The extent of the country is so great, however, that a golfer who may be so fortunately situated that he is not bound to any one place in particular by business ties may woo the golf goddess successfully in other places. When there is snow in the north he may hie him away to Florida. There he will discover warm weather once again, golf in full swing, and players without number assembled.

University golfers are to be encountered all over the country during their vacations, for all of the leading Universities, such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and Princetown, possess courses of their own- courses, too, that may be placed in comparison with the Oxford and Cambridge courses at home. During the past seven years golf has been played extensively at these 'Varsities, and although champions have not yet sprung from the ranks of the undergrads or collegians, leaders in the game will come to the front after a while. Everything must needs be favoured with a start, and the first-class player is not to be secured with ease. He is a product of carefully applied and well-thought-out effort, and the American Universities will not lag behind in the race, provided they are given a little longer time for preparation.

The professors, too, at the various Universities take a great and growing interest in the game. Team matches arc played between the students at very frequent dates, so that in a general sense University golf may be fairly said to be in a perfectly prosperous condition.

As regards play and players, I should place, as a natural sequence to his having won the Amateur Championship of America, Mr. W. J. Travis in the very first rank. His style may not be exactly perfection in itself, nor is it a taking one from a professional's point of view, but - it is very sound! The Garden City player is a good all-round man; he is not hot-headed or inclined to accept risks. He is of the sure and steady order of golfers, and he has discovered that this style has repaid all the trouble he has lavished upon it. Mr. Travis, although an Australian by birth, learnt the whole of his golf while residing in America - in fact, during the past five or six years. My opinion, too, is that he will still improve, so that it is difficult to say how good he really may be before he reaches the heyday of his popularity.

Of the lady players in America I should certainly place Miss F. C. Griscom right in the forefront, for she is undeniably the best lady exponent of the game at present handling a club. Miss Griscom, too, learnt her golf in America, but she has since then been a visitor to North Berwick, and has had the advantage of being under the instruction of the professionals there. This is a great advantage, naturally, and Miss Griscom's game has improved as a result.

Still, although at the time I am writing there is a player of either sex standing above all other competitors in their respective classes, there is no possible reason why golf excellence should not go through the levelling-up process in the near future. The pursuit of the game is being steadily encouraged by the various clubs on behalf of their younger members; that is to say, the juniors are encouraged to turn out for practice during the earlier hours of the day, while their seniors, having finished the more serious portions of their professional duties, are playing during the afternoons. During the morning the juniors have the links fairly to themselves; they are only too eager to take advantage of this fact, and the result will be in a very short time that good amateur players, men and women. will be produced. This is but a question of time ; players of excellent class cannot be brought out, as it were, to order, but the time for America cannot now be much longer delayed.

As regards the professionals, they are good players one and all, and men who work with their hearts set upon the good of the game. American golf should flourish in the hands of Willie Anderson, Willie Smith, Alec Smith, the ex-St. Andrews amateur, L. Auchterlonie, David Bell, and George Low. Every man has proved his worth, and they are capable of holding their own with any of their profession.

But when we come to consider the American professional, then I fear we are faced with a considerable difficulty. As was proved in England, it is a matter of impossibility to secure good professionals unless the game has grown on them, year by year, from the time they are toddling mites to sturdy youth and manhood. It is the same in America. Golf has not been played there long enough for a youngster to have been brought up on the game, and so to blossom out into a player of really first-class calibre.

This, however, will come in the natural order of events, but it cannot be made to come rapidly. An obstacle yet to be overcome is that the caddie is scarcely encouraged to show his prowess to such an extent in America as in England. There are few public courses on the other side of the Atlantic; even they are run by the corporations in the majority of instances, and upon the purely private courses not much favour is extended to the boys.

Why this should be the case may be readily understood, for an unskilful or reckless player would often damage a green by cutting the turf badly when playing a stroke. In the case of a member doing this, of course it could not be helped ; but the boys-they are kept at a distance. Still, they get upon the links occasionally and knock a ball about, so they must necessarily learn by degrees; while those who have the pre-eminence of home sportsmen at heart cannot altogether forget that the champions of the professional class must be drawn from the ranks of the caddies. This, then, is my plea for generous treatment of the lads of the growing generation.

Considerable discussion has been waged around the subject of the links to be met with in America. They have in certain quarters been consistently written up or written down, although from what I saw of them when I was touring in the States I really do not think we are such a great deal better off in this respect as some people imagine.

It is true that during the winter the cold in some quarters is so severe, and penetrates so deeply into the ground, that the surface becomes cracked and ridged. Hence the necessity for calling in the services of the steam roller after the frost has disappeared, for unless the course were rolled play would be next to an impossibility.

America is also unfortunate in this respect, that she does not possess a real seaside course, such as Sandwich or Westward Ho. Again, she has not so great a number of natural golf links as is the case in the British Isles, her courses are of a more or less artificial character. This being the case, men who play solely in America would be placed at a disadvantage were they to take part in an international contest in any other country. But, on the other hand, I feel I must admit, in common fairness, that despite the minor disadvantages I have pointed out, the conditions in America are fairly favourable to the game.

There are hundreds of acres of ground that may be converted into golf links, and although the weather may be at times somewhat hotter, or colder, as the case may be, than we should really desire, yet I suppose the players are spared many of the terribly wet and dreary days we are favoured with in England. Again, the London fogs cast their opaque mantles over the courses near the great metropolis, but we do not experience this when we have crossed the Atlantic.

Golf may be somewhat more expensive there than here, but considering the greater cost of living generally, and the higher wages paid in the manufacture of golf clubs and other requisites, and then the universal tendency of the stores to dispose of everything for the lowest possible margin of profit - all these things being considered, I say it can scarcely be termed an expensive luxury.

Looking at the matter from all points of view, my opinion is that it costs well-nigh as much to play golf in England as in America. We are fortunate enough to possess advantages that cannot be found elsewhere. But American golf is rapidly improving, and ere long American players will be able to hold their own in the best company.