Spirit of the links

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PERSISTENCE REWARDED 53
hae a glass o' gude brandy, and I'll have ma pint o'
black strap
,
an' we
'
ll drink a gude New Year to ane
anither, an
'
the like to a' gude gowffers."
Sportsman
,
in the best sense
,
Tom has always been,
and he was a worthy predecessor of the men who
are to-day at the head of the ranks of the professional
golfers. That is a pretty story that is told of Captain
Broughton's challenge to Tom to hole a putt for ;5
0
.
As everybody knows
,
Tom was once famous as the
man who missed the very shortest putts
,
to whom
there was duly delivered
,
when he was at Prestwick, a
letter which was addressed only to the
"
Misser of
Short Putts
,
Prestwick
."
On the occasion under notice
Tom was playing to the High Hole on the old course
at St. Andrews, and had got into sore trouble, so that
he was playing two or three more when Captain
Broughton happened to pass by and became a witness
of what was happening
.
Tom, be it noted
,
always
belonged to golfers of that fine and sportmanlike per-
sistency
,
who would never give up a hole while there
was a single spark of hope remaining alight.
"
Oh,
pick up your ball, Tom, it's no use! " said the Captain
half chidingly
. "
Na, na," answered Tom, " I might
hole it ! " "If you do I'll give you
X50,"
retorted
the Captain
,
and it seemed a very safe retort too.
"Done!" responded Tom, and thereupon made one
more stroke with his iron club, and lo! the ball hopped
on to the green, and glided on and on towards the
hole, hesitated as it came nearer to it, curled round
towards it
,
crept nearer and nearer until it was on the
lip—and down
!
He had holed
!
Then said the
triumphant Tom, " That will make a nice little nest-
egg for me to put in the bank," and the Captain looked
very serious and went his way
.
A few days later the