On such occasions the player should hit the ball well within his physical powers; he has proved to himself that it is not his day for his usual "all out" methods, so he should wisely go into his shell and not take undue risks. When I was in America in 1911 I was never really confident about my wooden club play from the tee, and in consequence always played well within myself. Immediately I attempted to "loose out" at a ball, I seldom failed to swing the ball round off the course on the left hand side. I was being continually outdriven by the players I had to meet, and by many of them would always be outdriven, but I sternly resisted the temptation to try and keep pace with them from the tee, as I well knew what the result would have been had I brought the extra physical pressure to bear upon the shot. I would have been in the rough on the left hand side of the course from beginning to end of the round. I was in it a good deal as it was, a fact which probably-some of the critics may have noticed, but I would have been in it a good deal more, if I had not exercised restraint. [ When in England in 1904, Mr. Travis expressed the opinion that British golfers were suffering from an "orgie of hard hitting" and openly suggested that they sacrifice everything to the fetish of long driving. When in America in 1911, somewhat remarkable to say, the same idea struck me with regard to many of your young players. They did not seem to value the length of a drive in the light of the effect it had on the subsequent play to the hole, but more by the number of yards their ball happened to be in front of the opposition. This view of the situation merely represents the natural inclination of youth; the young player who can stand being consistently outdriven and restrain his inclinations to "have a go" is a little difficult to find. The art of driving from the tee lies in having the necessary knowledge of your own game to be able to decide the most advantageous method of physical procedure on any particular day. There are days when one can afford to go full steam ahead without any great risk of disaster; on the other hand, there are occasions when any attempt to hit hard will surely end in disaster and the player should learn to diagnose his own case.

Long driving is due to one thing and one thing only, and that is the application of strength. Some players are abnormally gifted in this question of physical power, and in consequence cannot help but hit a long ball; on the other hand, there are players who cannot be said to be in any way remarkably gifted by nature, who hit the ball a very long way by the scientific application of their strength. It will be found, however, that the majority of consistently long drivers who, year in and year out, maintain a greater than average degree of distance with their wooden clubs are strong men who are endowed with powerful and supple wrists.

To my mind the power of long driving is a gift. I do not mean to imply by this that a player cannot, in a greater or lesser degree, develop his powers in wooden club play, but I have never come across a player who, after being an average driver for many years, has suddenly blossomed out to become a Hercules from the tee. In the cases I have known where a man has suddenly developed length of wooden club play, it has invariably been due to his suddenly realizing that he had been in the habit of using clubs with which he was not able to do himself full justice. It almost stands to reason that a man can hit a ball farther with a long, heavy club than with a short, light one, and it is significant that our two longest drivers in England both use comparatively long clubs with very heavy heads, the species of clubs which the average human being would find more than difficulty in wielding.

Personally, I am a believer in the use of heavy wooden clubs, as, provided they are within the control of the player's physical powers, they are to my mind much easier to play with than light clubs. The natural assumption would be that a heavy club is infinitely more tiring than a light one, but that is not my experience, as I find that I use more physical effort in my attempts with a light club with which I have prepared to hit home than I am apt to when wielding a comparatively heavy one. Moreover, it is possible to take it "easy" with a heavy club and at the same time maintain the rhythm of the swing, while with a light club it is extremely difficult to hit lightly, and at the same time not "snap" the shot.

One well known way to obtain length is to play for what is termed the "draw"; that is, to play the shot out to the right and in the flight cause it to come swinging round to the left. There is not a shadow of doubt but that one can obtain added length by this procedure, as there is comparatively little underspin imparted to the ball, which means that the ball will roll a long way after landing. At Sandwich in 1904 Mr. Travis was playing this "draw" shot with great accuracy and effect. He did not always play his tee shots in this manner, but just when necessity called, and the way he brought these shots off was evidence of the wonderful control he had over his wooden club.

Personally, when wishing to get my tee shot away a little farther than I am in the habit of doing I always employ this method of playing for the "draw," as it is the only way I can hit a really long ball. If one is in form the carrying out of this shot is not a difficult matter, but if one is out of form it is a somewhat dangerous procedure.

