Having said a good deal about the actual way of putting, I may now deal more briefly with the attitude in which that hitting is to be done. On the main question, which is that of stance, there may almost be said to be two schools of opinion. Some will say that stance is of so little importance, that a player who is hitting the ball well, would hit it just as well if he were completely to change his attitude. Others hold that every man has a stance that is for him the natural and right stance, and that when he goes off his putting the reason is generally to be found in the fact that he has unconsciously deviated from his normal attitude. The former are doubtless right as far as this, that hitting the ball truly is the essential, and that the placing of a foot here or there, some little trick of attitude, copied perhaps from a master putter who is himself completely unconscious of it, will not make a good putter out of a bad one. To this the other school might reply, ' Yes, we admit all that, but if you get out of your regular way of standing you feel uncomfortable, and if you feel uncomfortable you cannot hit the ball. Get back into your natural and proper stance, and you will swing the club in the right way.'

Everybody knows the sensation of those rare red-letter days on the putting-green when the feet seem to plant themselves down spontaneously in the one natural, comfortable attitude, so that their owner without any effort finds himself and the face of the club aiming straight at the hole. Those having much faith believe that on that day the player has got his feet in exactly the right place, and that if he could stereotype that attitude he would never putt very badly again. The thoroughly sceptical, on the other hand, would attribute the sensation entirely to a kind of Christian Science, alleging that the player feels his feet to be rightly placed merely because he feels confident and is hitting the ball confidently; in short, because he is putting well. Personally I rather incline to the more credulous view, in so far as I think that when found the successful putting stance should be made a note of. I do not mean that after a few good putts a man should instantly try to stereotype his stance; that would be falling into the disastrous error which Sir Walter Simpson has called imitating one's own style. The mental note, once made as accurately as possible, should be tucked away in some pigeon-hole of the brain only to be referred to in time of trouble. To try too deliberately to ward off that time of trouble is the surest way to accelerate its inevitable coming.

Now, if every golfer in the world can have his natural and proper stance, one must, considering the variety of stances to be seen upon the links, admit that there is a vast latitude allowable in this respect. That proposition is indeed undeniable, so that any pieces of advice must be of necessity of a very general character. One that I would venture on, though sadly conscious of being personally unable to follow it, is that the putter should stand reasonably well up to his work. He will certainly look more beautiful, though that may not be a very important matter. What is important is that he runs less risk of acquiring a cramped method, since the man who crouches over the ball is likely to find the free movement of his wrists circumscribed by the other outlying portions of his anatomy. For some clubs, at any rate, a fairly upright attitude seems almost essential. I never saw any one putt well with a wooden putter who adopted what may be called the grovelling method. For some mysterious reason this club absolutely insists upon its votaries standing fearlessly up as if they were not ashamed either of themselves or their club, and its aluminium imitator, if not so exacting, will certainly do as little as it can for the grovellers. On the other hand, those who use palpably lofted iron clubs, such as the rare old cleeks of which I spoke before, nearly all hold their club rather low on the shaft and get down close to the ball. Mr. Laidlay I have already quoted, and Lord Winchilsea, Mr. Graham-Murray, and Mr. Stuart Wyatt are other names that occur to me; all these four are very good putters and all adopt a partially grovelling attitude. An exception must therefore be made in their case, but then their clubs are rather exceptional too, so that I need not on their account go back on what I originally said.

As to the distance between the feet, there is only this one thing to be said, that any one who is grievously conscious of letting his body sway may be well advised to try a rather straddling stance. It is by no means a certain remedy - that I can vouch for - but it may temporarily or even permanently alleviate. The distance that the player will stand away from his ball will be to a great extent regulated by the lie of the club which he elects to use, since it is a good general rule to sole the club at its natural angle. The exception which proves this rule is one of the very best of cleek putters, Mr. H. S. Colt, who has the toe of his club so high in the air that the extreme heel appears to be the only portion of the face available for use. Generally it may be said that, in putting as in other strokes, to come too close to the ball is apt to interfere with freedom.

