LINKS I HAVE PLAYED ON
Many first-class links--The best of all--Sandwich--Merits of the
Royal St. George's course--Punishments for faults and rewards for
skill--Not a short course--The best hole--The Maiden--Other good
holes--Prestwick an excellent course--The third and the ninth
holes--The finest hole anywhere--Hoylake--Two or three tame
holes--A means of improvement--Good hazards and a premium on
straight play--St. Andrews--Badly-placed bunkers--A good second
hole--The finest one-shot hole to be found anywhere--An unfair
hole--The best holes at Muirfield--Troon--North Berwick--Cruden
Bay--Dornoch--Machrihanish--A splendid course at Islay--The most
difficult hole I know--Gullane--Kilspindie--Luffness--Links in
Ireland--Portrush--Portmarnock--Dollymount--Lahinch--Newcastle--Welsh
courses--Ashburnham--Harlech--On the south and south-west
coasts--The rushes at Westward Ho!--Newquay--Good holes at
Deal--Littlestone--Rye--The advantage of
Cromer--Brancaster--Hunstanton--Sheringham--Redcar--Seaton
Carew--St. Anne's--Formby--Wallasey--Inland courses--Sunningdale--A
splendid course--Another at Walton Heath--Huntercombe--London
links--Courses in the
country--Sheffield--Manchester--Huddersfield--"Inland" courses at
the seaside--A warning.
Of all the golf courses that have any pretensions to being considered
first class, or even good second class, I can call to mind very few over
which I have not played a round, and at a time when the reputations of
so many of them are being severely overhauled, and their merits and
demerits criticised, some expression of my own opinions may prove
interesting alike to the golfers who know them well and to others who
are looking forward with eagerness to the enjoyment of games upon them
at future holiday times. Recent championships and big matches have
resulted in such wonderful scores, that some golfers are inclined to
ask despairingly whether we have any really first-class course at all;
and links which in the past have been considered perfect are spoken of
contemptuously as fit only for handicap men who want their golf made
easy. If they attach any importance to my opinion, then let them be
assured that we still have many links which come near to being perfect,
and that, notwithstanding the advent of the rubber-cored ball, there is
no reason to complain about them or agitate for great alterations. We
have them in England, Scotland, and Ireland--perhaps more in Scotland
than elsewhere, but that is chiefly due to accidental circumstances.
I am constantly asked, when the discussions to which I have referred are
taking place, which in my opinion is the best course in the world. Many
considerations enter into such a reckoning; but, after making it
carefully, and with full knowledge of the fact that my answer is at
variance with many of the best authorities on the game, I say Sandwich.
Then let me tell you why I consider the links of the Royal St. George's
Club to be the best that are to be found anywhere. There is, in the
first place, not a single tee shot in the round where good play must not
be shown by the golfer if he wants to achieve success. There is scarcely
a hole at which a player who only half hits his ball from the tee does
not find himself in grave difficulties, demanding an unusually brilliant
recovery and sterling play until he has holed out, if he is to have any
chance of getting on level terms with his opponent again, assuming that
the latter is playing the proper game. The bunkers are so placed that a
good shot has to be made every time to carry them. On the other hand,
you are always satisfied that virtue is properly rewarded at Sandwich,
and that if your tee shot is hit truly and well you are certain to be
nicely situated for your second. Elementary considerations as these may
appear to be, there are many courses having the reputation of being
first-class where this reward is not always so sure as it is at
Sandwich. The greens on that course are in all cases well protected,
and they abound in character and variety. Some critics say that the
carries over the first bunkers from the tees are too long; but I do not
agree with them. Without being a particularly long driver, anybody who
hits his ball truly can carry any bunker at Sandwich that ought to be
carried from the tee. Then at the Championships in 1904 everybody was
declaring, with much knowledge that had come after the event, that the
course was on the short side, as was proved, they said, by the
phenomenal scores that were made in the Open competition. I do not
agree. The scores made by two or three players were certainly low, but
that was because they played exceptional golf. If I admit that the
course is the merest trifle on the short side in going out, I hasten to
add that a man must be playing perfect golf to get to the turn with a
low score, while, unless his play does come within these narrow limits
of perfection, he may find, grand player though he be, that he may
easily run up a total for his nine holes that would look foolishly
large. Coming in, there is certainly no shortness about the holes, and
there is plenty of scope for the man who wants to open out his shoulders
with his driver and his brassy, while there are hazards everywhere for
the punishment of the balls that are not kept in the fairway. These are
the chief considerations which lead me to give an emphatic vote in
favour of Sandwich when I am asked which is the best course--that is to
say, the best test of golf--that is to be found in the British Isles, or
elsewhere so far as I know, and I ask to be given no more favourable
opportunity of studying a golfer's points, than to see him play a round
or two over the St. George's links.
