cratch at the end of his first year, and he
will be very thankful that he spent the period of probation as he did.
He will constantly be giving a half to players who have been playing for
more years than he has months, and he will be holding his own in the
very best golfing company. He will be getting the finest delight out of
the game that it is possible to get. It is said that the long handicap
man gets as much pleasure out of the game as the short handicap man. As
the former has never been a short handicap man he is evidently not
qualified to judge. The scratch man, who has been through it all, would
never change his scratch play for that of his old long-handicap days--at
least I have never yet met the scratch man who would. No doubt the noble
army of foozlers derive an immense amount of enjoyment from the practice
of their game, and it is my earnest prayer that they may long continue
to do so. It is one of the glorious advantages of golf that all, the
skilled and the unskilled, can revel in its fascinations and mysteries;
but there is no golfing delight so splendid as that which is obtained
from playing the perfect game, or one which nearly approaches it. The
next best thing to it is playing what one knows to be an improving game,
however bad, and the golfer whose play has been incorrectly established
has not often even the knowledge that his game is improving. He declares
more often than not that it gets worse, and one is frequently inclined
to believe him.

Now the middle-aged man may say that he is too old to go in for this
sort of thing, that all he wants is a little fresh air and exercise, and
as much enjoyment as he can get out of playing the game in just the same
sort of way that the "other old crocks" do. He would rather play well,
of course, if it were not too late to begin; but it is too late, and
there is an end of it. That is the way in which he puts it. So large a
proportion of our new converts to golf belong to this middle-aged class,
that it is worth while giving a few special words of advice to them. Mr.
Forty and Mr. Forty-Five, you are not a day too old, and I might even
make scratch men of you, if I were to take you in hand and you did all
the things I told you to do and for as long as I told you. Given fair
circumstances, there is no reason why any man should despair of becoming
either a scratch player or one who is somewhere very near it, and it is
as easy to learn to play well as it is to learn