f you don't hit hard enough you will
only succeed in holing your opponent's ball and earning his sarcastic
thanks. And if you don't get top enough on your own ball you will not
follow through, however hard you bang up against the other. This is a
very useful stroke to practise, for the particular kind of stymie to
which it applies occurs very frequently, and is one of the most
exasperating of all.

Most of these fancy putting strokes stand a very poor chance of success
on a very slow green. Cut and top and all these other niceties will not
work on a dull one. It is the sharp, fiery green that comes to the
rescue of the resourceful golfer in circumstances such as we have been
discussing. It seems to me that golfers in considering their putts very
often take too little pains to come to an accurate determination of the
speed of the greens. There are a score of changing circumstances which
affect that speed, but it frequently happens that only a casual glance
is given to the state of the turf, and the rest of the time is spent in
considering the distance and the inclines that have to be contended
against. The golfer should accustom himself to making a minute survey of
the condition of things. Thus, to how many players does it occur that
the direction in which the mowing machine has been passed over it makes
an enormous difference to the speed of the particular piece of the green
that has to be putted over? All the blades of grass are bent down in the
direction that the machine has taken, and their points all face that
way. Therefore the ball that is being putted in the opposite direction
encounters all the resistance of these points, and in the aggregate this
resistance is very considerable. On the other hand, the ball that has to
be putted in the same direction that the machine went has an unusually
smooth and slippery surface to glide over. It is very easy to see which
way the machine has gone. On a newly-cut green there are stripes of
different shades of green. The points of the grass give the deeper
tints, and therefore the machine has been coming towards you on the dark
stripes, and along them you must putt harder than on the others.

The variety of the circumstances to be taken into consideration render
putting on undulating greens very attractive to the man who makes a
proper and careful study of this part of the game, as every player ought
to do.

CHAPTER XV

SOME GENERAL HINTS

Too much golf--Analy