What does "a stroke a hole" refer to in "The Thirty-Nine Steps"? I have a question about a passage in _The Thirty-Nine Steps_ by John Buchan. In Chapter 10, "Various Parties Converging on the Sea", Richard Hannay watches two people playing tennis, after which one of them says to the third one, who is carrying golf clubs: > “I’ve got into a proper lather,... this will bring down my weight and my handicap, Bob. I’ll take you on tomorrow and give you a stroke a hole.” What does he mean by "give you a stroke a hole"? It seems to me that he refers to golf but I don't know the rules well enough to understand the meaning of his phrase.

Firstly, in golf, 'strokes' are how you score the game:

What is a stroke

tl;dr: every time you swing the club at the ball, it's a 'stroke'. When the game is over, the player with the _least_ strokes wins.

In this instance, 'a stroke a hole' means the 'better' player is handicapping himself to give his opposition a better chance.

Stroke hole, handicap hole or handicap-stroke hole

So, over 18 holes, the better player is giving the opposition 18 'free' strokes.