n
competitions, winning much more often than not.

But the most important event, and the biggest match I ever had with
anyone, was my engagement with Willie Park, who, not altogether
satisfied at having missed the Championship by a putt, challenged me to
play him home and home matches, thirty-six holes each time, for L100 a
side. There was some difficulty in arranging final details, but
eventually we agreed to play at North Berwick and Ganton, North Berwick
first. I have never seen such a golfing crowd as there was at North
Berwick the day we played there. All golfing Scotland seemed to be in
attendance, and goodness knows how many people would have been watching
the play if it had not happened that the lukewarm golfers went instead
to Edinburgh to see the Prince of Wales, who was visiting the capital
that day. As it was, there were fully seven thousand people on the
links, and yet this huge crowd--surely one of the very biggest that have
ever watched a golf match--was perfectly managed, and never in the least
interfered with a single stroke made by either Park or myself. The
arrangements, indeed, were admirable. In order to keep the crowd
informed of the state of the game at each hole, two flags were made, one
being white with a red "P" on it, and the other red with a "V" worked on
in white. When Park won a hole the flag with his initial was hoisted,
and the "V" was sent up when I won a hole, both flags being waved when
it was a half. At each teeing ground a rope three hundred yards long was
stretched, and fourteen constables and a like number of honorary
officials took control of it. In order to prevent any inconvenience at
the dyke on the course, a boarding, forty feet wide and fifty yards out
of the line from the tee to the hole, was erected, so that the crowd
could walk right over. Mr. C.C. Broadwood, the Ganton captain, acted as
my referee, and Lieutenant "Freddy" Tait served in the same capacity on
behalf of Park. One of the most laborious tasks was that undertaken by
the two Messrs. Hunter, who acted as forecaddies, and did their work
splendidly. In two practice rounds that I played before the great
encounter opened I did 76 each time, and I felt very fit when we teed up
on the eventful morning. And I played very steadily, too, though my
putting was sometimes a little erratic, and Park is one of the greatest
putters who have ever lived. The early part of the game was very
extraordinary in that the first ten hole