JANUARY 5 



1764, when the first four holes were converted into two. 

 Thenceforward every full course has been laid out to 

 correspond with Alma Mater. 



It is interesting to examine the early scores recorded 

 in the minute-book. William St. Clair, of Roslin, whose 

 well-known portrait in scarlet golfing coat by Sir George 

 Chalmers, has been beautifully reproduced in colour as 

 Mr. Everard's frontispiece, won the Silver Club in 1764, 

 with 121 strokes for the 22 holes, which is equivalent to 

 99 for 18 holes. He was then sixty-four, and the perfor- 

 mance must be considered good far better, probably, 

 than any amateur of the present day would back himself 

 to accomplish with the feather balls and long-headed 

 clubs of those times. Two years later he was to the 

 front again at St. Andrews with a score of 103 for the 

 18 holes. 



'In 1768 the remarkable veteran wins again with a score 

 of 106 ... thus his three victories averaged 102 and a 

 fraction, and they were gained at the ages of sixty-four, 

 sixty-six, and sixty-eight. . . . When "Old Tom" won a 

 professional competition at the age of sixty -one, he was 

 looked upon as a sort of rejuvenated ^Eson, and the occur- 

 rence was deemed sufficiently remarkable, as indeed it was.' 



In estimating the merit of St. Glair's performance, 

 the condition and size of putting-greens in the eigh- 

 teenth century must be taken into account. They can- 

 not have been the ample, flawless carpets which we 

 now insist on having, for in 1777 the council decreed 

 ' that in time coming none of the society shall tee their 

 (sic) balls within less than a play-club length of the 



