New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-11-24
Golf Season to Cine
Last Gasp This Week

ficient justification for breaking the Sec
ond Commandment.
AS a golfer / am above suspicion and
beneath contempt. Yet I come before you
as one OF the greatest living opponents
not Of the game of golf, but of It's peren-
NAL popularity. Humbled in every bunk
er, Inundated on every tee and fording
treacherous streams with all the in
trepidity OF Excelsior, / nevertheless have
all the passion for golf that any man
could have No matter how often re-
buffed, l inevitably return for more.
know all the exaltation of teeing up and
the depths of despair in the bunkered
abyss. Yet l continue my unregeneratc
way with undiminished ardor.
Usually I play alone. First, because
prefer 1t; second, because / have no al
tentative. Recently. however, did play
iwosome with a gentleman in this au-
dience, who separated me from $50 on
thirty-sX holes. Since that time | have
done nothing but decline invitations to
play golf on strange courses. ] suppose
il YOU ever got me out to St Andrews
YOU would be able to build a new club
But | should be sorry to have you
think that my game is entirely devoid OF
merit. 1t may at least be said Of me
that I never leave bunker but that 1t
is q better bunker for my presence And
on the greens ! have practically no trouble
at all. can usually get down in four or
five puts If / am on my game. My chief
trouble is getting on the greens. This
may be accounted for by the fact that our
tc unapproachable-tha is to say. they
are beyond approach. Such, at least. has
been my experience.
Under the circumstances | recently
decided to cease publishing my scores
on the ground that they are immoral and
an offence against public decency. Now
when I am asked what | so round in,
| say about three hours and a half and
let IL go at that. Besides. what on
earth does il matter what | go round In.
so long as golf continues to bring out
all the poetry of my nature. Golf has
revealed my love for a phase of life
which never can attract the men whose
sole objective is to reduce the sum total
Of his strokes to a minimum.
Golf is commonly regarded as an ex-
cuse for wearing knickerbockers. But
its chief claim TO fame Is that 1t is the
married mans best friend. No game
in the world furnishes a man with such
a ready excuse to desert his wife on the
Sabbath. This may explain why golf
is always played on the outskirts. Curl
ously enough those most prone to avail
Of this opportunity to leave
home for golf are those who are Old
enough to know better.
1T ia, of course, erroneous and an
surd that golf is exclusively the pastime
of age Youth is the most spectacular
performer on tee and fairway. But IL
remains true that the appeal OF golf Is
stronger for the man who has reached
the turn than it is for the man who Is
as vet playing the morning round OF
his allotted span. Thus it is that goIf
has come TO be regarded as game when
furnishes man with an opportunity 10
chase golf balls at that period OF MS
life when he is too old to chase any
thing else Personally, / prefer. TO re-
gard II as peculiarly "A wise man s game
"a game for men who have found sucn
relish in the vicisstudes OF life that
they have purposely set up artihcial haz-
ards for the sheer JOY OF overcoming
then1"