I should say that the third hole at Sandwich, although a short one, is
in golfing quality one of the best of the eighteen, because it is so
splendidly protected with bunkers and rushes everywhere, so that the
player who would get on to the green from the tee does indeed need to be
bold, and as accurate as he is bold. No faintness of heart, no doubtful
stroke, will ever in the result be flattered by this third hole. The
sixth or Maiden, famous everywhere, is very fine indeed, though it is
not nearly so difficult as it used to be. The eighth is another beauty,
well guarded by bunkers; a trifle on the short side if the wind is
following, but a terror in length if the breeze is coming from the
green. The ninth is good. The tenth calls for a perfect drive straight
down the middle of the course, in default of which the second shot will
abound with difficulty; and at the fifteenth another very straight tee
shot is wanted. If there is a breath of wind to help the ball from the
tee, a plucky player may then come to the conclusion that he has a
chance of reaching the green with his second, and a fine shot will take
him over the treacherous little bunker that guards it, giving him a 4 of
which he may be proud in the best of company. These are the gems of
Sandwich.
Next to this course, I think that Prestwick with its Himalayas and its
Alps is the finest that we have. It is an excellent test to apply to a
would-be champion, although there have been complaints that this course
also is short. Yet it is longer than it used to be, and it is merely the
rubber-filled ball that makes it seem short. The third hole at Prestwick
is one that stirs the soul of the dare-devil golfer, for, after he has
despatched the ball safely and well from the tee, he finds a big, gaping
bunker, the famous "Cardinal," ahead of him for his second--an ugly
brute that gives a sickening feeling to the man who is off his game.
Defy this bunker, be on the green with your brassy, put a 4 on your
card, and you have done something which should make you happy for the
morning. The ninth again is an excellent hole at which the straight
driver is rewarded all the way, and, if he does his duty, is given a 5.
I have no hesitation in giving my judgment that the seventeenth is the
finest hole to be found on any links. I say so because it is the best
specimen of a really perfect two-shot hole. If there is the slightest
flaw in either the drive or the second stroke, all prospect of reaching
the green in two vanishes into thin air. Mr. Laidlay once lost a match
and an amateur championship because his second shot here was not quite
good enough. A good tee shot well into the middle of the course, a
second that is as clean as a shot can be and as straight as a bullet
from a gun, with the gods of golf smiling approval all the way and
particularly when your second is nearing the green--with all these you
may ask for your putter for the third stroke. But there is a bunker
before the green, a bunker just beyond the green, and rushes to the
right and left, so that the second shot has indeed to be a beauty for
its maker to be wholly satisfied. This is the sort of hole that all good
golfers best like to play, because they know that the good shots are
certain of their reward, and that not merely the bad shots but the
indifferent ones are met with just penalties every time. It is said that
no two golf strokes are ever alike, but there is just enough similarity
about them to prevent individual strokes from living very long in
history except in a few striking cases. Perhaps the most memorable shot
ever played in golf was that made at this hole by the late Mr. Fred Tait
when he was engaging with Mr. John Ball, jun., in the final tie of the
Amateur Championship in 1899. The Scottish favourite was in the bunker
guarding the green with his second, and it so happened that the bunker
on this occasion was filled with rain water, in which the ball was
floating. Mr. Tait chipped the ball out beautifully on to the green, and
saved a hole which seemed a certain loss. It is hard to find many holes
that are worthy of being put in the same class as this. Man cannot make
such holes. They are there when he seeks out the land for the first time
with his golf clubs.
Hoylake is a good course. There are one or two holes on it that must be
admitted to be very tame. If the land in the middle of the course which
is at present out of bounds were taken in and made playable, these holes
could be much improved. The hazards are good and plentiful, and a
satisfactory premium is put upon straight play. The ninth is a nice
hole, a really good drive helping the player considerably. The eleventh
is another pretty one, neither long nor short, but just that length
which a fine shot from the tee will reach, and accuracy is demanded by
the rushes which seem all over the course as you stand to drive.
