R. Thompson is another player who, like Sayers, learnt his golf at North Berwick. He is a steady, consistent player, who only lacks that little extra power which seems necessary to the winning of championships.

W. Watt, who hails from the same part of Scotland, is a very similar player, and, like most East Lothian golfers, is a beautiful pitcher and putter.

Mayo is another very steady, painstaking player, who has not so far done himself justice in the championship.

Of the younger school Laurence Ayton and T. Fernie are very promising.

F. Robson is one of the most promising of the younger school. His best achievement was reaching the final of the News of the World tournament in 1908, and giving J. H. Taylor a very hard final match over the latter player's own course - Mid-Surrey. He is very powerful, and possesses a fine free swing.

At one time he appeared to play rather too much for a pull, but I think that he has modified that tendency considerably of late. He should have a good career before him.

W. E. Reid is another promising young player with a neat and effective style.

Though T. Renouf has never succeeded in winning the championship, he has always been well up in it, and reached the final of the News of the World tournament in 1908. He is a very steady and consistent performer.

The same remark applies to G. Coburn, who has scored many successes in Ireland as well as in this country, and Rowland Jones, Moran (who hails from Ireland), Fulford, Ritchie, Toogood, Kinnell, J. Rowe, T. Williamson and E. Gray have all made their mark.

In the space at disposal it is impossible to include many fine young players, not to mention the giants of the past such as D. Rolland, who was the mightiest hitter of his day, Tom Morris and his brilliant son, the Simpsons, Willie Fernie, Willie Auchterlonie, Allan Robertson, and many another hero whose doughty deeds are fast fading into antiquity.

If I have been prevented by lack of space from including all the professionals I could have wished, how hopelessly difficult it is to select a list of amateurs which can be deemed to be in any way representative. There must be at least forty players, perhaps more, who are quite capable of winning the amateur championship. How different from the time when probable aspirants to the honour might almost have been counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet these very players are still a force to be reckoned with; and a very considerable force too, as one of their number, Mr. John Ball, won the event this year (1912), and Mr. J. E. Laidlay and Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson have both survived to the later stages of the competition in recent years.

I imagine that few, if any, will quarrel with the assertion that Mr. John Ball stands out pre-eminently as the greatest amateur who ever swung a club. He can claim the open championship, eight amateur championships, and over a hundred medals at Hoylake alone, not to mention three Irish championships and four St. George's Cups. He is the happy possessor of a physique and a temperament singularly well adapted to the game, and his style is a model of grace and ease, especially since he modified the abnormally wide stance of his more youthful days. His grip, with the club well home in the palm of the hand, and the right hand very much under, is certainly curious, but I imagine that Mr. Darwin is right in saying that the club is gripped with the second, third, and little finger of the right hand, which allows it to ride loose in the forefinger and thumb. He is a beautiful cleek and iron player, and his cut shot, played with a medium iron, which he uses even to get out of a bunker with a steep face to surmount, is quite unique. Mercifully he sometimes misses a short putt, though his approach putting is usually so good that he can well afford to miss one occasionally.

His ofttime opponent, Mr. J. E. Laidlay, has very nearly as fine a record. Twice amateur champion, thrice runner-up, he also came within an ace of winning the open championship at Prestwick in 1893. His collection of medals is quite unique. St. Andrews, North Berwick, Musselburgh, Muirfield, Hoylake and Prestwick have all contributed their quota to the harvest; and it is little wonder that all these courses appear to suit him equally well, as he is without exception the most accomplished master of iron clubs.

Most players prefer one particular shot to another, but Mr. Laidlay appears to have no preference, as he plays every variety of iron stroke with an equal measure of ease and success. He is also a very fine putter, particularly on a keen green. The one weak spot in his game has always been his wooden club play. Not that he drives badly - far from it - but every now and then there is a lapse, made more noticeable by reason of the general excellence of the rest of his game. Mr. Laidlay is no believer in orthodox methods. Like Mr. Ball, he has considerably modified his stance, but he still draws his weight away from the ball in the back swing, and brings it back again at the moment of impact. It is a style worthy of all admiration, but hardly of imitation. Few, if any, have sufficient genius to attempt such methods.

The name of the third partner, of what might well have been called the amateur Triumvirate, so successfully did they defy all outside opposition for so many years, is surely a household word wherever golf is played.

Not only has Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson a great record as a player, but he can claim an equally great record as a writer on the game, and has probably done more to popularise golf than any living man. Whether he is a benefactor thereby is a matter of opinion. He won his first amateur championship in 1886, repeated the performance the following year, and reached the final on two subsequent occasions. He led the field at the end of the first day of the open championship on the occasion of the extension of the tournament to seventy-two holes, and needless to say has won many medals on various courses. His style is certainly a distinctive one, and especially noticeable for the slackness of the knees and for what Mr. Darwin describes as the slight 'hang in the middle of the back swing. It is a loose, free style, and his swing with iron clubs is unusually long. He is essentially a resourceful player, with complete command over all his clubs, even the wonderful weapon which he invariably uses off the tee.