Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-22


its ball in the fewest strokes. A game con-
sists OF eighteen holes To play a game
takes you twice around this course. The
links are the lines described from hole to
hole, and the word is used with reference
to golf as you speak of the diamond of a
base ball field. The putting green is the
ground within twenty yards Of the hole
We had come upon Mr.. Mays ball by this
time. which the caddie had run ahead to
locate. The ball had lodged in the deep
track Of a cart wheel, and Mr.. May there
upon bade the caddie produce the niblick-
a club with an iron head, specially designed
fer jerking the ball from just such tight
place as that in which 1t rested. The next
drive was made with cleek, which is also
a club with an iron head. The ball made
what 1 would have believed an impossible
drive. plump into the hole from which the
caddie had moved the staff of the disc
marking the hole. 81
THAT vas a deadly iron," Mr.. May in
formed me. charging me to be sure to burn
the expression deadly iron into my brain
II want ever to talk golf like BritjSher.
To describe in detail the soaring lofts,
the gentle, skillful putting, the wonderful
drives l witnessed Mr.. May and Mr..
Curtis make over the entire course would
be impossible. Besides, golfing with Mr..
May, for me. speedily degenerated into a
sprinting match, in which ] not only had
to ambie to keep up, but l was pretty
nearly blind, deaf and dumb for want of
breath. Fancy doing two-and-a- half-mile
stretch over Virginia hills up hill, down
dale. across bridge and through woods,
with long, strong-iegScd athlete setting
the pace. and you have a notion of what
my nrSt practical experience of golf was.
The Interest in the Game.
However, this did not discourage me in
trying a hand myself. for one of the rare
points about golf is you can set your own
pace II you want to. and most everybody
does.
/ ked an Englishman how it is golf has
SO lately struck this country, AMI he an
swered: why. you've just civilized up to
IL IN America, don't you know"
That's fact. Golf is the natural en-
thusiasm OF people civilized to degree
at which they ike to go out in the open
air Tor their sport, so as to have more room
for their selfishness
In the possibilities of sport that golf Of
fers 1t is broad as the universe and just
as varied. Old men and invalids, fond of
Constltutionals, may saunter over the links
and nnd in golf Just enough diversion hol-
ing ball to rob long walk of tedium.
Or the gentlemanly athlete, civilized be-
yond root ball and barbarism in general,
something to beat him. Mr.. May declares
he has not mastered the game yet after
ten years of successful playing it.
The individual has the right of way in
Solt-another demoraliZing tendency of the
game in America, where, out of regard for
our democratic constitution, the majority
should under no circumstances be con-
sidered of secondary Importance.
a "two-some'-that is, two playing one
against the other, have to stand back and
let single player arriving with them on
the putting green hole out ahead of them
Nor do you see "two-some" socially chat
ting along their common course. Not a bit.
Fore my honors," 1.-The odd" 1.-TWO
more" three more" 1.-TWO holes up
something as eloquent with human interest
as that is all the sound proper to golfing.
became Interested.
Now" said Mr.. Riggs, who. with more
unselfshness than is strictly good golfing
form, had essayed to play around the
course with me; now, grasp your club
firmly with the left hand-no: farther up;
loosely with the right, and drive away"
Pauline Tries Her Hand.
I was beginning on the ladies' links. ]
tried obediently to drive away as was or
dered. did a desperate waggle, described
downward sweep at my bali with awful
force that nearly took me off my feet and
wrapped my skirts three times around me;
the dirt flew; and the BALL never touched
it. 1 tried to be blithe over my awkward
ness, smiled feebly and made another drive.
This time the ball rolled like a marble ly-
ing up TO a chalk line for first shot, but it
had moved, and that was some thing gained.
Mr. Riggs cheeringly told me a beginner
seldom strikes the ball the first drive, and
said, Furthermore, that somehow women
generally seem to golf about5the way they
throw rock. ...aEnt
Ny next drive was better. and when l
had made tho first hole I'm five strokes l
was so pulled up with vanity that the as-
gressvc spirit of the rampant I'm de steele
woman took possession of me, and l want
ed to try my luck on the mems links. Ac-
cCrdingly l teed off for the first hole in the
long course and made it in nineteen
strokes. Mr.. May, 1 recalled. had made 1t
in three: However. he is the champion
golfer Washington What COuli /
pect?
I'm afraid you don't keep your eyes on
the ball." Mr. Riggs observed cautiously
in response to an erratc drive l had made.
Then-well, then, to tell the truth, L dis
covered that 1 had been shutting my eyes
every time l struck the ball. Still, l strug.
gled on, and into every drive / .'fozzled'-
muffed, that is, so TO speak, learned, as
l never had known before, the soulful en-
phasiS woman might under certain cir
cumstances put into one simple word of
four letters that is sometimes written with
two, d-n!
1t Was the Boy.
When 1 had lost a ball. and run I'D a
score of something like 2l7, was only
quarter way around. My feet We're wet,
my temper ruined, my shoulders were ach-
ing, twelve holes and four miles remained
for me to accomplish, and the sunset gun
at Fort Myer doomed the dismal fact that
though I'd been golling three hours, l was
not golfer, and that night was on, in
which no man nor woman can golf.
A man following around came up and
bTaced my dropping spirits with the as
sCrance that golf is the easiest game TO
learn and the hardest to play"
i knew golf for fact, but--upon my
honor! No wonder L had had no luck At
that moment l caught my caddie looking,
or trying to look, Inc square in the face
and, now tell me, what could any golfer
do with crcss-eyed boy for caddie? :
PAULINE PRY.