links should by all justice have a monument erected to him, proof against the appetite of time and hungry students, for a more abso- j . ' lutely perfect natural links it is well-nigh im- j possible to conceive. 'l Some twenty years ago, indeed, the writer J1 ' heard the praises of this green set forth by one who, if not the original discoverer, was- i certainly one of the very first to play there ; ] . but lie was as one preaching in the wilderness, and his words passed by as the view- MACHREHANISH .ess 'winds, and were no more thought of it least then; but now it is different, and the name of the place, though rather a jaw- breaker, is fairly well known, and deserves to be better known still. In point of inaccessi- bility it certainly holds its own, not to say trtore than its own, with the best of them, for this is an apparently invariable attribute of all really good links. Situated at the west side, and nearly at the south end of Kintyre tlie usual' approach ' is by boat from Grreenock to Oampbeltown, thougli perhaps the best way of all is to embark at Fairlie Pier. Prom here we are taken past Bute, round the north end of the Isle of Arran,through Kilbrennan Sound ; coasting along past Loch Eanza, we catch, a m.omentary glimpse of Goat Fell, recently the scene of a terrible tragedy. Crossing and re- cirossing between Kintyre and Arran, the primi- tive methods of landing and embarking goods and passengers will prove a source of amuse- ment, and especially is this the case when Ixorses or live stock have to be landed at Blackwaterfoot or Machrie Bay in Arran. Boats corresponding to the number of horses to be landed arrive alongside the steamer ; a , I I i i ' 126 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS ,! rope with several yards of slack is put round ; ' each horse's muzzle, the attendant ghillie gets. ' i into his boat's stern, rope in hand, and the boat sheers off; when clear, the unfortunate • • i and terror-stricken horse is hustled over the 1 yi steamer's side, disappears from view in the depths of the sea, rises anon to the surface, '. when the ghillie begins to haul his end of the ] ' rope, and in the end the horse, after a swim ] of several hundred yards astern of the small boat, gets to shore apparently unharmed; though if a splint happens to ajipear a few days subsequently, probably no one will have 1 , the least idea how it could have got there. At last, after some five hours or so, Campbeltown is reached, the next point being to get to. Machrehanish, five and a half miles distant. For this purpose a {machine ' will be requi- sitioned : pending its arrival the pilgrim may probably have his expectations raised by being- told that' it is a lovely road,' and will accord- • ' ingly prepare to feast his eyes upon the beau- ; ! ties of nature thus prospectively displayed, A Barmecide feast, indeed, for from his subsequent experience he will deduce the fact that this was merely ' English as she is spoke ' in. MACHREHANISH 127 Kintyre; ' hyperbolical exornation,' indeed, for of the beauties of nature by this route, if we except some remarkably fine crops of ragweed, none are discernible; and the 'love- liness ' of the road is found to consist merely in the adaptability of its surface to speedjr and comfortable transit. Passing the little mining village of Drum- lemble (the only coal-mine in Argyllshire) we reach Machrehanish; a dozen houses together, and a few outlying farms, where quarters. may be obtained if the Pans Hotel is full; yet it is so far in touch with civilisation as to boast a telegraph-wire of its own, and a daily post. An alternative way of reaching the place is to drive down from Tarbert, nearly the whole length of the peninsula, some thirty- five miles or so ; and this time it may be said, without fear of being misunderstood by English readers, that the drive really is a lovely one. An extensive and beautiful view awaits us at our journey's end, In a north to north-westerly direction lie the island of Gigha, and the island of Jura; with its four dome-shaped hills at equal V 12.8 ' . FAMOUS GQLF LINKS

[ ( distances. ' Now as touching these monticles,' J • as Sir Dugald Dalgetty has it, they are known I; to the chartograplier as the Paps of Jura, and, • ! ' being a leading feature in the landscape, at ;,' . • once attract attention. Southward of these appears Islay, where excellent whisky is pro- '< duced. The two islands are separated by the 1 i Sound of Islay ; but they overlap, as it were, and it is difficult to see where the one stops j and the other begins. Then, -rather to the south of west, Eathlin Island and the coast of Ireland, about Ballycastle and the Giant's Causeway, appear; and it is not unlikely that the whole may be seen under the fascinating conditions of most glorious sunsets, rich in every imaginable tint of vesper beauty. To visit the links will be our first care, seeing that we have come with that end in 11 '. view.. Nor shall we have roamed over them- very long without endorsing to the full the remark of Tom Morris when laying them out, to the effect that Providence assuredly de- signed that part of the country as a special earthly Paradise for golfers. The turf in its nature is an improve- ment on that of "Westward Ho ! which it MACHBEHAKI8H. MACHREHANISH 129 somewhat resembles ; wild thyme and similar herbs luxuriate; it is altogether of a firmer texture than that of the North Devon green, and not liable, as that is, to disintegration by sand-storms. Its elasticity is surprising, as may be seen by holding a club and letting the head fall and rebound ; consequently, walking is a pleasure—this, too, though the course is exceedingly undulating, and at first sight seemingly but ill adapted to the require- ments of the•• weight-carrying and plethoric pedestrian. The recuperative power of the turf, also, is wonderful; an ' iron-skelp' heals almost of itself, without doctor's aid, in a very short time. No need, either, for artificial teeing- grounds; natural ones are all there ready, and in abundance; for every ball is teed, wherever it is. And, as for putting-greens, one might put a hole down almost anywhere at haphazard, and little else would be necessary. Bunkers abound, and are of the most orthodox description. The sand in them is light, though some there are wherein stones in plenty lie; needless to say, these must be avoided like the plague. Owing to the general K i3o FAMO US GOLF LINKS t , configuration of the ground a ball will not roll • much. In driving, therefore, a fairly good f ' carry is necessary; and, once the putting- greens are reached, on all and singular of them, the ball holds its line with undeviating truth, there being no humps and irregularities to beguile it from the path of rectitude, Bab- bits there are, but they appear to be tolerably innocuous, so far as the golfing-course is con- 1 cerned; whilst of the horses and live-stock | generally the same remark may be made. ! On leaving the Club to tee for the first hole we cross the Oampbeltown road up on to a table-land, bounded by rocks and the beach a . • • few yards to the left, on the right by the road aforesaid, and in front by a fence, into which the half-topped ball is sometimes driven, and rebounds to a considerable distance behind the striker. An angle of the beach projecting 1 , inland has to be carried obliquely, as well as ' ' • a slimy and offensive ditch, which will in some , i measure recompense the Westward Ho ! player !• '• for his absence from home if he happens ever '• , to get into it. These difficulties surmounted, a brassy, shot, which must be steered clear of rag-

*\ \ MACHREHANISH 131 "weed on the left, puts us in position for a pitch to the hole, which is well guarded by "bunkers. The proper number is five, and it is a good hole ; but the second is even better. A tee-shot straight down the course, if a long one, will enable the hole to be reached in two; but here the second shot is the thing. Pirst of all, a broad burn, Machrehanish "Water, has to be crossed; but, curiously enough, one is allowed to tee instead of dropping if one gets in. Secondly, a precipitous bluff, with a bunker in it and a sandy road; some thirty yards over this lies the hole, on an undulating and beautiful putting-green. Thus, if the second is not well lofted, it is apt to get jammed up against the steep foot of the bluff, leaving a difficult .third, Pour is good here, The third hole is •tame, a drive and a short pitch; whilst the fourth is a drive and a cleek, and is a goodisk four, considering the country to be crossed. Hence we drive our tee shot on to some beautiful billowy slopes, reminding one of Atlantic rollers arrested in mid-career by some Michael Scott, when ' Him listed his magic wand to wave,'transformed thereby into yielding and .elastic sward, x 2 132 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The hole is in a sort of punch-bowl, the hither side of which is an abrupt and almost perpendicular descent; a four is thus easy, i • The next hole is good and sporting; a bunker of terrible mien confronts us when, we have walked fifty or sixty yards to the tee; its slopes are garnished with bents of forbidding aspect, and twenty yards further on is another bunker which the striker does not see. To the highest peak of the one he does see is about a hundred yards ; so a carry of a hundred and forty will land him clear of everything, and a blind shot to the hole with cleek or iron will have to avoid further difficulties. The tee shot to the seventh must carry a face in which a bunker lies concealed ready to trap a badly-hit one ; an exceptionally good drive would reach a deep and stony bunker; but this would be rather unlucky. A good, firm iron shot over uneven ground will enable a four to be recorded. The two last holes are two drives, and one and a long put or short approach respectively, and are negotiable in eight or nine. We are now half-way round; and if the sum-total is forty or under—though this figure is not diin- MACHREHANISH 133 * '* • V. cult of attainment by a good player—he will in all probability be quite satisfied with it. ,'i ) !• Homeward bound, the first hole is long, j!_ flat, and uninteresting, its chief difficulty lying in the fact that the monotonous level of the approach deceives the eye in its judgment of distance ; three fair shots will be on the green, and in five or six we shall hole out. •• i: A drive and a characteristically blind iron shot on to a rather foggy and dull putting- , I^lj'j green follow, and prepare us for another pretty '\*' i long hole, represented by two drives and an ! i t{\ iron. The first of these must clear a preci- I,,;';' pitous bunkery face about forty yards from ' . N ji the tee, whilst the last of the series, over • ! !' a small ravine on to a table, is very apt to '.be short, as the distance here again is very deceptive, The thirteenth hole might with advantage j/iji be better arranged, for a bunker which it .is • |! !; no gain, to carry crosses the whole line of l':j': fire, at such a distance as will catch a good '• shot; it is therefore advisable to take a short club at the tee, and subsequently a short iron pitch will get us on the green. The fourteenth hole is a somewhat com- i•;V f ! ' 134 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS \\ \ jj monplace four, its chief difficulty, as usual, < !j , lyi-ng in the blindness of the approach; but f I its successor, known as Eorke's Drift, is as • ii good a hole as can be found on the green, i1' For three-quarters of its length the direct U , line is over a succession of deep trench-like I'' bunkers; on the left of the line, awaiting t ji a drawn bah, is country compared to which Sheol is as a happy hunting-ground; a ball slightly heeled is- caught by a further bunker on the right; but a sweetly hit one will just get on to a beautiful little table, and reward us with a three. For those whose capabilities are below first-class, a safe, if unambitious line, lies to the right; all classes are thus

