partnerships. It is good
to be guided by mutual preferences, for preference means confidence, and
that is everything in foursome play. But at the same time it is always
advisable to sort out the players in such a manner that there is as
little as possible of giving and receiving strokes. For example, where
there is a scratch man, two 9's (or a 6 and a 10), and an 18, the best
and most enjoyable match is always likely to result from a combination
of the scratch man with the 18 against the two players of medium
handicaps, although the scratch man, if a selfish player, may not be
disposed to saddle himself with the unreliable person at the other end
of the scale. It is a point to be borne in mind that the 18 man, if,
despite his handicap, he is a real and conscientious golfer, is more
likely to play above his handicap than the scratch man. It is much
easier for an 18-handicap player to perform like a 12 than it is for a
scratch man to play like a plus 3. In my opinion the arranging of
strokes to be given and received in foursome play is far too delicate
and complicated. In ordinary single-match play handicapping does not
always work out very well, and it is often made to look foolish in a
foursome. Far better is it than adding up and dividing by clumsy
fractions, and then finding that one party gets five strokes or eight,
that the players should take a broad view of their respective merits,
and then decide that they will either play on level terms or that a
third or a half shall be given and received. The best foursome of all is
one played on level terms, and an effort should always be made, and even
a point strained here and there, to effect such partnerships as will
make this arrangement feasible.

A really good foursome, when the partners play harmoniously and the
holes are well fought out, is a splendid diversion from the ordinary
game of golf. The interest and excitement of each member of the party
often seems to affect the others, and to lead up to an intense mutual
keenness which is often superior even to that experienced in single
play. There is a wholesome satisfaction in the community of interests.
The winning of a hole is coveted as it was never coveted before. Have
you heard what should be a classical story about the foursome? The match
was all square on the sixteenth green, and one excited Scot stood by
while his partner made a drive upon which the fortunes of a hard-fought
game might rest. The caddies had be