To the casual observer the pulled ball seems to be the reverse of the sliced ball, but if such were the case, the curve of its flight and its action on the ground would be the same except for the fact that it would curve to the left instead of to the right. It requires careful observation of the conditions under which a ball is pulled for the player to ascertain why it is that the ball with a hook is a good traveler and runs freely. Everyone knows that to play a ball with a slight pull is no disadvantage, and that many players use this shot in preference to a straight drive. Whether or not they are justified in doing so raises another question. It is extremely doubtful whether the hooked ball offers any advantage over the straight ball with back spin unless, of course, its curve is utilized to get around some obstruction.

If we consider carefully the stance and swing for the pull we will, in due course, discover wherein the nature of its spin differs from the slice, beyond the fact that it has in a general way the reverse motion.

The object now is to cause the ball to rotate, roughly speaking, from right to left. I shall risk appearing somewhat pedantic by explaining here that when an object is revolving in the same direction in which the hands of a clock, laid flat on its back, move, its rotation is described as going from left to right. When the object is moving anti-clockwise, its motion is called a spin from right to left. When playing for a pull, in order that the ball may have this right to left rotation, it is necessary that the face of the club should cut across the ball's intended line of flight in such a way that the friction of the club's face against the ball should produce the desired spin. To accomplish this the player takes her stance so that her right foot is withdrawn behind the imaginary line that crosses her left toe and runs parallel to the line from hole to ball produced. Braid says, on page 77 of "Advanced Golf," that ". . . . we place the right foot back and make the stance an exaggerated square." It is somewhat puzzling to understand how a thing can be more square than square. This quotation emphasizes the fact that I have already mentioned that the game of golf is deficient in terminology. We have, in this case, the square stance and the open stance but there is, so far as I know, no word or phrase that is generally accepted to denote the open stance that opens the other way. However, we must get on as best we can with the words at our disposal until some clever person supplies some new terms.

The player should take her position so that the ball is opposite the right foot. It is impossible to say whether the ball should be in a line with the toe, instep or heel of the right foot, and, when a slice is being played, it is equally impossible to state exactly where the ball should be in relation to the left foot. The slight peculiarities that differentiate one person's style of play from that of another make it impractical to attempt to be definite to the point of hair-splitting. If a player has the proper idea in mind, she can and must work out the smaller details for herself.

The swing for the pull is decidedly flat. The club head draws away from the ball toward the player and continues in a curved line around the player's body. If, as some writers suggest, the club is drawn back in the line of the ball's intended flight, it is certain that, on account of the position of the player's whole body, it will not come down in the same path in which it went up. It is better to allow the head of the club to leave the straight line as it is carried back and to bring it in toward the body, then, as it returns on the downward swing, it will cross the ball's intended line of flight and reach out beyond it. In this manner the desired side spin is imparted to the ball. Soon after the ball is hit and the club starts on its follow-through, the right wrist is allowed to turn over, and, as the club reaches out beyond the ball's line of flight, the right arm is carried across the front of the body in a position that is almost straight.

To return to the downward swing of the club, it is, as I have said, of a decidedly flat variety. As the head of the club meets the ball, the club is already beginning to rise and therefore a certain amount of top spin as well as side spin is given to the ball. It is this fact that accounts for the difference in the action of the pulled ball and the sliced ball. Whereas the ball played with slice has almost pure side rotation, the ball played with pull has side rotation, modified by an over spin which makes it fly long and low through the air and run freely when it has reached the ground.

Some players slice a ball into the wind if the wind is coming from the right, and pull the ball if the wind is coming from the left. To do this successfully requires very exact judgment of the direction from which the wind is blowing or the player will suffer more damage than benefit. If, for example, the wind is a cross between a head wind and one blowing at a direct right angle from the right of the fairway, its action on the sliced ball will be to push it still farther around in the curve that it makes naturally. If the wind is coming from somewhere behind that line which makes a right angle to the fairway, there is no reason why the player should try for a slice. A straight ball under such conditions would go farther and be much safer. To have in mind that it is advantageous to slice into a wind that is coming from anywhere at the right, is very dangerous. In certain combinations of circumstances, when the player feels that she can be sure in her calculations of the effect of the wind on the ball, and when it is not her object to gain as much length as possible, she may find it desirable to use the sliced ball, but such a combination is far from frequent.

On the other hand, when the fairway slopes decidedly to the right or to the left, the ball with a sidewise curve in its flight may be made to stick to the side of the hill when a straight ball would roll down. Occasionally one finds courses that have one hole or several holes that must be played along a side slope. When such a situation is encountered it is very convenient to be able to pull or slice against the rising ground. It seems unfair that a straight ball should be penalized by the permanent conformation of the ground, but golf architects slip into a course, now and then, a hole that must be played over a side sloping fairway, or one that has an angle or elbow guarded by some obstacle such as a building or a group of trees. Such holes as these test the player's skill and, if they are discouraging to the beginner, they add to the variety and interest of a course to those who have become skillful players.