, ( satisfied, whilst the good player can reap enormous advantage from his skill. Jj ' The sixteenth is a return journey over Machrehanish Water, the teeing-ground being on the top of the bluff aheady mentioned as guarding the third hole; a four is easily obtained. The seventeenth rejoices in the curious name of Trodigal, and is rather uninteresting, being two drives and an iron over'level country. MACHREHANISH 135 The last hole, with an adverse wind, is a sporting one; on a calm day it is but an iron shot from below up on to the table whereon -the tee to the first hole is situated; the road on the left, the high face surmounted by a fence, and the sea-beach on the right constitute the hazards ; a three is the proper number. : Thus, thirty-seven to thirty-eight may be considered first-class for the return, whilst for the whole journey anything under eighty maybe fairly regarded-as a performance of exceptional merit; the , record . at present stands at seventy-six. To one looking at the green as a whole, or, rather, at the present arrangement of it, one or two points for criticism are likely to suggest themselves. One is the enormous preponderance of blind approach shots; at each of the first seven holes, indeed, this may be, and usually is, the case, whilst the same remark applies to three or four holes in the last half-round. A slight rearrangement here and there might do much to obviate this inconvenience. Again, at many holes there is no incentive • '136 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS to drive really well, as this is understood at St. Andrews ; a half-and-half sort of ball and f a really good one are often equally efficacious; thus a first-class score is far more easy of attainment than at the green just mentioned. This is the more to be regretted as Machre- hanish is capable of almost unlimited ex- . tension. But you will be loth to quit this little place, and after a short sojourn you will lay aside your clubs with regret, tempered, perhaps, by the resolve to revisit the scene on ', j some not far distant occasion.

1 :i

137 i:

I"1 XIII i.i BEMBBIDGKE ARD of access though all golf links are, in few are the perils of the approach en- hanced, as at Bembridge, by 1 ;

chances of a . \ •'! watery grave. : i Hi" The Isle of ST. AND&EWS OATHEDEAL. Wight being

an island, the golfer might hope his woes .1 •; would be over when he set foot on the terra firma of Byde. So far is this from being the case, that between the Bembridge golfer's nightly bed and daily bunker yawns, more or less widely, a gulf of the sea. The width of

1 I i. 138 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the yawning depends on the tide. At low tide you. might drive a ball across; at full tide it is further than a golf ball ever went in dreams, that is, some five times wider. The shorter the sea-voj^age, the longer the trudge over sea-sand and sludge—and vice versd. The whole business is not much more than a quarter of a mile, but much misery may be fitted into a quarter of a mile when waves run high. There are alter- natives—to go by train to St. Helen's, the next station to Bembridge on the line to Byde, and thence walk; or to walk all the way. Each alternative costs money; either there is the ferry to be paid, or the train, or, as a pedestrian vexation, a toll-gate. Most golfers, in view of the fatigues of many bunkers, will prefer the chances of mal-de- mer. ' It is only fair to say, as a set-off to these gruesome terrors—it is really only rough enough for about a week in all in the year to prevent the ferry-boats plying — that the Bembridge golfer's daily bunker and nightly bed are alike excellent of their kind. The pre- siding spirit 6f the Spithead Hotel, and Strict*

BE MB RIDGE 139 land, the tutelary genius of tlie coffee-room, are beneficent deities. They know what the golfer is—his needs, his hunger, and his thirst.

And the links in their quality are excellent—; one could .not wish it better—but of quantity they have, alas! too little. You walk up from your ferry-boat over a hundred yards or so of bent, and but for the nature of the soil, which is convincing, could hardly believe yourself on a golf links. For you are not surrounded, deafened, fallen upon and rent, like a carcase in the talons of birds of prey, by a screaming set of urchins, each considering himself providentially designated as the carrier of your clubs. Beveridge, the resident professional, keeps boys ' on the rank,' like cabs or porters at a London railway-station, If you are the tenth golfer to cross the roaring main from the Spithead Hotel, boy number 10 will be assigned to you as inevitably as if. by a law of nature. This is a blessing. Like all mundane blessings, it is not an unmixed one—3^ou are not able to have the same boy each day. But in this, too, there are compen- sations. Your new boy does not know you by heart, like the inside of his own pocket— r

140 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS with all your weaknesses of mind, temper, and putting—as you-r long-service boy does. Eor all he may know, you might be Mr. John Ball,, junior, and as such you may comport yourself until the first tee-shot, The Club-house is not magnificent, but comfortable and substantial—.more than adequate for purposes of lunch and whisky. Club-rooms of greater glory are attached to the transpontine Spithead Hotel. Almost from the door of the lunch-and-whisky Club- house you strike your first tee-shot. It is not impossible—for it has been done, though it is difficult—to pull your ball from this tee into the harbour, where there is sea at high tide, and mud of unfathomed depth, and animal and vegetable jetsam, when the tide is out. It is easy to find trouble without going so far to seek it. There is a road—where on Bemb- ridge golf links is there not this road ?—into which a poor drive may land you. Had you to drive—not in the technical golfing sense-^ upon it, you would say it was ' no road.' No spirit of Macadam dwells upon it. It is a track, sandy, rutty, stony—altogether imposs- ibly objectionable—cleft by wheels and horses, BEMBRIDGE 141 It is as all-embracing in its ubiquity as that great serpent which the Norsemen conceived to encircle the world, with its tail in its mouth, like a whiting. But supposing for the present you have escaped the coils of its very plain unvarnished tail, you will be within a drive or long cleek shot of the green, which is no i easy one to lie upon. On the left is the har- j bour, to right and beyond are whins and {•• ruggedness; but if you do find safety you | are rewarded, for the green is a beauty. Then you tee on the edge of whins, and with a good carry-over again find yourself within peril of this ubiquitous road. The snaky thing is not satisfied, as a good serpent should be, with the vexations of its own vertebras, but throws off occasional offshoots, in a T- shaped manner, which aggravate things. They are side-tracks, leading the traveller upon them no-whither, but the golfer to perdition, and that speedily. But if you get a lie, which a fairly true shot will always give you, short of the worst of the coils, you will be within an iron shot of the hole, to which the left corner of ' the Big Bunker' lends a painful interest. 142 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The Bembridge golfer talks bigly and very ' .1 proudly of this big, big bunker, with big, big B's, because all things are relative^ and Bern- • [ ! bridge links is very small, though very good, and this, to all intents and purposes, is ' our only' bunker. And now we say good-bye for a while to the serpent, and tee near the edge of the big, 1 1 big bunker, and with a fairly-carrying ball may be well over it. But there is an alternative of sneaking round by the right, which sneaking method is no bad one, for the lies are good; but unless you dare the danger you will scarcely get home in two. The fourth hole is ' the long hole'—two drives and an iron shot at the end of them, if things go well. But things may very easily go wrong. The tee-shot must steer to the left of the big bunker, yet not too much so ; for there is broken trouble on the right, and again the inevitable road becomes a danger. The hole is beside the harbour, or an offshoot thereof which is called the reservoir, and is without the animal and vegetable jetsam. This is the hazard upon the left, and on the right are whins and broken ground. BE MB RIDGE 143 On the way to the fifth hole are whins to be carried from the tee, which will cause much loss—as of strokes, ball, and temper— if any topping goes on. But the hole is short, V so that a full drive will often land comfortably in the ditch and hedge, fencing the course beyond the green. To the left, again, is a less cruel ditch; but, except when the hole is at its fullest length, a cleek-shot may lay the ball on the green, and the hole be 'jj' j1 taken in an easy three. The sixth hole brings you again among ii the horrid sinuosities of the road; but they will not bother your tee-shot unless the wind ;' be roaring behind you. If • the first drive . I' be a good one, and lie safe, a second good J -| one may with difficulty carry you home by ' j the right edge of the big bunker on to a " 1, - '-* green with vexatious hummocks round about. j !'• There is a great chance that your second i '•''-'\ : drive may be interfered with by hitting | ,'• '; some one coming to the fourth hole, to your ',", f j mutual disadvantage. But no one minds this jj ; much at Bembridge. You have to get accli- H! , matised to gutta-percha in the air. Luckily ' ' ij ! the golf-ball does not kill at anything over a j1''7

