We have come to the consideration of the third essential club for a beginner, namely, the putter. Reams upon reams have been written about putting: it is wellnigh impossible to say anything new on the subject. It would be interesting to evolve some startling new theory, such as that the player should stand on her head to take the line, but there might be difficulty in obtaining support for it. Golfers would not be likely to possess the credulity of the Chinaman who went to a mission hospital for treatment. The doctor (who had been a great gymnast) examined him thoroughly, and then by way of a joke, to try if he could shake his phlegmatic calm, suddenly stood on his head opposite to him. The Chinaman remained perfectly grave, and after a little took his departure. A few days after the same Chinaman returned. The doctor again examined him, gave him some medicine, and waited for him to leave. The Chinaman, however, did not go, and the doctor at last asked him why he delayed. 'You have only looked at me in one way,' said the Chinaman reproachfully, 'last time you looked at me the other way also.' Putting has been the despair and joy of golfers ever since the game was invented. A gamut of emotion can be experienced on each green. Hope, joy, rage, frenzy, and despair may in turn possess the player, and, most difficult feat, must be rigorously prevented from finding outward expression, so that the player can present a calm front to her adversary and to the world. Golf is a grand school for self-control, and, breathe it low, hypocrisy. Not only does the player pass through this stress of emotion when making her own shots, but she has to suffer it also when watching her adversary play. It is very difficult to keep an unmoved countenance, and utter the stereotyped phrase, 'Oh! good putt,' when a hole or a half is snatched from one's grasp by a fluke from the edge of the green. But when a series of these flukes is perpetrated it is almost more than human flesh can stand. The natural man, or rather woman, feels inclined to execute summary vengeance on her enemy. Probably the person responsible for these flukes apologises in a half-guilty fashion for having made them, but this does not make the matter any better. We know that she is naturally internally jubilant, and we are not in the least soothed by the reflection that if the flukes had been on our side, we would have been equally jubilant. We only feel terribly aggrieved and ill-used, and draw largely upon that fund of self-pity of which nearly all golfers possess such an abundant supply. In the other parts of the game it is much easier to take the ups and downs of golf philosophically. Even if a drive is missed or an iron shot foozled without penalty, or an opponent's ball barefacedly jumps a bunker by which it should have been trapped, we feel that there is always the possibility that something may turn up to change the luck to our side before the hole is actually finished. But on the green, when we are confronted with the two balls and the hole in close proximity, and we know that postponement of the issue is no longer possible, and everything will depend on the happenings of the next few moments, the situation is very different. Courage oozes away, knees tremble, hands shake, and nerves are strained to a breaking point.

THE HEELS TOGETHER PUTTING STANCE MISS Violet Hezlet.

[To face p. 294.

One of the irritating features of putting is its uncertainty. On one day the balls appear to be attracted to the hole as by a magnet, on the next they run round the edges, jump in and out, deliberately turn off the line, and commit all manner of eccentricities, and all for no apparent reason. The veriest tyro will at times outputt the most experienced golfer. No one seems to be exempt from off-days in putting. It is remarkable, too, that these off-days are often accepted, with bitterness of soul indeed, but yet in a fatalistic spirit, as belonging to the inevitable. If a scratch player is badly off her long game, she will resort to very drastic measures to find out the fault and cure it, but if she is badly off her putting, she is much more likely to regard it as a matter for regret and annoyance, but still a misfortune which she must simply endure. She waits with what semblance of patience she can muster until her putting recovers itself again.

Now, all this is not very encouraging reading for the beginner, but there is a point to be emphasised. That point is this, that although every one putts badly on occasions, from various causes temperamental and other, the beginner can to a great extent provide against the recurrence of bad putting, by assiduous practice and the cultivation from the start of a sound style. Nerves and want of confidence are great hindrances to good putting, and are very hard to cope with. The possession, too, of a reputation is responsible for occasional failure. It is much harder for the person with a reputation to maintain to putt than for the average player. When the watching crowd have made up their minds that a putt cannot be missed, the result is more than likely to fall short of their expectations. But, as in music, proficiency in technique is a great help to a nervous artiste, so in golf the possession of sound principles and the knowledge of the mechanical part of the game gained by experience will enable the player in some degree to withstand the nervous strain, and will save her from a complete collapse. Therefore let the beginner cultivate an optimistic spirit. For some time she will be immune from the real trials of the green when the issue of a championship or some important match hangs on the holing or missing of a short putt. We will hope that by the time she has to face such ordeals she will have fitted herself fully to surmount them.