Different players have different methods of playing for a draw. Personally, I always A good type of the hard fighting American Amateur stand well away from the ball, as I find that if the ball is at all close to the body, one is apt to fall forward on account of the necessarily exaggerated body movement. It is naturally necessary to face well out to the right, as the ball has to come round from that direction if it is to finish in the center of the course, but it is not necessary to turn the face of the club "in"; in fact, this is a fatal error, which many golfers are guilty of when trying to "pull" a ball.

Charles Evans, Jr.

The club face should be facing in the direction in which you are driving, and not in the direction in which the ball is intended to finish.

The flight of the ball is controlled by the actions of the player and everything depends upon the turning over of the elbow joint. Many people will say that one turns the wrist over, but the wrist, unfortunately, cannot turn over; it is a joint which can only bend. It is the elbow joint which turns and the wrist will naturally come round at the same time. The accuracy of the shot when playing for a draw depends upon the correct turn of the elbow joint of the right arm, but aside and apart from technicalities, the secret of playing the "draw" shot successfully lies with the player himself, in that before commencing operations, he must make up his mind exactly what he wants to do, and then take care that he is standing in the right position and facing the right way, the latter not in any way a simple task. The shot must be played confidently and boldly, and with a determined and set object. The player who attempts to play this shot in a half-hearted manner is lost.

When playing in American I have noticed that a great number of young American players seemed to avoid using their wooden clubs when playing through the green and up to the hole and were inclined to use iron weapons on any occasion when there seemed the slightest risk of trouble. I am not going to say that this procedure is in any way wrong or inadvisable, as a player should invariably take the club with which he feels he has the most confidence, but at the same time it was impressed upon my mind that they evidenced a certain lack of confidence in their wooden clubs and were a little afraid to use them when the lie from which they had to play was not of the very best. I think this avoidance of wooden clubs is a mistake, as with practice a first-class player can "hoick" a ball out of an indifferent lie with a small-headed wooden club more easily than he can with a straight-faced iron club. At least that is my experience, and it is noticeable that the majority of our leading professionals show a strong predilection for their wooden clubs, in cases where it is in any way possible to use them, and out of rough grass invariably use a spoon or a brassy.

The advantage of being able to use a wooden club when playing up to the hole lies in the fact that one can utilize the wind so much better than with a straight-faced iron club, and if a player has in any way mastered the wooden club which he utilizes for this purpose, he can more or less control the trajectory of the flight of the ball. Of course American players may use their wooden clubs more than I am aware; of, but the only player I came across who played his long approach shots up to the hole with a wooden club was Mr. E. M. Byers, and he apparently was quite a master of the shot. During recent years nearly all the leading British professionals have taken to short brassies to play their long approach shots, and seldom play a really full shot with an iron club, as they find that they control the wooden club with more surety.

I do not altogether advocate the free use of wooden clubs simply because I am a disciple of the cult myself, having all my life used a wooden club in preference to an iron club for the simple reason that I find them so much easier to swing and control. There is the further reason that nowadays all the crack players seem to be of much the same way of thinking, and what the first-class professional does not know with regard to the game which suits him best is not worth knowing.

Playing through the green struck me as the weakest spot in the armor of American amateurs, and I noticed that they took iron clubs in places where I should have had no hesitation in taking a driver. This lack of confidence was, I feel assured, almost entirely due to an inclination to be afraid of playing their wooden clubs, a fear which can be so easily overcome by practice and experience. It is wonderful what one can do with a lofted wooden club which is supplied with a good, firm shaft; it will take a ball out of the most impossible looking lie, always provided that there is no marked obstruction behind the ball, in which case an iron club is perhaps the safer instrument to use. When playing with a wooden club through the green, there is always one great essential and that is that there should not be as free a body action as in the case of the tee shot, the player must stand firm on his feet and hit with his wrists.

In conclusion I do not think that the majority of players pay enough attention to the value of good wooden club play. Time was when it was possible to "slouch" along from the tee and keep out of trouble, trusting to an accurate short game, but nowadays one has to be up and doing from the very start, as the men who are powerful with their wooden clubs are not so desperately inaccurate as they were wont to be.