By Bernard Darwin

Preliminary Note

A numbeb of educational works have been written on golf, many of them by highly distinguished persons. On certain points these authorities have differed considerably, and I have thought that it might be interesting to bring together their various views for purposes of comparison, and occasionally, after summing up, to pronounce, for what it is worth, a diffident verdict upon their differences. These controversial points are, however, apt to be abstruse, and, though I hope they may be of some interest to mature golfers, would probably confuse the mind of the quite elementary student. Therefore I have tried as far as possible first to give the elementary theory of a particular stroke more or less dogmatically, and afterwards to discuss the more complicated points, on which there is a diversity of opinion. This can be done much more easily with some strokes than with others. The right and wrong ways of putting are, for instance, so much matters of opinion that it is almost impossible to separate elementary dogmas from violently controversial points. I am therefore conscious that I have not always been able to stick as closely as I could wish to the scheme I marked out for myself. I think it is best, however, to give this short explanation of the plan on which I worked as far as I could, in order that the reader, if he does not find a particular point in one place, may curb his indignation, and hope to find it in another.