i i ' i 1' •} 144 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS hundred yards, or the Bembridge links would be all tombstones. Hitherto you—the master of boy number 10—have been driving backwards and for- wards into the faces of the masters of all previous and subsequent boys. But now you j go away at a new tangent and for the seventh hole play across all the other lines of fire. It

jilj is full of incident. Here, too, the road in- 1 \ \ dulges in. some new offshoots—the trail of the Ip \\\ serpent is over it all—and as you skirmish jl}S across the plain to your ball, which, may lie lilt' "just short of a little shallow sandy bunker ) \\i before the hole, the fun of a battle-field is dull 11;\ compared to it. Sharpshooters cry 'Pore!' Ijjji at you from five points of the compass at Hi! once. An old Scottish caddie here gave out the llBIli' great dictum, 'Eh, it's nogowf at a'—it's just war!' Clearly there was no soul of chivalry or adventure in this poor man. "With the drive and iron pitch over the shallow bunker •lil this seventh hole should be a four—though • lii! there are fearful places and palings just beyond, where you may play any number—and alwayFros mon ththee righseventt thh ehol harboure you, plunge again BEMBRIDGE 145 into the thick of the .battle, and with a drive —which has to be carefully laid down to avoid the ubiquitous serpent—and an iron shot, deftly played to escape whins on the right, whins on the left, and lie on a lovely putting-green in the middle, you should do this hole again in four. Then home, for the ninth—the last—hole, with two good drives, avoiding again, as with the fear of death, the embraces of that ' old serpent,' and you come to the Club-house, the lunch, the whisky, and Beveridge, who tells you that 40 is a real good score. Eighty-three is the lowest record for a club competition, done by T. S. Henry in 1886. Anything under 40 is excellent for one round, and since it is liarder to do two good things than one, anything under 80 is yet more ez- cellent for" the two. Though Bembridge is so very small that the lines of the nine holes have to be laid out on the plan of some of the more complicated figures of the cat's-cradle, yet the bunkers, the green, the •whins, -everything about it, even that old serpent, are of first-class golfing quality. "When there are not too many joeople 146 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS 1,4 there, there can be no more perfect or enjoy- able test of golf. But when the green is crowded, Heaven have mercy on the golfer, for ' it's no gowf at a'—it's just war !' Being in the Isle of Wight, the climate, even in winter, is balmy. Snow never, one t may say, interferes. The Eoyal Isle of Wight Golf Club, to give it its full title, was instituted in 1882. It owes much of its success and favour to the exertions of the late Captain Eaton, R.N., who conferred upon it many benefits and a set of rules peculiar to itself. They are excellent rules, but a doubtful boon. Many of those who write to the 'Field' about the need of 'uniformity' in golf-rules are Bembridgites. Now, but for the Benib- ridge rules the uniformity would be almost perfect! Wherefore the, Bembridgite is found in the proud position of being in a minority composed of one,

i'K! " 147

FELIXSTOWE

THE etymologist tells us that Felixstowe means happy place. From a golfer's point of view it is not badly named. Its happiness partakes a little of the nature of the happiness of ..those nations, and golf links, whose annals are dull. It has. not aimed at distinguishing itself by efforts in advertisements or monster tournaments, but has held on •the even tenor of its ' j ! way, and kept its eye steadily on the ball. The world is divided between the people who will ,.{ pi' attribute this reticence of the Felixstowe golfer i!, 11J1 to his modesty, and to those who will attribute > X it to his selfishness. ";j : Pelixstowe is as beautiful as green links and ! blue sea can make it. It is eighty miles from . I • London, and its links are the work of alluvial deposit. Also it is sheltered hj a cliff, and the <•!'» i* climate is mild even unto Christmas. Golfers ' "'. L 2 148 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS principally live, and live well, at the Bath Hotel—a mile from the station. Even this is not the golf links. They take a drive of a mile and a half, or a walk along the shore of a mile, to reach them. The Club-house is set high upon a hill, and commands a fine view of the links and the sea, and the little village of Baw&say. Beyond Bawdsay flows the river •Deben, navigable by ships of some size. A day snatched from the links maybe well spent in boating up this picturesque stream. From the first teeing-ground one has .again a good look over the links. The nine- hole course goes zigzagging, but less distress- fully than Bembridge. You will not have to .fulfil so perfectly the functions of the ' running iv i •man.' The turf is soft and springy, delighting the eye and foot of the golfer—and the lies are excellent; but there are hazards of innumerable bunkers, and sandy roads and ruts, and it is far from being as easy as it seems. ; Prom the first tee a long drive over a big sand bunker puts one within reach of the putting-green, with another good one. A small bunker, just before the hole, is. a clever trap, but .the green is big and beautiful. A FELIXSIOWE, FELIXSTOWE 149 five is fair enough—though a four is more satisfactory. A hut stands at the edge of the green, wherefore this hole is called the ' Hut' hole. The teeing-ground to the second or ' Gate ' hole is beside the sea. A full drive will land one on the undulating green, and the hole has been done in one; but a three is excellent xipon that ridgy putting-green. .For a top there is lots of punishment in a big bad bunker, and a smaller but quite as bad bunker lies beyond. To the left of the course to the third hole lies a great long bank, from which the hole is called the ' Bank' hole. There are many bunkers in which much exercise may be had, if the tee-shot be topped—"but two good shots may put one on the green, which is guarded by a long bunker stretching twenty yards from the bank across the green. For the fourth hole one drives back towards the first hole, for the same putting- green—the big and beautiful—does duty for the fourth and first. The tee-shot will be caught by bunkers unless well struck, but with a good first the green may be reached in 150 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS two. The second shot has to be a hurdle racer, for there is a hazard surrounded by hurdles to be flown, and a bank which in the manner of Arabia Felix they call a zereba. The cost of a visit to either is one stroke. For the fifth we turn seawards to the ' Bent-hill' hole. It is a good round hole in five; but there are plenty of bunkers in which strokes may be wasted, to say nothing of the H- ii zereba, which has to be crossed from the tee. ft Again, there are bunkers short of the green, and bunkers beyond, so it takes a deal of playing. 5 " ' -1 The Eastward Iio! or sixth, is a rather i rt i I i ordinary hole, but there is hazard about the approach, for the ground is fiat and the distance hard to judge, with a sloping bank beside the green. The tee-shot may find its way into a bunker in the centre of the course, but should steer to the right; but a top cannot escape punishment in one of two -alternative bunkers. For the seventh hole we turn homewards. There is a small bunker some 190 yards from the tee; but short of this there is little trouble, and with an iron the ball should be on the green, and the hole be done in four.

it FELIXSTOWE 151 The chief beauty and danger of the Felix- stowe course are in the last two holes. The eighth is named, portentously, the Bunker's Hill hole. Two long and very straight drives will put one on the green, but slicing of either first or second means ruts or rushes, and mistake of any sort in the second shot means trouble in expensive bunkers. The putting-green is beautiful, and, as a- good test of golf, this hole is hard to beat. If anything beats it, it is perhaps the ninth, the Point hole, the most treacherous on the course. It is 416 yards—no. mean distance— in. length. The green lies between .a field on the one side and the sea-beach on the other, and the approach to it is over a big bunker. It is a point, moreover, at which the wind cur- rents are most broken, and often defeat calculation of their eddies. If the ball go into the field it is out of bounds, and your trouble begins all over afresh as you drop and prepare to play another ball. Three successive balls ' ' has a really good player been seen to drive into this insatiable field. Anyone may be glad to end his round with a five, made, up of two drives, an iron shot, and two putts. 152 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The quick changes of the wind at Felix- stowe are very remarkable and puzzling in their frequency. Often the second nine holes are quite different from the first. Anything about 80 is fine { scratch ' play. The putting-greens are kept in fine order r by J. Thomson, the resident professional, and H the Club-house, which has bedrooms, is very .I1f1 comfortable. i Felixstowe, the Happy Place, and all these, i luxuries are within reach for 15s.,' first return,' from Liverpool Street Station. The return ticket lasts eight days, and the trains keep good time.

