hich cannot be accurately gauged by the golfer who has taught
himself how to make allowances. But on far too many greens the man with
the putter has nothing to do but gauge the strength of his stroke and
aim dead straight at the hole. He derives infinitely less satisfaction
from getting down a fifteen-yards putt of this sort than does the man
who has holed out at ten feet, and has estimated the rise and fall and
the sideway slope of an intervening hillock to begin with and a winding
valley to follow, his ball first of all running far away to the right,
then trickling across to the left, and finally wheeling round again and
rolling into the tin. Only when there is so much calculation to be done
and it is so precisely accomplished does the golfer practise the real
art of putting, and taste the delights of this delicate part of the
game. The other is dull and insipid in comparison. There is the less
excuse for making the flat and level greens, inasmuch as even the
beginners can appreciate the sporting quality of the others and enjoy
practice upon them from the first day of their play. Let there be plenty
of undulations, and then with the changing positions of the hole a
player can practically never come to any particular green upon which he
may have putted hundreds of times without having a problem set him
entirely different from any that he has had to work out before. Greens,
of course, are of all sizes, from fifteen to fifty yards square, and I
beg leave to remark that large size is a fault in them, inasmuch as the
bigger they are the less is the skill required in the approach shot.

It is perhaps unnecessary for me to point out as a final word, that when
tees have to be specially prepared and turfed, it is a decided
improvement to a course to have two at different points for each hole,
one nearer and more to one side than the other. Not only do these
alternative tees enable each of them to be given a periodical rest for
recovery from wear and tear, but they afford an interesting variation of
the play, make it possible to impose a more severe test than usual upon
the players when it is felt desirable to do so, as on competition days,
and also in some measure to counteract the effects of winds. Of course
when tees have not to be specially made there is endless variety open.

It is obvious that the greater part of the foregoing remarks applies
chiefly to the construction of inland courses. Seaside links laid over
the dunes