STACK ANJtcX SMITH CM.IF. Lisiuwr, LOS GOLF BY GARDEN G. SMITH I GOLF BY GARDEN G. SMITH WITH A CONTRIBUTION BY MRS. MACKERN NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS GOLF THE game of golf consists in playing a ball, in as few strokes as possible, from cer- tain starting places, called teeing-grounds, with various clubs, suited to the nature of the stroke, into a succession of holes cut in the ground at varying distances. Golf may be played on any park or com- mon, but its original home is the " Links," or common land which is found by the seashore, where the short close turf, the sandy subsoil, and the many natural obstacles in the shape of bents, whins, sand-holes and banks, supply the conditions which are essential to the proper pursuit of the game. Eighteen is the usual number of holes in a golf course, and in arranging the succession of these holes care should be taken that they are so placed that parties playing to one 1C9L74G 8 GOLF hole shall not be crossed or met by parties playing to another. If sufficient suitable ground be not available to admit of this being done, it is better to limit the number of holes to 15, 12 or 9. The extent and nature of the ground available will determine the distances between the individual holes, and these should be placed so as to take advantage of any natural features in the shape of hillocks, hollows, ditches or other obstacles, to test the skill of the golfer, and lend variety and interest to the play. As a general rule, a hole should not be much shorter than 100 yards, or longer than 500 yards, while the entire course, if made up of 1 8 holes, and measured from hole to hole, should be from 2| to 3f or 4 miles in length. For each hole there is a starting point, called the teeing-ground. The first of these is usually marked out near the club- house, and the others are placed near the hole previously played, but in such a position that parties playing from it will be out of the line of fire of those playing to the previous hole. The game commences at the first teeing- ground, and the hole to which the ball is to GOLF g be played is cut in a well-cared-for green, called the putting-green. The hole is round, 4^ inches in diameter, and should be at least 4 inches in depth. To preserve its shape, it is usually lined with tin or iron, but this lining should be pressed down into the hole, so as to leave half an inch of turf above its upper rim. If this is not done, and the metal rim is left flush with the surface of the grass, many balls that would otherwise go in, will either run round the rim or jump over the hole. A movable flag or disc, mounted on a stick or pin, is placed in the hole to indicate its position. The putting-green, technically, is all ground within 20 yards of the hole (Rule 30), and all this space, if possible, should be of the closest and smoothest turf. It is not desira- ble to have the surface flat like a billiard- table ; and an undulating surface, provided the turf be equal and true, will be found to make the putting more interesting and difficult. Between the teeing-ground and the put- ting-green should be found, whether they be natural or artificially formed, various " hazards " in the shape of sand-pits or jo GOLF " bunkers," ditches, gorse, roads, or other obstacles ; and these should be placed so as to catch and punish badly-played balls, while plenty of open space and good turf should be found between them to reward well- hit strokes. Thus, supposing a hole be 250 yards in length measured from the teeing-ground, there should be a hazard of some sort ex- tending right across the line of the hole, about 100 or 130 yards from the tee. Be- yond this, the ground should be good ; but, guarding the hole again, and some 30 or 40 yards in front of it, there should be another hazard which the player would have to carry before reaching the putting-green. In addi- tion, hazards may be placed on either side of the course to catch crooked balls, and also beyond the hole to punish those that are hit too strongly, but "blind" hazards i.e., hazards which are not visible to the player, such as sunk ditches or holes, should either be marked or filled up. The Ball used in playing golf is made in various sizes, but that most in use measures about if inches in diameter. It is usually made of well-seasoned gutta-percha, grooved GOLF ii or notched on the surface, and painted white. Prior to the introduction of gutta-percha, golf-balls were made of feathers, forced into a case of leather, and the figures 27 and 2/|-, &c., which are used to-day in differ- entiating the various sizes of balls, represent the weight in pennyweights of the old feather balls. Several kinds of composition balls, known generically as " putties," in contradis- tinction to the "gutties" or gutta-percha balls, though they have had a certain vogue, have failed to take the place of those made of the raw material. Balls made of fresh gutta- percha are properly seasoned and at their best about six months after being made and painted, but care should be taken that they are kept at an even and moderate tempera- ture. If they are kept longer they are apt to become brittle, and, when struck, the paint will crack off. There are many varieties of golf Clubs, but those most commonly in use, and all that are