Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures/Lecture 35

Driving off the tee for the majority of players is, I should say, on the entire the stroke the place less foozling or dangerous play takes place than in another stroke, and but here is the case of an ideal player failing at it for 4 years, when he was very near the prime of life. Don't let a youth suppose that, because a golfer of great skill is a victim to one or more of those fads, it is important that he should be so also. You may let something grow upon you when you permit it to take action, and why should we count on a man to have disciplined himself in his youth to avoid gluttony or any other pleasing vice, and never have feelings of scorn for the golfer who has allowed every absurd fad to take such possession of him that he is a slave to them, and an annoyance to himself and a nuisance to his fellow-creatures. All of us admire the gentlemanlike courtesy with which some settle for their destiny, and play with some opponent of about the identical age, or in congenial foursomes; however how painful, and but how humorous is the sight of a man who under related circumstances becomes irritable, fussy, fidgety, a pitiful sight to males and angels.

He was excited about this disaster; it was a personal thing to him, and he lost sight of the truth that to the ladies of the Harrigan get together it was, in its particulars, merely sordid and repelling. Unless the green is a private one the talker has as much right to be there and to giggle or talk as you have to play golf, and each participant should try to keep this fact in thoughts. To get the strength of each inexperienced mounted in your thoughts is troublesome for any man, for a nervous man nicely-nigh inconceivable. I have seen a player who was dangerous at lofting a ball over a bunker forty yards from the hole, play the earlier stroke quick so as, instead of getting to play a forty-yards shot, to make one that took eighty yards to get over the bunker. It has been stated, that every match is won by the quick game; this, like many much-quoted sayings, is a half-fact. Tennis, for example, once you first fail to win a brief chase, or your opponent retains on serving nicks; billiards, when your ball is at all times below a cushion, or the balls useless protected time after time; cricket, when an umpire has given you out by a mistake of judgment-all these are trials, they usually type a part of the self-discipline of life.

You can not win a match when you method and putt badly; but there are some courses, Sandwich, for instance, where you may just as well go residence as dream of profitable a match or making a respectable score if you're "off" your driving. The tempers of some golfers have their humorous aspect, What is a billiards club but there are also some which might be painful to witness. There was my uncle Wardle; a greater man by no means broke the bread of life: he took to billiards, and he didn't live with aunt a month afterwards. What pleasure any man can take in such stuff should astonish any sensible lady. At Sandwich, subsequently, you'll be able to with fact comment that the match cannot be won by the bad driver. A golfer by apply may improve his play with a club, however he very possible will discover that, in the course of the time he has occupied himself with this membership, another has mysteriously failed him; and in any case the horrible ordeal of placing must be gone through, and it is the painful expertise of unhealthy putters that apply does in no way excellent, but solely causes new terrors to appear. The man of thirty in a number of years will very doubtless turn into a very bad putter, not as a result of he has not the ability-for he proved his ability when a newbie-but as a result of he has learnt the terrors of putting, and his talent is overpowered by his nerves.

Set such a man on a placing-green with a putter and three or four balls, and he will very doubtless putt in addition to the best skilled; ask him to drive or play a brassey and he might be nowhere. If a man is off his drive he nonetheless has to play with his driver or brassey off the tee, for to drive with a cleek is ignominious and fatiguing withal. But it's true of golf that you can find it inconceivable to avoid being compelled a while or other to play with a membership you could have little confidence in, and to negotiate distances you hate. In like method, if a young golfer makes up his mind that he is not going to enable himself to be disturbed if a rook flies across the line of play, or his opponent talks to his caddie, he will find that such things is not going to disturb him and he will enjoy the game more himself and be a far pleasanter companion and opponent to everyone else. After a moment Hal remembered--the "Young People's Night" at the nation membership!