d be much more likely to fail and foozle, and then what a miserable
golfer would he be! His obvious duty is to play a simple, easy stroke
which will be practically certain of placing the ball in such a position
that his partner will have no difficulty in getting on the green with
his third. And on the putting green, when anything over ten feet
distance intervenes between the ball and the hole, while always giving
the latter a chance, he should remember that his first duty is to lay
the ball dead. If he holes out, well and good, but his partner insists
first of all that the ball should be laid dead. At this crisis, also, he
should be particularly careful that he never commits the unpardonable
sin of laying himself, or rather his partner, a stymie. Of all the
stymies in the world, that which has been laid you by your own partner
in a foursome is the most exasperating.

Of course, for the proper blending of each partner's game with that of
the other, it is advisable, or rather necessary, that before the first
stroke in the match is taken there should be some kind of general
understanding about the policy that is to be pursued. First
consideration is given to the turn in which the tee shots are to be
taken, and the drives are so arranged that the better player takes them
at a majority of the tees where good drives are most wanted. But it
seems to me that very often an arrangement of this sort is arrived at
without sufficient consideration. For example, it frequently happens
that a long-handicap man is a very good driver indeed, better in fact
than the man who is his partner and has a handicap of many strokes less.
And in the same way it commonly occurs that a short-handicap man may be
decidedly weak with his short approaches. On the average of the play
from the tee to the hole the senior player may be fully so much better
than the other as the difference in their handicaps suggests, but it by
no means follows that in particular features of the game there is the
same difference. Therefore the wise partners will adapt themselves to
each other, so that they will get all the good out of themselves and
leave untouched that which is bad. And when this compact is completed
and honourably adhered to, there are at hand the makings of a victory.

When four players have decided among themselves to play a foursome, and
there are wide differences in their respective handicaps, there is often
considerable difficulty in arranging the best