Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/249

210 his short game, a more scientific player than the slashing youth who finds so many holes laid out to suit his particular game.

There attaches a sort of glamour to the slashers, which is not quite as it should be. The newspapers, for instance, make far more fuss about a phenomenal drive or brassey than they do about a neat, graceful lofted stroke, which demands perhaps the greatest skill that any golfer can attain. The public generally are instructed on the question of driving, which is only a question of length, and there is rather too much pandering to the vulgar taste which has its counterpart in cricket in the "bloomin' 'igh, bloomin' 'ard, and bloomin' hoften."

It ought to be possible to lay out links where each style of play should have its turn. There may safely be holes of great length to call forth the utmost strength of the youth to reach in two strokes; there may be others where, however you play them, it is impossible to reach the hole without a skilful loft. One or two holes ought to be of such a length that instead of driving you should be forced to approach them from the tee. Such a stroke is really far harder to do than to