Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/187

152 on the putting-green, and this superiority takes away all the advantage that is gained by greater length in the drives. The golfer who, when on the green, is always down in two strokes except when he is down in one, is the player who wins matches.

The game of golf should be played in a sportsmanlike and in a gentlemanly manner. One drawback to the game is that, on the whole, more than any other game, it seems to attract a great many who fail to come up to the ideal in either of these respects. Some of the rules seem to be drawn as if this was recognised to be the fact. Two men, both gentlemen, play a friendly game, and it would not occur to either of them to pay any attention to some of these absurd rules. Others play and angry discussions arise as to moving a bit of grass that may be growing, and therefore cannot be moved; or one man claims the hole because his opponent has pressed down the turf with his knuckles. In a high wind the ball moves before the player has touched it with his club, but after he has addressed it, this counts a stroke against the unfortunate player. These are instances of what I