BY W. G. VAN TASSEL SUTPHEN.
The true and zealous golfer is not to be deterred from his favorite sport by the ordinary accidents of the weather, and indeed it is one of the great merits of golf that it can be played under almost any atmospheric conditions. Baseball, cricket, tennis, croquet, and archery are poor fun on a very windy day, while a wet one makes play impossible. And then these games have each of them a recognized season, and as winter comes on bat, bow, and ball must be laid aside for good. Football and hockey are independent so far as rain and cold are concerned, but the exercise is too violent a one to be continued into the warm days of spring and summer.
Golf, on the other hand, is restricted to no particular season, and it is one of the rules governing medal competitions that competitors may not discontinue play on account of bad weather. Of course on abnormally warm days any sort of physical exertion may become a burden, and in very cold weather stiffened fingers and frozen "lies" do not conduce to good scoring. But there is only one thing that really puts an end to the game, and that is a heavy fall of snow. With a light sprinkling of an inch or two, very good golf may be played by using red balls and having the putting-greens carefully swept, for the snow serves the purpose of a universal tee, and a special ruling may be enacted allowing the player (in the event of the ball being buried) the privilege of lifting or of lightly brushing the snow aside. Among the pines of Lakewood, New Jersey, golf is played all through the winter, for on that sandy soil the snow lies but a short time, owing to the mildness of the climate and the proximity of the ocean. But of course Lakewood is an exceptionally favored spot for these northern latitudes. In and around New York city there is generally enough snow by New-Year's day to stop play, and golf at the big clubs is virtually at an end after the holidays and through the months of January, February, March, and April. Even after the snow has disappeared the frost must be allowed to get entirely out of the ground before play is resumed, or the course, and particularly the putting-greens, may be ruined.
FIG. 1.
We must therefore admit that golf may have its "close" season, at least for places that lie north of Mason and Dixon's famous line, but no golfer worthy of the name is content to entirely abandon all attempts at practice. If he can do nothing better, he will at least try "putting" into tumblers laid on their sides on the dining-room floor, or he will find some pretext to steal away to the attic for a few trial swings at a mythical ball. Inventive genius has appreciated this unquenchable craving on the part of the enthusiastic golfer, and several ingenious appliances have been patented and put upon the market, by the use of which he may keep up his practice in putting, approaching, and even driving.
In Fig. 4 is shown an apparatus called Linka. Inside the machine is a powerful spring pulley-wheel, and over this runs a stout cord with an ordinary golf-ball attached at the free end. When the ball is teed and struck away, the propelling force is communicated through the spring to a self-registering dial. So many pounds of pressure indicate so many yards in distance, and the scale is graduated in five-yard divisions from zero up to 225 yards. Fifteen or twenty feet of clear space is ample for the use of the machine.
FIG. 2.
For practice in approaching the putting-green there is the stand shown in Fig. 3. It consists of three concentric hoop-nets, and the accuracy of the shot is determined by the particular hoop into which the ball is played. Of course a free ball is used, and the weak point in the apparatus is that it does not indicate the distance covered (a point which in real play is quite as important as accurate direction). But it may be arbitrarily assumed that a ball in the smallest hoop has been laid within a foot of the hole, while the middle and outer rings may stand for six and fifteen feet respectively.