ASSUMING that we have now acquired the mental habit of at least trying to be up on our approaches, what happens after we are on the green? It is an axiom of the game that more matches are won or lost on the green than anywhere else. In the light of this fairly obvious fact, it is a little remarkable to my mind that among the really first-class players there are so few who can be accorded the credit of being consistently reliable putters. In fact, I do not think it can be said of any of the great players that their position in the golfing world is largely attributable to their brilliant or consistent accuracy when performing upon the putting greens. In truth, some of them have the unenviable reputation of being extremely indifferent wielders of a putting instrument, as, for example, Harry Vardon and Mr. Ball. In neither of these cases, however, do I consider that the evil reputation they possess with regard to throwing strokes away on the Consistent American Amateur; Runner-up to Mr. Hilton in 1911 greens is altogether thoroughly deserved, even in the case of Harry Vardon. Although Var-don can miss the most infantile looking putts and miss them in the most feeble, weak-kneed manner, still he is, to my way of thinking, an exceedingly good approach putter. In the longer distances he seems to have a most excellent idea of distance and strength, and moreover seldom fails to give his ball a chance.

Fred Herreshoff.

Putting does not seem to present any great difficulty to Vardon provided the ball is far enough from the hole to enable him to strike it firmly; it is when the ball is very near to the hole side and he has to strike it gently and, so to speak, try to caress it into the hole, that Harry Vardon's hands and Harry Vardon's putter seem to get at loggerheads, and the result is disastrous, sometimes almost tragic. It is the very short putts which defeat him, and his methods of playing them are rather apt to suggest that the touch in his hands and fingers is not of a sufficiently delicate character to enable him to play these shots which require a very gentle tap with anything approaching confidence. Harry Vardon is a peculiarly pleasing player to watch, none more so in the long game, but the shorter the shot which he has to play, the less elegant and pleasing do his methods appear until when he comes to play the most physically delicate of all strokes, viz. the short putt, he cannot by any means be termed an elegant performer.

It might not be altogether unjust to suggest that his methods have then degenerated to a stage of inelegancy. Mr. Ball earned his reputation as a really bad putter many, many years ago, when he had days when he could miss short putts by a wider margin than I have ever seen any golfer miss them, and although he still has a habit of missing wee, short ones, this failing is not nearly so marked as it was in his more youthful years. But the reputation as a misser of short putts still lives with him, and when he is seen to miss one in an important event, someone is almost sure to say, "Hello, there's Johnnie up to his old tricks again."

But nowadays Johnnie Ball may be termed quite an average good putter, and at the Amateur Championship Meeting at Westward Ho in 1912 he was holing out consistently well, and his success was in a great measure due to the work with a new aluminum weapon he was handling, which by the way was quite a new introduction to his bag of clubs. At Westward Ho he was putting with the confidence begotten of a new putter, the failings of which he had not yet had time to become acquainted with, and the man possessed with that species of confidence is always a most dangerous enemy to meet.

But evil as have from time to time been the reputations of both Mr. Ball and Vardon as performers upon the putting green, neither reputation was probably quite as wicked as that enjoyed by James Braid some years ago. And it was a reputation undoubtedly well deserved, as about fifteen years ago Braid did not seem to have the faintest idea of how to coax the ball near the hole when he was playing a long putt. Some of his efforts to hit the ball straight for distances of eight to twelve yards were absolutely ludicrous. I well remember meeting a player coming away from watching Jimmy perform in an Open Championship at St. Andrews, when the reason he gave for deserting the big man was that he could not stand watching him play any more, as his attempts to putt were simply heartrending. Finally he remarked, "That man's putting is nothing more or less than a sin and a crime." Still, Jimmy Braid finished third in that championship. However, Braid buried that so-called criminal reputation some years ago, and two or three seasons back he was certainly one of the most consistent putters playing golf.

Taylor has never been looked upon as an extremely brilliant putter, but one would distinctly call him a reliable one and one who knows how to hit the ball firmly. On the other hand, Sandy Herd would have been a much more successful player if he had learned the lesson of always being up to the hole, as his besetting sin is just hitting the ball sufficiently hard to reach the hole, and if anything goes wrong on the way there, the ball is almost sure to finish short of its destination. Herd has a habit of trickling the ball up to the hole side, which some critics consider is a very reprehensible one, and in favor of a firmer form of putting they will quote the old saying, "Never up, never in," which is an argument which it is impossible to refute.

On the other hand, however, quite a number of putts are missed through the ball being struck too firmly, the species of putt which catches the hole and swerves out. In these cases a slightly less forcible method of hitting the ball would inevitably have resulted in it dropping into the hole, so there is something to be said in favor of this tender method of trickling the ball up to the hole side, in that many a putt played this way will, notwithstanding that it is not hit quite straight, drop into the hole, when if it had been played more firmly, the ball would inevitably have failed to do so. However, I do not in any way wish to advocate this method of playing the putt to drop into the hole, even although I admit that I am very likely to do it myself. There can be no doubt that, taking all manner of putts into account, it is advisable to play the shot boldly for the back of the hole, and I only wish that nature had gifted me with the inclination to follow this principle. ! Perhaps the three best putters among the ranks of the professionals, at least among those who have claims to be considered first class, are Tom Ball, Jack White, and James Sherlock, and it would be a little difficult to say which has the right to be considered the most consistent performer. Perhaps one would be inclined to suggest that, week in, week out, the distinction belongs to Tom Ball, who is moreover a putter who can be relied upon to give of his best in an important event.

Among British amateur players of the first rank, I do not consider that there are any players who can quite compare with these three, and we have certainly no amateur in England who can be considered as good a putter as was the late Freddie Tait, who had few superiors, if any, in this phase of the game. If we want to find an amateur whose form on the green may be considered quite on an equality with that of the best professional exponents of the art, we must certainly turn to the United States, where we find in Messrs. Walter Travis and Jerome Travers two of the finest putters that have ever handled a club. Mr. Travis is probably not quite as successful a putter as he was wont to be about the time he won the British Championship, for he was quite a phenomenon in those days, but his young compatriot is truly a great man with his "Schenectady" in his hand.

I think I would sooner back Jerome Travers to hole a difficult putt than any living player that I know of. It is not that he holes the very long putts such as the late Freddie Tait was in the habit of doing, or as Mr. Travis did at Sandwich in 1904. It is the class of putt which is usually missed three times out of four that Jerome Travers has a habit of holing, the putts of from three to five yards, and not only does he put down a very big percentage of this class, but he always looks as if he expected to hole them.

Whether he would be quite as deadly with any other putter as he is with a "Schenectady" is an open question, as his present methods are so peculiarly well adapted to the center shafted club, but with practice I feel assured he could putt well with any shape of club. But altogether I do not consider that first-class players compare at all favorably with their less gifted brethren in the matter of putting. They may not be worse putters, but they are probably not any better than the despised second-class men, and one cannot get away from the idea that they should be better.