really necessary for the player, are as follows : Driver, Brassy, Cleek, Mashie, Iron, Niblick, and Putter. All other golf clubs are either adaptations or modifications of these. i > GOLF The driver and brassy are wooden clubs, and the putter may also be of the same material. The heads of the others are made of malleable iron. The heads of wooden clubs are usually made of well-seasoned beech-wood. Apple-wood is also used, but it is hard, and lacks the spring of beech- wood. The best shafts, both for wooden and iron clubs, are made of hickory, although good shafts are also made of ash, lance wood, greenheart, lemon tree, and a variety of other woods. The best heads for clubs are those in which the grain of the wood runs down the neck and along the head. If the grain runs across the neck, the club is sure to break in course of play. The finest shafts, though they are difficult to obtain, are made of split hickory i.e., hickory which is split from the wood with the grain, and not sawn off the plank. The Driver The driver is the club used from the tee if the hole be long, or if the ball lie well, whenever it is desired to play it as far as possible towards the hole. It is a wooden club with a long powerful shaft. The head should have plenty of wood in it and the face or hitting part of the head SET OF CLUBS. 14 GOI.F should be fairly deep. It should not be hollowed out in the middle, nor sloped back when the club head is laid on the ground. The Brassy The head of the brassy is smaller and shorter than that of the driver, and the sole is shod with brass, to preserve the wood when the ball has to be played from stony or hard ground. The face of the brassy is often " spooned " or sloped backward, so as to raise the ball in the air, and the smaller size of the head admits of its being used when the ball lies in a " cup " or indentation of the ground, which the driver head would be too large to enter. The Cleek The cleek is an iron-headed club with a straight and narrow face. The shaft is longer than that of other iron clubs, and it is chiefly used in playing full shots through the green, when the ball lies badly, or when a wooden club would take it too far. The Iron The iron has a deeper blade or face than the cleek and is shorter in the shaft. Irons are made' of various weights and with various degrees of pitch or loft, GOLF 15 and are chiefly used for approaching the hole, or for lifting the ball over hazards or out of sand. The Mashie The mashie is shorter in the head than the iron, and bears much the same relation to it that the brassy does to the driver. Like the iron, it is also made of various weights and degrees of loft, for particular strokes, and its uses are practically the same. The Niblick The niblick is used when the ball lies badly in sand, mud, whins or other hazards, or wherever it is necessary to use ojeat f orce to extricate the ball from o its position. The head is round, small, and very heavy. The Putter The putter is used chiefly after the ball has been played on to the putting-green, to play the ball into the hole. The head is made either of wood or metal. It is more upright and the shaft is much shorter than that of any other club, and should be quite stiff. There are many varieties of metal putters, no one of which can be said to be better than another. The chief points to be looked to in a putter, its appearance and make being secondary con- 1 6 GOLF siderations, are that it should be well balanced and not too heavy. A Bulger is a wooden driver or brassy with a convex face instead of a straight one. It is claimed by its admirers that a ball struck on the heel or toe off this convex face, will still go straight, unlike a ball simi- larly struck from an ordinary club, which will fly to the right or left respectively. If, how- ever, the club be drawn in towards the body, or thrown out from it in striking, as very commonly happens, the convex face will con- siderably augment the curve thus put upon the ball, so that any advantage it may possess in the one case is counterbalanced by its disadvantage in the other. It is generally conceded, however, that a ball, if struck truly with the apex of the convexity, will fly off quicker, and consequently travel far- ther, from the bulger than from a straight- faced club, where the area of contact is larger. Spoons, or wooden clubs of different lengths, with their faces hollowed out at various angles, are now almost obsolete. The long spoon, mid spoon, short spoon or barring spoon or baffy (the latter used GOLF for approaching the hole), are now rarely seen, having been supplanted by the brassy, and the modern irons and mashics. METHODS OF PLAYING THE GAME. The game is played by two or more sides, each playing its own ball (Rule i) and the object of each side is to hole the ball in fewer strokes than the other. There are two methods by which matches can be played, viz. : Match Play and Medal Play. In the former the players count by holes, and in the latter by strokes. Match Play In a match by holes the usual number of players is two, and the players begin at the first teeing -ground. The ball is placed on a small elevation, usually a pinch of sand, called a " tee." The player who strikes first, the order of starting being usually settled by agreement or by toss, is said