96 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



pleasure to hunt a red ball over snow, or to plod over 

 so-called greens parched to a dull khaki colour, with 

 the thermometer at 95 degrees in the shade where 

 there is any 1 It can be played at any time of life, 

 although least suited to the torrid energy of youth, 

 or to the tottering winter of extreme old age ; still 

 the period of middle life say between 25 and 80 

 gives a solid 55 years or thereabouts during which 

 the game may be played with propriety and advantage. 

 A tyro can compete with an expert without spoiling 

 the fan of either player, and under liberal handicap 

 conditions may even win an occasional hole ! The 

 scratch man, however unequally matched with an 

 inferior, has his own score to play for, and although 

 he is most unlikely to laboriously note down upon a 

 card the number of strokes he takes at every hole, 

 knows perfectly well how far his round attains to, 

 or falls short of, the standard of perfect golf. 



Then the variety of the game is very great. Each 

 stroke is different, and each hole is to a certain extent 

 a new match ; elements of chance are provided by 

 changed conditions of wind, sky, ground, and atmos- 

 phere, and what are hindrances and obstacles at one 

 time turn to aids and advantages at another. The 

 strong gale which stopped your drive off the first tee, or 

 carried your ball off the course into the rough at the 

 third, becomes your friend at the turn, and helps you 

 to get on to the green in two at the long hole, a feat 

 you have never before succeeded in performing. The 

 hard frost-bound turf which spoils your putting and 

 ruins your iron shots, helps your ball to run a long 

 distance after the carry, or sometimes to skip airily 

 over the wall of some perilous bunker ; or the soft 