I call St. Andrews a good course generally; but its bunkers are badly
placed. They punish the man who is driving well more than the man who is
driving badly, for they are generally the length of a good long drive.
If this defect could be remedied, and if there were a few more bunkers
at the sides to catch the pulled and sliced balls, then St. Andrews
would be a fine links indeed. As it is, there are some excellent holes.
The second is beautiful--beautiful if the flag is put in the centre of
the green--because then a good second shot is rewarded as it ought to
be. But it generally happens when big matches are being played there
that the hole is placed in a corner, which frequently spoils the
prospects of these good second shots. The seventh is good, calling for a
most accurate second, and the eleventh is the finest one-shot hole to be
found anywhere. The green is on a plateau with bunkers all about it, and
if you overpitch it your ball will be in the rushes beyond. Many golfers
swear by the seventeenth; but I am not one of them. I declare that it is
a very unfair hole, and there is no encouragement here to be plucky. The
player must be pawky all the way, for it is fully two to one against
there being anything but punishment as the result of bold tactics. The
man who tries to place his long shot on the green may try again and
again, and he will be convinced that it is next to impossible to stop
there when he reaches it.
For some reasons I like Muirfield; but it does not enjoy so many
advantages as the other championship courses. There are not so many
sandhills. It is on the flat side, and at the first glance you might
take it to be an inland course; but after a single round you are greatly
impressed by the good golf that is to be obtained upon it. The turf is
capital, some of the hazards are very fine, and on the whole I think it
may fairly be regarded as a very good championship test of golf. The
fourth, twelfth, and eighteenth holes all call for first-class seconds
if the greens are to be reached.
There are so many other good links in the north that a further selection
becomes increasingly difficult. Troon, abounding in sandhills, is very
fine, and the player needs to be very skilful to get round it in a low
score. North Berwick is also good, and it is surprising to see how well
the links are preserved considering the enormous amount of play to which
they are subjected. There are many good holes at popular Carnoustie,
with a fine length about them which calls for good brassy play, and
which is calculated to bring out all the good points that a golfer has
in him. Cruden Bay and Dornoch are enjoyable; but those who want to get
the best golf in Scotland need not always go to those places that revel
in reputation and where an inconvenient crowd may at most times be
depended upon. Some of the gems of North Britain are hidden away in
inaccessible corners, and the golfers who would reach them must make
tedious journeys by land and sea. But he who is worthy of the game is in
my opinion amply rewarded for these travelling labours, by the quality
of the golf that is vouchsafed to him at his journey's end, and he is
spared the annoyance of being obliged to book his starting time
overnight and of having a couple of hours to wait upon the tee if he is
a minute late in the morning. I believe that Machrihanish is one of
these very fine but out-of-the-way courses, but it happens to be one
over which I have not hitherto played. I can tell of another where the
most glorious golf is to be obtained, and which I can strongly recommend
to those on the lookout for a place at which to spend a golfing holiday.
It is at Islay. There the air is grand, there is excellent
accommodation to be obtained at the combined hotel and club-house, and
as for the quality of the golf I do not hesitate to say that the course
is in every respect fit for the championships to be decided upon it.
There is one hole here, the third, which is the most difficult anyone
can imagine. If I were asked to select one from all the thousands of
holes that I have played in my time, I should pick this one out for
difficulty. They call it Mount Zion, and I think it is a good name for
it. You must make three very good shots to reach the green, and in the
matter of accuracy the third needs to be a gem if any satisfaction
whatever is to be got out of the whole business. The green is on a
plateau, and it is protected by every contrivance that ingenious Nature
has vouchsafed to the makers of courses. If you are short you are in a
running stream; if you pull you go out of bounds; and if your ball
trickles over the green, away it goes into the sea--tortures the most
terrible for the erring ball. Yes, decidedly I think this is the hardest
hole I have ever seen. The first time I played it I took 10 to hole out,
and yet won it from a very fine professional player who is an
ex-champion! I have never done a hole better in my life than when I once
halved this with Taylor in 4 in the course of a match which Taylor won
at the twenty-fourth hole. The seventh is also a very fine hole with a
bunker in front of the tee, which is very similar to the Maiden at
Sandwich. An old golfer who lives there told me he can remember the time
when it was a rabbit scrape. Like all golfers who know them, I sing the
praises of Gullane, Kilspindie, and Luffness.
