Punch and Tom Morris
Sacrilegious hands are laid on Mrs. Browning, in 1902, in the lament of "The Golf Widows"—i.e. women whose husbands do nothing but play or talk golf—an excellent satire on the selfishness, the "shop," and the strong language of the "strong man off his game." But there are golfers and golfers; and Punch recognized one of the real heroes of the game in his "Royal and ancient friend," old Tom Morris, whose resignation of his post as green-keeper at St. Andrew's inspired this genial salutation:—
Well have you borne your fourscore years and two,
Faithful in service, as in friendship true;
Now, pacing slowly homewards from the Turn,
Long may it be before you cross the Burn,
And, ere you tread your well-loved links no more,
May eight-two (plus twenty) be your score.
The popularity of golf in France has led to the framing of a complete glossary of French equivalents for the terminology of the game. Punch, as a good humanist, essayed a similar task at a time when the revival of Latin for conversational purposes was proposed by some hardy classicists. As he justly remarks: "The advantages of Latin in this context will not have escaped the notice of even the most superficial observers. Thus the bad effect on caddies of using strong language in the vernacular is entirely obviated. Again, when the ball is lying dead, only a dead language can render justice to the situation."
