Spirit of the links

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EXAMINATIONS IN THE RULES
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other. Those men who take most strokes to it
retire from the competition. The others proceed,
and there is the same weeding out process at the
second hole, and so on until there are only two
players left, and then the first man who wins a hole
from the other wins the competition.
A possibility, which is none the less dreadful
because there is some good common sense in the
idea from which it springs, is that there will be
examinations in the rules, which all must pass either
before being elected to full membership of a golf club
or before being allowed to take part in competitions.
It is a certain fact that two golfers out of every
three—at least—are hazy on many important points
in the rules. Three British clubs have already held
such examinations, with startling results. Scratch
men were plucked ! How curious it would be if the
favourite for a championship were disqualified in this
way. Of course the examiners would trip up the
candidates by tricky riders to the rules, and as my
artist friend, Mr. E. W. Mitchell, suggested, good
questions will be: " A is your ball, B is your banker's
ball, and C is the hole (all being within a circle ten
inches in diameter). Play one off two and lose! "
Also, " What happens when a bull sits on your ball—
(i) in match;
(2)
in medal play?"
As it is said, there is no telling what we may have
next, particularly as a patent was recently applied
for on behalf of a new club which had a sliding lid
bottom, covering a receptacle in the head of the
club, in which the golfer might keep his matches and
his money!