Have you ever seen a carpenter buy a new plane? Ever noticed how finicky he is about it? He balances and sights it for a long time before he makes up his mind that it is all right; and then perhaps he suddenly decides that it won't do. The plane may be a perfect piece of workmanship, but it has just fallen short of the final test in the hands of the good workman. It has failed to strike a certain responsive chord in his make-up. With this last word of co-operation between tool and man lacking, the carpenter knows that with this particular plane he will never be able to turn out the best work of which he is capable.

"Where's the connection between carpenters' tools and golf clubs?" queried the interviewing golf pupil.

Just this: exactly the same lesson of good workmanship can be applied to the selection of golf clubs. Consider well the tools of the game. Do not underestimate the importance of having the right clubs in your golf bag. Even the best player cannot put up the best game of which he is capable unless his clubs suit him to a T; although of course the clubs themselves may be perfect and another man will make championship play with them. And if a good player is set off his base by the wrong clubs, you can imagine the havoc they work with the beginner's game.

This matter of suitable clubs is something about which most golfers go wrong at one time or other. The unfortunate part of it is that most of the new men at the game start wrong, and then stay wrong. Perhaps after you have learned to play the game just passably well with entirely unsuitable clubs, some kind friend politely asks if the shaft of your midiron isn't a trifle long for a man of your medium height; with the result that you switch to a club that you should have been playing with right along. But does your game improve? Not much. It probably goes from bad to worse, the reason being that you have learned with the wrong club, become accustomed to it, and now can't play with the right one.

This talk about playing with the wrong clubs cheered the listener up quite a bit. It was something tangible upon which he could place the blame for a distinctly mediocre game.

The surest word of advice I can give a beginner is to start with the right clubs. This eliminates one big obstacle at one fell swoop.

Even though the game comes a little slowly he knows at any rate that his clubs are right and he can devote his time to other worries.

For a perfect jumble of misfits I commend you to the golf bag of almost any beginner. Yes, and old timers at the game, too.

You will often find a large-headed brassie of flat lie in the same bag with a small-headed driver of medium lie. They haven't any more business being together than a cricket bat in a baseball outfit. Sometimes the clubs in a golf bag fairly fight with one another (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

A brassie and driver that fight with each other. One is small-headed, the other large-headed, and the lies are different.

Don't allow them in the same bag

As a matter of fact, a set of golf clubs should be one harmonious family. They should all have something in common and not be of entirely different natures. I even recommend that all the iron clubs in a bag be the product of one manufacturer for then you are fairly sure of uniformity of construction.

Go through your bag on the lookout for a club that is the least bit out of kilter with the rest of your club family, a discordant note. Throw out any disturber of the family concert, even though you may look upon the discordant one as a favourite child.

This was too much. Throw away a favourite club indeed! Where was the man's heart? And come to think of it, there was a certain mashie in the interviewer's bag that didn't just seem to belong.

I say get rid of the discordant club, for it is breaking the rhythm. Likely enough it is throwing you off your game.

Just to show how beginners get started on the wrong track, let me mention the case of a man who came to me to take lessons not long ago. After deciding to learn the game, this busy business man sent his wife to a sporting goods store with a carte blanche order for a set of clubs. She did the selecting. And as he was a six footer and she a mite of a woman, you can well imagine the incongruous result.

In contrast to this, I remember another man who took just one lesson with me. He didn't touch the ball once, but instead spent the whole time selecting suitable clubs. He was a wise man.

Sometimes, I think it would be a good thing for a man to learn golf without any clubs at all - if such a thing were possible. Certainly his judgment after he has mastered the golf swing is vastly different from what it was before. Once he has decided to take up golf, he should have someone who knows the game thoroughly pick out his set for him (Fig. 2).

Failing this, he would do well to confine his first selection to four clubs: spoon, midiron, mashie, and putter (Fig. 3). These four will carry him through the first season very nicely.

The following season he will be able to tackle the rest of the set more intelligently.

At this point the pupil confessed to a stupendous amount of ignorance as to just how he would go about it to select a suitable set of clubs.

First, there is the question of balance. Everybody wants a well balanced club, but not everybody recognizes one. Some people are what is known as "susceptible to balance." They can pick up a golf club and even though they have never had one in their hands before, they instinctively know that it is well balanced. A poorly balanced club will be to them as a discord is to an accomplished singer. No general rule can be laid down as to how to pick out good balance, although nearly any body can instinctively tell extreme instances of off-balance (Fig. 4).

Fig. 2

A complete set of clubs. Left to right:

Driver, brassie, spoon, driving iron, midiron, mashie, niblick, putter

Fig. 3

The clubs that will start you upon your golfing career. Unless you wish to look and feel real jaunty, these are plenty. Left to right: spoon, midiron, mashie, putter

Have you ever thought of your height in exact terms of feet and inches? This is an important item in selecting a club. There are three different lies in clubs; flat, medium, and upright. All the clubs in your bag should be confined to just one of these lies. The flat is for people below five feet five inches: the medium, from there up to five feet ten inches; the upright, for still taller golfers (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4

In case you are instinctively susceptible to balance, this test will tell you some of the secrets of club balance

Fig. 5

One of these clubs is yours - but only one.

The three lies of wooden clubs; upright, medium, and flat

You can classify the clubs' three degrees of whippiness in much the same way. These are stiff, medium, and springy. If you have lived a rigorous outdoor life and are something of a hercules, the stiff club is the one for you. If you are only fairly strong, you had better stick to the medium. If something below fairly strong, use the springy.

Fig. 6

A brassie and driver that thoroughly agree with each other. Same length shaft, same sized head

This same scale applies to the three weights in a club - heavy, medium, and light. The standard clubs are those of medium lie, length, and weight.

Finally, a word about the hitting surface of the club head. Be sure that this is fairly large. The importance of this is rather generally overlooked. When you drive a ball, how big a surface do you suppose the ball covers on the club head surface at the moment of impact? "Oh, about as large as your small finger nail," guessed the interviewer. Whereupon Dunn let drive a mashie shot and then held up as proof the dotted round stamp of the ball which had remained on the blade. It was larger than a twenty-five cent piece and just a trifle smaller than a half dollar.

That's what the concussion of the ball does. The head of your club should be large enough to take all that in, with something to spare. With half the ball on the head and half off you are not getting the distance to which you are entitled.