"The wind one morning sprang up from sleep, Saying,' Now for a frolic, now for a leap; Now for a madcap galloping chase, I'll make a commotion in every place.'"

The composer of these lines so dear to mischief-loving youth, does not appear to have been a golfer, else the playful pranks of his subject may have been extended for the delectation of an older school. That the wind is a formidable obstructionist goes without saying, and many are the strange freaks it has played upon uninitiated golfers. One of the many stories tells us how a novice, having carefully constructed a high tee, took his brassey and drove his ball into the teeth of a high wind; and the veracious chronicler adds that, after soaring to a considerable height, the ball fell a hundred yards behind the tee!We need not believe the story in its entirety, but we can deduce a useful moral from it.

It may be interesting to note that, apart from the wind's influence upon the stroke, it gives variety to a golf-course. After playing for several successive days on the same links in a dead calm, the advent of a breeze comes almost as a relief with its effect upon the length of- the respective holes. Different clubs and strokes are invoked to meet the altered conditions, hazards that are usually regarded as betes noirs are "carried" with ease, and your short holes that are meant to be within the compass of the iron or mashie, can barely be reached with the driver; "out of bounds" claims many a victim, and shares in ball-manufacturing companies go up with a jump! Be that as it may, the influence of the wind upon the play is a matter for serious consideration, if we wish to maintain the steadiness of our game. Of the three kinds, the rear, head, and cross-winds, the first is the least troublesome, and the last the most disturbing—to both the stroke and one's equanimity.

With the cross-wind, the best working principle to go on is to take very little notice of it, and to lay yourself out for a steady straight shot with just a shade of allowance to the right or left as the case may be. Experience shows that in spite of a preconceived alarm concerning the wind's influence, these fears are quite ungrounded; a straight-driven ball is practically unaffected by it. Yet some players will persuade themselves that now is the time to baffle the wind's baneful opposition by an intelligent policy of counter-action, and they attempt to put into force their somewhat unpractised knowledge of the "pull" and "slice." The wind, however, appears to take a diabolical pleasure in contributing to the allowance thus made and so to indicate that, in this case, desperate ills do not need desperate remedies. There is one useful precaution however: let the tee be a little lower than usual.

Both rear and head-winds require some variation in the swing, tee and stance. From whatever quarter the wind may be blowing, its tendency is to produce unsteadiness. A shortened swing is therefore most desirable to secure a greater control of the club and to give more confidence. With the wind behind, the object is to get its full benefit; a high tee and a stance which places the ball much nearer to the left foot than the right will help to get the additional elevation. But here a word of caution is needed. It seems a fine opportunity to put in extra force to the stroke; some en-thusiasts even endeavour to work out anemo-metrical calculations with intent to get every ounce out of the wind at a particular moment; "pressing" inevitably ensues, and the wind howls derisively over the debacle. Therefore, once more, don't press.

This advice applies equally to the stroke against the wind. All that is needed, in addi-tion to the modified swing, is a low tee and a stance which finds the ball rather near the line of the right foot. In order that no misconception may arise about this point, the reader is referred to the diagram on p. 51; the advice regarding the relative nearness of the ball to either foot is concerned only with its position on the line A B, and not in the sense of proximity to the toe of the boot. It is useful, too, with a head wind, to take an easier swing, and to direct the eye, with the hope of the club co-operating with it, towards the top of the ball. A well-executed stroke will find the ball skimming away a few feet above the ground, and cheating the wind of much of its force. But, over-done, the result will be a disappointing "top." By way of digression it may be added that this fault of "topping" the ball is a common one. It is due to the straightening of the trunk and legs during the up-swing, thus producing an unsteadiness of the head that disturbs the necessary "fixity " of the eye. The prevention lies in the maintenance of the slight relaxation of the knee-joints which is assumed at the beginning of the stroke.