8's towards the end much less seriously to heart. They would have
said to themselves that at all events there were many very fine holes,
and the misfortunes which came later were not sufficient to spoil their
chances of success. Well, then, when these annoyances happen near the
beginning, why not take a philosophical view of them and say that as
they had to come it was best that they should come quickly and be done
with, and then go on playing hole after hole coolly and properly until
at the end it is found that the early misfortunes have been amply
retrieved? I am aware that this is very simple advice, and that it
appears like a string of platitudes, but it is extremely sound and yet
it is ignored on every medal day. Never, never tear up your card, for
golf is indeed a funny game, and no man knows what is going to happen
when it is being played. There are numberless historic instances to
support this counsel, but I will quote only one which came under my
personal observation recently, and which to my mind is one of the most
remarkable of all. It occurred at a London club. Six players were left
in the final round for a cup competition, and the conditions of playing
in this final were that a medal round should be played on two different
Saturdays. On the first Saturday three of the players tore up their
cards, and so only three remained to fight out the issue on the second
Saturday. On this occasion one of the remaining three tore up his card
very early, and soon afterwards a second did so, each being unaware of
the other's action, the third player being likewise ignorant of the fact
that his rivals had disappeared from the contest, and that now, being
the only man left in, he could make any return he liked and become the
possessor of the cup. Presently he also fell into grievous
difficulties, and was on the point of tearing up his card like the
others, when the player who was marking for him stayed his hand. He had
some idea of what had happened, and, bad score as his man's was, he
insisted on its being completed, with the result of course that he was
hailed as the winner of the tournament. He at all events would for the
rest of his golfing days respect the moral which I have here endeavoured
to convey; and what must have been the reflections of the other
competitors who threw up the sponge, when they discovered afterwards
that if they had kept plodding along they would still have had an
excellent chance!

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