to have the " honour," and this he retains until his opponent wins a hole. After both have struck from the tee, the player whose ball is farthest from the hole plays again, and so on until each player has played his ball into the hole i8 GOLF The player who has done the hole in the fewest strokes wins the hole, and if both have taken the same number, the hole is said to be " halved." At the end of the round, the player who has won most holes wins the match, and if both have won an equal number, the match is said to be "halved" or "drawn." It must be observed in " Match Play," that the total number of strokes taken to the various holes does not directly affect the result, as for instance, A may take 3 to the first hole and B 8, but A only wins i hole. At the second hole A may take 6 and B 5, which makes them " all square " or "all even" in holes, although A's total strokes are only 9, while B's are 13. Should one of the players, A, find himself a number of holes to the good, equal to the number remaining to be played, or, in other words, in such a position that his opponent, B, even by winning all the remaining holes, could only tie with him, A is said to be " dormy," and should A win the next hole, the match is over, as he must eventually win by i hole at least. Supposing A were 3 holes to the good, GOLF 19 with but 3 holes remaining to be played, he would be " dormy three," and should he win the next hole he would win by 4 holes and 2 to play. The remaining holes in this case are only two, called the " bye," and A would be said to have won the " Long Match." In Match Play the game is counted be- tween the holes by the terms, " the odd," " the like," " 2 more," " i off 2," and so on. Thus when A has played one more than B, he is said to have played " the odd," and when B plays he has played " the like." If A has played two or three more strokes than B, B then plays one off 2 or 3, as the case may be, and so on. A plays the "long odds" to B, when B lies much nearer the hole in the same number of strokes. Foursome A match by holes is often played by four players, two against two, and is called a foursome. Only two balls are used, the partners striking alternately, both from the tees and throughout the green. A stroke exacted as a penalty under any of the rules does not affect the rotation of play. For example, if A and B are u 2 20 GOLF partners, and A plays their ball into water, from which it has to be lifted and dropped under a penalty of one stroke, the next stroke is played by B and not by A. Three-ball Match Three-ball matches are played by three players, each playing his own ball, but if the play is by holes, the scoring becomes somewhat difficult and complicated, and, if the three players are all playing against each other, it makes a better game to count by strokes. A good three-ball match can be made when one of the players plays what is called the "best ball" of the other two. This means that in order to win a hole, he must do it in fewer strokes than either of the other two. It is obvious that in this form of match the conceder of odds must be superior to each of the other two players. " Colonel Bogey " A method of scoring by holes which has lately become popular is for the players to compete against a score supposed to have been made by " Colonel Bogey." This gentleman is simply the com- mittee's embodiment of a first-rate player, and his score represents approximately the number of strokes which ought to be GOLF 21 taken to each hole without serious mistakes. The players play each hole, not directly against each other, but against the " Bogey ' score for the hole, and they win, lose, or halve it with " Colonel Bogey," according as their respective scores are better or worse than or equal to his. The player who is most holesuporleastholesdown to "Colonel Bogey" at the end of the round wins the match. Inter -Club Matches Inter-club matches are usually played by teams of varying numbers, representing the best players in each club. The individual mem- bers of each team play hole matches against each other, the players being pitted against each other, as far as possible, in order of merit. At the end, the total number of holes won by each side is added up, and the club having a balance in its favour wins the match. Another, and perhaps fairer, method of judging the result, is to count the number of individual matches won, instead of the number of holes. This latter method sup- plies a fairer test of the general strength of the teams. By the former method it fre- quently happens that the failure of one member of the team brings defeat to his side 22 GOLF For example, suppose two clubs play a match with teams of six a-side with the following result : X 7 A .... 4 G . o B .... i H....O C . . . . o I .... 10 I) .... o J . . . 6 E .... 