A good test for the tee shot in modem golf. The player has a choice as to the length of carry which he will attempt. If he takes the straight line to the hole, and accomplishes the carry to A, he leaves himself with a comparatively easy second shot. If he cannot manage the long carry, and prefers to drive to the spot marked B, he has to approach the hole with a long shot from a difficult angle. The green should be guarded well on both sides, with the entrance made easy only for the player who has taken the straight line.

The accompanying diagram will afford at a glance an idea of the principle which I have in mind. The advantage of this system of architecture is that, except in a most extraordinary gale, some part of the hazard can always be carried, and the man who can carry the farther obtains his due reward. There is need for thought and skill and power and, indeed, all the qualities that made golf so great a game in the time of the guttapercha ball, and which have been threatened with extinction by the advent of the rubber-core.

In modern golf, no holes are harder to play than the short ones, provided that they are properly designed. I used to think - and say - that three short holes were sufficient on any course, but the character of the game has changed so vastly, and driving has been made so simple by comparison with the difficulties which it presented ten years ago, that I feel that on present-day links even five short holes are not too many. Whatever facilities the ball may afford at the long holes, it is certain that it cannot help anybody at the short ones, and so the latter tend to restore some of the demand for skill. They must, however, call for perfect tee shots. There must be no mercy for the errant player. With care and practice, anybody ought to be able to play a short hole properly. An easy one is the dullest thing known to golf.

At the seaside the architect usually finds ideal sites for short holes staring him in the face, and he has to allow the lengths to be governed by the character of the ready-made hazards and the run of the ground. This applies to some extent at inland places, but here he often has to come to the assistance of Nature by contributing bunkers to her work, so that he has more scope for deciding as to what kind of shot shall be necessary from the tee. One hole may well be a mashie shot, measuring from 80 to 120 yards, and two others can be from 120 to 160 yards each in length, so as to give the man who is fond of his iron a chance of doing something good with it. These holes ought to present many difficulties without being unfair; the bunkers should be close in to the greens, and capable of punishing anything in the nature of a bad stroke. Two other holes may be of the full-shot variety (perhaps some people will object to these being called short holes, although, in any case, they are not long), but here the bunkers guarding the front of the green should be about twenty-five yards short of the near edge of the putting area so as to allow for the run which is inseparable from a full shot. It is highly important, too, that the ground between the bunker and the green should be as good as Nature and humanity can combine to make it. There should be no chance for it to impart a kick to the ball. You know directly you have played the tee shot whether you have hit it well or ill, and it is bitterly disappointing to see a good stroke kick into a bunker. When you play to come in one way, it is annoying in the extreme to see the ball jump the other way through a fault in the fairway - or, in this case, unfair-way.

Gorse, bracken, and other flora of the heath or common, stretching from teeing-ground to green, constitute good guards for short holes, but where it is necessary to dig a bunker, I need scarcely say that the outline of the hazard should be, in this case, more or less at right angles to the line of play since there can only be one correct spot to carry, even though that spot vary from day to day, according to the wind. The diagonal bunker comes into use at the longer holes. Of these, the hardest to play under modern conditions are, I think, those which measure about 400 yards, and have well-protected greens. A good drive is needed in any case; and against the wind, a full second shot is often demanded. Still, a first-class player can get home by means of two perfect shots, and regain the stroke which he is giving to an inferior opponent. I firmly believe in having a bunker in front of the green with the object of making the golfer play for the carry, which is the true game; but the hazard should be about forty yards short of the pin. In dry weather it is often wellnigh impossible to make the 3 ball stop within a few yards of where it alights.

Five of these holes are not too many, and to give the shorter driver a periodical land of promise, I would have four holes of from 330 to 370 yards each. A distance of 33° yards is often described as bad, because, under normal circumstances, it requires more than one full shot and less than two strenuous strokes. But approaching is now by far the most difficult part of the game, and as recovery ought to be possible at any part of the course, there is no harm in occasionally facilitating it. With the cross-hazard existing to punish the poor drive, the person who had been guilty of a downright bad tee shot would have to effect an almost superhuman recovery to obtain a 4.

The gradient of the ground and the nature of the turf are often such as to decide definitely whether the green ought to be protected in front or left open. The unguarded entrance is good in certain circumstances. If the ground within, say, forty yards of the hole, slopes from either left or right towards the other side of the fairway, the approach is as difficult as any bunker could make it. The running shot will not take the slope properly unless you play it with slice or pull, according to whether the incline is from the right or the left, while to pitch over all of the thought-provoking slant and stop near the hole, calls for a very fine shot indeed.