This compendium summarizes P. G. Wodehouse’s linked vignettes collected under the Oldest Member’s reminiscences — a sequence of light comic tales in which golf functions as both plot engine and social lens. Each episode pairs a golfing situation with romantic or social stakes, exposing character foibles through the rules, rituals and accidents of the game.

1. “The Clicking of Cuthbert.” Cuthbert Banks, a skilled golfer, woos Adeline Smethurst but is dismissed for being merely a devotee of golf. To prove his worth he joins the Literary Society, endures intellectual torment, then wins Adeline when celebrated Russian novelist Vladimir Brusiloff (a visiting celebrity) recognizes Cuthbert’s real distinction as a champion. Theme: public recognition as social capital; golf’s unexpected practical utility.

2. “A Woman Is Only a Woman.” Two friends, Peter Willard and James Todd, fall for Grace Forrester; to settle rivalry they arrange an eighteen‑hole match with the loser to leave. Sportsmanlike sacrifice and a comic discovery that Grace finds golf “silly” dissolve the competition; both men return to golf. Theme: love vs. vocation; comic priority of the game.

3. “A Mixed Threesome.” Mortimer Sturgis takes up golf late, supplanting his fiancée’s affection and almost losing her. The game consumes him until a contrived crisis (and eventual reconciliation) restores balance; he remains an enthusiastic golfer. Theme: golf as an obsession with social consequences.

4. “Sundered Hearts.” A variant of Mortimer’s story: he marries who he believes is a champion golfer; discovers she is a croquet champion instead, and briefly desponds before mutual accommodation and renewed affection. Theme: expectations versus marital reality.

5. “The Salvation of George Mackintosh.” George, once inarticulate with women, buys a correspondence course in elocution and becomes eloquent — then talks incessantly, alienating friends; a practical, physical “cure” effected by his fiancée (a niblick blow) restores equilibrium. Theme: comic reversal; speech as social hazard.

6. “Ordeal by Golf.” Alexander Paterson uses golf as a character test for a treasurership. Mitchell Holmes, naturally hot‑tempered, struggles under the psychological pressure; an affected self‑control course and a public display of confidence secure the post. Theme: golf as recruiter’s stress test.

7. “The Long Hole.” Two rivals, Bingham and Jukes, play an extraordinary long single‑hole match across country and city. Rule disputes, ingenuity and etiquette determine the outcome; the episode satirizes competitive extremism and the rule‑obsessed golfer.

8. “The Heel of Achilles.” Vincent Jopp, an American magnate, trains obsessively, becomes a superb golfer — but on the morning of a decisive final, distractions by exaggerated social attention (ex‑wives, etc.) upset him and he loses, underscoring uncertainty in sport.

9. “The Rough Stuff.” Shy Ramsden Waters courts Eunice Bray; jealousies and a mixed‑foursomes match climax in Ramsden’s unexpected display of rough decisiveness (kicking a child’s trouser), which paradoxically secures Eunice’s affection. Theme: latent assertiveness revealed on the course.

10. “The Coming of Gowf.” A comic fantasia: King Merolchazzar adopts golf (“Gowf”) after learning it from a Scotsman; the sport transforms national life and court politics, with priests and plotters resisting, until monarchy and matrimony are reconciled.

Across the collection Wodehouse repeatedly mines the collision of genteel sport, romance and social pretension. The Oldest Member’s frame delivers wry moral observations: golf amplifies character, gives comedic tests of integrity and temperament, and functions as a barometer of English social life.