Many players like their clubs to have leather faces, and I am rather in favour of this. Leather faces were originally devised for repairing clubs that had become damaged by tear and wear, but they arc now frequently put into quite new heads. A leather face put into a new club helps to make it last better, and when put into a damaged club will often save the head from breaking, and permit of its being used for a considerable time longer. This in a favourite club is no small matter, and whenever signs of tear and wear begin to show, it is as well to get the repair made at once.

Good club-shafts arc considerably more diffcult to get than good heads. The words 'good shaft' have a world of meaning. Here are some of the requisites. The wood must be light in actual weight; the grain must run straight down the stick; it must be supple and yet not wobbly, and have a fine steely spring, without being too stiff, throughout all its length, gently tapered from the leather grip to the scare. Any one who has examined a lot of shafts will know the difficulty of obtaining a piece of wood with even several of these requisites.

Hickory, either white or brown, makes the best shaft. The other woods mentioned I consider to be too heavy for good shafts for driving-clubs - using these words in the generic term to include brassies and spoons. Even in hickory there are great differences in the weight of the wood. Ash makes a good shaft, but is as a rule too supple for anything but a light head. Greenheart is too heavy for any clubs except iron niblicks and putters. Lemonwood makes a good shaft, but is rather heavy; it does very well, however, for shafting iron clubs, and it has a fine steely spring and keeps its straightness, being less liable to warp than hickory.

A set of golf-clubs consists of from six to ten clubs for ordinary players. The six most useful clubs are - driver, brassy, cleek, iron, and putter, and a mashie or a niblick, depending on the green to which the player belongs. If his green be a seaside one, where the chief hazards are sand bunkers, then I recommend a niblick as the best club for taking the ball out of such hazards; while, on the other hand, if his green be an inland one, where there are not usually many such hazards, then I recommend a mashie as more useful for pitching the ball over walls and cops, and extricating it from heavy lies in long grass, and as also useful for playing approaches. The other clubs mentioned before may be added to the set as the player finds occasion for their use, and as his style of play demands. He will not be long in finding out the clubs he plays best with.

Face to face with the clubs he has to select from, the first difficulty to a beginner will probably be, 'What should be the length of my club?' The usual length of a driver from the top of the shaft right down to the sole at the heel is about forty-four or forty-five inches, and an inch or two more or less will be found to suit most players. It is not possible to lay down any arbitrary rule whereby a player may be guided in choosing his club. The length of the shaft depends upon the player. It is a fallacy to suppose that it is in every case regulated by stature. No doubt this has a good deal to do with the matter; but tall men sometimes play with very short clubs, while, on the other hand, players under average height sometimes use very long clubs. It depends chiefly upon the relation of the player's stance to his ball. If he stands near the ball his club will be more upright - that is to say, the angle of the shaft and head will be less, and hence the shaft will be shorter: while if he stands back from the ball, the club will be flatter, and the shaft consequently longer. It depends, too, upon the hold or grip he takes of his club - whether he grips the extreme end of the shaft or places his hands lower down. Most command can usually be obtained over a short upright club, and consequently the hitting is more accurate. For that reason, and for the reasons after explained in the chapter on style, I am inclined to recommend clubs that do not lie too flat. On a comparison of the clubs of to-day with those made long ago, it would appear that they have become much shorter in the shaft.

The weight of the head is another matter that depends entirely upon the player. Some play with a heavy club, while others using a light club drive every bit as far, and play just as well. The distance a ball is driven depends upon the swiftness of the stroke, and not upon the heaviness of it, and each player will in time find out by experience the weight of club with which he can deal the ball the swiftest blow - that is the proper weight for him. A light club is best in the hands of most players: with a heavy club a golfer is apt to get into a bad loose style of play, or, to use the golfing phrase, 'it swings him off his feet.' This applies specially to those who have a full swing. With a half swig; a heavier club may be used with more effect than a light one: but, as will be explained hereafter, a half swing is not a good golfing style, and is not to be encouraged.

The most important feature in all clubs is what is technically known as the 'balance' or 'feel.' It is hardly possible to describe accurately in words what this mystic quality consists of. The weight of the head, the weight of the shaft, and its stiffness or suppleness, and the thickness of the grip, each and all play an important part in determining the balance of a club. It may be stated, however, that a well-balanced club should have a sweet, easy feel when handled and swung, and it should neither feel as if there was a dead weight at the head, nor as if there was no weight at all - all the parts must be proportioned one to the other. An experienced player has no difficulty in at once deciding whether a club be well balanced or not, and unless a golfer has sufficient knowledge to judge for himself, he had better trust to the judgment and advice of some reliable person, either a golfing friend or the maker from whom he purchases.