The term beginner, as applied to the game of golf, covers a multitude of varying aims and aspirations; and since advice is surely wasted upon those who either do not need it or have no desire for it, we may, for economical purposes, classify beginners under three heads, and state directly the particular kind of novice to whom the following suggestions are offered. The first class, then, is composed of boys under the age of discretion, who learn games by a natural process of imitation and assimilation; in the second are found all those of dyspeptic habits who have been ordered by their physicians to take a round of golf, either as a tonic or a counter-irritant; the third, and by far the largest, class includes men and women of all ages and temperaments, who by accident or intention, have taken an interest in the game sufficient to inspire them with a desire for improvement, and yet find a difficulty in acquiring any accuracy of form or execution on account of the lack of practical information upon the subject.

The Dangers Of Professional Teaching

It is to this last and most sym-pattyetic class that I desire chief-ly to address a few remarks, with just a word of explanation in advance. Many may object to the presumption that information really is lacking. There are standard works upon the science of golf, and every links in America, or indeed in any other well regulated community, is provided with a first-class professional direct from the royal and ancient home of the game in Scotland. And yet the Badminton book in its general tone is, like all scientific works, more an aid to experts than a consolation to beginners who have been led astray in their youth by devotion to baseball or cricket. As for the professional, the disadvantages under which he imparts his instruction must be taken into consideration before his advice can be accepted with absolute faith.

Generally speaking, he is young, and without experience in the matter of teaching. He is ignorant of the ways of the people he has to deal with, and having no respect for any game but his own, he is unable to distinguish between errors which come from innate viciousness and those which have been induced by familiarity with the bat or the racket. Lastly, he can seldom account for his own proficiency. Golf with him is more a second nature than an accomplishment; he succeeds in his art not of malice prepense, as Aristotle would say, but simply because he cannot help it; and the fact that he is a good player is no criterion whatever of his ability as an instructor of others.

Of course there are many professionals who are excellent teachers. But I have seen so many novices, both in America and England, who, in spite of professional coaching - or because of it - are attempting to play golf in a manner that never can be anything but a source of grief to themselves and pity in their friends, that I have determined to lay down a few simple maxims which are not based upon any dogma or theory, but upon actual observation.

The Choice Of Weapons

Let us begin at the very beginning, then, and having taken it for granted that the tyro really wishes to play golf, and not some other inferior game, let us put him in the right direction at the start.

He must not, in the first place, buy a complete set of clubs, because he cannot possibly expect to play with more than three of them under two months' time, and the rest will only distract his attention.

Score Counting Must Be Avoided

Secondly, he will be wise to keep off the regular course as long as possible, for as soon as he plays eighteen holes he will begin tocount his score and trouble the handicapper. This is the most prevalent disease among young golfers, and one that will check his progress more than anything else. I may be pardoned, therefore, for dwelling a moment upon the subject. The average beginner finds it very difficult to understand why he should be warned against this score counting habit, arguing, with some show of plausibility, that the lowering of one's record is a strong incentive toward improvement in the game. He forgets, however, that apart from the fact that his endeavors to get below the hundred will make him unfit for human companionship, the mere anxiety to succeed in a nominal and numerical way must have a bad effect upon his style. He will adopt any and every method whereby he may the more readily reach the hole; some friend will give him a piece of advice which will make him more accurate for the time being, but will sacrifice for him all hopes of ever hitting the ball in the right way; so that, finally, by the time he has surprised himself by going the whole round of eighteen holes in ninety-nine strokes, without a single effort of the imagination, and has won several useless and inartistic cups, he will find that he has forfeited all possibility of becoming a first-class player. It would be a good rule, then, for every beginner to refuse absolutely to count his score until he has played six months; and above all let him remember that it is better to miss the ball fifty times in succession in the riglit way than to hit it once by some inauthentic trick.

Use a Wooden Club.

It will be best for our novice to retire with his caddy or his adviser to some remote locality with plenty of old balls and only one club. That club must be of the wooden variety. The shaft should be strong, but not too clumsy, with just a little spring at the lower end. The head should be a bulger.

It is a mystery to me why every beginner is taught to play with an old-fashioned, longheaded driver. It would be just as sensible to offer a young tennis player one of the old lob-sided rackets to learn the game with. The bulger is not only the best kind of head for experts, but it was especially invented to obviate the faults which are most inherent in young players. The compact form of the head makes accurate hitting far more easy, and the bulge is intended to counteract all tendencies to slice and pull.

The angle of the head with the shaft should not be too obtuse. Tastes vary, of course, on that point, but the general fault in wooden clubs is that they err in not being sufficiently upright.