Mr. John Ball.

It is in the short game that he is mostly to be feared. When the average scratch player holes a ball with his mashie at a distance of thirty or forty yards, the feat is looked upon as an egregious fluke, at least by his antagonists. When Mr. Hilton takes up his mashie, you are never quite sure that he is not going to finish matters with one stroke until the ball stops rolling*. In playing for the open championship at Muirfield, a few years ago, he twice holed the ball with his mashie in the last round, and once when he was lying almost buried in a rabbit scrape. That, of course, was an extraordinary stroke of luck; but still it is not exaggeration to say that when he does get into the hole with a short approach shot, it is not always to be regarded as a mistake. One curious fact about Mr. Hilton's career is that he has twice won the open championship, but never has quite succeeded in winning the amateur event. This inconsistency is generally laid down to his great steadiness and precision, which have a more telling effect in compiling a score than in match play. And yet his actual figures do not show this extraordinary steadiness. At Muirfield his last round was marvel-ously low, and so, too, he only succeeded in defeating Mr. F. G. Tait at Hoylake in 1897 by accomplishing the last eighteen holes in seventy-five strokes. The fact remains, however, that he has twice defeated all comers in the open field, and that is sufficient glory to last any amateur a lifetime.

Mr. Hilton And Mr. Mure-Fergusson.

Mr. F. G. Tait, Driving.

Photographed by R. W. Hawks, Edinburgh.

Mr. F. G. Tait, Driving.

Mr. Tait has come nearer equaling this feat than any one else, because twice in succession he has been within an ace of securing the coveted position; so that, although he has never actually won the open championship, he has at least proved himself worthy of the highest rank. He has never won his spurs easily, for he had several hard fights for the amateur championship before he actually came to the front in 1896.

In nothing that he has done, therefore, has he been in any way indebted to fortune. In fact, there is no player at the present moment whose chances for any event would be reckoned higher than his. He won the St. Andrews medal at a very early age, but he had worked hard for the distinction. From his earliest years he was accustomed to play over the St. Andrews links, and when he first went to school he was in the habit of playing occasional matches with several of the leading amateurs; and that is a privilege which very few boys can ex-joy. Consequently his arrival at the top of the ladder was constantly expected, and in all human probability he is bound to stay there for many years to come. His aptitude for sports is another proof of the fact that few golfers ever reach the summit of their ambition who are not blessed with physical advantages. Mr. Tait was a good cricketer at school, and a first-class football player at Sandhurst, and what is still more important, there is not a fellow-sportsman in any branch of athletics who knows him and familiarly calls him "Freddy," who has not also the greatest admiration for his good qualities.

But of all golfers in the world the most popular is Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson, who is just as well known by his writings as by his successes on the links. Mr. Hutchinson was, I suppose, the first Englishman who ever won the St. Andrews medal, and the mere fact that he could do such a thing, and still retain the friendship of Scotchmen, speaks volumes in his favor. When he first astonished the inhabitants of St. Andrews by the marvelous accuracy of his driving, he was one of the most dangerous men in any field. Since that time he has been a victim to the all-devouring epidemic of influenza, and is no longer such a formidable member of the small band; but every now and then he gives the public a taste of his old quality, and when that is the case, the victory is sure to be a popular one. Few men are his superiors to-day on the field of battle; no one comes near him in the world of golfing literature. From the time that he issued his first little work upon golf, which in itself was an epitome of what all such books should be, he has never failed of a large and enthusiastic audience. The Badminton book is almost entirely the work of his pen, and to-day it is the only great classic upon the subject. Times have changed since it was first published, and yet there is very little of practical use to the golfer which he cannot find there today expressed in the most simple and readable language.

Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson.

Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville is another golfer who has been many years before the public. It would be unkind here to say how many years ago he first won the St. Andrews medal; and indeed, if I did hunt up the date in the book of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, no one after seeing him would believe it. Nothing could have been more gratifying than his victory in the amateur championship of 1895. Not only did it come as a well merited reward to one of the best athletes that Scotland has ever produced, but it served to show that none, or at least very few of us, need ever despair of developing a really first-class game, even though we may have lived long on the shady side of thirty. Of course Mr. Bal-four-Melville had a great deal in his favor. He has always been a successful golfer, and in addition has done more for Scotch cricket than any other player. He also won laurels on the football field in his college days and is an expert in every game that he takes up. But that does not alter the astonishing fact that after ranking among first-class golfers for nearly a quarter of a century he is still able to defeat young and old alike in the most important event of the year.

Mr. Leslie Balfour-Melville, Putting.

Of the othergreat players volumes might be written, but a few words must suffice here in passing tribute to the extraordinary game which Mr. "Ted" Blackwell has developed and retained, in spite of many successive years spent on a ranch in California without any chance of wielding a golf club. Mr. Blackwell is, with the probable exception of Douglas Rolland, the only player of whom one can positively say that his driving is superior to that of the average first-class golfer. There are several men who rank as exceptionally long drivers, but put them against Mr. Balfour-Melville or Mr. Hilton, who have no such reputation, and you will find very little difference in the average distance. An occasional advantage of ten yards is really of very small value unless it is constant. With Mr. Blackwell it is not a question of ten yards, but more generally thirty or forty; and that is heart breaking. There are many feats of driving which have been handed down to golfing history in illustration of Mr. Black-well's prowess. The most remarkable is perhaps one which he accomplished at St. Andrews several years ago, when he drove the long hole at St. Andrews in two shots each way, thus proving that the wind had nothing to do with it. On another occasion I saw him drive the wall hole at Prestwick in two shots three times on the same day. That this was an extraordinary performance may be judged from the fact that the actual distance which has to be covered is over four hundred yards, with a wall at the end of it, so that the roll of the second shot cannot be taken into consideration. Moreover, the hole is only driven in two upon rare occasions when there is a strong wind in favor of the play. On this particular day Mr. Blackwell had no wind behind him to speak of; and twice out of the three times he used only an iron club for the second shot. That is the kind of driving that makes a difference. Mr. Blackwell is not above the average in his short game, but his driving is so magnificent that he can well afford a few missed puts.

Mr. E. Blackwell.

It would be peculiarly interesting to encounter Mr. Blackwell upon an American links, because either the climate here is in favor of long driving or American players drive an exceptionally long ball. Last year Mr. McCawley, of the Philadelphia Country Club, won a long driving competition with a carry of two hundred and eight yards, and that with hardly any wind in his favor. Again in the present year Mr. H. M. Harri-man came in first with a carry and roll of two hundred and forty yards under rather more favorable circumstances, because the ground was hard and level; but even so he had only a slight breeze behind him. These figures are absolutely correct, and yet they would be considered exceedingly high in Scotland. Driving is, of course, the easiest part of the game to the beginner; and yet it is consoling to know that in this respect, at least, we are not behind our friends in the old country.