Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 593
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[Page 593]
the Sentry. Just where two or three holes ran very nearly parallel the Sentry noticed an English officer probably on furlough, playing alone, a few moments after, this officer saw the Sentry playing alone, & from the latters uniform must have known at once he was an Australian.
The officer instead of then playing his approach shot, picked up his ball with the very evident intention of joining in with the Sentry to make the game for both more enjoyable, he walked across the fairways till almost within speaking distance then, quite suddenly threw some balls on the ground & commenced practising mashie shots, the Sentry who had purposely walked slowly to enable the man to approach, & had in fact almost stopped, but on seeing the sudden alteration of plans, quite in keeping with customary military experience "in the field", indulged in a good humoured smile or perhaps it might even, have been a laugh, at the palpably abrupt decision of discovery & the Sentry continued his game alone to the end.
The decision of the Sentry was that the Tommy "officer" had approached close enough to discover that his "expected to be" partner was a "private" & his horrible mistake or real "mortification" had to be camouflaged by a rather crude display of "duffed" mashie shots.
The Sentry had the pleasant satisfaction of knowing that at any rate he knew he ranked as "his" superior – at golf.
A beautiful brassy shot right on to the green, by the Sentry, suddenly stopped even the duffed mashie shots & gathering up his "scattered" balls the officer "right turned" & marched away till "out of view".
At the end of the second round the A/Caddy master was as before waiting the return of the wanderer & no doubt the return of his treasured clubs & as they were delivered in the same condition as received the satisfaction was mutual.
An adjurnment was then made to the