Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/198

Rh play with feather balls, while the modern player has had every imaginable choice of the finest gutta-percha to choose from. There is another point also to be thought of. When young Tommy Morris was in his prime, you might say, if I remember rightly, that all the important matches were played at St. Andrews, Musselburgh, Prestwick, and North Berwick, and those matches were comparatively few in number. Now links are to be found in nearly every place where it is possible to put them, and a great many where the critical would say it was impossible, and express trains connect them. If constant play in tournaments and for medals against strong and numerous competitors, on every sort of links, is good for a player, and tends to improve his game—which I think it must—the modern player is in this respect at a great advantage. I cannot speak with certainty, but I should think that Vardon played more important money matches in 1898 and 1899 than young Tom played during his whole career, which was, however, a very short one. In 1860 the field for the championship would number perhaps twenty; in 1899, one hundred. All these facts tend to show that though the scoring