"A redhead and a fighter!" chorused the Dingbats, lifting their glasses.
Yes; they drank to Ambrose Phipps, and one short week ago they wouldn't
have tolerated him on the same side of the course with them. Our pet
leopard still has his spots, but we are now viewing him in the friendly
shade cast by a battered old silver cup: namely and to wit, the Edward
B. Wimpus Team Trophy, permanently at home on the mantelpiece in the
lounging room.
II
Going back to the beginning, we never had a chance to blame Ambrose on
the Membership Committee; he slipped in on us via the junior-member
clause. Old Man Phipps does not play golf; but he is a charter member of
the club and, according to the by-laws, the sons of members between the
ages of sixteen and twenty-one enjoy all the privileges of the
institution.
Ambrose was nineteen when he returned rather hurriedly from college. He
did this at the earnest and unanimous request of the Faculty and, it was
whispered, the police department of the university town. He hadn't done
much of anything, but he had tried very hard to drive a touring car and
seven chorus girls through a plate-glass window into a restaurant. The
press agent of the show saw his chance to get some publicity for the
broilers, and after an interview with the Faculty Ambrose caught the
first train for home.
Having nothing to do and plenty of time in which to do it, Ambrose
decided to become a golfer. Old Dunn'l MacQuarrie, our professional,
sold him a large leather bag full of tools and gave him two lessons.
Thus equipped and fortified, young Mr. Phipps essayed to brighten our
drab lives by allowing us to play golf with him. Now this sort of thing
may be done in some clubs, but not in ours. We do not permit our sacred
institutions to be "rushed" by the golfing novice. We are not snobbish,
but we plead guilty to being the least bit set in our ways. They are
good ways, and they suit us. The club is an old one, as golf clubs go in
this country, and most of the playing members are men past forty years
of age. Nearly all of the foursomes are permanent affairs, the same men
playing together week after week, season in and season out. The other
matches are made in advance, by telephone or word of mouth, and the
member who turns up minus a game on Saturday afternoon is out of luck.
We do not leap at the stranger with open arms. We do not leap at him at
all. We stand off and look him over. We put him on probation; and if he
shapes up well, and walks lightly, and talks softly, and does not try
to dynamite his way into matches where he is not wanted, some day he
will be invited to fill up a foursome. Invited--make a note of that. Now
see what Ambrose did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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