bottom edge scraping the top of the grass for some inches. It is easy to
understand how much more this course of procedure will tend towards the
accuracy and delicacy of the stroke than the reverse method, in which
the blade of the putter would be cocked up as soon as the ball had left
it.

Before I close my remarks on the simple putt, I feel that it is a duty
to repeat once more those wise maxims relating to putting that have been
uttered some tens of thousands of times already. "Never up, never in."
There is nothing so true, and the number of matches and medals that have
been lost through the reckless and foolish disregard of this rule must
be enormous. The hole will never come to you; therefore make up your
mind that you will always go to the hole, and let it be an invariable
practice to play for the back of the tin so that you will always have
just a little in hand. The most deadly accuracy and the nicest
calculations are all wasted if the ball is just half a turn short of the
opening, and there is nothing in the whole of the play between one tee
and the next more exasperating than the long putt which hesitates and
stops on the very lip of the hole. There is another very good reason for
always playing very well up to the hole, which may not have occurred to
all golfers who read these lines. Suppose that in the exercise of this
rule about always being up at any cost, too much has been put into the
ball, and, refusing to die when it ought to do, it skips over the hole
and comes to a standstill several inches beyond. "That's the result of
being up!" exclaims the irritated golfer. But he feels at any rate that
he has given the hole the chance for which it asked, and has a far
greater sense of satisfaction and of duty done than if the ball had
stopped a foot or more short of the place that was made for it. This may
be the reason why an eighteen-inch or two-feet putt back to the hole
from the far side always seems easier and is less frequently missed than
a putt of the same distance from the original side, which is merely
making up for the shortage in the first putt. Whether that is the reason
or not, there is the fact, and though they may not have considered the
matter hitherto, I feel confident that on reflection, or when they take
note of future experiences, most of my readers will admit that this is
so. It is a final argument for playing to the back of the hole and never
being short. One of the greatest worries of th