• I S3

MONTROSE

NCE a Montrose man was asked at St. Andrews —' How do they golf at Montrose?'and, misunderstand- ing the question to refer to the methods rather than the calibre of the players, replied: ' Oh, they just hit at the ball and then swear.' No doubt it was an accurate description, but not distinctive, for the method is not peculiar to one golf links. Golf, which seems to have been cradled on the east coast of Scotland, had a home in Montrose from the most remote period of its recorded existence. J 1 i n 'fl FAMOUS GOLF LINKS I 1 154 There is Sviden.ce that the famous Marquis of i Montrose played here on many occasions, and •A»Hi that takes us back ne&rlyJ250 years. ;ii In 1785 a number of golfers (there was i apparently no organised club at that time) I ill presented a petition to the sheriffs for inter- I •II dict against the magistrates and council who allowed some of the grazing tenants to plough up and enclose part of the links, In the petition the golfers were successful, for the town council, in their answer, intimated the abandonment of their intention to interfere with the links. Thus the Montrose golfer was a stout-hearted* and masterful man from the first. Once upon a time there used to be two distinct courses, but about two years ago these were given up in favour of a new circular one, •which was made at great expense, parts of both old courses being utilised, and the town council (humanised probably by the influence of golf) giving up one of their farms to allow the good work to be completed. Montrose suffers under the double blessing of being approachable both. by the Caledonian and North British lin.es of railway. MONTBOSE--BOTAL ALBEBT GOLF BOUSE. MONTROSE 155 The station of the former is about five minutes,, and the latter about twelve minutes from the starting tee, which is close to the handsome new club-house of the Eoyal Albert—a comparatively new club as Scottish golf clubs go. It was instituted, or rather revived, as the Montrose Club, in 1810, the name being changed to the present designation in 1845, when H.B.H. the late Prince Consort became patron of the Club. The drive to the first hole (260 yards) needs to be a good one, for there are some , eighty yards of bunker immediately in front of the tee, while beyond are two smaller hazards which will trap any drive of less than 140 yards carry. Drivers of meaner capacity can avoid all but the front bunker by playing to the left. To these leftward shirkers the approach is a fall iron shot, whereas the bolder and successful negotia- tors of the ' direct route' get within a wrist shot. The green is surrounded on three sides by bent grass, which is a source of much discomfiture, and often adds a stroke or two to the score, which should be four to this hole. ' 156 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The direct road to the second hole (190 yards) is over bent and sand, which must be carried or {grief' is certain. A good , i drive will reach the hole. The green is ,1 beautifully situated in a hollow, with sandy {1 •'. bents on two sides, so that, howsoever the *;' hole be approached, it must needs be done •j . with caution. |; • The third hole (135 yards) is an exact •' I I counterpart of the second, in its intricate I surroundings, but it is very short, and a good iron shot will reach it. Before playing off to the fourth hole (250 yards) you should run up to the top of the benty hillocks between the links and the sea, whence the view to seaward is fully as attrac- tive as that of the line of the hole, which .if: presents a yawning bunker, a grassy hollow, and. whinny hillocks, all of which you must carry if you are to have a chance of being i near the hole in two. You are now on the level links, and the next or fifth hole (290 yards) was the first hole of the old north course. A full drive and an iron will take you home, but a ' top ' will land you in a nasty road, which always costs MONTROSE 157 a .shot, and a heeled ball will find a resting- place in thick bent, which is more expensive still. The sixth (255 yards) and seventh (260 yards) holes present no special features of interest provided you keep the proper course. But the course here is rather narrow and ' flanked with occasions of interest of a painful \ nature. Going to the eighth hole (360 yards), we have immediately in front the ' Big gully,' which, may be compared, without libel, to the ' Hell Bunker' of St. Andrews.. This is a very fearful hazard, two or three acres in extent, and in it are many lies of unredeemed malignity. A decent drive will clear it, but it must be decent in line as well as. length, for on the left are two ditches, whereof one is wet and the other dry. A ball can be lifted out of the wet ditch with the penalty of a stroke, but if these things be done in the wet ditch, what shall be done in the dry ? In places the lies are unplayable—consequently, however badly a ball may lie in the gully, it is never picked up until the opponent is across the dry ditch. As long as there is the ! ISS FAMOUS GOLF LINKS dry ditch there is hope. Beyond the gully there is a funereal small bunker named the ' Coffin,' which sometimes catches an extra- vagant drive. This deadly-named trap is an unfair hazard, avoidable by putting the tee further back, •which would improve the gully as a.hazard. We venture to commend this suggestion to the green committee. Going to the ninth or Girdle hole (215 yards), the course turns at right angles to the left, and the drive is, or should be, over the wet ditch already mentioned. A fair shot will land.at the foot of the girdle—one of .the best putting-greens on the links—but it is surrounded on three sides. by a kind of fosse with rushes at the bottom, and on the fourth by whins. As bad lies abound here, and the balls must be pitched to carry pretty dead, the Montrose golfer early adapted himself to the use of the mashie. The line of the tenth hole (430 yards) is at right angles again, and turns us homewards. Two drives and an iron will take us up, but the approach is very ticklish, and it is a good hole in five. The next, or Powder-house hole, is a cleek MONTROSE i S9 or iron shot, but it must be straight and well judged, for to the right are whins which jut \ out into the line between the tee and the hole. ; Everyone tries for glory to pitch on the green \ and hole in two, but the paths of glory are not easy, and lead often to the grave. The twelfth or < Gates' hole (235 yards) • is an easy four if the drive be straight, but the j course is narrow, with whins on the left, and on the right a field, a cottage, and a garden. \ The garden has been considerably enlarged j lately. The cost of a visit to it is the loss of ) the hole. The putting-green is big and rather / bad, but a portion of it is to be relaid shortly, , and it has the makings of one of the best t. putting-greens on the course. f The fourteenth (416 yards) is a good , j, sporting hole, for there is a first line of ! bunkers which will catch an indifferent tee- » tt shot—a second line about 50 yards short of ' the hole—and behind, and to the right of the \ green, an enclosure with trees and a curling \ pond. With a cleek or brassy for the second, j and an approach over the second line of [ bunkers with an iron or rnashie, it is a good : fair hole in five. 160 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The fifteenth green (254 yards) is defended by a bunker about fifty yards short of the hole, and round and about the bunker are shaggy lies in rough grass. The iron approach is a pretty one. The sixteenth (255 yards) is the old '*| last hole, and close to the old club-house. f It has a double line of bunkers; the first I!1' catches topped or skimming drives, the second sometimes catches very long ones, but is more frequently the bourne of bad iron shots. The seventeenth (380 yaxds) and. eighteenth (560 yards) axe the joy of long drivers, for the first takes two and the second three good full shots, and in each case with an approach shot at the end of them. The approach to the seventeenth, though pretty plain sailing, is very uncertain, for the hole is on a level terrace in the side of an irregular slope. The approach to the last is the best, and the occasion for the worst language on the green, for the big gully, which gives variety to the first hole, again jiV has to be successfully negotiated, or utter \} grief follows. The bunker is paved' with MONTROS-E i'6r stones of all sizes and shapes,* and once in, ' no one, humanly speaking, can say whether you will get out or not. Three first-rate drives, if the wind is not unfavourable, will carry up, but of any shortcomings, the bunker is the penalty. The common practice is to play short with the third, and approach with an iron, and six is a more usual score than five. If a match juns out to all square and one to play, this last hole, with its many chances of disaster, is a more thaj|. usually exciting one—not without hope even for the down side in the parlous case of * dormy one.' In i||llowing the above description of the lioles it must be noted by old frequenters of the green that the Club-house and starting tee have been moved ' two doors' further down ;• the present fourth hole was the old start, and: soon. Though the Montrose course is ..admitted by all but the most devoted patriots to be behind St. Andrews in excellence,at is undoubtedly one of the three best in Scotland. It has a great advantage, that you can get a free green without waiting, except on M 162 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS Saturday afternoons between two and three, when the working men are starting. First class drivers make moan against the course that the advantage their ' screamers' ought to give them is minimised by the fact that an inferior driver can get up to many of the holes with two moderate drives as against their drive and approach. As there are more middling drivers in the world than first class ones the advantage (if there is an advantage) of the many may fairly be said in these days of triumphant democracy to counterbalance the disadvantages of the few. Tour middling driver who occasionally manages to get ' a regular raker' is of course the loudest com- •/ plainer. With its facilities of access, beautiful turf and comparatively clear green, it is a matter of surprise, perhaps not, to its habitues, of regret, that Montrose is not more frequented I i >•:• than it is, if only by the overflow from St. Andrews and other close packed links. There are several good hotels and comfort- "il r- able lodgings, besides houses to let for July and August, and the Club accommodation is excellent. Yisitors (introduced by a member) :

