I believe that Harry Vardon has always remained faithful to the old-fashioned method of glueing the head to the shaft, and he is probably the most accurate driver of all players. Be it said, however, that the socket club has certain advantages over its scared brother, as it is a much neater looking club and moreover is invariably possessed of a much more delicate balance, and, perhaps most important of all, the ball leaves the face of the socket club with a rather sweeter feeling than it ever leaves the face of a scared club.

I am of the opinion, however, that the latter is the sounder and more utilitarian weapon of the two, and I think many players would do much better work through the green if they would discard the socket brassey, and in its place try an old-fashioned scared club. Personally I have never had a brassey made on the socket principle in which I had the slightest confidence, as directly one encounters a heavy lie there always seems such a risk of the shaft buckling, and the ball in consequence swinging off at a tangent.

These socket clubs are very pleasing to play with when the lie is a good one, but in such cases there seems no reason why the player should not use his driver. Of course, against my contention that the scared club is the most serviceable club of the two, there would seem to be the overwhelming evidence that nineteen out of twenty players and probably in America even a much bigger percentage than that use brassies made on the socket principle, but I have an idea in my own mind that although players may not be aware of the fact it is the club maker who really decides the manner of club they shall play with.

It is a simple task for the club maker to have the head and the shaft he is going to join together fashioned by machinery in such a manner that he has only to push the shaft through the head or screw the shaft into the head, and then wind round about an inch of whipping. On the other hand, there is a certain degree of labor in having to carefully glue the head to the shaft, then carefully file it and finally lay on about six inches of whipping. It is not a cause for surprise that he should prefer to sell the public "socket" clubs in preference to "scared" clubs; it is a simpler method, a cheaper method and there is less labor involved.

In the selection of a club, the player should have first of all made up his mind the lie of club which suits him best. Some players prefer clubs with an upright lie; in fact, they cannot play with any other class of club. There are others who may be able to play with clubs with a practically upright lie, but who on the other hand find they invariably do much better with a club which in lie is comparatively flat.

In my experience I have found that the majority of players have no very definite or decided idea as to the lie of club which suits their style and physique; they invariably have some species of hazy idea of a club which they once possessed which suited them admirably, but they never seem to be able to quite recollect the exact lie of that club. They do not seem to realize that the question of the lie of the club and the way that the head sits on the ground make all the difference as to whether it will be suitable to their style of play or not.

Many a time have I seen a golfer come out of a store or shop with a club in his hands which he is convinced will suit him admirably. He has been prompted to purchase it on a question of appearance or perhaps in a certain degree on the point of feel and balance, and he flatters himself that he has gained possession of a very superior article. Perhaps he has, but his practical experience of this superior article is never satisfactory or gratifying, and he is at a loss to find a reason for this failure. If he will only take the trouble to compare the instrument with those with which he has accomplished satisfactory work in the past he will probably find that the lie of the new purchase is entirely different from those he has been in the habit of using. To anyone who has been in the habit of handling golf clubs all his life it is not a difficult matter to arrive at a fairly correct diagnosis of the lie of a club by the aid of eyesight and touch alone. Many golfers, however, either are not naturally gifted with this talent of judgment, or if so they have refused to develop it, with the result that they are very prone to make the most egregious of blunders when purchasing new clubs.

Far the best thing for a player is to assimilate in his mind the lie of the club which suits him best. This only requires a certain degree of study of the clubs which have from time to time suited him. Eventually he will know almost instinctively whether a club is suitable to his style or not and if he is gifted with this developed instinct it will save him from a great deal of worry, and moreover tend to retard the growth of the forest of useless, discarded clubs which nearly every ardent golfer in this world is possessed of.

The professional golfer does not exist by the sale of clubs which the golfer uses, but more by the sale of clubs which the purchaser does not use and probably never will use. I know personally that out of every six or seven clubs which come into my possession from time to time not more than one ever finds itself in my bag as a regular occupant.

If the golfer has any doubt as to the lie of a wooden club he is about to purchase there is always one way of testing its suitability, and that is to take a club out of his set and resting the head of his own club and the head of the one on approval on the ground side by side to press hard upon the upper surface of the two heads with a flat object. Then he can judge the lie of the new club by the angle at which the shaft stands from the floor. It is not altogether an absolutely infallible test, but on the whole it is a fairly sure one.

In the old days of the scared club it was not altogether a difficult task to alter the lie of a wooden club as one had merely to sever the shaft from the head and alter the angle of the scare on the head, but it was not always a satisfactory proceeding. On the other hand, it is literally an impossibility to alter the lie of a present-day socket club since the delicate workmanship where the shaft joins the head precludes the possibility of any material alteration of the angle at which the shaft enters the head. Once one has bought a socket club it must remain as regards the lie thereof much the same for the remainder of its days.