is little
game.

* * * * *

When carrying your own clubs, do not throw the bag down on the greens.
If you do so the toes of the iron clubs are certain to make marks, which
neither improve the greens nor the game of the players who follow you.

* * * * *

Never try your shots over again when there are other players behind you.
It makes your partner uncomfortable, and he feels that he ought to
apologise on your behalf to those who are kept waiting.

* * * * *

When practising, use the club that gives you the most trouble, and do
not waste your time in knocking a ball about with the tool that gives
you the most satisfaction and with which you rarely make a bad stroke.

CHAPTER XVI

COMPETITION PLAY

Its difficulties--Nerves are fatal--The philosophic
spirit--Experience and steadiness--The torn card--Too much hurry to
give up--A story and a moral--Indifference to your opponent's
brilliance--Never slacken when up--The best test of golf--If golf
were always easy--Cautious play in medal rounds--Risks to be
taken--The bold game in match play--Studying the course--Risks that
are foolishly taken--New clubs in competitions--On giving them a
trial--No training necessary--As to the pipe and glass--How to be
at one's best and keenest--On playing in the morning--In case of a
late draw--Watch your opponents.

It is the same game whether it is match or medal play, and the same
whether you are merely engaged in friendly rivalry with an old friend,
with half a crown or nothing at all but the good game itself at stake,
or testing your skill and giving rein to your ambition in a club or open
tournament with gold medals and much distinction for the final victors.
But, same game as it is, how convinced have we all been at times that it
is a very hard thing to play it always in the same way. How regularly
does an evil fate seem to pursue us on those days when we are most
desirous of doing ourselves full justice. Five times in a week will a
golfer go round the course and beat bogey, reckoning after each
performance that he has only to repeat it on Saturday to win the prize
which he covets, with several strokes to spare. Then Saturday comes, and
a sad falling off is there. By the time the sixth or seventh hole is
reached, the all-important card has perhaps been torn up into little
pieces and flung c