and a ball to be hit at.

The start is made from a point called "the tee." The player's purpose
is to send the ball, which may be rubber or gutta percha, and is
about one and three-quarter inches in diameter, into a small hole.
This hole may be from twenty to a hundred or more yards away, and the
skill consists in doing the trick with the fewest possible number of
strokes. The player who makes the most holes with the fewest strokes
wins the game. This sounds very simple, and it is simple to
understand, but not so easy to do.

THE LINKS

Many of the best links are laid out where the soil is sandy and the
grass sparse and stiff. Such links dry quickly after a rain, and the
ball is easily played and seen. The course in this country for the
regulation game is sometimes three miles long; shorter courses can be
laid out for informal work and practice. The links do not extend in a
straight line. It is much better to have them wind about and end near
the start. By carefully planning the curves, a golf course may be made
to occupy limited grounds.

It has become a rule to make eighteen holes constitute a full course.
In the United States, however, comparatively few courses have more
than nine holes, and good practice can be had upon a course with even
a fewer number. The starting-point is called "the teeing-ground," and
is marked by two whitewash lines at right angles to the course,
forming a parallelogram with the side lines of the course five or six
yards in length by two or three in breadth. Within the parallelogram
the player places his ball upon a tee or small hill of sand or earth