MONTROSE 163 are admitted to all the privileges of the Club for three months for the very modest sum of ten shillings, giving access to many blessings, including that big gully in which the Great Marquis, doubtless, in his noble wrath used t many words which he would rather have left unsaid.

•h

••: 1 ; 164 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS

XVI ; i • • ONCE there was a scribe who wrote about golf . i from Westward Ho ! It was many years ago, and he used to becloud his meaning inpseudo- Macaulayese. The harmless necessary sheep he described as ' thousands of woolly mowing * machines.' The golfer of Jersey has mowing machines as harmless, as necessary, but less ; • woolly, in the little native cattle which keep the links cropped short. The tuft of grass ' • which to-day is a vexation and a bunker, 1 '\ \ may to-morrow be translated into butter for • 1. the golfer's breakfast. .1 '1 The Jersey cattle are remarkable for their beauty. So are the Jersey ladies, and so are the Jersey links. On the one side are beauti- J --'• . fully wooded hills, on the other the lovely bay of Grouville ripphng up to the very edge of the links. It is not easy to get to Jersey, because it entails crossing the sea ; but, once you have reached Jersey, the golf links are abnormally accessible. Grouville station is only some twenty minutes1 run from St. Helier, and tlie first tee and the Club-house and all that is of interest to the golfer is within two hundred yards of the station. It is possible to live at the Club-house, but more usual to lunch there and live in St. Helier. From the first tee the golfer has a bird's- eye view of the pilgrimage before him, with hazards of whin, sand, and undulations. Unless the first drive be a good stout one, the ball may rest in a road masked in whin and rough abomination. But the road should be carried, and a full blow with the iron may take it home. There is no incident in the approach, for the winter putting-green is the summer cricket ground; but if there is no incident for the golfer, the approach shots perhaps make incident for the cricketer. There is incident about the second hole of new and almost unique kind—namely, a fort or castle. It cannot be carried by assault, but possibly it may be undermined in time by diligence with 166 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS the niblick. But meantime the golfer goes creeping round with his tee-shot, for on the other side of-the course are bunkers, and is content to lay himself in two, with an iron, !' upon the green. Sometimes he will lay him- ; self, with less content, in a bunker lying .! beside the hole. j.i Herodotus says that the fountains of the •';! • Nile rise between two mountains, whereof the name of the one is Mophi and of the other Crophi. Now, this is somewhat the case with the third hole at Jersey. The hills are , . , not high, but enough to conceal the hole. It 1 ' may be reached by a long and a straight drive, and with a strong following wind it may reach the neighbourhood of the sad sea waves, jji;,!; The fourth hole is a good one. The tee- I1,} shot should be sure but not too far. If far it will reach a sunken sandy road. If un-sure it may wander upon the shore on one side, or, on the other, may lie in the ditch or with the fort between ball and hole, to tempt the bold golfer to perish in the breach. The hole is a good four, but the putting-green is high on a hill which the ball may amuse itself by •'"'' ' toboganning down on either side. JERSEY The fifth hole needs an artist to approach it. A bunker may be reached by a long drive from the tee, and just a short iron shot beyond is the hole, aloft on a plateau, with a bunker, again, behind it. A bunker before the tee to the sixth hole exacts summary justice for a top. Then, besides this, there is a thing called a mantlet (you cannot play golf at Jersey without learning quite as much as you -wish about fortification) which is a very bad thing to get your ball into. J3ut you may leave this on the right hand and so open the hole for your approach shot on to a plateau in the midst of the plain. The seventh hole has a switchback arrangement of hill and valley, two drives and an iron shot long ; and the hole lies down in a ' deep dark dell,'with rushes on the one side and broken bunker on the other. For the eighth hole you turn somewhat on the line of your previous track, and with a long drive and full iron shot may find yourself on. a putting-green lying on a vexatious slope. The ground is of the switchback nature of the course to the seventh hole. A fine bunker 168 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS |aces the tee to the ninth hole, with out- pickets of smaller bunkers and grassy pots; but a good and straight carry over will put the player within reach of the green, which, is guarded by broken bunker on either side and the railway beyond. The tenth hole wants playing. On the right is the railway, which takes the golfer to perdition—and Gorey; and, in scattered patches, on the direct line, whins. But on the left is safe lying ground, whence it is easy to get into a sandy road in close neighbourhood of the hole. The next hole is a short hole, and, like most such, very sweet to those who lay the ball on the green with a full iron shot, but

' I grievously bitter to those who wander into the surrounding country of whin and sand. Looking forth from the tee to the. eleventh, the hole is high above, and the whole course slopes, undulating, upward. The putting- green is guarded by bunkery ground and by a mantlet, but long before you get there, you may meet occasions of painful excitement. There are whins to catch you if you top, and

JERSEY 169 if you heel you will find your way outside the boundaries,, into cultivation. The features of Jersey links one may say to be the beauty of the landscape, the situa- tion of many of the putting-greens on hills or plateaux, and the similar elevation of many of the teeing-grounds. This is well seen in the thirteenth hole. From the tee the golfer looks forth over the plain to the hole set on an eminence, at something over two full drives' distance. The rising ground about the hole is fenced with whins, and the approach shot needs an artist's skill. For the fourteenth hole' you make a turn back and find whins before the tee awaiting a ' top.' If these are carried, an iron shot may put you qver' hillocks and a bunker, on to the green. The fifteenth is a troublesome hole. If you are a racer you may go by the right hand course—which is the racecourse—but this puts you within peril of the railway. On the other hand are bunkers and all sorts of rough abominations between you and the hole. The sixteenth is a flat and rather un- profitable hole. It is very hard to get any 170 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS fun out of it, unless you get your opponent into the one solitary bunker beside tlie green. Again cross tlie level country, with two : fair drives, to the last hole but one, but here

: the approach is full of hazard, whins protecting the green, as in a hollow square. ! The last hole needs a good drive to bring \ you within ironing range over the steep-set bunker which guards the approach to tlie hole, and if your total is at all in the neighbourhood of 80, you have not done amiss. The course is not long—under three miles— i and the putting-greens, and lies throughout I • the green, are capital; but" there are few i holes that are not well guarded with hazards 1 round about, and' mistakes get bad punish- •,' ment. But if you want golf and a mild ! climate and are not afraid of being sea-sick, you might make a much worse use of your • winter than iu going to Jersey. i XVII

PAU

N winter, when fog, frost and snow interfere with the legitimate object of the golfer's existence, he cannot do better . than take a ticket for Pau. In twenty-four hours he will find himself in a quaint old town, beautifully situated, with a -lovely view of the snow-clad Pyrenees, and supplied with good hotels, shops, and a capital English Club. He will find fox-hunting three days a week, a good tennis court, plenty of lawn-tennis, polo, and, last but not least, an excellent golf ground. The links are about a mile from the town, and are easily reached in ten minutes' drive—r fcST : " ~" ' ~"~—I ^ ' I i c 172 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS cab fares very cheap—or by a charming walk through the woods of the chateau. The Golf Club has been in existence for many years, but the green has been much enlarged and improved during the last four, and the Club-house is now very comfortable. The luncheon is all that can be desired, and there is a telephone to the English Club, , which is very useful. 1 The soil is not of the true sandy quality, but is the nearest thing to it. being a mixture 1 of sand and gravel, the alluvial deposit of I the river which bounds the plain. The grass • 1 is very fine, and always short, affording good , . lies. The putting-greens are not surpassed on !, any links, being very keen and true. There • •! . 1 are plenty of hazards, such as the river and 1 1 hedge's which bound the course, and cops and \- ' , , bunkers like those at Hoylake. But the chief I i, troubles.are bushes most innocent to look at, •. ' ' but which are the most unyielding and prickly that ever broke a niblick or drew tears from I an unfortunate golfer's eyes. Some of the ', ! ) holes are very sporting, and of the best length !_ i i for good golf, requiring^ two or three really

1 long drives to carry to the green. . The • 1 • 4 W

PAtT—THE PXEENEES IN THE DISTANCE.

