It is because I have in my head the material for the telling of the history of this rise of golf to its present status that I have ventured to write these personal reminiscences, and underlying them all has been the sense that I was telling the story of the coming of golf, as well as narrating tales of the great matches and the humorous incidents that I have seen and taken part in by the way. POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE (_Written in 1919_) Reading the above "foreword," and also the pages which follow it, after the immense chasm cleft in our lives and habits by the War, I find little to modify as a result of the delay in publication. What does strike me with something very like a thrill of terror is the appalling egotism of the whole. I can truly say that I feel guiltily aware and ashamed of it. I cannot, however, say that I see my way clear to amend it. If one is rash enough to engage in the gentle pastime of personal reminiscence at all, it is difficult to play it without using the capital "I" for almost every tee shot. I will ask pardon for my presumption in plucking a passage from one of the world's great classics, to adorn so slight a theme as this, and will conclude in the words of Michael, Lord of Montaigne:--"Thus, gentle Reader, myselfe am the groundworke of my booke: it is then no reason thou shouldst employe thy time about so frivolous and vaine a subject."[1] CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS 11 II HOW GOLF IN ENGLAND GREW 17 III OF YOUNG TOMMY MORRIS AND OTHER GREAT MEN 23 IV THE SPREAD OF GOLFING IN ENGLAND 29 V THE WEAPONS OF GOLF IN THE SEVENTIES 35 VI HOW MEN OF WESTWARD HO! WENT ADVENTURING IN THE NORTH 41 VII GOLF AT OXFORD 47 VIII THE START OF THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE GOLF MATCHES 53 IX GOLFING PILGRIMAGES 59 X WESTWARD HO! HOYLAKE AND ST. ANDREWS IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES 65 XI FIRST DAYS AT ST. ANDREWS 71 XII THE BEGINNINGS OF THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP 77 XIII ON GOLF BOOKS AND GOLF BALLS 84 XIV THE FIRST AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP 90 XV MR. ARTHUR BALFOUR AND HIS INFLUENCE IN GOLF 96 XVI THE SECOND AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP 102 XVII THE FIRST GOLF IN AMERICA 108 XVIII HOW I LOST THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND PLAYED THE MOST WONDERFUL SHOT IN THE WORLD 114 XIX JOHNNY BALL AND JOHNNY LAIDLAY 120 XX A CHAPTER OF ODDS AND ENDS 126