2 K . . . . o F....I L....O 8 16 It will be seen that though the X team won four of the six matches, they yet lost by eight holes, although the Z team only gained two matches of the six. Club Tournaments are played on the same principle as the Amateur Championship competition. The competitors are drawn against each other in couples, and at the conclusion of the first round, the winner of the first couple plays against the winner of the second couple, for their places in the third round, and so on until the final stage is reached, the survivor of which is the ultimate winner. In arranging a club tournament or match of this nature, it frequently happens that the number of entries is such that, by drawing GOLF 23 the couples together in the usual way, it will not be possible to conclude the tournament without having byes right up to the final stages. This is rightly felt to be unfair, and in such a case the Bagnall-Wild system will ensure that no byes will occur after the first round. 1 Medal Play. (See special rules for Medal Play). Medal Play is the method of playing a match, by counting the number of strokes re- quired for the whole round, without reference to the number of individual holes lost or won. The player who completes the round in the fewest actual strokes is the winner, if it be a scratch competition, and subject to his allow- ance or penalty if it be played under handi- cap. Ties are usually settled by playing another round. A record score for a green should be a score played under medal play, and not, as too often happens, a score compiled by a player playing a hole match. 1 By this system, after the competitors have been paired, the number of couples (counting the odd man, if there be one, as a couple) is subtracted from the nearest higher power of two, and the number forming the re- mainder is the number of byes. 24 GOLF Handicapping In order to enable an inferior player to make an even match with a superior, it is necessary that he should receive points, and there are various ways of doing this. In medal play, the weaker player simply receives a given number of strokes, which are deducted from his score at the end of the round. This same method is the usual one employed in match play, subject to certain regulations dealt with later. Another method is for one player to con- cede the other a given number of strokes' which may be used singly or together at any hole or holes at the discretion of the receiver of the odds. These strokes are known as " bisques." Still another method is for the better player to allow the inferior a given number of holes to start with. For example, A gives B three holes of a start. B is then three holes up with eighteen to play, if the match is one of eighteen holes, but he has to play A level throughout the entire round. A has thus to beat B by four holes on the round to win the match. Medal Play For club competitions the handicaps of the members are settled by a GOLF 25 committee, who usually proceed as follows : A score for the round is agreed upon as a good scratch score, say 80, and each player who is below scratch form receives strokes sufficient to bring his average score down to this figure. It is usual to compel a new member of a club, or one whose play is not known, to hand in three or more scores for the information of the committee before he is allowed to compete for a prize, and upon the average of these scores the committee o decide what handicap he is to receive. It is well to make the outside limit of all handicaps in club competitions 18 strokes. By this means overcrowding on competition days is avoided, and the absurdity of having a medal carried off by a beginner who is re- ceiving, as sometimes happens, two strokes a hole from the scratch player is done away with. When a player wins a prize, if his score be a good one, his handicap should be reduced immediately by one or two strokes, as the occasion may seem to demand, while, at the same time, the form of the other players must be watched by the committee, and their handicaps adjusted from time to time, irre- spective of their winning prizes. 2 6 GOLF Should a scratch player be found to be winning too many handicap prizes, the best plan is to penalise him to the required extent by adding to his actual score. Thus, if he is penalised three strokes, and he hands in a card of 79, his score would read 79 + 3 = 82. This saves the necessity of raising the handicaps of all the rest of the members. Match Play Reference has before been made to one or two methods of playing matches under handicap, but the one usually employed in club competitions is as follows : The handicaps for match play are based on the number of strokes received in medal play, but a smaller proportion is allowed in match play. The reason for this has been indicated above (see Match Play), viz., that an inferior player may take eight to a hole which his opponent does in three, but the latter thereby only gains one hole, and not five strokes, as he would in medal play. It is impossible to settle absolutely what the proportionate difference should be in the handicaps of players for medal and match play respectively, as these would vary with every two players. For the purposes of club GOLF competitions, however, the table of match play odds adopted by the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, and now in general use, which is here appended, will be found to work fairly satisfactorily. Table of Match Play Odds. In singles, three-fourths of difference be- tween handicap allowances. In foursomes, three-eighths of difference be- tween the aggregate handicap allowances on either side. A half-stroke or over, both in singles and foursomes, shall count as one. Smaller fractions count as nothing. Strokes in Strokes in Strokes in d! o aJ V