The Body in the Bunker by Herbert Adams — Read

THERE were very few present when, on the Monday morning, a little before nine o'clock, Hann and Sladen started out on their great match. Hann had suggested the early hour as he said he must get back to town and would have preferred to play the previous day.

Stuart Sladen was an extraordinary being, both as a man and a golfer. He was tall, with a hairy face and a long beard. Such beards are rare in these days and his was the subject of much chaff from his friends. There was a legend that he once mis-hit a ball, that it ran up his club and was not found until he was combing his beard at bedtime. There was also a theory that, as he suffered at times from the golfer's most fatal error of lifting the head, he meant to grow that beard until he could put a foot on it and so keep his head down. He was an author, but his writings were too fantastic to be popular. He spoke with a rich Scottish accent and was really very well liked, as odd characters are when they can take banter good humouredly. As to his golf, Hann, who was scratch, had to give him eight strokes and it was generally doubted if he could do it. Sladen usually played round with only three clubs and carried his own dilapidated bag. On this occasion, the match being of such importance, he brought a fourth club, a prodigious mashie-niblick, and he employed a caddie. So the battle began.