B PAU 175 putting-greens are well guarded by hazards, and the approaches difficult. Many of the holes are short, but only to be reached by fine and accurate shots, and are by no means easy. The short driver need not fear, as there is always a way by which he may get to the hole in safety, and occasionally the tortoise defeats the hare. There is also a capital short round for the ladies, many -of whom are very good players. :- The first hole can be reached in two drives, but they must be really good ones, and there is a cop to be carried by the second shot. The hole generally takes five, as the green is small, very keen, and rather lumpy. The second hole again requires two very -j good drives, for if the tee shot be not well ,» struck it is scarcely possible to carry, with the V second, a cop and bushes which guard the !' hole- The putting-green is very good. "' The third hole needs a long carry from the >, tee, and a fine second to get home. The hole \ is guarded by bushes in front, and there are \\\ yet thicker bushes beyond. The putting-green i is very keen and on a slope, so that a five means good play. ••••.-. .... f 174 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS The fourth hole is a drive and short pitch on to a table-land, with bushes on two sides, and a road and tennis club-house on the others. This approach reminds one of a North Berwick hole. The fifth is a cleek shot, but it must be a long and true one, for there is grief all round the green. The sixth is a sporting hole. A long drive over rough country places you on good turf for a very difficult iron shot to the green, which is high above you, Y-shaped and bounded by prickly hedges. The bank is very steep, and one bad shot may cost many. The seventh can be reached in one only by the longest drivers (and seldom even by them), as there is a bad road and steep bank at the end of the carry. It can easily be done in four,, by playing to the left. There are trees round the green which often give an unwel- come stymie. The eighth hole is a cleek shot to a beautiful green, with high bank in front, and a nasty road beyond the hole. The ninth is a five hole, requiring a long, straight tee shot, and a cleek shot home. PAU 175 The course here is very narrow, and the grief very bad. If these holes have been done in thirty- eight, the lucky player may confidently expect to be a hole or two up, however good his company. The tenth is only a drive or cleek with the wind, but is over a garden, and the green is surrounded by hedges and very rough ground.. It is, however, a very good green, '. i and the hole is generally done in three. '' ij

Then comes a hole which is not to be ; • ji beaten on any links, and which delights the true golfer's soul. 'if The tee shot is over a high hedge bound- . • j I ing a field, part of which must be crossed, and the beauty of the shot is, that the more daring the carry the better will the ball he placed for the second shot to the hole. Two really fine drives may take you home. The river runs beyond the large and keen putting- ' \V green, which is guarded by many bushes. It \'. is not a bad hole in five. !; , j The twelfth is a long and excellent hole. It takes three very fine shots to reach the green, which is guarded by a bunker, with the 176 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS river about forty yards beyond. There are also bushes on each side. Most players are content with a six, and glad to get down at that. The thirteenth can be reached with a j drive and a cleek, but the carry from the tee. :,i must be a good one, and the green is very ; narrow and keen. On the left there is a cop, and on the right a nasty road with very deep ruts. This is one of the best holes on the "••, links. . . '! The fourteenth is a drive and an iron, but 'I the approach is difficult, as-the green is on a '") slope and rather lumpy. The last four holes are on new ground, ) "until lately sacred to drummers and trum- ,j peters, who used to make day hideous. The '] ground is very rough, but the holes are sport- j' ing, and require accurate play. The fifteenth needs a straight and well- placed drive, over a quarry and river, then a cleek shot up a very narrow course to the putting-green, which is surrounded by shocking bad grief. A five is good. The sixteenth is but a cleek shot, but it must land on the green, or woe to the PAU 177 unfortunate striker ; deep ruts and rough ground are everywhere round the hole. The seventeenth is a drive and iron shot- to a very keen green, too near the river to be pleasant for the golfer's nerves. The tee-shot must also be long and straight, and the lies are more curious than pleasing. The eighteenth is but an iron shot, but it is over a river and quarry, and it needs accuracy and nerve to get down in three. The record of the green is 72, done by the resident professional; but the course is now several strokes longer, and anything under 80 is very good play. . The green is kept in capital order by Lloyd, late of Hoylake, who is a very fine player, an excellent teacher, very civil and obliging, and a great favourite at Pau. The caddies, all French, are very good, and take a keen interest in the game, which many of them understand and play well. They generally pick up sufficient English to enable them and their masters to come to a mutual understanding. A word of caution is necessary to warn strangers to wear on the head some protection - - JST 178 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS from the sun, which is, even in winter, very powerful. With lovely scenery, line climate, comfortable hotels, good society, unbounded hospitality, and most sporting links, the golfer must indeed be difficult to please who cannot enjoy a holiday at Pau. If you do not like the golf at Pau, you can very easily go to Biarritz, where it is quite different. But if you like the golf at Pau you will not like the golf at Biarritz. I!-1

