Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/184

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CHARACTERISTICS
149

human amount of muscle with singularly little result of distance, though often the ball goes a long way, but off the line. The worse, however, a player is, the greater is the effort; he is often in bunkers and the niblick has generally to be wielded with all the force at his command; playing a hole of over 300 yards and foozling one or more strokes cost the bad player far more exertion than Vardon has to expend at the same holes. But every player, good, bad, and indifferent, will find that the hitting of the ball is what gives the fatigue and makes the exercise. You will find the difference at once if you walk round and follow a match, when the distance covered is exactly the same as that traversed by the players; the players will be more or less fatigued, the spectator not at all.

Another charm of golf to the beginner of thirty years of age "which leads him to pursue the game with the ardour of youth" is in the fact he can progress and improve. This would be impossible in cricket, for even slight progress would be out of the question. At golf, however, I believe it to be quite possible to improve your game till you get to fifty, whilst from fifty