It has been a long-accepted doctrine that at the top of the swing the toe of the club should point to the ground, but it is a fact that championships have been won with clubs the toes of which have not pointed to the ground. Braid is an exponent of the art of what I call shutting the club-face. I mean that at the top of the swing the club-face is nearly pointing to the sky. Taylor on the other hand, as I said before, keeps the face open, and whether the club-face is open or shut depends upon the position of the left wrist at the top. To keep the face open one has to get the left wrist directly under the handle of the club. Braid starts his swing with his left hand more over than Taylor. Consequently at the top it has a tendency to keep away from under the handle, and he is quite content to let it do so.

Now let us look at the result of the shut and open methods when either of these players is off the line. Taylor with his open-faced club is on the right of the exact line and Braid on the left. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Taylor can make a swiftly flying ball stop just as easily as Braid can a slowly flying one. Braid can make a ball run, and in this Taylor finds the utmost difficulty. At the moment of impact, just as at the top of the swing, the face of Braid's club is shut, so that he must be hitting the ball nearer to its centre than Taylor does. Taylor with the face open is employing all the loft on his club-face, which must be meeting the ball nearer the bottom, and so he gets more under-spin. Ray and Mitchell have more or less the same method as Taylor of keeping the face of the club open at the top. Vardon and Herd can do either, and open or shut the face according as a particular shot may demand. Vardon, however, prefers it open, while Herd likes to get that bit of hook he is so fond of.

This difference of method in shutting or opening the club-face at the moment of impact has brought about a difference of opinion as to the depth of the club-face. Taylor can get the height he likes with a depth of an inch and a half or perhaps a little more, whereas Braid must have a shallower face. Ray uses a deep-faced driver, and even then has difficulty in keeping the ball down on account of his left wrist being so much under the handle at the top. Mitchell, like Ray, uses deep-faced clubs. He also gets the left wrist under the shaft at the top, but not so much as Ray does, for he has a straight left arm.

It must be admitted that the angle of shaft at the top of the swing is much more important to the man in the street than the angle of the face.

The opening and shutting of the club-face is a very difficult and delicate operation. I say elsewhere, but say again here, that for the average golfer it is best to stand in the old ways and not experiment with the shut face. Nevertheless it can be done, and the ability to do it is a very great asset. The golf at Deal at the time of the Open Championship in June of last year was a great test in this respect. A cross-wind from the land blew on one's back going out and in one's face coming home. Braid or Jim Barnes found it easiest to keep on the fairway going out, as they naturally shut the face and so held the ball up into the wind, but their difficulties from the tee started on the way home. For the home-coming drives Ray or Mitchell was the man, or any one of those players who employ the open face. A lot of people think that a first-class player uses a cross-wind to help him to get distance, but this is quite a mistake. Any first-class player is quite content to find the fairway when playing in a cross-wind. This can be achieved with least difficulty by sacrificing a few yards of length. Thus it is easier to drive the ball into a left-hand wind with a shut club-face than to open the face and allow for a little slice. In just the same way it is easier to keep the ball on the fairway with an open face when the wind is in your face and the natural tendency is to hook. These methods entail, of course, a sacrifice of distance. Every now and then one comes to a fairway which is wide enough to risk a bit of hook or cut as the case may be, but I have never yet seen any one good enough consistently to use the wind : it is too risky a business. Even if it came off eight times in ten-and one must be very clever to accomplish so much -the chances are that a bunker would find one of the two shots that were off the course. One cannot afford this at a long hole, and what would be gained by another ten yards of length from the tee would hardly make up for getting badly into a bunker.

JAMES BRAID Addressing the ball.' The left hand is noticeably far over the shaft and the weight on the right leg.

JAMES BRAID At the beginning of the swing. The left wrist has not vet turned.

JAMES BRAID At the top of the swing. The left wrist is not under the shaft and the club face is shut.

JAMES BRAID. Nearly at the finish of a drive, showing the natural "climb over" of the right hand which begins immediately after.

The holding up of the ball into a left-hand wind is easy to Braid on account of his left hand being so far over. Standing opposite Braid one can see nearly all the back of his left hand, and this all helps the shutting of his club-face. In the case of a player like Ray one can only see two knuckles of his left hand. The only hope he has of driving the ball into the wind lies in shutting the face of the club with the right hand-that is to say, as soon as he starts his up-swing he must turn the club-face towards the ground instead of letting it turn naturally away from it. This extra right hand or wrist movement has also the effect of altering the plane of the swing and makes it more upright. So much for the wind from left to right. Now let us see what Braid does to keep on the fairway in a wind from the right. At St. Andrews he wouldn't alter his natural methods much, for is not the Auld Grey Toon the hooker's paradise? We will go back to Deal, where it was no joke to get off the course no matter on which side The first hole where he would have had to try an alteration in his style would have been the twelfth. Here one had to hit a good straight one; a bit of hook or slice meant a five, whereas a straight one gave one a reasonable chance of a four. We cannot see Braid altering the angle of his club-face with his hands or wristwork during the swing. He does it rather with his body: I will say by restricted pivoting. When he wishes to hold a ball up into a righthand wind he depends upon the amount that he allows the shoulders and hips to turn on the upswing. In this case he will not turn them quite so much, making his up-swing more upright. Thus the club-head will come down with a more upright swing and more directly on the ball, whereas Braid's natural bent is to come on to the ball from inside the line of flight.