are made by Nature herself, and generally as regards their
chief features they must be taken or left as the golfer decides. A new
hazard may be thrown up here and there, but usually the part of the
constructor of a seaside course is to make proper use of those that are
there ready made for him, and which are frequently better than any that
could be designed by man.

CHAPTER XX

LINKS I HAVE PLAYED ON

Many first-class links--The best of all--Sandwich--Merits of the
Royal St. George's course--Punishments for faults and rewards for
skill--Not a short course--The best hole--The Maiden--Other good
holes--Prestwick an excellent course--The third and the ninth
holes--The finest hole anywhere--Hoylake--Two or three tame
holes--A means of improvement--Good hazards and a premium on
straight play--St. Andrews--Badly-placed bunkers--A good second
hole--The finest one-shot hole to be found anywhere--An unfair
hole--The best holes at Muirfield--Troon--North Berwick--Cruden
Bay--Dornoch--Machrihanish--A splendid course at Islay--The most
difficult hole I know--Gullane--Kilspindie--Luffness--Links in
Ireland--Portrush--Portmarnock--Dollymount--Lahinch--Newcastle--Welsh
courses--Ashburnham--Harlech--On the south and south-west
coasts--The rushes at Westward Ho!--Newquay--Good holes at
Deal--Littlestone--Rye--The advantage of
Cromer--Brancaster--Hunstanton--Sheringham--Redcar--Seaton
Carew--St. Anne's--Formby--Wallasey--Inland courses--Sunningdale--A
splendid course--Another at Walton Heath--Huntercombe--London
links--Courses in the
country--Sheffield--Manchester--Huddersfield--"Inland" courses at
the seaside--A warning.

Of all the golf courses that have any pretensions to being considered
first class, or even good second class, I can call to mind very few over
which I have not played a round, and at a time when the reputations of
so many of them are being severely overhauled, and their merits and
demerits criticised, some expression of my own opinions may prove
interesting alike to the golfers who know them well and to others who
are looking forward with eagerness to the enjoyment of games upon them
at future holiday times. Recent championships and big matches have
resulted in such wonderful scores, that some golfers are inclined to
ask despairingly whether we have any really first-class course at all;
and links whic