Golf

a game played on a turfy field with balls and clubs, somewhat after the manner of hockey. The game is perhaps of Dutch origin, but it has long been known as the ancient and honorable Scottish game of golf. The honor of being the cradle of golf is claimed by St. Andrews, Scotland. A golf field is called the links. It should be a tract of undulating ground, with a good share of turf interrupted by ruts and hollows. These are called hazards. Shrubbery, heaps of sand, and other artificial obstructions are called bunkers. Eighteen holes 4 1/2 inches in diameter are made at intervals of from 100 to 500 yards apart. The entire circuit should extend from 3 to 5 miles. Each hole is surrounded by a smooth putting green 60 feet square. In playing singles, the players play two and two. Each has a gutta-percha ball and an assortment of clubs of beech or hickory, frequently shod with iron. A caddy is an attendant whose duty it is to carry these golf sticks. In starting, one of the players sets his ball on a little cone of sand called a tee, and, seizing his stick, swings it with both hands, aiming to strike the ball and to land it as near as possible to the first hole. His competitor follows in like manner. The player whose ball lies farthest from the hole now strikes first. This playing is continued until one of the players wins the first hole by landing his ball in it. They then begin again trying for the second hole. The player who wins the most holes wins the game. Another way is to keep count of the strokes. The player who goes around the course making each hole with the fewest number of strokes for the entire course is adjudged the winner. Still other methods of playing are in vogue. Golf adherents have many fine links and expensive club houses both in America and abroad. It is considered a healthful, but, as managed, a rather expensive sport.

The attitude of golf players was put well by President Taft on his Western trip in 1909. In acknowledging the presentation of a gold-mounted eucalyptus golf stick at Merced, Mr. Taft said:

I am very much touched by your kindness in giving this to me, this memento of my visit. It has reference to the game of which I am very fond. The game of golf is an old Scotch game, played in Scotland by everybody from boys to old men, and from the poorest to the richest. They have what they call "open links," that is, golf grounds devoted to the public, and I sincerely hope that in this country the game will spread. We don't, in this country, need games for boys from fifteen to twenty-five or thirty, because we already have them. I suppose I am looking at some baseball fans equal to myself in that regard. I don't know how it is with you, but I have got beyond my baseball playing days. The game of golf remains with you from fifty to seventy. Indeed, I have played with a gentleman very near eighty, and he beat me. It is a game that leads you to walk without realizing that you are walking. When you play a game of eighteen holes and walk upward of four or five miles, there is only a pleasant feeling of fatigue and none of that violent air that you have in baseball or tennis.

I am hopeful that out here you have land not irrigated that you can devote to this game. There is this about it: When you first see the game you will appreciate the tone of ridicule that generally attaches to a good sized man chasing a quinine pill with a stick around a field; but after you have driven two or three blows at that ball and found that, although it is considerably bigger than a quinine pill, it is not large enough to hit at, you realize the training of character that there is in it.

I don't know any game that is so provocative of profanity as golf. I don't know any game that makes one so ashamed of profanity. It is a game full of moments of self abasement, with only a few moments of self exaltation; and we Americans who are not celebrated for our modesty may find such a game excellent training. If those gentlemen over fifty who are in need of something and do not know what, will only organize a golf club and get golf sticks and golf balls and chase them around 6,000 yards every afternoon, they will become a great deal more contented with life and a great deal better satisfied with the condition in which the Lord has left them.

See Hockey; St. Andrews