When the ground is hard, a ball may sometimes lie close to, and in front of, a steep hazard, such as a hedge or fence, in a deep cup or heel mark. To loft such a ball over the hazard looks a hopeless task, but it may be very simply effected. It is only necessary to strike it sharply downwards against the opposing side of the cup with an iron putter, when it will jump upwards and forwards over the obstacle. The face of the putter must be held downwards, and care must be taken that the ball, in rebounding, does not strike the player or his club.

Approaching and Putting-The term "approach" is applied to all shots with iron clubs that are intended to reach the putting green, and it need hardly be said that in playing an approach the player's object should be to lay the ball as near the hole as possible, and with luck, to hole it.

For approach shots of from 80 to 150 yards, or thereby, it used to be common to take what were known as half-shots with various clubs. A half-shot is a shot played with a half-swing. This, however, is an extremely difficult stroke to master or to play consistently, and nowadays, when cleeks,

John Ball, Junr. Approaching.

mashies, and irons are made with all degrees of loft, it is only an unnecessary complication of the game. A full approach shot with a lofted club is much more easy to play than a half-shot with a straighter faced club, for the reason that in the former the player is only concerned with hitting the ball clean and straight, whereas in the latter, he has also to think what strength he must use to reach the required distance. Once the art of hitting truly with an iron club is acquired, full shots with either cleek, mashie, or iron should present no difficulty, and it is only when the approach is shorter, say from 80 to 100 yards, and full strokes are no longer possible, that difficulty will be experienced. These shorter approaches are often called quarter-shots, on the same principle as half shots, to indicate that a quarter-swing is used in playing them.

The stance for an approach shot is of the same nature as for any other, though the ball may be a little more opposite the middle of the fork, and of course the shorter handle of the iron club will necessitate a stance somewhat nearer the ball.

The player must stand firmly on his feet, which, together with his legs, must on no account be moved, and the shot is played with the arms and wrists alone, the body being kept as steady as possible.

For wrist shots the player may permit himself a more exuberant waggle than for full shots, as this will ensure the wrists being

John Ball, Junr. Approaching.

kept free. The grip should be firm, so that the muscles of the fore arm are taut, and the ball should be struck sharply. In this stroke, the right should be the master arm and the left only used to steady the club and help to bear its weight. If there be much pitch on the face of the iron or mashie, it will be almost necessary to take a little turf in making a quarter-stroke, even if the ball lie well, for it will be found that, unless this is done, the ball will be struck with the lower part of the face, and consequently will not be lofted sufficiently. Some of the best players invariably take a good deal of turf, no matter how the ball lies, but it must be pointed out that if this shot be played accurately, the piece of turf cut out by the iron is the piece immediately under and in front of the ball, and not the turf behind it, and that the ball is struck, if not first, at any rate simultaneously with the ground. It is of course evident that these shots can only be played where the ground is more or less soft.

It is sometimes desirable to make the ball stop as dead as possible after it reaches the ground, as, for instance, if the hole be close to the edge of a bunker; and this may be done in two ways, either by putting cut on it or by imparting a back-spin to it which will counteract its forward motion.

Cut is put on the ball by drawing the arms in, and the face of the club across the ball in the act of striking. This has the effect of putting a right-hand spin or slice on the ball, and due allowance must be made for this in deciding the line to the hole. Back-spin is imparted in a similar way, but the swing is of a downward nature, and the ball is struck by the face of the iron as it crashes down into the turf. Both these strokes are of extreme difficulty, though the latter, as it permits the player to play straight at the hole, is perhaps the easier and more advisable. If the ground be at all hard, and there are no hazards intervening, it is always better to play an approach by running the ball up with a straight-faced club, such as a cleek or putter. On hard ground, apart from the difficulty of hitting accurately with a lofting club, the ball is much more likely to be deflected from its course on alighting, than when it is run along the ground. There is an idea that it is not sportsmanlike to use a putter for these shots. Nothing could be more ridiculous. The object of an approach is to get the ball as near the hole as possible, and the best club to use is the one that will achieve this most successfully and consistently.

Putting-It is commonly said that matches are won or lost on the putting-green, and experience certainly bears out the remark. It will not be contended that putting is more difficult than any other branch of the game, for there can be no doubt that, as a general rule, between good and bad players is there less difference on the putting-green than anywhere else. But probably the explanation lies in the fact that there is no part of his game in which a player goes off more completely than his putting.