Spirit of the links

WINDS AND STYLE
2
5
one point of satisfaction in getting wet through on the
links because the change afterwards is so delicious.
You always find that a golfer is very much the
better for a short season on a very windy course.
When he goes back to his home course, very
likely inland and protected, driving seems such a
simple, easy thing, and he lets out at his tee shots
with a freedom and a certainty which make for a
greater boldness and strength in his game. North
Berwick is one of the windiest courses. You do get
wind there in the spring months, and there are
hundreds of golfers who testify to the good that a
short stay there has done to their game. They have
simply got to learn to golf in all kinds of winds. It is
like throwing a non-swimmer into seven feet of water
with only a thin piece of rope round his middle. He
very soon invents a way of making greater security
and comfort for himself. Stay at North Berwick
long enough, and it may affect your style for life.
Mr. Robert Maxwell has a peculiar punching, but
withal very powerful style, which is attributed to his
upbringing at North Berwick. A man disposed to
probe very deep down for causes and effects might
arrive at the conclusion that the reason why, speaking
very generally, there are better players and better
courses, and more of each on the east coast of
Scotland than on the west, is because it happens that
the links there are more exposed, and there are more
windy days upon them than on those on the other
side of the country. Not that there are not big
winds very frequently to be dealt with in the
neighbourhood of Troon and Prestwick, which surely
have their full share, and it was at a championship
at Prestwick that old Willie Park delivered himself