Time was when Woman, more tyrannous than Man, hedged her sex round with a thick-set barrier of modesty, and fixed a limit to her associations with man and his diversions. So our grandmothers and others of the laudator temporis acti type viewed with misgivings and even alarm the departure from well-established conventions that provided for young ladies of the period such delectations as battledore and shuttlecock, the twanging spinet and the mysteries of the stillroom. But the Other Woman asserted herself in due time and forsook her spinning-wheel and the stately minuet for mountain-climbing, cycling, photographic expeditions, mixed bathing and the mazy waltz, and came into more companionable relationship with man in tennis and hockey. To-day, despite the obstacles placed in her way, she has proved her capacity for golf, and golf she clearly intends to make her game where opportunities exist. Place aux Dames! And why should she not "play the round" as well as Mere Man? She has unmistakably >demonstrated her non-subjection to the yoke of yore and few are the recreations she has not made her own. She even gave cricket and football a trial and, finding them wanting (or herself!), wisely turned her attention to more compatible diversions; and in them all she has justified her intervention by her skill and pertinacious enthusiasm. In golf she recognised its inherent advantages of outdoor recreation—freedom from violent exercise or physical strain and fresh air ad libitum under the most congenial conditions. Base Man put many obstacles in her way. He gave her, with some condescension, an odd corner of his many acres that he had no use for, and grudgingly added to it when she winningly asked for more. Finding her tea-table charms both irresistible and indispensable, he even let her play about on his own well - cared - for course (Mondays to Fridays only). But she has triumphed over all these petty discouragements and now she boasts her separate courses, her "bogeys" and "medals," her tournaments, her county matches and her Ladies' Championship, and even her Mixed Foursomes! For, after all, the objectors only raised a futile cry, and she has taken care to silence them by amendment. True, in her early innocence, she did move about and talk during a critical stroke; if her sense of proportion was not so well developed as that of the Superior sex, she is proving herself a utilitarian and is "taking occasion by the hand;" her zeal is almost boundless and her improvement in style and general play a revelation; while, let but the state of the club's funds give uneasiness to the treasurer and the bank manager, and she steps into the breach with her wonderful powers of organisation, wipes off the deficit with a "bazaar" or other mysteriously - contrived expedient, and reduces the "business man" to a state of appalling shame.

She has been accused of a weakness in arithmetic which has been, more or less charitably, made to excuse her somewhat erratic tendencies in computing her score at the respective holes. That acute observer, Dr Macnamara, in his whimsical little compilation, The Gentle Golfer, deals with some of the failings of the ladies in a way that can only afford infinite amusement to them. That the criticisms are merely good-humoured banter is obvious in his handsome recognition of their aptitude for and progress in the game. That "other lady on the links" can give trouble to a good ten man "on the top of his form." In a word, he puts it so nicely about her well-judged selection of her clubs, "her true artistic skill and insight" with the mashie strokes, her Travis-like putting, her drives, her swing and her other excellent qualities, that one feels it unnecessary to add to these well-deserved encomiums or to take the trouble to cloak the sneers of ill-conditioned critics, now happily a quiescent and diminishing number.

It has been urged that the lady golfer's swing is ungraceful. That is true to a certain extent; so it is of some men and the same reason applies to both cases. Where it occurs, it is because the game was not taken up till after the days of youth and lissomness. As a matter of fact, the swing of a lady who began in her teens is one of the prettiest sights on the links, so pretty sometimes as to be over - effective. The exaggerated swing is one of the tendencies that ladies need to check. This is probably due to a mistaken notion that a long swing is essential to a long drive. As has been shown in a former chapter, this leads to a loss of control of the club. Ladies do not possess the same muscular power of the wrist and forearm as men, but patient practice will gradually diminish this disability and add to the length of the drive. To this end, they should avoid the use of heavy clubs which involves an undue expenditure of power and a forced style. In the shorter departments of the game, they are more on an equality, especially in putting, where their innate delicacy of touch puts them quite on a par with their ruder and more muscular companions. One piece of advice is offered as a result of the writer's experience. Ladies are rather inclined to set too little store by the precepts of their teachers. A fault is detected in the grip or what not, and the necessary caution given. But it is often a case of "Still the little maid would have her will." It is just a bit of feminine obstinacy that stands in the way of improvement in the stroke. But that immense progress has been shown in recent years is made evident, week by week, in the records of lady players reaching a point far exceeding the anticipation of male critics of a few years ago, noticeably in the driving strokes. A fuller acquaintance with larger courses and a more frequent association with men-players will also tend to a freer style and a greater ambition. As for dress, the present writer does not number an exaggerated presumption amongst his faults; he merely refers his lady readers to the articles in current golf literature written by expert players of their own sex, and particularly to those which appeared in C. B. Fry's Magazine for December and January (1906-7).