The Golf Courses of the British Isles — John Shaqi
The Golf Courses of the British IslesDarwin, Bernard
History
The Golf Courses of the British Isles
Darwin, Bernard
Golf courses -- Great Britain
The drive from this particular high place having been safely
accomplished, there is an accurate second shot, which varies greatly
in length according to the wind, to be played between a pond on the
right and a bunker on the left. Some will pitch it and pitch into the
pond; others will run it and run into the bunker, and Mr. Colt will
play a peculiar low, scuffling shot straight on the pin and win it from
us in a four, which will very nearly be a three. Another wonderfully
good two-shot hole is the sixth, where the green lies in the angle of
a wood, and we must hold our second shot well up to the left so that
the ball shall trickle slowly down the sloping green towards the hole;
that is supposing we have hit a straight tee-shot, a thing by no means
certain, for there is a horribly attractive clump of fir-trees to the
left which catches many and which once proved particularly fatal to
Jack White in a big match against Tom Vardon.
The seventh is a bone of contention, some averring that it is a fine
'sporting' hole, while others have no names too bad for it; when not
alluded to with profanity it is generally known as the 'Switch-back'
hole. Those who like a blind tee-shot and a blind second will admire
it, and those who don't wont, and there is the whole matter in a very
small compass. The eighth is quite a good short hole now (it used to be
bad and blind and stupid); and the ninth we may skip, although there
is a fine straight tee-shot needed, and then from the tenth tee we
drive down another steep place into the lower country. Those who make
a loud outcry when they drive "a perfect tee-shot, sir, straight on
the pin," and find it in a bunker, may here have cause for annoyance.
There is no bunker on the straight line, but there are bunkers to right
and left and a somewhat narrow space between, and a shot that is very,
very nearly well hit sometimes finds a resting-place in one or other
of them. It is a poor thing, however, to demand perfect immunity for
any respectable drive, and the shot that is placed where it ought to
be gives the chance for a really fine second shot between more bunkers
on to a green of fascinating but fiendish undulations. At the back of
the green is a hut, where live ginger-beer and apples and other things,
and he who has done the hole in four fully deserves them. This tenth
hole will be celebrated in golfing history for a truly tremendous
second shot played by Braid out of the left-hand bunker in the final
round of the _News of the World_ tournament, his opponent being Edward
Ray. Braid calls it in his book the most remarkable bunker shot that
he ever played, and that is praise indeed. Poor Ray! He had a perfect
tee-shot and a perfect second, laid his third stone dead, and yet lost
the hole, for Braid, having driven into the left-hand bunker from the
tee, gallantly took his iron for his second, reached the green with a
terrific shot, and completed the roll of his infamies by holing his
putt for a three.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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