I'll be Deemed! - Tapa dura

Golf is, of course, a serious business and the Rules of Golf Committee of The American Golf Association has accordingly devoted much thought to the sometimes unusual problems that players may encounter. But, as this book reveals, they have quite failed to foresee a whole range of vicissitudes which may confront reasonable, if somewhat pedantic, golfers -- men like Peter Dobereiner's two magnificent creations, Jack Pontifex and his long-suffering partner, Culpeper.For example, a caddie struck down by an errant drive must clearly be deemed to be a "lose impediment" which may not be moved; but what of his wooden leg -- which can equally, clearly, be deemed to be an "artificial object" and, as such, removable?It is in order to resolve issues such as these that Pontifex appeals to the Chairman of his club's Rules Committee in the anguished correspondence here published for the first time. They are issues which readers will find equally perplexing -- if they stop laughing for long enough to consider them.