THE STANDARD GOLF-BALL

.

I do not want a standard ball,

So many to the pound;

Whether its girth is trim and svelte

Or built to take an out-size belt,

I hardly seem to care at all

So long as it is round.

But it appears to my poor wit

That we might well contrive

A means by which the merest babe

Would hold his own with Mitchell (Abe),

If we could have a standard hit

(Especially the drive).

I want a limit made to bar

The unrestricted whack

(A hundred yards I think should be

The length on which we might agree),

And if you pushed the ball too far

You'd have to bring it back.

And I should love a standard lie.

A ball inside a cup

Or latent under sand or whin

Hampers my progress toward the pin;

It would improve my game if I

Could lift and tee it up.

But most, when tongues of golfers wag,

Talking their dreadful shop

Of rotten luck and stymies laid

And chip-approaches, Taylor-made—

Oh, then I want a standard gag

To make the blighters stop.

O.S.