Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/171

140 the crooked putt may go in, the straight one go crooked, the same tendency which I have just remarked on in the case of approaching. It is remarkable, however, how completely off it a sea-side player can be, and frequently is, when he finds himself inland, especially if he plays with a wooden putter. A wooden putter makes the ball run closer to the ground; on inland putting-greens, if you can get accustomed to a very slightly-lofted iron club, you can make the ball go straighter by means of a series of microscopic jumps than if you made it travel right along the ground the whole way, which it does when played with a wooden putter. In ordinary weather there is more grass on inland greens, and you can putt firmer than on sea-side links, especially those on the east coasts of England, where, on the whole, there is a short supply of water and rain. Such greens become painfully keen, and such putting is not the real art that it is when you can hit the ball harder, for you are not so afraid of running the ball out of holing distance.

From what has been said it may be inferred that the real great player is not relatively so great on a roughish inland green as he is on the links