On inland links trees, ditches, and hedges are the commonest hazards. Trees possess a horrible fascination for many golfers, and they are most disastrous obstacles to contend with, as if a ball catches a tree it may rebound off the trunk or branches in any direction. The best advice we can suggest is to give them as wide a berth as possible. But if the player is so unfortunate as to stymie herself with a tree, there are three courses for her to adopt. One is to loft her ball right over the top. The second is to pilot it skilfully through any discernible gap in the branches. The third is to trample on her pride and deliberately to play to a safe point, irrespective of the direction of the hole. The second course is the most difficult and should only be tried on very rare occasions. Granted a good lie and that the ball is not too close in to the tree, the first is fairly easy of accomplishment. But the third is usually the most discreet way out of the difficulty. The eighth hole on the links of the Nice club at Cagnes is a great test of a player's nerve. There is quite a plantation between the tee and green and the shot has to be played most skilfully. As the ball can be teed up, the high shot clearing everything is the easiest to play, but it leaves the ball very much at the mercy of the wind, and the scientific golfers prefer to take the risk of playing through the branches. The big tree to the left of the first hole at Ranelagh used to be a terrible stumbling-block to many of the competitors at the annual spring meeting. It was very depressing to start a medal score by planting one's first tee-shot into the middle of the branches, and it was very humiliating to have to make one's second stroke from within fifty or sixty yards of the tee and the assembled multitude. Those who were not very courageous played well out to the right and were content to reach the green in two, and many who scorned this humbler policy were led by sad results to wish they had adopted it.

Hedges are very nearly as objectionable as trees, but they are not so frequently to be encountered. If the ball sticks in a hedge, a hard shot with a niblick will sometimes dislodge it successfully.

Ditches vary in difficulty according to their depth, width, and the character of the bottom. The ball is usually lying at a lower level than the player's stance, hence it is advisable to grip the club low down on the leather, and to get well down to the shot, taking care to cut thoroughly under the ball. If the ditch is very deep and with a dry bottom, much the same sort of shot can be used as that described for a ball buried in sand, except that a half-swing can be taken more effectively in a ditch than in sand. When the ball is lying very much beneath the player, a full swing is apt to upset the balance. A firm stance is a great help. Practically all the advice that can be given as to the nature of the stance is confined to 'Try and get a good grip of the ground,' as the exigencies of the position usually defy orthodox methods. On some links a special local rule is framed to permit of the ball being lifted, under a penalty stroke, out of a watery ditch. But if this is not the case, the ball must be played from where it lies, or rather from where it floats. Even when such a rule exists it is often possible to save the penalty stroke by playing the ball, and judgment must be exercised in each particular case as to whether to lift or play. It is not very difficult to hit a ball in water, if one can get a fairly good stance. The chief requisite is courage. It takes some strength of mind to lay oneself open to the possibility of getting splashed all over with dirty water, but if the player will hit boldly, keeping her eye firmly fixed on the ball, and endeavouring to get well under it, she will generally find that she can get the ball away quite well. Water does not offer nearly the same resistance to the club as sand. As we said before, several of the competitors in the ladies' championship meeting at St. Andrews showed themselves very skilful in aquatic shots. Miss Titterton laid her ball dead at the first hole out of the Swilcan Burn, having profited by the example of her opponent on the preceding day; and Miss C. Leitch made a beautiful shot out of water at the seventh hole in the semi-final against Miss Titterton, and was bold enough to take a spoon to do it with. Nevertheless, a spoon is not to be recommended for the ordinary golfer for such a shot, an iron, mashie, or niblick being a much safer club to use.

A road is a hazard occasionally to be met with. If the ball is kind enough to stay in the centre, the shot is quite a simple one, and may be played after the same method as a ball lying clean in sand. If, however, it is tucked away in the gutter or under the bank, a decision has to be made as to whether it is worth risking a sideways cut-shot, or whether it would not be more discreet simply to tap the ball out into the middle as a preliminary to an attempt to get clear away. If the latter course is chosen, care must be exercised to play the tap with sufficient force to reach the desired spot, otherwise the stroke will be completely wasted by the ball rolling back into its original, or a worse, position. The cut-shot may be played very much after the fashion of a cut approach, that is to say, the club should be drawn slightly across the ball from right to left at the moment of impact. This will make it rise quickly. A shot on a road has nearly always to be taken cleanly, as the surface of the hazard is not of the same yielding consistency as sand. Hence, the eye should be kept on the ball, and not on a point of the road behind it.

Gorse and heather are very frequently to be encountered, and they make very formidable hazards. It is much more difficult for women than for men to play well out of heather, as strength is of the utmost importance in making such a shot. Heather roots are very tough, and they are very likely to turn the face of the club aside. The best plan is to grip the club very firmly, and not to try to do too much. One must usually be content with getting the ball out into better country instead of endeavouring to get a very long shot away. I think the most difficult 'rough ' of the description that I have ever experienced is that to right and left of the course at Ashdown Forest. On a hot day it is perfectly cruel.

On some links the player is enabled by a local rule to lift out of gorse, but on others the ball must be played or the hole given up. A niblick is the best club to choose in dealing with a gorse bush, and the player must take up a firm stance regardless of the prickles. As in sand, she should put all her available strength into the shot, trying, if the ball won't come away by itself, to clear the gorse bush away also. In fact, she should take example by the police in the late suffragette riots, who, when a suffragette chained herself to a tree and refused to budge, uprooted tree and suffragette together and carried them both in triumph to the lock-up.