The course at Yardley is fairly level, and, save for the seventh, none of the holes are very difficult. The distance for the nine holes is 2170 yards and the bogey is 35 strokes. (Ned had once done it in 38, equaling the school record.) It was stroke competition to-day and the match was to go to the side winning three out of five games of eighteen holes. The second was reached by both Ned and Frost in 4, one over bogey. So far their cards were even at 8 strokes. But on the next hole Ned had a piece of bad luck, slicing his drive so that it took him an extra stroke to cross the bunker and Frost took the hole in 5 to Ned’s 6. By that time it was apparent even to Kendall that the Broadwood player was superior to Ned with his driver. Frost’s drives were quite remarkable. They had both length and direction. Ned drove a slightly shorter ball and was more uncertain as to direction. (Kendall overheard one knowing spectator observe that “Tooker tees too high; that’s the trouble with him.”) But with the iron Ned was better than his opponent. He seemed able to place his ball just where he wanted it on approach shots and more than once so far he had gained the hole with only one putt. When it came to the use of the putter there appeared little choice between the two boys. Each seemed possessed of a deadly certainty with that implement in hand. The fourth hole was halved and at the fifth Ned had evened the score. Each made the sixth in 5 and the seventh in 6. That was the one difficult hole of the course. It was 375 yards long and combined a “bowl” and a bunker in such a way that a perfect approach to the green was an impossibility. The bogey was 5, and in doing it in 6 each of the players won applause. Ned took the lead at the next hole by an eight-foot putt that was a marvel of precision and finished the first round by another 3 to his opponent’s 4, leaving him two strokes to the good. Ned came over to where Kendall and Teller Sanford were standing and talked a minute before the next round began.
“What do you think of Kirk?” he asked in disgust. “He’s four under Osgood at the ninth! I thought that for once he meant to win his match.”
“How are you feeling?” asked Kendall anxiously.
“Dine and fandy,” replied Ned flippantly. “Say, can’t that fellow drive, though? He’s a lot better than he was in the spring. Has anybody heard how Jack Simpson is getting on?”
Kendall and Teller shook their heads.
“Morgan was four to the good at the ninth, I heard. I guess he’s safe. Well, here goes.”
The first hole was halved again, as in the first round, at four each. At the second Frost made a remarkable drive that left him well up. An iron shot laid the ball within four feet of the hole and he went out in 3, which was bogey. Ned’s drive was twenty yards shorter than his adversary’s and his iron shot left him on the edge of the green. He holed out in 4. The third and fourth holes were taken by each in 5 and 6 respectively. At the fifth Ned again got the worst of it, overrunning a short putt, and on the sixth foozled a short approach shot. The score then for the round was, Ned 29, Frost 26; for the two rounds, Ned 68, Frost 67. Broadwood was one stroke ahead and there were three holes to play.
On the way to the seventh tee Ned sought Kendall and drew him to one side. “I’m one stroke behind, Curt,” he said, “but [I think I can win the match if you make it worth my while].”
[“‘I think I can win the match if you make it worth my while.’”]