A PLAYER must not only be fully capable of driving off the tee and feeling at home upon the green. He must be good at the intermediate shots, free from awkwardness, and full of nerve. There are more than a few amateurs who are fully capable of holding their own in the best of company while they are wielding the wooden clubs, but a great falling off is noticeable immediately they are called upon to use the iron. There may be an explanation of this. I will make it a little later on, but for the present I will devote my attention to the business of proving to the beginner which is the best method of playing a shot that shall land him upon the green and near the hole.

In attempting a definition of the approach shot I think it may be best described as being a shot in which the golfer needs less than a full stroke to reach the hole. This being the case, the need for perfect freedom in handling the club properly is necessary, while calculation in respect of direction and the strength necessary to put behind the stroke is also required to a great extent.

Full shots cannot be properly considered as being approach shots; they are too far from the hole to be placed under that category, and 1 shall not attempt to treat them as such. I have already spoken of the use of the driver, now I am speaking of the iron clubs, treated fully a little later on. For any distance ranging from near the hole up to a distance of 120 or 130 yards away the shot may in reality be termed an approach shot, and at this point I may at once point out clearly that it is solely with the shot as I have described it that I intend to treat.

In dealing with an approach shot there are, first of all, two matters which must be carefully considered. They are, first, that the ball must be so hit that it is carried well up into the air, and secondly, that it must not be allowed to fly off at any sort of angle after being struck ; but, on the contrary, it must be kept straight. To simply chop away at the ball and lift it may not be so very difficult, but to keep upon the direct line for the hole is quite another matter.

In the laying out of a golf course - more especially so when it is entirely artificial in character -the hazards are so placed that they trap the unwary, and very frequently the good player too. Hence it behoves a golfer when he is approaching the green to accept no risks of disaster, but to play the kind of shot that will bring him within range of the hole with the minimum amount of danger en route. That is why I advise the ball being so hit that it mounts into the air, for a hazard is generally discovered lurking near the hole, and this is admittedly the only way in which you can get over such a difficulty.

But it must not be thought that lofting and guiding the ball correctly upon its passage through the air are the only things necessary to acquire in playing an approach shot properly. The player, like a rifleman, must learn how to gauge distances correctly, so as to know what amount of strength is necessary to put behind the club. Too much care cannot be exercised in calculating the distance from the hole, for a mistake of half a dozen yards is a bad error of judgment, and one likely to cause all manner of things to happen. To secure the best results a player must be capable of gauging the distance from the hole to within a foot or two, but there is no royal road to proficiency in this particular phase of skill. Only continual practice and a natural aptitude will bring the necessary acumen.

There is also another thing that must be learnt in connection with the approach shot-the art of imparting the necessary cut to the ball as you play it, and this again is a thing that only comes after steady and intelligent use of the club.

My advice to a player is that, should he find himself somewhere near 120 or 130 yards from the hole, he should take a mid-iron or mashie-iron, which is fairly well laid back and possessing a shaft that will not sway to the touch and is sufficiently rigid not to "give" when playing. This is my method of accomplishing the stroke which I am about to describe, and I have every confidence in recommending it.

As far as a rigid shaft is concerned, I am of opinion that every iron club should be provided with a shaft of this description. When you take the club in your hand you want to feel that you are holding something that you may depend upon, and the rigid shaft gives you this confidence.

Then, again, when I am approaching a hole, my preference leans very decidedly in the direction of a well-lofted club. My reason for this predilection is not difficult to understand, for the intention of the player should be to pitch the ball high in the air and to allow it to drop near the hole.

In the action of lofting the ball your paramount idea must be that the ball must possess as little run as possible after it pitches, and in playing this particular shot I invariably play more off the right leg than in the drive. Again, as anyone who has handled a club must know, the iron is shorter in the shaft than the driver, the result of this difference in length being that the position when playing is much nearer to the ball.

My grip is also slightly different, for it is necessary to grasp the club very firmly with both hands, although the grip must not be tight enough to cramp the wrists. The latter must be very taut- that is the only word which really describes how they must be held-yet they must not be allowed to develop a too great degree of rigidity.

One of the greatest and, curiously enough, one of the most common faults to be discovered in the performances of the average golfer is that he will persist, against the advice of those who know better, in playing his iron shots with a flexible wrist. Little wonder that he fails to get the right effect upon the ball or to get the full effect out of his shots!

I cannot insist too firmly that in playing a stroke with an iron the hands must grasp the club firmly, and that the wrists must not be allowed to work loosely. A very firm position must also be taken up when playing; the golfer must stand as firmly as is compatible with freedom of action upon both feet, but the knees, in my case, are bent just a little. This position does not entail any unsteadiness, and it is the best that can be assumed.

In the swing of the club it is a very difficult, if not an impossible, thing to say to what an extent it must be brought back for each shot in particular. Golfers vary to such a considerable extent in their powers and style that a hard and fast rule will not be workable. It should be, and is, the duty of the instructor to see of what his pupil is capable, and then to advise him accordingly.

Briefly, I may at once say that the extent of the swing differs with every individual. For instance, the ability of one player may enable him to get his ball a full ninety yards by means of a half-swing. On the other hand, another player may only succeed in reaching a similar distance provided he uses a three-quarter swing. That is where the differences in players are found, and where the man who places himself under capable tuition scores an advantage.

Speaking of the matter of swinging also reminds me of another thing, and that is that a golfer must not overdo the swing when he is using an iron club. This club is so altogether different from a wooden club that the stroke, instead of being of the regulation sweeping variety, is in reality more of a hit. The act of overswinging also tends to unsettle a player, and an iron shot is not the easiest thing in the world to play, so that you cannot afford to accept chances that may render the striking more or less of a lottery.

It is a fact, too, that the ball can be got quite as far with a half-swing or three-quarter swing as with a full swing. Speaking of my own play, when I am about a hundred yards from the hole, in five cases out of six I use a mashie iron with which to play my shot in preference to a mashie, with which I play the shorter strokes.

Just previously I spoke of the amount of cut which is necessary to put upon the ball when playing an approach shot. But I might explain that if you find yourself a hundred yards or more from the green this cut is not at all a necessity; with a mashie iron in use the shot would be better without it, and just an ordinary stroke would be the best to be played under the circumstances.

When I am approaching I do not, as a matter of general use, put any cut upon the ball until I am about seventy yards distant from the hole. Beyond that distance I have found as a result of practical test that the way in which a ball is lofted when playing with a mashie is amply sufficient to stay its progress within a very short distance of its dropping upon the green. The lofting influence destroys the run, and so the cut, which is calculated to fulfil a similar purpose, is not required.

When I use a mashie for an approach shot I am generally inside a hundred yards from the hole. My mashie, 1 may also add, is possessed of a short blade, and is very wide at the heel. This is a considerable advantage to a player, I think, for the reason that the ball is generally struck near this part of the head in an approach shot, and the width removes the possibility of striking with the top edge. With a wide heel to the club none of this power is wasted, every ounce possible is got out of the shot.

In describing my club I should say that the shaft displays not the slightest trace of whip; it is as rigid as it can be made, and it is an inch over three feet in length from the top to the bottom edge of the heel. This, I am ready to admit, is shorter than the average club found amongst those carried by the everyday player, but I am satisfied that it is quite lengthy enough for the purpose, and the lack of inches found in the shaft I have described suits my requirements. I play my shots much more accurately, and I secure a far greater degree of control over the ball, than were I to play with a longer club.