HAVING passed in brief review the important phases and attributes of the game in some detail, it is worth while taking a bird's-eye view of the game as a whole, particularly with reference to its present state and tendency as compared with other days. The golfers of old will tell one that golf is not what it used to be, and I for one am not going to gainsay them in this opinion, as the Royal and Ancient Game has changed materially in many ways the past forty years. Although the changes which are so evident may not meet with the approval of some of the older school of players, it might not be altogether unjust to suggest that their views are possibly inclined to be tinged by prejudice, the result of a natural affectionate adherence to the traditions of their youth.

From a playing point of view the game of golf is certainly not what it used to be, for the simple reason that the playing of the game has proceeded through an era of development which has sufficed gradually to bring it to a state of perfection which would have been considered almost beyond the bounds of possibility thirty years ago. A certain element of the older school of players would stoutly deny the accuracy of this statement and cite young Tommy Morris and Alan Robertson as golfers who were quite the equal of the Vardons and Braids of the present day.

It is a point on which I am personally not in a position to argue, as I belonged not to this earth when Alan Robertson was alive, and was an infant in swaddling clothes when young Tom was in his prime. But I am in a position to form a comparative judgment between the players who flourished in the eighties and those who are at the top of the tree in the present days, and even after allowing for the advantages which present day players enjoy in the matter of rubber-cored balls, more scientifically balanced clubs, and infinitely better kept links, I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that the play of the leading professionals of the present day is three to four strokes per round better than that which the professionals of twenty to thirty years ago were in the habit of exhibiting.

I am not going to say that the great men of the present day are finer natural exponents of the game than were the giants of old. Young Tommy Morris, for instance, was undoubtedly a wonderful genius in the playing of the game; he was far ahead of his fellow players - perhaps farther ahead than any other player has been in the history of the game. And again we have wee Bennie Sayers still holding his own comparatively well with his younger rivals, and he is a player who was considered to have been at his best some twenty to twenty-five years ago. But even granting that these old time players were gifted with an equal degree of genius to that which Vardon and company possess, it cannot do away with" the fact that they did not hit the ball with as consistent accuracy as the leading professionals are in the habit of doing nowadays.

The reason why the game is played so much more accurately nowadays is entirely in the fact that there has been a gradual development in the general standard of play. From time to time a player has arisen who has played just a little bit better than his fellow golfers; he has reigned supreme for a season or two, and then one or two of the more gifted players have gradually worked their game up to the new standard; and so it has gone on from time to time until the general standard has arrived at a degree of excellence which it seems improbable that any mortal golfer can materially improve upon.

There appears but one chance of such a prodigy arising in the land, and that would seem to lie in the person of a player who was sufficiently physically endowed to outdrive any of the present generation by a distance of thirty to forty yards, and who at the same time could putt with the accuracy and finesse of a Walter Travis or a Jerome Travers. This is the one hope, as to my way of thinking the iron play of the present day "professor" cannot possibly be improved upon. Their continued accuracy with iron clubs is astounding.

To Mr. John Ball belongs the credit of being the first one to set an example to his fellow players; as he set up a standard in connection with amateur golf which had never previously been approached and it was this standard of play which was mainly responsible for the amateur talent of a period of some seven or eight years, being almost, if not quite, on a par with that of the professionals. Previous to the advent of Mr. Ball there was never considered the slightest probability of an amateur ever winning the Open Championship, but he defeated the whole fleet of professionals in 1890, and the feat was twice again accomplished by an amateur during the next six years. In fact, at that time the play of two or three amateurs was very much on an equality with that of the professionals. Amateur golfers nowadays probably play just as well as they did in the period mentioned, but they are not nearly so successful when opposed to the professionals - for the simple reason that the play of the latter has improved enormously.

J. H. Taylor was the pioneer in this movement of raising the standard of play. He arrived at the Championship Meeting of 1893 almost unknown; he left that meeting the most discussed player in the Kingdom - not that he won the event, far from it, as after a brilliant start he broke down badly - but the accuracy of his wooden club play and approaching - the latter in particular - proved a revelation to the critics who had never seen any player shoot so straight for the pin. On his very first appearance in a championship John Henry Taylor set up a new standard; he, like Mr. Ball, was simply a natural born genius who had not to go through the trials of learning the game.

For a year or two Taylor was the only one who lived up to the standard which he had set himself, but with the example in front of them others were working their way forward, and finally Harry Vardon caught up to the Westward Ho player and eventually surpassed him. It is more than probable that Vardon would never have developed his game quite as quickly as he did had he not had Taylor and the new standard to spur him on. By degrees Harry Vardon developed a fresh standard of play which was greater than that achieved by Taylor, and for a few years he absolutely reigned supreme; there are those who to this day consider that the game played by Harry Vardon in 1898, 1899, and 1900 has never been equaled by any living player and probably never will be. With a gutty ball he was undoubtedly far and away the greatest player who has ever handled a club. Whether he was a much better player than he is nowadays is a problem which can never be satisfactorily elucidated, as the playing of the game with the rubber-cored ball differs materially from that which was played with a gutta percha ball. Vardon himself recently expressed the opinion that his game of the present day suffers in comparison with that which he used to play to the extent of four strokes in each round. While one must have respect for Vardon's opinion, nevertheless it might not be unjust to consider that the suggested disparity of four strokes may incline to the extravagant side, as four strokes to a player of Vardon's class means an enormous difference, and would moreover be inclined to suggest that the general average play of the other professionals is nowadays not as good as it was ten years ago.