GOLF

The game of golf, while of comparatively recent introduction in this country, has sprung rapidly into popularity.  It is hard to say just why it should be such a popular game except that it combines a certain amount of healthful outdoor exercise with an unlimited opportunity for skill, and in addition to this, unlike the more violent games, it can be joined in by old as well as young.  The proper construction and maintenance of a golf course is an expensive proposition.  A private course is altogether out of the question except for the very wealthy.  A club in starting with a limited amount of money will find it more satisfactory to begin with the construction of a nine-hole or even a six-hole course rather than to attempt a full course of eighteen holes which will be indifferently constructed or kept up.  The average eighteen-hole course is about three miles long and is built according to the general lay of the land.  A hole in golf consists in the stretch between the “tee,” from which the ball is knocked off, and the “putting green,” where the player “putts” the ball into the “hole”—­a can sunk into the ground which has about the same diameter as a tomato can.  The score consists in the number of strokes required to make the hole, and of course the player making the fewest number of strokes is the winner of the hole or match.

[Illustration:  Addressing]

[Illustration:  At the top of the swing]

[Illustration:  Just before the ball is struck]

Golf has but few rules.  The secret of playing well consists in being able to swing the clubs with accuracy and precision.  There is no game where proper form counts for more and none in which more careful preliminary instruction by an expert is so important.  If one can at the very outset obtain the services of a professional or a skilful player for a few lessons, it will do far more good than ten times as many lessons after we have contracted bad habits which will have to be unlearned.

[Illustration:  How An Expert Plays Golf]

The surest way to be a poor golfer is first to think that it is a sort of “old man’s game,” or, as one boy said, “a game of knocking a pill around a ten-acre lot”; then when the chance to play our first game comes along to do it indifferently, only to learn later that there is a lot more to the skill of a good player than we ever realized.  Another very common mistake is to buy a complete outfit of clubs, which a beginner always improperly calls “sticks,” before we really know just what shape and weight of club is best adapted to our needs.

[Illustration:  A good outfit of clubs for golf]