Batchelor's Golf Stories

''Golf is a funny game ... Many books have been written on the art of playing Golf, but few have attempted to give any record of the subtle humour which belongs to all sports of Scottish origin, and to Golf in particular.''

So said the original blurb when first published in 1914, and though a large number of titles have since appeared, mining the inherent wit, intemperance and pratfalls of golf, it is enlightening to return to Gerald Batchelor''s original.

Golf Stories is a collection of original short stories, jokes, anecdotes, sketches, dialogues and parodies, all illustrated with suitably baggy-trousered line drawings by E. W. Mitchell. It includes among many other items the maxims of Foozler Minimus, a golfing Roman legionary (Mens agitat molem: ''Some men get annoyed with a molehill''), and ''The Rules - Revised'', which states ''Casual water is any temporary accumulation of water - undiluted with whiskey''.

Little has changed and so much has changed. The book is an essential addition to the library of any golfer.