Golf, as far as women are concerned, is indeed both royal and ancient, for we know that Mary, Queen of Scots, was a great adept and devotee thereof, but till this century women's doings appear not to have been much chronicled, although they used to play, and our Scotch sisters have always been more or less brought up to it. Latterly both the English and Irish have taken wonderfully to what was at one time styled "That old man's game," and in so doing have found it not at all a bad pastime, till now-a-days the lady-golfers make quite a formidable army on the occasion of the yearly championship, or the other big open meetings.
To arrange for such events, and to give more uniformity in general matters, the "Ladies' Golf Union" was formed a few years ago. To this body all troublesome questions are referred by the associated clubs, for which it acts as legislator in chief. It arranges too the details for the yearly championship, and has lately started a system for universal handicapping which is progressing very well. But I shall have occasion to speak of this useful institution later.
When ladies' courses were first started, they were chiefly conspicuous for their shortness, and general lack of hazards, it being calculated that the ordinary wooden putter would be sufficient to see the player safely over any obstacles encountered during the round. But woman's ambition was not satisfied, she sighed and fretted for more elbow-room, longer holes, more difficulties, and last but not least on inland courses, real sand at the bottom of the bunkers. Till then it had not entered into the head of man to conceive that any woman was equal to, or would care for, daily tramps over rough and broken ground, bogs, dykes, and sand, or that even if she did care, she could ever become proficient at so sacred a pastime. Was it possible either that a woman's strength would prove equal to propelling the ball a sufficiently long distance, to make her in any way a rival to one of the sterner sex? But nevertheless, even with all these doubts, the men's club were ready to assist in giving what was asked for, by helping to institute links at St. Andrew's and Westward Ho! in 1868, Musselburgh and Wimbledon in 1872, Carnoustie in 1873, Pau in 1874, Troon in 1882, Bath in 1883, Yarmouth in 1885, etc.
Of golf as a game for the health, it must be said that it is suited to all seasons of the year, and also to the hundred and one changes of climate which occur in the twelve short months. Through snow we pursue the game on the frozen and ice covered links, with balls painted red, again in March gales, we toil round regardless of the flapping skirts and blow-away hats, but in May days when the weather is lovely, when the courses and their greens are at their best, then it is that we lay ourselves out for pure enjoyment, and reap the well-deserved fruits of a winter of steady practice. So through summer and autumn the game still retains its fascinations, at least for those who have mastered its inner mysteries, but for the uninitiated it must indeed be more than a trifle dull, beside savouring rather of madness to walk miles and miles only to hit along a little white guttie ball, with instruments of weird and curious shape.
Figure 1.
POSITION FOR DRIVING.
Although ladies' courses are now vastly superior to what they were a short while back, there is still room for great improvements in the matter of scope for brassey and cleek play through the green. The usual courses consist of a series of holes, generally nine holes—eighteen being the exception—closely resembling each other, interspersed with hazards of sorts, but in point of length and play nearly all these holes are reached by a fair drive, followed by a short iron or approach shot on the green. This is occasionally varied by a cleek shot from tee to green, which constitutes the whole and monotonous ring of change that is to be found, to say nothing of the total banishment of the brassey, one of the most useful clubs in existence. Excepting, therefore, when women play over men's courses, or at least over a part of them, they rarely find themselves called upon to play cleeks, or full iron shots either. A notable exception to this is the West Lancashire ladies' course, at Hall Road, near Liverpool. There we find not only eighteen holes most craftily laid out amidst hazards of all description, which call into requisition a variety of useful clubs, but the distances between the greens have been so varied that any monotony is quite impossible. For whilst at one hole it may require three full shots to reach the green, very likely the next will be but a cleek shot, and so on. One of the irresistable influences of the game to a beginner, is undoubtedly that vexation of spirit caused by some strange mixture of obstinacy and helplessness, which smarts and rankles bitterly after a morning spent in trying, to stand in the correct position with your club grasped firmly in your hands, and after the preliminary waggle, to swing up and down and hit the ball into space. It looks so easy, ridiculously easy, and as if it was quite impossible not to hit that little white globe, perched on its sand tee, but in reality, till the eye and the hand have been trained to do so, it is one of the most difficult tasks in life, and a process tending to many abusive speeches! The experience naturally produces a spirit of dogged determination not to be beaten, wherein lie the first seeds of interest, and the desire for improvement. The younger it is possible to begin the game, the better, for at an early age the muscles are tractable and supple, and the slightest stiffness which gives a noticable jerkiness to the strokes, is very difficult to overcome. The strokes should on the contrary be performed, and the arms and wrists should work, with the smooth evenness of windmill sails. But speaking of evenness and smoothness of movement, more especially in the case of a person in the act of driving, brings to mind the late championship at Gullane, where, for the first time, it became possible to compare, side by side, the styles of the Scotch and English players. Between some there was but little difference, excepting that the Scotch swing was rather short and quick, whilst that of the English was somewhat longer and slower, but in whatever style our Scotch sisters played, their whole action was so even and pendulum-like, so entirely free from any jerk or strain, that it clearly demonstrated their familiarity with clubs from the days of early childhood.