Most people putt with a more or less pronouncedly open stance, though there is no particular reason why a man, if he have a mind to it, should not aim with admirable results in the direction of square leg. Indeed, I am by no means sure that such an exaggeration of the square stance in putting is not less likely to be disastrous than the converse exaggeration of the open stance. To stand with the right foot very far forward is to run some risk of becoming cramped by reason of the right arm and elbow being too firmly embedded in some portion of the body. I say this both from personal experience and from the watching of others, but it is only right to add that Jack White, who is one of the very best putters in existence, often carries the open stance to its extreme limit. The nearer he gets to the ball the more his right foot comes forward, and in certain moods he holes out his short putts with his right foot absolutely behind the ball, so that it almost seems as if he must hit his foot in taking back his club.

When the Badminton volume on golf was first published, some twenty-one years ago, it was stated that the putting position adopted by the professionals almost without exception was that of having the ball almost opposite the right foot. I do not think that such a statement could truthfully be made nowadays; indeed, I should say that the general run of professional and professionally moulded putters, although they have the right foot forward, have the ball very much more nearly opposite to the left heel than the right toe. This fact, if it be a fact, is one of purely historical importance as showing a change in fashion. Putting has not noticeably improved nor is the new attitude in any way superior to the old; the younger generations have by common consent produced no putter better than young Tom Morris, who putted in the old style; possibly indeed none so good.

The feet are the chief consideration in this question of putting attitude, but there is something also to be said about the arms. One thing that is noticeable in the style of a number of fine putters is that they keep the left arm well away from the body. It is sometimes said that this makes it easier to keep the club passing backwards and forwards over the straight line. Of this I am not wholly convinced, and should rather say that the merit of this plan is that it makes it easier to restrain the movement of the arms and putt merely with the wrists. This left arm well away is, at any rate, characteristic of the style of Mr. Hutchinson, who putts with a wonderfully free wrist, and others that occur to me are Mr. Mure Fergusson, one of the very finest and most determined of holers out, Mr. Low and Mr. Fowler. It would appear to be more characteristic of amateurs than of professionals: at least I cannot think of many examples from the professional ranks, except Taylor, as a rule an excellent putter, who has a decided crook of the left elbow.

I feel more inclined to be dogmatic about the right arm and elbow, which should, I think, be as close as is comfortable to the right side. This right arm well tucked in is a feature of the style of one of the best and most graceful of putters, Tom Ball, and I know that it represents one of the cardinal principles of putting, according to the Rev. A. H. Cochran, an admirable wielder of the wooden putter. To keep the right elbow far out from the body has the effect of stiffening the right wrist and checking the swing, and those who indulge in the habit have generally a 'poky' way of hitting at the ball. Moreover, the right arm almost certainly needs some support; otherwise the club is apt to be taken back on an unsteady and wavering line.

There is one thing quite essential to putting which I have only mentioned casually and incidentally, and that is the ball. This I did of malice aforethought, so as not to confuse the issue, but there are always two things, by no means original but incalculably important, which must be said about the ball. You must keep your eye upon it and must hit it hard enough.

As to the first point, it is impossible to be too emphatic. I believe it to be possible, at any rate in driving and possibly also in iron play, to keep the eye too fiercely on the ball. The player who, with a laudable desire to imitate the photographs of Taylor, keeps his eye too conscientiously at the place where the ball used to be, runs some risk of restricting the freedom of his longer strokes, but there is no recorded instance of a similar calamity on the putting-green. There is no necessity for the player to move his head in the very least degree until the ball has come to rest, let us hope, in the bottom of the hole, so that the longer he keeps his eye motionless the better. I may add that he is not only to be on his guard against lifting the eye towards the hole, but also against letting it follow the club as it is taken back. It is a great temptation just to take a glance at the club head to see if it is going back rigidly straight, but it is a temptation to be resisted; there are few things more inimical to true and free hitting.

As to the second point, a most valuable but inordinately long sermon might be preached as to the enormous importance of being up. I will refrain from preaching it, but if the learner desires a more interesting and practical lesson, let him go and look at a tournament in which the very best players, professional or amateur, are engaged. He will soon discover how prevalent is the vice of shortness even in the highest circles, and how many strokes, holes, and matches it costs.

There is really little that can helpfully be said on the subject, save this, that if a man be constantly short he will often be found to be letting go of his putter at the critical moment; wherefore let him see to it that his grip is firm. There is, too, as regards holing out, that admirable piece of advice of Sir Walter Simpson, not to underrate the ' catching power' of the hole. The question is really one of moral qualities, and I am not a moral essayist.