In arranging a club tournament or match of this nature, it frequently happens that the number of entries is such that, by drawing the couples together in the usual way, it will not be possible to conclude the tournament without having byes right up to the final stages. This is rightly felt to be unfair, and in such a case the Bagnall-Wild system will ensure that no byes will occur after the first round.1

Medal Play.-(See special rules for Medal Play).

Medal Play is the method of playing a match, by counting the number of strokes required for the whole round, without reference to the number of individual holes lost or won. The player who completes the round in the fewest actual strokes is the winner, if it be a scratch competition, and subject to his allowance or penalty if it be played under handicap. Ties are usually settled by playing another round.

A record score for a green should be a score played under medal play, and not, as too often happens, a score compiled by a player playing a hole match.

1 By this system, after the competitors have been paired, the number of couples (counting the odd man, if there be one, as a couple) is subtracted from the nearest higher power of two, and the number forming the remainder is the number of byes.

Handicapping-In order to enable an inferior player to make an even match with a superior, it is necessary that he should receive points, and there are various ways of doing this. In medal play, the weaker player simply receives a given number of strokes, which are deducted from his score at the end of the round. This same method is the usual one employed in match play, subject to certain regulations dealt with later.

Another method is for one player to concede the other a given number of strokes' which may be used singly or together at any hole or holes at the discretion of the receiver of the odds. These strokes are known as "bisques."

Still another method is for the better player to allow the inferior a given number of holes to start with. For example, A gives B three holes of a start. B is then three holes up with eighteen to play, if the match is one of eighteen holes, but he has to play A level throughout the entire round. A has thus to beat B by four holes on the round to win the match.

Medal Play-For club competitions the handicaps of the members are settled by a committee, who usually proceed as follows : A score for the round is agreed upon as a good scratch score, say 80, and each player who is below scratch form receives strokes sufficient to bring his average score down to this figure. It is usual to compel a new member of a club, or one whose play is not known, to hand in three or more scores for the information of the committee before he is allowed to compete for a prize, and upon the average of these scores the committee decide what handicap he is to receive.

It is well to make the outside limit of all handicaps in club competitions 18 strokes. By this means overcrowding on competition days is avoided, and the absurdity of having a medal carried off by a beginner who is re-ceiving, as sometimes happens, two strokes a hole from the scratch player is done away with.

When a player wins a prize, if his score be a good one, his handicap should be reduced immediately by one or two strokes, as the occasion may seem to demand, while, at the same time, the form of the other players must be watched by the committee, and their handicaps adjusted from time to time, irrespective of their winning prizes.

Should a scratch player be found to be winning too many handicap prizes, the best plan is to penalise him to the required extent by adding to his actual score. Thus, if he is penalised three strokes, and he hands in a card of 79, his score would read 79 + 3 = 82.

This saves the necessity of raising the handicaps of all the rest of the members.

Match Play-Reference has before been made to one or two methods of playing matches under handicap, but the one usually employed in club competitions is as follows :-

The handicaps for match play are based on the number of strokes received in medal play, but a smaller proportion is allowed in match play. The reason for this has been indicated above {see Match Play), viz., that an inferior player may take eight to a hole which his opponent does in three, but the latter thereby only gains one hole, and not five strokes, as he would in medal play.

It is impossible to settle absolutely what the proportionate difference should be in the handicaps of players for medal and match play respectively, as these would vary with every two players. For the purposes of club competitions, however, the table of match play odds adopted by the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, and now in general use, which is here appended, will be found to work fairly satisfactorily.