GOLFATOR. Come, my good Scholar, let us tarry a space beneath this maple,
that we waste not the morning utterly, but give ear to the meadowlarks,
and take in the sweet scents which the sun distilleth from the new leaves
and grasses. And if your mind still be on this golf you may view, to your
profit, the players that pass by us; for it is as needful to know what to
avoid doing as what to do.
SCHOLAR. Here comes one that has played these many years, yet methinks he
performs but indifferent well.
GOLF. Ay, sir, and should he attain to the years of Noah he would come to
no greater skill. This is one that, scorning instruction, hath worked out
his own game—a poor thing but his own. There be many such, and when they
play one against the other, commonly for stakes, ’tis a great battle of
blunders. Mark you that drive! The green is but an iron shot away, but
the ball has fallen a score of yards on this side.
SCHOL. Yet he smote it mightily.
GOLF. A lusty stroke, that might have served in the driving of a fence
post, but one that is as ill suited to the propelling of a golf ball as
the stroke of a pile driver, the which it counterfeits. The marvel is,
not that the ball fell short, but that it flew so far.
SCHOL. Ay, marry, he swung like a knight of Camelot upon an adversary’s
shield.
GOLF. Not so, else there had been room for praise. Think you the heroes
of Camelot buffetted the enemy so ineptly, fighting their own selves
at the top of the swing, as most golfers do? Nay, I promise you. Sir
Launcelot timed his mighty blows; nor did he strike stiffly, in a piece,
but drove sharply with his wrists, on which his sword turned as upon
a hinge, his great arms following, and there was naught to resist his
cleavage. Wherefore the fame of his follow-through spread through all the
land. And this matter of the follow-through you are now to consider.
GOLF. You are to know, my honest Scholar, that the follow-through,
concerning which an infinite deal of nothing is said and written, is like
to the snark, and he that setteth out to compass its taking will have his
trouble for his pains. For the follow-through is the result of a proper
stroke, and not the cause of it; it hath not a separate existence, as a
something to be sought after; therefore I would have you take no thought
of it.
SCHOL. Yet, Master, have I seen players practising this thing with
exceeding industry.
GOLF. Marry, sir, Simple Simon was as well employed. But ’tis the way of
man to seek after the ends and take no thought of the means, and to look
upon success as a something bestowed by heaven upon one mortal and denied
to another. This is but vanity and vexation of spirit, as the Preacher
saith. My good Scholar, this golf teacheth a man more things than one,
and if you have any philosophy in you you shall nurture it and bring it
to a full flower; but if you are wanting in philosophy you shall have
as much profit in the beating of a carpet, for the which a multitude of
golfers are by nature fitted.
SCHOL. Sir, your words are as apples of gold in pictures of silver.
GOLF. Fairly spoken, Scholar; yet I mark you are impatient to be forward
with your game, such as it is. Take, then, your iron and I will counsel
you in the using of it.
SCHOL. I have heard, Master, that ’tis easier to play with the iron than
with a club of wood.
GOLF. As to that there be two opinions, as usual, and you will be wise to
follow either, for I am satisfied that they are of equal value.