Bandy-ball, cambuc,
or goff (the game so well
known to-day by
the name of
golf), is of great antiquity, and was a special favourite
at Solvamhall
Castle.
Sir Hugh de Fortibus was himself a master of the game, and he
once proposed this question.
They had nine
holes, 300, 250, 200, 325, 275, 350,
225, 375,
and 400
yards apart.
If a man could
always strike the ball in a
perfectly
straight line and send it exactly one of two distances, so that it
would
either go towards the hole, pass over it, or drop into it, what would
the
two distances be that would carry him in the least number of strokes
round the whole course?
"Beshrew me," Sir
Hugh would say, "if I know any
who could do
it in this
perfect way; albeit, the point is a pretty one."
Two very good
distances are 125 and 75, which
carry you round
in 28
strokes, but this is not the correct answer.
Can the reader get round
in
fewer strokes with two other distances?
See
answer