There is a variety of good golf to be obtained in Ireland also.
Portrush, Portmarnock, Dollymount, Lahinch, and Newcastle (co.
Down)--all these are fine links. For a place to visit for an enjoyable
golfing holiday, when health is a governing consideration also, I should
select Portrush as one of the very best, while golfers who wish to play
at Portmarnock and elect to put up in a Dublin hotel have an experience
of pleasant variety which I at all events have found very agreeable, for
you have first the train, then the car, and last of all the boat to take
in order to reach the course, and not an inch of the journey is
wearisome. Of course this proceeding cannot be recommended to those
golfers who prefer to sleep in close proximity to the first tee,
regardless of all other pleasures that are to be obtained without any
sacrifice of the game. The course I like best in Wales is that at
Ashburnham, over which the Welsh Championship was last played for. It is
one of those excellent natural links which require very little
attention. The Royal St. David's course at Harlech is also very good.
Coming back to England again, I agree with all others that splendid golf
is to be obtained at Westward Ho! although there is one quite unique
feature of this course of which some golfers, myself among the number,
do not bear the pleasantest recollections. I refer, of course, to the
rushes of a peculiar growth which are to be found there in such
abundance. I can conceive no nightmare more horrible to a player than
one in which during his hours of troubled sleep he is in imagination
vainly trying to rescue his unhappy ball from the clutches of these
famous rushes. They stand full five feet high, strong and stiff like
stout twigs, and they have sharp and dangerous points which seem as if
they might be made of tempered steel. A kind of blossom appears on them
in the season as if to disguise their evil features. Any player who is
unlucky enough to put his ball into them (and there are one or two holes
at which even a good shot may find its way there) must always encounter
a considerable risk of breaking his club in the endeavour to play out
again. I believe that attempts have been made to grow these rushes
elsewhere, but the seeds that have been carried away from their native
Westward Ho! have never prospered. Perhaps some golfers may reflect that
this is just as well, though with all their faults and dangers I
certainly do not condemn them as a hazard. They are a novelty, and all
things that come from Nature must be admitted without question into the
game of golf. On the south coast there are several fine links. Newquay
is excellent for a holiday, and the course of the Cinque Ports Club at
Deal, now that it is eighteen holes, is very fine. I have not enjoyed
recent acquaintance with it, but the short fourth hole which they call
the Sandy Parlour struck me when I was last down there as being a very
sporting little piece of golf. Both Littlestone and Rye are admirable,
and I have pleasant memories of the latter, particularly in connection
with a match I once played there with Mr. Fred Tait.
Again, on the east coast of England there are courses in number which
afford the best opportunities for enjoyable and skilful golf. Cromer is
a mixture of inland and seaside. It is one of those seaside courses
which don't look what they are, but some parts of it are good,
especially those which lie through the sand dunes. The lower part is
tame. However, the air is beautiful, and the golfer who makes his
headquarters at this place enjoys the material advantage of having three
or four other first-class links within easy reach. For example, there is
Brancaster, which, though a long distance from any railway station, is
worth any amount of trouble that may be expended on the journey. The
turf is excellent, the hazards well placed, and the golfer who does not
keep straight is penalised as he ought to be. It is a fine course. Then
there is Hunstanton, which is also very good, and Sheringham too. Higher
up there is golf at Redcar and Seaton Carew which none need despise. On
the north-west coast there is more golf to be had that is well worthy of
the name. St. Anne's and Formby are both capital, and fine golf is
necessary to get round these courses at all well. Wallasey is highly
satisfactory. Both my space and my memory are unequal to giving a
complete list of all the seaside courses that should be commended, and
the absence of any particular one from my little list does not imply
that I rank it as inferior, although I have tried to mention all those
that I consider the very best.
