The Body in the Bunker — Herbert Adams

SAY what you like, protested Farmer, it isn't playing the game.What isn't? asked Neave.Deliberately missing a foot putt so that your partner has to sink it and you get the next drive. Escott says it's permissible and I say it's jolly near cheating.I thought the partners drove at alternate holes, said Bruce.Not in a flag competition, explained Farmer. You carry straight on. So when one holes out the other has the drive. The fellow purposely missed his putt. Owned up to it. The girl sank it and he got the next tee shot. Decent people don't do such things.Who did it? asked someone else.Hann. He was partnering Vera King. Not her fault. I was playing with Maureen Hobart and at the fourteenth both balls were a foot from the pin. I holed out, but Hann deliberately missed. Played to the side so that his partner had to play again.Cost them a stroke, said Major Escott.Yes, but it gave him the drive at 'Hell.' Put it on the green and they got a three.What happened to you? asked Broughley.Maureen went into the far bunker--into a heel mark too. Took us three to get out. Down in six. But what happened to us is not the point. I say it was a dirty dodge. It isn't cricket. Henry Farmer undoubtedly felt very much annoyed about it.There you are wrong, declared Escott. Whether it is golf or not, it most certainly is cricket. The better player runs one instead of two at the end of the over to keep the bowling. Do you blame him?Not quite the same, said Dean. At cricket you are out to make a high score and at golf a low one. If all my centuries at golf had been made at cricket I should be near the top of the averages! I agree with Farmer that to miss a putt purposely is not playing the game.But it's the fellow's own loss, remarked Broughley.Not when it's done deliberately to get the next drive, said Farmer.Have you never played short at a bunker for safety? demanded Escott. What's the difference?A great deal. You play short at a bunker to make sure of doing the hole in as few as possible. You hope to save something with the next shot.Pretty much what Hann did, remarked Neave. To miss deliberately violates the whole principle of a mixed foursome, asserted Farmer.You might say it violates the principle of bridge, remarked someone else, to trump your partner's ace. But it may be a sound thing if you want the lead.Bridge is a matter of tricks, retorted Farmer. Golf should not be.Others joined in the wrangle and got quite warm about it. The smoking room of the Barrington Golf Club, like many others of its kind, was rather pleased when some novel point arose in connection with the game and could be discussed from all angles. Several of the members agreed with Farmer that his opponent had violated the spirit of the game, while others held with Major Escott that it was a matter of tactics and perfectly permissible.