Bandy-ball, cambuc, or goff (the game so well known to-day by the name of
golf), is of great antiquity, and was a special favourite at Solvamhall
Castle. Sir Hugh de Fortibus was himself a master of the game, and he
once proposed this question.
They had nine holes, 300, 250, 200, 325, 275, 350, 225, 375, and 400
yards apart. If a man could always strike the ball in a perfectly
straight line and send it exactly one of two distances, so that it would
either go towards the hole, pass over it, or drop into it, what would the
two distances be that would carry him in the least number of strokes
round the whole course?
"Beshrew me," Sir Hugh would say, "if I know any who could do it in this
perfect way; albeit, the point is a pretty one."
Two very good distances are 125 and 75, which carry you round in 28
strokes, but this is not the correct answer. Can the reader get round in
fewer strokes with two other distances?