i 179

• XVIII

GOLF IN CANADA

THESE are no monster meetings in Canada at which the patient golfer has to stand shivering on the tee, while the couple in front (with thirty of a handicap) play ten or fifteen, more; but this is a modern development of tlie game which can be dispensed with. . ; ,;;' ' In the absence of large competition meetings the interest of the game in Canada centres in the matches between the cities of Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec, and between the provinces of Quebec, and Ontario. These contests are looked forward to with almost as much interest as an English County Cricket Match, and many have been the hard-fought battles waged on . these occa-1 I sions.^'And when the fight is over, and the s] • Queen's health is drunk standing, there is j always an outburst of that patriotic sentiment '•»,.." us 1 3 So FAMOUS GOLF LINKS which may still be found growing wild in the Colonies, though it would seem to have become exotic in the land of its birth. How many Englishmen are there, for instance, who can tell you which is St. George's day ? And yet the loyal English Canadian never fails to decorate his buttonhole on the twenty-third of April with a large red rose, and attend divine service in honour of his Queen and country. It is strange how many of these old English observances still linger on in the Colonies, and the sentiment which seems to keep them alive is very much en Evidence at a Canadian golf- meeting. The fishery dispute, commercial •union—even St. Francois Xavier—all are for- gotten, and all is mirth and loyalty. There are now three very fairly good* greens in Canada—at Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto—and of these the Quebec green is by far the most interesting and picturesque. Here the game is played over the Cove Pields, which lie between the citadel and the historic plains of Abraham; and as the harmless golf-ball whistles over the old French fortifications, the mind naturally reverts to the time when balls of a much more deadly description filled the GOLF IN CANADA • 181 air, and spread liavoc amongst French and English. Nor are mementoes of the ' glorious victory' wanting, and the strong-armed but erratic golfer who ploughs furrows with his iron may find that if he has missed the gutta he has unearthed one of the old round leaden bullets which did duty when Tommy Atkins was armed with Brown Bess, He may even bring his club into contact with a round shot marked with the crow's foot, which has long lain buried under the sod, and if he does, woe be to that club ! Historical reminiscences, however, are not golf, and we must return to the green. Tlie first hole out is played along the glacis, directly under the guns of the citadel, and although a pretty hole, presents no peculiar features of interest. A pulled ball,_ it is true, will find its way into the citadel moat, but a good drive, a long-spoon shot, and a short iron shot bring us to the green. At this point the most enthusiastic golfer, if he be ,at all a lover of nature, maybe forgiven tlie amiable weakness of laying down his putter and walking to the edge of "the cliff to gaze with admiration at the magnificent panorama 182 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS spread out before him, Above him, to the left, towers the grand old citadel; and below him—so far below that the merchant ships are dwarfed to half their size, and the Allan steamers look like yachts—rolls the majestic St. Lawrence ; while far away into the distance stretch the undulating pine-clad hills of the south shore, forming a fitting background to a scene of exceeding beauty. There is no finer view than this on the Western Continent, and even Miss Nelly Ely must have stopped to ad- mire, though it might have cost her an extra •five minutes to get round the world. Having refreshed himself with a glimpse at nature in her grandest form, the golfer will now pull himself together, and put sentiment aside before attacking the ' Old Forts,' which are quite as difficult to capture now as ever they were. This, the second hole out, is a good sporting hole. A pulled ball sails away into space, and may find a resting- place in the bosom of the St. Lawrence. A heeled ball curls into the ' sugar-bowl,' so called not from its sweetness, but because masses of rock are piled up in it like bits of lump sugar in a basin. A topped ball GOLF IN CANADA 183 meanders into a ditch under the old fort wall. There is nothing for it here but a long, clean, straight drive, which will carry over the crumbling ruins of the old fortifications, and land the player on. an acre of green grass. Even here his troubles are not over, as the putting-green is to be found in the angle of an old V-shaped outwork, and the approach |»" is far from easy. A topped iron shot strikes '1 on the face of a rock, and conies to utter grief; f * and if the vaulting ambition of the player it' leads him to drive clean over the green, he will fall on. the other side with a vengeance, and may find himself, for all practical purposes, as far from, the hole as when he started from the tee. It is a very pretty hole, and even those who have suffered most from its eccentricities are ready to acknowledge its surpassing merit. The third hole out is known as the Trench, for a long deep trench lies at the foot of the hill on which the tee is situated, f\ and intersects the green at this point. In the early spring, when winter's snow has melted, this trench is full of water, and is sometimes called 'the burn.' It was so christened by a 184 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS cautious Scottish golfer when playing a match over the Quebec links. He had had a hard grind of it at the ' Forts,' and by the time he arrived at the tee for the Trench, he had de- cided that careful play was desirable. ' I dinna like the look o' yon. burn,' he was heard to say, ' I think I'll just give my ball a wee tappie doun the brae, and then I'll loup o'er with my iron.' And so well did he carry out the programme that he laid his ball dead with his second, leaving his more ad- venturous adversary ' peddling in the burn.' The next hole is ' the Cliff,' and a very troublesome hole it is. The tee is to be fou.nd on the top of a small hill, and the hole on a sort of rocky promontory which lies opposite. Between the two hills there is a valley—' the happy valley'—bristling all over with unplayable bunkers, to be avoided at all hazards. The great beauty of the drive from this tee is, that it enables the player to gauge his own driving capacity to a nicety. If modest, he will cross- the happy valley at its narrowest point, and circumnavigate towards the hole at an angle of forty-five degrees. If ambitious, he will go straight for the hole; but this necessitates a GOLF IN CANADA 185 clean straight carry of at least 130 yards, and if the least bit short he will strike the face of the cliff, and realise too late that the shortest way is sometimes the longest road. This, in fact, is just the sort of hole to impress upon the mind of the young golfer the fact that the game of golf is not a mere pastime, but a fine moral training. If he strikes the face of the cliff, his ball will be almost unplayable. He must take his niblick and play it quietly out on to the best bit of ground he1 can select, and trust. to getting up with the iron mashie next time. If he fail, he must go back to the niblick, and so on. If he lose his temper, he may go on hammering away at the foot of the cliff for ever, while couple after couple pass over his head and go on their way rejoicing! What might be described as the score- smashing holes of the green have now been negotiated and the player who has got thus far with an average of five or thereabouts may look forward with 'some degree of confi- dence to handing in a respectable card, not that his troubles are over, for on the Quebec green the ' sporting drive' is always with us, 186 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS but the ground becomes more level and less difficult. « The ' Lacrosse' is an easy hole, although there is an ugly patch to the right known as Griffith's Garden, and a dangerous morass to the left, into which, on a windy day, a skied ball is very apt to flop. This Slough of Despond is a source of constant aggra- vation to the Quebec caddie when called upon to retrieve, and upon one occasion a small Irishman struck work. He had successfully fished out the first ball (very nearly sacrificing his boots in the effort), but when his lord and master put a second ball into the same sjDot, it was too much for his feelings. ' If ye can't play no better nor that,' he ex- claimed with true Celtic independence, 'ye may get another caddie and that's what it is.' And he laid down the clubs and dis- appeared. ' The Martello Tower' is not interesting as a golf hole, but from the old tower there is a very beautiful view of Wolfe's Cove and the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence. The Cove is now packed with large rafts of timber from the Upper Ottawa, and the quays are crowded GOLF IN CANADA 187 with, sailing ships, loading cargoes for Europe; but in this instance, at any rate, commerce lias not destroyed the beauty of nature, and the view is as lovely to-day as when Wolfe landed at the Cove and scaled the cliffs which lead up to the Plains of Abraham. ' The Long,5 < the Morass' and ' the Cup' are the next holes, but none of them call for remark till we come to the 'Eagle's nest.' This is a very picturesque hole, and is situated in a hollow on the top of a high hill. The entrance to the hollow or ' nest' is guarded on either side by two solid-looking rocks, or rather earthworks, which form a protecting Scylla and Charybdis. The entrance is wide enough, but shipwreck awaits the incautious mariner, .and, if he go aground, it is no easy matter to get afloat again. It is a good golfing hole .and may be done "in two or ten, according to the fancy or capacity of the player. ' The Glacis' is principally remarkable for its putting-green, which, as the name indicates, is to be found on the slope of the glacis, and for practical putting purposes might as well be situated on the roof of a house. This hole has to be approached.in very gingerly fashion lie -A

188 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS \t from below. Even a good putt from above has a curious way of taking a quiet look in 1! at the hole—a sort of how-do-you-do visit, . .! and off again—and then trickles down the slope like a rill in summer-time. Of the remaining holes, e Stevenson's," 1: named after one of the fathers of the club, and the 'Racquet Court,' which is the last hole in, might merit description, but enough has now been said to show that the Quebec green has well earned its Canadian title of ' the i. ! sporting green.' For the long clean driver, the Quebec links are a haven of rest, but for the duffer they are Pandemonium, from the first hole to ! , the eighteenth. If the mid-green were not quite so rough, and if the putting-greens were a trifle larger and the least thing smoother,, the Cove Fields, as a golfing ground, would ! I be hard to beat. In Montreal the game is played over Fletcher's Field, a fine open space which lies- at the foot of the mountain. ' .1 The pretty little Club-house—noted for the hospitality dispensed therein—commands a fine view over the city of Montreal towards.

GOLF IN CANADA 189 the St. Lawrence—a view very much resem- bling that from the chalk pit on the East- bourne links, over the town of Eastbourne. Here, or in the immediate vicinity, was situated the old Indian village of Hochelaga, where Jacques Cartier first pow-wowed with the Algonquins, and gave to their mountain the name of Mount Royal. There is no trace of the Indian now on the ground which was once his own, unless it is to be found in the game of Lacrosse as played by the Montreal gamin on Saturday afternoons. European civilisation and British fire-water proved too much for the ' noble savage,1 and the fields whereon the Indian corn may once have waved, are now ploughed only by the golfer. Fletcher's Field is very much smaller than the Cove Fields, but what it lacks in size it gains in finish, and the transition from Que- bec to Montreal is like emerging from a forest into a flower garden. Many of the putting-greens are quite perfect, and resemble the lawn which was so much admired by an American when visiting an English .friend at his old country-seat. 'I would like to have a lawn like that,' 190 FAMO US GOLF LINKS

1 j said the American, ' and perhaps you would \ ' tell me how to set about it.' j ,• i 'Quite easy,' replied his host; 'you first, 'U^ put sheep upon it, then you mow it. Then '•X you put the sheep on again and mow it again, S ' ' and if you go on at that for two hundred j-j •, years you will get your lawn.'

