The New York herald., 1922-07-06

There has been discussion on discussion
during the last two seasons on the eff
cacy Of the rules. as they now stand on
the books. For the purpose of trying
out an experiment in the rules we armed
ourselves with copy of the oldest sur
viving code given at st. Andrews In the
year 1854 and hied to the links one day
last week. Much to our surprise and
that of our opponent who was to play
under u. s. G. A. rules We found that
after waving two Of the original thir-
teen rules for reasons which will appear
later 1t was unnecessary to call upon
any rule other than these. which we
shall enumerate.
The oldest code Is as follows.
/. You must tee the ball within club
length Of the hole.
Q. The tee must be upon the ground.
g. You are not to change the ball with
which you strike off the tee.
A. You are not to remove stones bones
| or any break club for the sake of playing
your ball except upon the fair green
and that only within a club length OF
the ball.
! s. II your ball come among water or
any watery Nth you are at liberty to
take out your ball and throw 1t behind
the hazard six yards at least; you may
play 1t with any club and allow your
adversary q stroke for so getting out
your ball.
6. II the balls be found anywhere
touching you are to lift the first ball
till you play the last
Z. At holing you are to play the ball
honestly for the hole and not to play
upon your adversary's ball not lying In
the way to the hole.
8. II you should lose your ball by It's
being taken up or in any other way you
are to 60 back to the spot where you
struck last and drop another ball and
allow your adversary a stroke for the
misfortune.
9. No man at holing the balls is to be
or anything else.
10. II ball be stopped by any per-
son. horse, dog. or anything else the
ball so stopped shall be played wherever
1t lies.
II. II you draw your club in order
to strike and proceed as far In the
stroke as to be bringing down your
club, IL then your club shall break In
any way It Is to be accounted as a
stroke.
12. He whose ball lies fa-thest from
the hole is Obliged to play first.
13. Neither trench, ditch. nor dyke,
f1due IOT Tic pTescINdtlOH VI tHe iiuh1,
nor the scholars holes, nor the soldiers
lines shall be accounted a hazard, but
the ball Is to be taken out and played
with any iron club. 49,.
One ImmnteriaI Change.
OF course we had to break the first
rule which demanded that the drive be
made from within a club length of the
hole. but that Is very immaterial But
when VIC sent an iron shot into a ditch
we dropped out and lost a stroke the
same as In the present day rules. What
n nicer way they had In the olden days.
too to say that as a penalty you al
lowed your adversary a stroke. Seems
as II that would make the mental atti-
tude Of thousands OF golfers more kindly
disposed toward the game by thinking
that they were going to give n handicap
and then try and win the hole rather
than brooding over stroke lost for
ones self through poor play. The
ancients, II we may call them such. had
II. "All right. I've made n poor stroke,
but I'll give YOU handicap and beat
or tie you all the same"
And here was another interesting fea-
ture. Our opponent lost his ball and
said well under the new rule I've
got to go back. lose distance and a
stroke. What's your old rule on that ?"
Don't say" we answered. after con-
sulting the ffrst code" that you are do
Ing this under q new rule. although It