on. A proposed teeing
ground should be selected for each hole, the lengths of the holes then
examined and compared, and the tees moved nearer or further back as
seems desirable for the improvement of individual holes or the increase
of variety. If at this stage there is any chance of finding a ball
afterwards, it is a good thing to drive a few from each tee and play
them with the brassy, cleek, irons, or mashie up to the green. If you
drive half a dozen from each tee and play them through the green to the
place where the holes will be, there will surely be one or two that have
turned out excellently if you are a player of any skill whatever, and a
study of the strokes which have been applied to these one or two, the
point of pitching, and the final lie, will reveal the entire character
of the hole you are making, and tell you plainly how it must be
bunkered. In a nine-hole course I think there should be seven medium or
long holes, and two short ones to break the monotony and test the golfer
at all points. The situation of these short holes in the round will
naturally be decided to a large extent by the land and other
circumstances, but when the power of selection is left to the designer,
I incline to the belief that Nos. 3 and 7 are the best for these
dainties. I like a short hole to come early in the round, as at No. 3,
because then a golfer who has made a bad start is given a chance of
recovering before he is hopelessly out of the hunt. He has a better
prospect of making such a recovery (or thinks he has, which is much the
same thing) at a short hole than at a long one, and, being put in a good
temper again, he will very likely go on very well for the next two or
three, when he will be favoured with another short one. The plight of
the player who has discovered at the beginning of a medal round that he
is off his drive and brassy, and that six or seven holes have to be
played before a little one is reached, is certainly not pleasant. I call
a good short hole one that can be reached by good play at any time with
an iron club, because it fails to be a short hole when it is necessary
to take wood upon the tee in order to get to the green. In an
eighteen-hole course you might have three or four short holes--I think
three are sufficient--and it would be well to vary their length so as to
test the capacity of the golfer with different clubs, and to bring out
all his qualities of resource. For a fourth hole on the short side