Spirit of the links

124
THE SPIRIT OF THE LINKS
SIR
by the union overseers, which used to be
4
1
165,
was
recently raised to
6500.
In the quality of the golfers that it has produced
Hoylake can challenge the whole world of golf. It
alone has found an amateur winner for the Open
Championship—two of them. It bred the inimitable
Mr. John Ball, who has six times won the Amateur
Championship-1888, 18go, 1892,
18
94,
18
99, and
1907—and is good enough to win it again; and he
won the Open Championship in 189o, thus holding
both titles at the same time, being the only golfer
who has ever done so, and quite likely who ever will.
A brass tablet in the entrance-hall and the clock over
the clubhouse commemorate this achievement. Mr.
Harold Hilton, winner of the Open Championship in
1892 and 1897, and the amateur event in 19oo and
19o1; and Mr. John Graham, junr., one of the finest
products of Hoylake, despite his insistence that he is a
Scottish golfer when it comes to International rivalry,
is now at the top of his game, and is good enough to
win one Championship and very nearly another. So
true is it that a fine course will breed fine players.
Of the quality of Hoylake there can be no two
opinions. It is one of the very best courses in the
world, and by common consent it and Deal are the
two best in England. Hoylake is far better than it
looks. The first hole is generally cited as being one
of the best two-shot holes to be found anywhere,
and it is always good, no matter where the wind is.
The course looks easy. If you play thoroughly well
it may not be difficult, but if you do not play well
it rends your miserable game asunder. What the
possibilities for failure are, were exemplified in a
grossly exaggerated manner in the final for the