It cannot be emphasised too strongly that practice is the one thing needful for the degree of mechanical precision and good judgment in the game that will bring success and pleasure to the player. Not only is it an absolutely essential condition for the beginner to accept, but it is a factor of the game that can never be dispensed with even by the ablest exponents. In fact, the better player you become, the more is the necessity recognised, and, with the greater zest, you repair to your chosen field of operations to work out your salvation. "Out-of-form" is a disorder that attacks even the healthiest, and practice is the only cure. Even if ambition is not made of sterner stuff than the maintenance of the status quo, practice must still lend its aid. Practice, then, is the one royal road to golfing excellence, and it must be studious and systematic. The beginner who, equipped with his nice new bag of well-polished, immaculate clubs, sallies forth to "do the round" will only be yielding to a temptation that some day will entail keen regret. Habits will be contracted that will eventually cost him many a pang of disappointment as well as many a half-crown's worth of almost futile tuition. The exhilaration derived from deep draughts of ozone-laden air and from the disturbance of the earth's contour by weird, untutored onslaughts with weapons yearning for their predestined mission, will be but short-lived when the would-be player realises his acquisition of an incurable style of masterly inefficacy. But the learner need not be one whit discouraged by the outlook of a long and patient application to his self-appointed task. No physical inconvenience is entailed and no such preparation as obtains in most outdoor pastimes. The goal of the much-coveted place in the roll of "scratch" players is before him, and though age and its attendant disqualifications may be against his reaching that giddy height, the gradual descent of his handicap from double to single figures contributes to life's enjoyments in a way that is only intelligible to the initiated. "The reward is in doing, and the rapture of pursuing is the prize."

The first step, as has already been impressed upon the beginner, is to seek out the pro-fessional and follow his advice. He will, without doubt, take club by club and stroke by stroke, beginning with the driver. Then must be practised the swing with unfailing assiduity, and daisies, corks, pellets of white paper will serve as useful a purpose as the ball (and be less expensive), while any odd piece of turf in the garden or neighbouring field should be utilised daily. The tee shot having been fairly mastered, the brassey may be taken through the course. It is well, in the first stages of practice, to make the conditions as easy as possible, and so the ball should always be "tee'd" comfortably on the turf. For the acquisition of a proper address and stance, the advice given in the chapter on "Driving" should be followed closely.

Combined practice with the driver and brassey should be indulged in before taking up the iron clubs, in order to overcome their differences of weight and spring. Then the learner may enter on the "approach" stage. Here he may and should spend some weeks practising at different distances with the iron, for it is at the short game from 130 yards to the putt for the hole that the "cracks" beat the "crocks." Mr Travis confesses to spending hours over each kind of stroke when his inclination would have led him from hole to hole. A good plan is to take several old balls to a certain distance, say 80 or 90 yards, and practise pitching the ball on to a certain marked patch. The distance may be increased gradually as progress is marked. Practice over a bunker should, of course, form a part of the scheme. The mashie should follow the iron and in much the same way. With half a dozen to a dozen balls, short approaches over a bunker or running-up shots with the iron will add greatly to the beginner's command of these clubs, and, if a putting-green is the objective, the opportunity for using the putter may be seized. Putting can and should be practised at home where circumstances permit and the lawn will look all the better for the extra attention given to it! Indoors, you may do worse than putt along the lines of the carpet; you will learn, in this way, if the swing of your putter is correct or not. A good plan is to take an empty marmalade pot and a large, stiff piece of cardboard with which to make a gentle incline from the carpet to the lip of the pot. This not only affords excellent practice but an agreeable diversion in wet weather, as well as a means of adding to your store of coppers if the company has no objection to a mild sweepstake. Good putting makes up for other defects of play due to physique. It is not the prerogative of youth but the outcome of perseverance and the training of the judgment.

The chrysalis stage over, the beginner will essay the round of the links and will then discover inequalities in his control of the various clubs. He must then devote himself for a while to his weak club or clubs, for contentment is fatal to progress. As the desired facility comes to him and the ordinary strokes hold out no terrors, he will do well to create difficulties for himself, and, unless the Fates and he are in perfect accord, he will not find it amiss to spend a few half-hours in a bunker now and then. A word or two of caution. First, do not be misled into the vain pursuit of "long" driving. It leads to "pressing," both with this and other clubs and inaccurate, ineffective play is the result. Ten or twenty yards gained at the expense of a bad lie is but poor comfort. Length comes with the style produced by steady practice on correct lines, and straight play tells in the end. Care must be taken, too, to avoid over-practice and over-play, for these breed staleness and "out-of-form." This malady afflicts all players, more or less, and is often due to too much play on one course. Sometimes it comes of proneness to anticipation of evil; in other words, nerves. Experience shows that the player with highly-strung nerves and a mercurial temperament is the one who most frequently lapses into "out-of-form." Over-confidence often leads to erratic play. The drive from the tee is long, low and straight (what could be better?) the iron and mashie seem to conspire to loft the ball over every obstacle and drop it in close proximity to the flag; and the putts, long or short, are a source of annoyance to your opponent. You seem to tread on air for a day or two, and then—all goes wrong. This is no isolated experience—few, if any, escape it. The cause, if not one of those enumerated, is an overweening sense of triumph which leads to an unrestrained desire to out-do oneself. You begin "pressing," and the game will not stand it—at any rate, from the mediocre player.

Instead of practising self-restraint, you take liberties with the recognised principles and the descent is easy. You top the ball or drive it into the ground; you slice and you pull or plough up the ground some inches behind the ball. Then you try heroic measures and flounder still deeper in the mire until you are almost engulfed in the Slough of Despond. So beware! When you are on the top of your game, let not a false "Excelsior" lure you to a disastrous fall. Keep to your "harmonious" swing and it will keep to you.