Golf Stories · Chapters

Chapters explained

Chapter companions for Golf Stories by P. G. Wodehouse.

Read with companions Book page

Each chapter has a companion in the reader — open a free preview to see notes beside the text.

Chapter 1
Archibald's Benefit
Archibald Mealing, a hopelessly incompetent golfer, unexpectedly enters and wins his club's championship after his opponent, Gossett, is repeatedly distracted by urgent telegrams that his friend Sigsbee prevents him from reading. Archibald's victory is fueled by his desire to finish the match in time to meet his fiancée, Margaret Milsom, for lunch.
Chapter 2
The Clicking of Cuthbert
A young man declares he is giving up golf, but the Oldest Member tells him the story of Cuthbert Banks to prove golf's practical value. Cuthbert, a golfer in Wood Hills, falls in love with Adeline Smethurst, a cultured woman who rejects him for lacking intellectual ambition. After a near-hit by Cuthbert's golf ball disrupts a lecture by Raymond Parsloe Devine, Cuthbert meets Adeline. He proposes but is turned down because she wants a husband of achievement. Later, Cuthbert impresses Adeline by hosting the famous Russian novelist Vladimir Brusiloff, who prefers golf talk to literary discussion. Brusiloff's visit leads to Cuthbert winning Adeline's heart, and they marry, with Adeline becoming a golf enthusiast. The young man, inspired, retrieves his clubs.
Chapter 3
A Woman Is Only a Woman
The Oldest Member reflects on the dangers of love for a golfer, using the story of Peter Willard and James Todd. The two friends, equally incompetent at golf, both fall for Grace Forrester, but when she reveals her disdain for the game, they recoil in horror and rededicate themselves to golf, reinforcing their bond and commitment to the sport.
Chapter 4
A Mixed Threesome
The Oldest Member tells the story of Mortimer Sturgis, a thirty-eight-year-old man who takes up golf for the first time and becomes utterly obsessed, neglecting his fiancée Betty Weston. Betty, who had been content with Mortimer, finds herself drawn to his best friend, the explorer Eddie Denton. The chapter follows Mortimer's rapid descent into golf mania and the emotional strain it places on his relationship with Betty.
Chapter 5
Sundered Hearts
Mortimer Sturgis discovers that his wife, Mary Somerset, is secretly the Ladies' Open Croquet Champion, leading to a crisis in their marriage. After a period of agony, he resolves to forgive her and help her take up golf, but she has already left him, leaving a farewell letter. The chapter also recounts their initial meeting in the South of France, where Mortimer fell in love with her after she gave him golf advice.

Archibald's Benefit

The Clicking of Cuthbert

A Woman Is Only a Woman

A Mixed Threesome

Sundered Hearts