olf shops suddenly began to do an enormous trade in sticks, and
Bernard Nicholls, the only man who defeated me single-handed, preferred
not to play me again for a long time. He said his victory had done an
enormous amount of good to his business, and he did not want to spoil
it. From numerous quarters I received all kinds of offers to "star" in
one way or another, some very big fees being suggested. Would I become a
store manager at a huge salary? Would I make an exhibition for so many
hours daily of driving golf balls in a padded room in the city? And so
on. I actually did accept an offer one day to do exhibition swings in a
room in a Boston store. I was to start at 9.30 and continue until 5 each
day, doing tee and other shots into a net for half an hour at a time,
and then resting for an hour before taking the next turn. There was a
fresh "house" of about two hundred people every time, and it was part of
the bargain that my manager should stand by and explain everything. But
he had had enough of it after one or two turns. Then I found it became
terribly monotonous, and to interest myself I kept trying to hit a
particular spot on the wall near the ceiling, until the stores manager
came forward in a state of great excitement, declaring that only six
inches from that spot was the tap of a patent fire extinguishing
arrangement, and that if I hit it the room would be flooded by a series
of waterspouts in less time than I could imagine! By four o'clock my
hands were blistered badly, and at that stage I had had enough and went
out. In the meantime I was the constant recipient of numerous presents
of all kinds, and the invitations that I received to dinners were far
too many for any professional golfer to accept. I do not mention these
things with any desire for self-glorification. They are ancient history
now, and nobody cares about them. But they serve to show the
whole-hearted manner in which America was going in for golf, and the
tremendous hold that it took on the people. We talk on this side of the
"golfing fever" and of people "going mad" about the game. Believe me,
the Britisher is a mere dallier in comparison with his American golfing
cousin.

An interesting incident happened when the American Championship was
played for on the Wheaton course, when, as I was informed, the game of
golf achieved the most notable victory that it had ever achieved in the
United States. This was the complete surrender to it of the veteran