rained, and all the wise maxims he
knows so well by heart that he could almost utter them in his sleep. Let
him play a few rounds in this way, and in between them devote himself as
assiduously as ever to practise with individual clubs, before he thinks
of playing his first match. He must settle his game on a secure
foundation before he measures his strength against an opponent, for
unless it is thus safeguarded it is all too likely that it will crumble
to ruins when the enemy is going strongly, and the novice feels, with a
sense of dismay, that he is not by any means doing himself justice. Of
course I am not suggesting that he should wait until he has advanced far
towards perfection before he engages in his first match. When he has
thoroughly grasped the principles and practice of the game, there is
nothing like match play for proving his quality, but he should not be in
haste thus to indulge himself. Any time from three to six months from
the day when he first took a club in hand will be quite soon enough, and
if he has been a careful student, and is in his first match not overcome
with nerves, he should render a good account of himself and bring
astonishment to the mind of his adversary when the latter is told that
this is the first match of a lifetime.

During the preparatory period the golfer will be wise to limit his
practices to three or four days a week. More than this will only tire
him and will not be good for his game. I have only now to warn him
against a constant attempt, natural but very harmful, to drive a much
longer ball every time than was driven at the previous stroke. He must
bring himself to understand that length comes only with experience, and
that it is due to the swing becoming gradually more natural and more
certain. He may see players on the links driving thirty or forty yards
further than he has ever driven, and, wondering why, he is seized with a
determination to hit harder, and then the old, old story of the foozled
drive is told again. He forgets that these players are more experienced
than he is, that their swing is more natural to them, and that they are
more certain of it. In these circumstances the extra power which they
put into their stroke is natural also. To give him an exact idea of what
it is that he ought to be well satisfied with, I may say that the
learner who finds that he is putting just two or three yards on to his
drive every second week, may cease to worry about the future,