im a 4 of
which he may be proud in the best of company. These are the gems of
Sandwich.

Next to this course, I think that Prestwick with its Himalayas and its
Alps is the finest that we have. It is an excellent test to apply to a
would-be champion, although there have been complaints that this course
also is short. Yet it is longer than it used to be, and it is merely the
rubber-filled ball that makes it seem short. The third hole at Prestwick
is one that stirs the soul of the dare-devil golfer, for, after he has
despatched the ball safely and well from the tee, he finds a big, gaping
bunker, the famous "Cardinal," ahead of him for his second--an ugly
brute that gives a sickening feeling to the man who is off his game.
Defy this bunker, be on the green with your brassy, put a 4 on your
card, and you have done something which should make you happy for the
morning. The ninth again is an excellent hole at which the straight
driver is rewarded all the way, and, if he does his duty, is given a 5.
I have no hesitation in giving my judgment that the seventeenth is the
finest hole to be found on any links. I say so because it is the best
specimen of a really perfect two-shot hole. If there is the slightest
flaw in either the drive or the second stroke, all prospect of reaching
the green in two vanishes into thin air. Mr. Laidlay once lost a match
and an amateur championship because his second shot here was not quite
good enough. A good tee shot well into the middle of the course, a
second that is as clean as a shot can be and as straight as a bullet
from a gun, with the gods of golf smiling approval all the way and
particularly when your second is nearing the green--with all these you
may ask for your putter for the third stroke. But there is a bunker
before the green, a bunker just beyond the green, and rushes to the
right and left, so that the second shot has indeed to be a beauty for
its maker to be wholly satisfied. This is the sort of hole that all good
golfers best like to play, because they know that the good shots are
certain of their reward, and that not merely the bad shots but the
indifferent ones are met with just penalties every time. It is said that
no two golf strokes are ever alike, but there is just enough similarity
about them to prevent individual strokes from living very long in
history except in a few striking cases. Perhaps the most memorable shot
ever played in golf was that made at this hole by the late