So far I have said nothing about inland links, because the golfer who
is going away from his own for a brief period for pleasure and
improvement usually elects to play at the seaside, and wisely so, for,
apart from the superior hygienic properties of atmosphere, there is no
getting rid of the fact, however much we may be attached to some inland
courses, that seaside golf, when it is the real thing, is entirely
different from any other. It is better in every respect; in fact it is
usually ideal. It gives more benefit to the mind and body of the
overworked player, it pulls out his game and makes a golfer of him as
nothing else can ever do, and it affords such variety of a true sporting
character as nothing but Nature can provide. But in thus extolling the
seaside game, I do not wish for a moment to be considered as disparaging
the golf that is to be had almost everywhere throughout the country in
these days. Inland golf is a necessity to all except the leisured people
who have no occupation which chains them to cities and towns, and there
is now so much of it that it has taken a dominant place in the golfing
world. And if the inland turf does not possess those glorious qualities
that distinguish the seaside article, and if the bunkers constantly bear
evidence of having been carted to the place where they are situated, and
if, moreover, the evenness of many green fields becomes somewhat
monotonous, nevertheless the golf which is to be obtained at many of
these places is thoroughly enjoyable, and at the same time as severe a
test of skill as the most conceited player could ever wish for. Take
Sunningdale, for instance. This course, in my opinion, is the best of
all the inland links with which I am familiar, and it requires the very
finest golf to get round it in anything like a decent score. Unless the
golfer plays with his head as well as with his club, he will find
himself in difficulties all the way. Walton Heath is another good
example. Here also a capital player must be on the top of his game to
get round in anything like bogey. Those who made this course have
mastered the undesirable eccentricities of the rubber-cored ball as few
others have done. This ball is too apt to despise the average inland
bunker, particularly in the summer-time, and goes skipping over it as if
there were no obstruction in sight. But it does not do that at Walton
Heath, where they have made the bunkers so deep that the ball inevitably
stops in, and there is nothing for it but to ask the caddie for the
niblick and resign yourself to losing a stroke. I should like to see the
managers of other courses take a leaf out of the Walton Heath book.
Bunkers that were once quite deep in the old days of the gutty are in
too many cases shallow and useless under the new conditions. I do think
that the splendid state of the Walton Heath links is marvellous
considering the short time that has elapsed since the club was formed. I
have never played at Huntercombe, over which my old friend and opponent,
Willie Park, has spent so much care and time and money, but I believe
that it is similarly good, and I have heard golfers, for whose opinion I
have the highest respect, declare enthusiastically that it is one of the
best inland courses to be found anywhere, while the high hill air is
splendid.
Considering the many disadvantages under which they labour, particularly
in the matter of soil, which is mostly of the clay variety, the links
round about London may be considered good, and though the metropolitan
golfer may not always appreciate the fact, during one period of the year
he scores over all others. This is in the summer-time, when the hot sun
has at last dried and burnt up the grass on many seaside links and made
them slippery and difficult even to walk upon. At such time the grass on
the London links is still usually quite fresh and green, and not until
some weeks later does it yield to the scorching rays. For the most part,
too, the London links are exceedingly well kept. Lees, the greenkeeper
at the Mid-Surrey course at Richmond, is the best man for that duty that
I know.
I cannot attempt to give any adequate information about the hundreds of
links that are now dotted about all over the shires. It must suffice to
say, in confining myself to large centres, that I have pleasant memories
of good golf that I have had on the fine course at Lindrick in the
Sheffield district, and at Trafford Park near Manchester. This is indeed
a very nice inland course, with gravelly soil and a capacity for keeping
dry during the winter. At Timperley there is another good links. The
Huddersfield course is a splendid one to play upon, and very tricky too.
Its merits are indicated by the quality of golfers that it breeds. It
has made several men who have won the Yorkshire championships, and in
club matches the Huddersfield team is a very hard one to beat.
There is one class of course of which I have not yet made any mention,
and which I do not think it is necessary to do more than refer to. It is
that mongrel kind which is both seaside and inland, but which is in the
full sense neither, situated, that is, at a seaside resort, and may be
in the very closest proximity to the sea, but with none of the
properties of the real seaside course--no seaside turf, no sand dunes,
no wild natural golf. These courses are usually elevated on cliffs. In
many cases the golf that is to be obtained upon them is excellent, and I
only wish to point out to unpractised golfers who are about to start for
a holiday and have taken no advice, that if they are making for a
seaside place and want that kind of golf which they have heard is to be
had at Deal, Sandwich, Rye, Westward Ho! Littlestone, St. Andrews, North
Berwick, and scores of other places, they should make quite certain that
they are taking their railway tickets in the proper direction.
Otherwise, when they arrive upon the links that they have chosen, they
may fail to discover any difference between the course visited and that
on which they are in the habit of playing when at home. I only mention
the matter because I have known so many cases of severe disappointment
arise through mistakes of this kind.