To keep yourself in good form it is not necessary after the game has been thoroughly mastered to practise every day. Three or four times a week will keep both the eye and the hand well up to their work, without getting either tired or stale. Whenever the chance presents itself of playing a round with a scratch player, or someone who is really more skilled than yourself, do so. Such experience will not only serve as a lesson, but will stimulate the spirit of ambition in no small degree. Besides, it will be most excellent training and a decided gain in the way of steadiness, and will also teach you not to get flustered when confronted by difficulties. Merely to watch your opponent's self-possession, as she extricates the ball from the heaviest sand, without the least sign of force or irritability, will be a lesson worthy of taking to heart. To have made good progress in the game, and to be able to hold one's own with some of the longer handicap members, perhaps even to be able to give them a point or two besides a beating, has the effect of making most people rather proud and pleased with themselves. Then it is that a sound beating from some good player will do your game pounds of good and show you how much you still have to learn. If one were to play golf for ever, yet would the feeling remain that there are many things to be mastered. One of the most trying times for the nerves, and in fact for your play all round is when at some big open meeting, or perhaps even in the championship, you find yourself drawn to play with or against a celebrity. Some of the on-lookers may, and probably will, elect to follow you round just to see your famous partner perform, as well as to criticise both players. Naturally, this will cause you some embarrassment, but beside your own feeling on the matter, you have to consider those of your partner, and the risk that if you play badly you may very likely put her off too. For in golf the laws of imitation are very subtle, and nothing is more common than to play down to another person's standard. However trying it may be, therefore, to have every shot watched, whether it is a long raking drive, a foozled iron, or some twelve inch putt that lips the hole instead of going down, do your best to be steady, even if brilliancy be out of the question, for consistency can never be very hardly criticised, even when seriously put in the shade by a superior display of knowledge. Attending open meetings, and taking part in club matches, will do more for your nerves and be the means of your gaining greater experience than a hundred rounds on the quiet home course, with just those players around you to whose criticisms the ear has become so used, that they cease to make the slightest impression. At such big gatherings you can see for yourself the endless varieties of style, grip, stance, and a dozen other details which will go more towards teaching you how you should or should not do