od result to have been obtained the stroke must
have been played in a particularly correct and able manner. Unless by
pure accident, no good ever comes of a bad stroke. When you have made a
really wonderfully good shot--for you--bring yourself up sharply to find
out exactly how you did it. Notice your stance, your grip, and try to
remember the exact character of the swing that you made and precisely
how you followed through. Then you will be able to do the same thing
next time with great confidence. Usually when a player makes a really
bad stroke you see him trying the swing over again--without the
ball--wondering what went wrong. It would pay him much better to do the
good strokes over again in the same way every time he makes them, so as
to impress the method of execution firmly upon his mind.

* * * * *

Don't praise your own good shots. Leave that function to your partner,
who, if a good sort, will not be slow in performing it. His praise will
be more discriminating and worth more than yours. And don't say spiteful
and unkind things about his good shots, or be continually talking about
his luck. If you do he will hate you before the game is over.

* * * * *

When a hole is being keenly contested, and you look as though you are
having the worst of it, try not to appear pleased when your opponent
makes a bad stroke or gets into serious trouble, however relieved or
even delighted you may feel. It is human nature to feel the better for
your opponent's mistake in a crisis of this kind, but it is not good
manners to show that you feel it. And, however well you may know your
friend, it is not half so funny as you think it is to laugh at such a
time or shout out that you rejoice. It is simply bad taste, for your
opponent at that time is suffering from a sense of keen disappointment,
and is temporarily quite unable to appreciate jokes of this kind. He is
inclined to think he has been mistaken in you all along, and that you
are much less of a gentleman and a sportsman than he had imagined.

* * * * *

If he is playing several more in a vain endeavour to extricate himself
from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes. It
would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by
applying his niblick to your head. It is better to pretend that you do
not notice these things. On the other hand, do not go out of you