Golf belongs to that large class of human games in which a ball plays the principal part. Balls of all sorts and sizes amuse men - hard ones, soft ones, large ones, small ones. These are treated in a variety of ways. They are struck, used to strike with, pushed against each other, knocked into holes, rolled as close as possible to things, battered against walls, knocked over nets, cuffed with the hand, jerked with the finger and thumb, struck with an instrument, kicked with the feet, etc. In some games the ball is buffeted whilst in motion, in others whilst at rest. In some, one player's aim is to make it go whilst others try to stop it, or both may want to keep it moving, each hoping that the other will fail to do so. In grames where it is the adversary's object to stop the ball, he keeps his face towards it and catches it with his hands; when he loses by doing so his back is turned, and he runs (except in war, in which the adversary does not wish to be struck, but should nevertheless have his face to the ball). In some games there is but one ball, about which there is a continual struggle; in others, each has it alternately. There is a common element in them all - rivalry.

Now golf is a game in which each player has a small hard ball of his own, which he strikes with a stick whilst it is quiescent, with the intention of putting it into a hole. Abstractly he wishes to do this with as few blows as possible, concretely in fewer than his opponent. A round of the green is called a match. A match is the best of nine, twelve, or eighteen games. Each game is called a hole, because it ends at the bottom thereof. The tee is not, as in many other games, the object aimed at, but the point started from. It consists of a small pile of sand placed on the ground, and solidified by the palm of the hand. On this the ball is placed. Each blow or miss is called a stroke, that is to say - a stroke is constituted purely by intention. A stroke is not the same thing as a rub, which is usually a blow received by a third party, but it is nearly identical with a shot. The latter, however, does not include a miss in the same impartial way as the former.

The distance between the tees and the holes is from a hundred to five hundred yards. After leaving the tee, you are not allowed to do anything to the ball except strike it or swear at it until you have either given up the hole or got to the bottom of it. In each hole there is a flag, so that its whereabouts may be seen from a distance. This is temporarily removed when the player gets near it. The flags are little bits of cloth or a bunch of wool at the end of a stick or wire; but on greens where they are not habitually stolen, the whole flag is of iron, with the name and number of the hole printed on the top. These names are for the most part either geographical, personal, gastronomical, or arithmetical. The geographical names are suggested by peculiarities of the ground around or in front of the hole. If there are none, a wall or a bathing-machine in the neighbourhood may suggest a name. Holes called after people have usually been planned, laid out, and added to the course by their godfathers, who for the first ten years earn anything but gratitude, as these new holes are for a long time very rough and bad; a public-house or a refreshment-stall in the neighbourhood of a hole is always recognised as its most important feature, and it is christened accordingly. The last hole is called the last, the one at the extremity of the links the far-hole, unless a public-house be there to make such a consideration unimportant; for it is admitted on all hands that the state of a man's stomach has much to do with his game.

The grounds on which golf is played arc called links, being the barren sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank benty grass and gorse. These get worn away by sheep and golfers, and short springy sandy turf is disclosed. The part of the links thus worn is the course. Links are too barren for cultivation; but sheep, rabbits, geese, and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them. A good course ought to be from 50 to 100 yards wide, the ground undulating or even hilly. The finer the turf is the better; but it is never perfect, because golfers are always slicing bits of it out with their clubs, quicker than the green-keeper can replace them, which is not saying much. When you find your ball lying on one of these scrapes, you bemoan; but it is only when breaks in the turf are found within twenty yards of the hole that the green-keeper is inexcusable.

On every course there ought to be plenty of hazards - that is, places where a shot is lost unless the driving be far enough, straight, or high. Off the course there are rabbit-holes, gorse bushes, railways, ploughed fields, gardens, and green-houses for crooked drivers; on it, bunkers or sand-holes for topped and short balls. The best kind of bunkers are natural. Those which are often visited usually have names, being called some man's nose or grave, or merely his bunker. To have a bunker named after you is a monumentum aere perennius. People like being godfathers to bunkers, although it is not usually complimentary to their driving. Where there is a lack of natural bunkers, artificial ones are dug. Walls, roads, ditches, and cops serve as hazards on the course, but these are not recognised as so desirable as bunkers.