After a golf course has been in use for a short time, it will be noticed that the parts which suffer most are the places from which approach shots are made to the greens, and the putting greens themselves. The use of heavy irons is very injurious to the soft turf, and players should always make it a point to replace any sod they may have torn up by careless or poor strokes. When a green gets badly worn it is usually advisable to change the location of the hole to another part, and replace it in its original position after the turf has recovered some of its original good condition.
Rolling is an important factor toward the keeping in order of a putting green, but the roller should be a light one rather than a heavy one, as heavy rollers are liable to get the turf root-bound. If the turf be very coarse it is well to sprinkle sand over it, as that seems to have a beneficial effect in thinning out and fining down the grass.
It has become a custom with the more important golf clubs of the country to use flags of various colors to mark the outgoing and incoming holes. Outgoing holes are marked with a red flag, and the incoming with white flags. These colors are more easily distinguished against foliage than any others. The line flags should be of a different color, so as not to be confounded with the hole flags; yellow or pink is a good shade.
Another good thing to do in the way of marking a course is to indicate the limits of such important hazards as water, roads, fences, or brier islands with short wooden sticks painted white or whitewashed. Such stakes may prove of great convenience, and take but little time and trouble to set out.
In reference to the tables of records published last week, it is well to say that the National figures may be looked upon as exact, because the performances of the first National meeting stand as the Association's records until they shall be bettered at future meetings of the National I.S.A.A.A.; but of the figures in the Interscholastic table we cannot be so sure, because there are so many interscholastic meetings all over the country that it is almost impossible to get correct and reliable reports of all performances, but this table is as near right as can be made under the circumstances, and has been very carefully revised by a number of athletes and other gentlemen interested in school sports in various parts of the country.
It is interesting to note that most of the members of the Berkeley School baseball team, who won the N.Y.I.S.B.B.A. championship this year, are residents of New York city; thus it cannot be said with any justice that New York boys cannot play ball. In the comment on the work of the N.Y.I.S.A.A. nines in a recent issue of the Round Table it was stated that Markell led in batting. This was a typographical error for Mallett. Mallett of Trinity School heads the batting list with an average of 1000.
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The Graduate.