The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-10
THE GAME OF GOLF.
II Is Really IA Linguistic Discipline
Learned Out of Doors.
From the Hartford Courant.

From the Hartford Courant.
A celebrated metaphysician once said thai
the Hegelian philosophy consisted zen.
tirely Of a scientific Technology which no
two people interpreted in the same sense.
hence its value as a source of endless dis
cusslon." The more you talked the farther
you were from a conclusion, but you had
grand training in dialectics." It Is emf.
nently proper that the game of golf should
originate with the metaphysical race, the
Scotch, for IL consists partly of a hard
rubber ball, number OF peculiar curved
sticks and becoming negligee costume,
but chiefly and primarily of a vocabulary.
II can be played, but not properly played.
without mastering the vocabulary. 1t can.
not be thoroughly enjoyed unless the name
golf is rightly pronounced, but, as no
one knows how to do that, and all think
they do. the pronunciation is a matter of
comparatively little consequence. The prop
er use of the technical terms, however, is
a matter of vital Importance.
The principal words in this new lam
guage are: Driver. putter, cleek, IoftIne
iron, niblic, mashie ($2 each), links, tees
and caddy.. One who has thoroughly mas
tered these words and wears the costume
Is a golfer" To confuse their meanings.
to speak, for instance of "holing a caddy''
or 'lolting a links" or TO call a putting
green" ''niblc" is as serious breach of
good form as 1t would be to call a fishing
rod fish pole as boys did twenty-five
years ago before the tyranny OF the tech
nical term set in. To be sure, you do walk
about out of doors and strike the bali
with the clubs, but the real essence of the
game lies in wearing the costume and us
ing the words. A thorough mastery OF
them is liberal education.
Other subjects have their peculiar ter
minology, but in none of them is il so ex-
tensive and of such educational value as
In the game Of golf. An eminent authority
defined an electrician as one who tho
roughly comprehended the word potential
and the notions collateral thereto" If you
90 into the woods and live on canned food
and crackers, you must speak of.the place
where you try to sleep, not as "shanty"
but as "a camp" The name at once ele-
Yates the place into the region of sylvan
poetry and makes discomfort; call ii a
camp and the result is happiness. The
right words are still more vital in golf be-
cause the vocabulary is more extensive.
though perhaps not containing any word
of the peculiar potency of the monosylla-
bic, camp" But take the entire technical
vocabulary of golf,it is more productive OF
large amount of low-grade JOY than any
other agency in the world. Low-grade is
far better worth attaining than high-grade
joy or excitement. The great value of the
game of golf can be readily seem 1t pre-
sents all the advantages Of studying a
language. 1t is less difficult than Latin or
French and is learned out doors. 1t is
called game but i'm reality IL is a linguis-
tic discipline undergone in the open air un-
consciously, accompanied with moderate
pedestrian exercise and the wearing of
very sensible Scotch uniform.