Spirit of the links

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86 THE SPIRIT OF THE LINKS
III
That which was regarded by our ancestors as a most
amazing feat, namely, holing with the tee shot, has
become exceeding common. One week not long ago
it was done in five different parts of the country, and
in three other separate weeks there were four cases
reported. Why this increase, then, of doing holes in i ?
The reason is simple after all. It is not that it is any
easier to do the trick than it used to be. Probably it
is rather harder, since it is more difficult to flop the
rubber-cored ball down plump on the green at the
short holes than it used to be in the days of the late
lamented gutta, and a good deal harder to make it
sink down into the hole as it ought to do when it gets
there, instead of running around it and then away, and
generally behaving badly. If it were any easier to
do than it was formerly, would not the champions be
doing it? But they are not. Harry Vardon has still
only one hole in i to his credit, and while Braid
gets his
2's
very often, the
is
don't come his way.
The simple reason for the frequency is the great
increase of golf. Everybody plays golf now and is
always playing, and in such circumstances somebody
must always be holing in i, or very nearly. That
is the simple fact, and the man who now performs
this feat is no longer worthy of a paragraph all to
himself in the morning newspaper. He will simply
go along with half a dozen others in the weekly list.
Still there is room for distinction in holing in i
yet, and the men who crave for such notoriety need
not despair. If every man can hole in i, obviously
h