, >t • ' Then I reckon I'll give it up,' said the \'\ American. .'i-1 This is much the feeling of the Quebec golfer when he finds himself on a Montreal putting-green. He gives it up. It must not

l be supposed, however, that because the putt- \ ;I* ing-greens are good, the sporting element is * altogether wanting. A bad drive at the first 1 i hole out will land on the high road, or, what I'1* is still more probable, in the ditches which skirt the road on either side. At the second hole a clean carry of at least one hundred and twenty yards is a necessity, as there is no ' :[I short cut either to the right or left, and the tj intermediate space is all bunker together, i Probably the prettiest drive on the green is over an avenue of towering elm-trees, and ;:. at this hole the fore-caddie, almost as a matter >•• of course, places himself under the trees and

!' •» [

GOLF IN CANADA igr •waits for the ball, till it descends upon him from the heights above. It is a drive which requires a good deal of execution, as the ball must not only be hard hit, but well lofted. The St. Leon hole is also a good hole, as a veritable hay crop extends for at least a hundred yards in front of the tee and forms as horrid a bunker as the heart of the golfer can dislike. The reputation of the Montreal green must, however, rest upon its putting-greens —as a sporting green it must always be inferior to Quebec. The weak point of both the Montreal and Quebec links, is the short distance between the holes—a good drive and an iron shot will, in most cases, bring you to the putting-green; on the other hand there are no links in the old country where a topped ball, off either the driver or iron, is more invariably and more unmercifully punished, so that there is no lack of opportunity for the accomplished golfer to display his skill. A Willy Park or John Ball, junior, would cover either of these links in an average of four with little trouble, but the moderate player finds no difficulty in running (' 192 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS up, an avei'age of six and even getting beyond it. "With links such as these, so beautifully situated and so full of interest, it is not to be wondered at that the game of golf prospers exceedingly in the Great Dominion.. 193

WOECESTEKSIIIEE GOLF CLUB 1

l A EAILWAY-STATION within 200 yards of the club-house makes the course of the Worces- >! ter shire Golf Club, which is laid out on j1 Malvern Common, about three-quarters of a \ mile from the town, very easy of access for J those residing in Malvern, and in the neigh- \ bouring towns , of Worcester, Gloucester, : Cheltenham, Hereford, Ledbury, and intermediate places. i, Nature has divided golf links into two '( great classes, those that have sand bunkers, and those that have them not. The Malvern \ Links aspire to the leading place in the latter * class. \ The club was started in 1880, when as yet there were but few of its kind, and when crack golfers, whose sole idea of a golf course was St. Andrews or Westward Ho! spoke of o I94 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS such sandless courses with kindly irony as '.having no hazards but apple-women and sheep.' Now, however, that golf has invaded almost every open space in England, the ideal is less lofty, and experience proves that 'gowf' is of all games the least fastidious, and adapts Its delicate science to the humble inland common no less than to the roj^al and ancient links. Before describing the golfing characteristics of this green, it is but fair to notice the unrivalled excellence both of its view and of its air. It has the whole range of the Malvern Hills immediately on the west, and around the wide panorama of the Severn Valley, and the hills that frame it from the Anperdme and Olent Hills on the north, beyond Worcester, to Edgehill by Bredon in the east, and the Cotswolds above Cheltenham and Gloucester on the south. And the air is—well—Malvern air!—not to be found elsewhere. Golfers from other links, who regard 4"wo rounds as their daily task, find three rounds easily within their powers in the bracing', freshness of these downs. "*.-, '.The course itself consists of eighteen holes, ^ 1 ^

1 'I ! i.* *!, • *'-"*-|T-,«s-,yt. ¥ 4 -.'•.-• *-' •41 - ^^/^ --•-•":

SIALVBBN—THE PLAHTATIOS HOEB. WORCESTERSHIRE GOLF CLUB igj arranged in two distinct halves, an upper and a lower, with the golf-house exactly in the centre. On medal days it is allowable to take either half first, and thus immense relief is given to a crowded green, though a railway hazard at the first tee shot of the upper level generally frightens players,into going by the lower level first. The character of the two halves is very distinct. The lower half is far the longer, but there are com- pensations in the excellent hazards of the upper and shorter course. The upper course is very good in 36, and the lower in 40. The lowest amateur scratch score yet returned in a competition is 80, but Douglas Bolland, the club professional, does the course pretty regularly in about 75, and has done it in 71. Starting from the golf-house, on the lower round, the first hole gives rather a wide margin for the drive, but it depends on the second whether the hole is to be clone in 4 or 5. In this hole, as in most, the iron shot is the telling one. Indeed it may be said, as the great characteristic of the whole course, that 11.Ill" ''_"', 196 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS 11,[' unless a man can play his iron well, he is not J , likely to do a low round. 1 ( The second hole requires a far and sure „ I drive from the tee, and then a straight and 1 , ;' • long brassey second will leave a difficult , 1 downhill iron approach. The green is a '1 ,1 • ticklish one to stop on, and the hole is a very j 1 ' 1 ' fair one in 5. j ; After a long tee shot, over a well placed ; ' pond in the centre of the course and to the ' left of another, a lofting iron will land the

, t ball on the third green. It almost seems to , be a fluke if the ball lies well on this green, ! • . as it is a table-land, and the ground leading j I "I to it somewhat uneven. But then Douglas 1 1 Holland always does lie well on it, and the '• hole should be done in 4. 1 •' The fourth green requires a long drive ! • from a high set up tee over various cross ! ; ditches, and a road leading away to mid off. ! A careful iron shot will then often give a long putt for 3, but even good players seldom 1 take less than 4 and often.'.5. The fifth requires a good carry of 120 yards over the aforesaid road and a collection of gravel pits to the left, and a pretty WORCESTERSHIRE GOLF CLUB iron shot should secure this hole comfortably in i. The sixth is a good cleek shot on to the green, and may well be done in 3. It is a possible 2, but equally possible 5, as the hazards lie close to the green on all sides. The seventh is the long hole, being considerably over 400 yards—two good play club shots will avoid various hazards and leave a short iron approach. This hole is not generally done under 5. The eighth is a drive and a long iron shot with a very pretty green to lie dead on. Like most of the others, this green, though very well kept, is by no means a plane super- ficies, and gives plenty of opportunity for roundabout calculation in the putting. The ninth and last hole of the lower course requires a good drive and a very careful second, generally with the brassey. Five is very comfortable for this hole, though on paper it looks as if it should be a 4. With the first hole of the upper course the hazards begin in earnest. The first drive crosses the Midland Eailway. Sometimes it does not cross it, but lands among the lines, r98 . , FAMOUS GOLF LINKS for the tee-liazards have not been so' formidable in the lower course, and golfers generally here express with ill-assumed levity their doubts of success. Here, as in life, to doubt is to be lost, and to pay the penalty'of two strokes. Nevertheless a moderate drive and careful approach may take this hole in 3. In the second hole a lift of 110 yards will carry a high embankment, and a very accurate iron second is required to do the hole in i. The third hole is a short iron approach shot, but there is no hole on the course in which grief is more desperate or more general. The two railway lines converge to within 40 yards, just at the green ; and a fence beyond, and whins, ferns, and thistles almost all round, leave the sloping ground to the left of the hole the only safe approach. It is, however, properly played, a 3 hole. The fourth is a drive and a cleek or brassey second, leaving a delicate iron shot on to a green in a corner, with a bunker immediately beyond and a ditch to the left. "Five is fair for the hole. The fifth requires either the cleek or the WORCESTERSHIRE GOLF CLUB 199 1 ' iron, according to the position of tee, and, if j a variety of gravel bunkers are safely carried, '; ' should be done in 3. • • The tee shot to the sixth has to face about •j 110 yards of gravel bunker, and a good second. T shot with the iron over some whins will land ! . the ball on the green. ] The seventh requires a driver from the I • tee and a careful second with the, iron. The green is called the Punch-bowl, being in an 1 . artificial hollow surrounded with whins and j other hazards. j To the eighth hole the drive must be very i accurate, avoiding a high wood to the right and whin beyond to the left, and a hill with rough grass and fern immediately in front. The second shot is an iron, and the hole should be taken in 4. The last hole is two cleek shots, as a driver will generally carry over a limited plateau into a bunker. A very long driver can, however, sometimes carry the whole hazard to smooth ground. The second shot must be played with great care, or it will overrun the green into a ditch or hedge. Golf is generally regarded as a pastime; 300 FAMOUS GOLF LINKS bat at Malvern it seems, to be taking its place as one of the most efficacious of the various means there employed whereby gout and rheumatism are compelled to relax their hold on stiffened joints, and not a few cripples here find that golf can do more to the halt and the maimed than brine baths, or all the ingenuity of hydropathic science. This club has had as professional for the last four years Douglas Holland, whom members of the club are not alone in thinking the finest golfer of the day. He is shortly leaving for another green near Staines, where he will doubtless arouse the same admiration for his skill, and the same strong personal liking that he leaves behind him at Malvern. He belongs to the order of ' gentle giants,' for with all his strength and skill he is perfectly without conceit, and no one has ever heard him say a t li rough word. i In a place like Malvern, where the land |t is common and the commoners have to be conciliated, a professional of Holland's dis- , ',i position is, apart from his other qualifications, f ]' invaluable for his popularity and sobriety. • • Once, on a Monday morning, Malvern WORCESTERSHIRE GOLF CLUB 201 golfers found that the caddies had expressed their estimate of Eolland by marking out in pitch on one of the principal greens, 'D.B.. 3 is a man.' Sabbath leisure has often been worse employed.

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