SOMEWHERE in the late "sixties," roughly speaking about thirty years ago, two Scotchmen were spending a few days at Hoylake. One of them was the late Robert Chambers, of the well-known firm of publishers, - a first-class golfer - and the other was his brother-in-law, Mr. J. Muir Dowie.

To these early pioneers the ground known as the "Rabbit Warren," with its closely cropped turf, sandy bunkers, and undulating surface, irresistibly suggested golf, and the possibility of making a golf course, and starting a club, was discussed between them.

They learned that the "warren" was leased, along with the neighbouring farm, to one, John Ball, the landlord of the local hotel, and our two Scotchmen accordingly approached him and laid their views before him. Mr. Ball was then a stalwart yeoman of thirty-six years, and being a keen sportsman, though he knew nothing of the Scottish game, he was good enough to fall in with the views of the strangers, and to grant them permission to cut nine little round holes, and stick nine little red flags in them.

This was the beginning of things at Hoylake.

A room in the hotel was obtained as a club-room, and the club was started with about a dozen members, and jogged along comfortably for many years, in great contentment and with much good-fellowship. In the meantime, honest John himself had taken to the game, and exhibited such aptitude for it, in spite of a style that was somewhat unorthodox, as to suggest that his name must have come to him from some remote ancestor of ball-hitting propensities. Few could beat him in these years. He played against his master and first instructor, Mr. Chambers, in a match against the Tantallon Golf Club, and beat him by four holes; and in the amateur championship of 1887, at Hoylake, he only succumbed at the last hole, in the semi-final round, to Mr. H. G. Hutchinson. But whether Mr. Ball derived his aptitude for hitting a golf ball from his forefathers or not, there can be no doubt that he transmitted his own skill to his son, whose name is also John, and who began to play at Hoylake, in emulation of his elders, when he was about six years old. John Ball, "tertius," as he was then styled, and now "junior," or more shortly "Johnnie," had many opportunities as a child, and as he grew up, of seeing golf "as she should be played." Young Tom Morris, Davie Strath, and Jamie Allan, played many matches over the links, and no future champion could have wished for finer golfers to fire his youthful ardour, or better models on which to form his style. Everybody knows what use he made of his opportunities, and how, after being four times amateur champion, and once open champion, he is to-day one of the prettiest, as he is certainly one of the very best golfers in the world.

With the rise and supremacy of Johnnie Ball, the Hoylake Club and links gained ever-increasing renown and popularity. Members joined in large numbers from all parts of the country. The course was enlarged and improved, the club had new premises built on to the hotel, and Hoylake became the flourishing centre of English golf. In 1882, the club had the good fortune to secure the services of Mr. Thomas Owen Potter as honorary secretary, and to his able management, a great deal of the success of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, and of the popularity which golf now enjoys in England, must be attributed. As a cricketer, Mr. Potter was well known, having played for Lancashire, and on taking up golf, he brought to the discharge of his duties as honorary secretary, all the enthusiasm and geniality of a genuine English sportsman. Every passing golfer who visited Hoylake, during the thirteen years of his tenure of office, took away with him something of his enthusiasm for the game, of his kindliness and good-fellowship; and to the seeds so spread, to his advice and help, always ungrudgingly given, many golf clubs owe their present existence and prosperity. May he long live to view, in his retirement, the fruits of his labours.

When Johnnie Ball was in his teens, a small, fair-haired child called Hilton, used to watch him playing on the green. As he grew up, this child exhibited astonishing proficiency at the game. He won the boys' medal at Hoylake four times; the first time when he was only ten years of age. So rapidly did he progress, that at last "Johnnie" himself, could not give him anything, and a beating; and though he has not yet won the amateur championship, he has been the "runner-up" on three occasions. But in 1892, at Muirfield, he attained the distinguished honour of winning the open championship, with the marvellous score of 305 for 72 holes; and this year he has again secured the coveted distinction, on his own green, with the grand score of 314.

Mr. J. Graham, jun., is another young Hoy-lake player of first-class ability, of whom more will be heard; and there are others coming on who bid fair to maintain the reputation of Hoy-lake golf. The local professional, also a native of the place, George Pulford, tied in this year's (1897) championship with Mr. Tait for the third place, and he has shown, on many occasions, that he is quite able to hold his own with the best of them.

Altogether it is a remarkable phenomenon, this school of Hoylake golf. With the exception of Mr. Horace Hutchinson, no English amateur has, so far, attained first-class honours outside the charmed circle of Hoylake, and Mr. Hutchinson is a cosmopolitan golfer, and has played as much at Hoylake as anywhere else. Were one to pick a team of amateurs to represent England, it would be almost entirely composed of Hoylake players. To have taken up the game so lately, and to maintain as they do, more than successfully, their equality with the pick of Scottish players at their own national game, is an achievement of which the golfers of Hoylake may well be proud.

Doubtless, at Hoylake, many circumstances unite to favour and foster the successful pursuit of the game. Its situation, close to Liverpool, and midway between Scotland and the Metropolis, makes it a convenient centre for golfers from all parts, and renders it by far the most suitable green, from the point of view of locality, for championship competitions. The course itself is superb, and the wealth and virility of the club are testified by the excellent condition in which the green is maintained, and by the number of club competitions and the keenness with which they are contested. The course is surrounded by the houses of Hoylake and West Kirby, inhabited by well-to-do people, most of whom play the game from their earliest years, and who have only to step out of their front doors to be on the green.