The would-be golfer having an eye to the fitness of things will probably begin by selecting a driver - the club with which he takes the first stroke at the tee. Having the maker's stock before him, some drivers will no doubt be placed in his hands for approval. Let him take one, and, standing upright, grasp the handle with both hands - having previously made up his mind as to the proper part of the handle to be grasped, - and lay the head flat on the ground as if in the act of playing. If he feels that the club fits him comfortably, it will be about the proper length for him. The head is the better of having a good breadth of wood across the top, and a good depth of face, but should be well proportioned in every part, and not clumsy. The lead and bone should be carefully fitted into their respective places, and shaft and head neatly bound together. I have advised the selection of a club having a good breadth of wood across the head, and such a club will suit the majority of golfers. The shaft should be perfectly straight and the tapering very gradual. If too sudden the result is either that the spring will be entirely confined to a small portion just above the scare, in which case the shaft will be deficient in driving power, as the upper part will be nearly rigid, or that while there may be some spring in the upper part, it will be so stiff as to require considerable exertion to bring it out and make it available for driving: the ball: consequently the club will require to be grasped very firmly, entailing unnecessary fatigue to the player. There should be just a sufficient amount of suppleness in the shaft to give life to the club. If there be too much the club is sure to have a wobbly feel. The spring or suppleness should lie in the whole shaft, from the scare to right up under the leather, but should be most perceptible in the lower part. The grip (i.e. the leather handle which is grasped) of the club should not be too thick, neither should it be too thin, but of the two it is better to be on the thin side. It will be observed that, when a club-head is laid flat upon the ground beside the ball, the face of one will lie in to the ball, while another will lie off, and a third will be quite straight. They are all equally good, and individual players can please themselves in their choice.

The above remarks hold good as regards choosing all wooden driving clubs. In brassies and spoons the shaft should be somewhat stiffer than in the driver, and of course there must be more loft on the faces. With regard to brassies, I would point out that some makers, considering the brass sole sufficient protection to the club-head, omit the usual'bone' with which all wooden clubs should be protected at the bottom of the face; but players should not accept such clubs. Without the bone the wooden face gets hammered in by repeated strokes, and the result is that the brass sole, being left projecting, cuts the ball, not to say the turf of the links. See therefore that the brassy has a bone in it. Brassy-niblicks, it has been stated, are smaller in the heads than other wooden clubs. There is a limit to this, however, and it is a mistake to get one with too small a head. It is essential that the face should be deep.

All wooden clubs should be squarely made at the neck, as this brings the head into a more direct line with the shaft, and seems to give the club more power. I do not say they should be made square, but a long, rounded neck should be avoided, as it not only carries the head further out of the line of the shaft, but weakens the strength and durability of the head. I have heard such clubs called 'juke-neckit' (i.e. duck necked), and the term describes, not inaptly, their appearance.

Brassies and long-spoons should be rather flatter in the lie than a driver. The latter club is most in use for tee-shots, and even if it lies slightly on the heel - and indeed some players prefer their drivers to lie on the heel and not flat on the sole when addressing the ball, - this does not prevent the ball from being perfectly and truly struck owing to its being raised up on the tee. But brassies and spoons are more frequently used through the green, where the ball lies close to the surface of the ground, and in that case it is essential that the sole of the club should be flat on the ground to enable the ball to be picked up clean. A club lying on its heel would, in playing through the green, be apt to get away a half-topped ball, and it need hardly be said that this would interfere with the distance of the stroke.

With regard to metal clubs, it is best to obtain those made of iron - gun-metal is too soft to withstand the hard usage they have to undergo, and heads of the latter metal consequently soon get damaged and useless. For putters gun-metal is not so objectionable; but even for them iron is better, as they are frequently used for running up long strokes on a hard level green with short turf. The heads, of whatever they are made, should be free from flaws in the metal, and should be sharply and squarely made; that is to say, the socket and blade should be rather angled than rounded off.

In selecting a cleek, the following arc some of the points to be observed. The blade should not be too long - rather short, in fact, - and it should neither be too deep nor too narrow, and of a fair thickness. The tendency of the present day is to make the blade much shorter and considerably thicker than the older makers did, and I must say I favour the innovation. For an ordinary cleek for all-round play, the blade is the better of being rather thicker at the bottom than at the top, as this helps to make the ball rise. The thicker the blade is at the bottom, and the thinner at the top, the more does the cleek tend to loft the ball, apart altogether from actual pitch on the face. Hence cleeks arc made with less gradation of thickness in metal than arc irons. All the same, there should be some gradation; and it is well, too, to get a cleek with loft, as being more capable of general use. With a driving-cleek it is of course different, but the peculiarities of driving-clocks have already been referred to. The socket of the cleek, i.e. the part into which the shaft is fitted, should be short and light, so as to enable more weight to be put into the blade. The shaft of a cleek should be comparatively stiff.