There is still a point or two to be considered before we embark on that most momentous factor of all strokes - the swing. We have our club in an effective grip, and we are, we hope, in harmonious juxtaposition to the ball, to hit or not to hit - that is the first and more affecting question - the rest is to get it as far away in a straight line to the hole as we can. Need the short, wiry man rest envious eyes on the bulky figure of the sixteen-stone giant as he saunters to the tee? Let him watch the diminutive professional, Sandy or Wullie, complacently view the laboured effort of his muscle-laden, six-foot pupil, as the latter gets his ball away with high trajectory to the tune of 130 or 140 yards or less. Then the former takes his place, and, with apparently little exertion, his club performs a clean circular kind of sweep, and the ball flies off in a skimming aerial flight and comes to rest some 50 or 60 yards beyond the other ball. Certainly it was not brute strength that gained the ball this advantage; to put it shortly, it was sheer "knack." This is exactly what we need to aim at in our swing. A good hitter is not necessarily a good driver; a light-weight champion has odds in his favour as against a Hackenschmidt; it is not a case of "those of the largest size."

First, then, the feet being placed in their proper position, flat and securely on the ground, with just a comfortable looseness of the knee joints, the head of the club is brought to the ball so that the latter lies against the middle of the club face - for that is the intended point of impact. Do not allow yourself to be influenced from this rule by the whims of certain individuals, some of whom you may see addressing the ball with the toe of the club, others with the heel, and others again aiming at an imaginary ball inside the real one. Such people are trying to cure one evil by the application of another; some departure from the proper path of the club's journey must be made to bring the middle of the club-face to the ball on the down stroke. For let it be well understood at this point that, normally, as the upward swing is, so is the downward swing. On this account, therefore, no trouble should be spared to control the upward movement of the club with the utmost accuracy.

The beginner should here lay to heart the following maxims, "without which there is nothing," so to speak:

1. Keep your eye on the ball.

2. Swing back slowly.

3. Don't "hit."

4. Follow through with the club.

1. Keep your eye on the ball. - This is the rule of rules in every stroke of the game, and its observance is not so simple as may at first sight appear. Human nature counts for much in golf as in other departments of physical and mental activity. A beginner may be inclined to scoff at the suggestion that he could remove his gaze from the ball before he had struck it, but he may take it as axiomatic that the majority of his "foozles" will be due to the violation of this rule. The mental condition of anxiety or eagerness to follow the course of the ball causes the removal of the eyes before the moment of impact. To correct this, and, moreover, to acquire a habit absolutely essential to successful strokes, the player should make a point of allowing his gaze to remain sufficiently long after the departure of the ball to perceive the spot upon which it has rested. It may serve to prevent any misconception as to the part of the ball to be looked at, to mention that the intended point of impact is, in ordinary circumstances, the proper spot.

But equally important, or even more so, with the rule of keeping the eye on the ball, is the need for keeping the head quite motionless. It is easy to understand that the one does not necessarily involve the other.

2.  "Slow back" is another maxim that it is expensive to disregard. The beginner has a natural impulse to jerk back the club under an erroneous impression that this will produce the necessary driving force. He must realise the fact that such a preliminary will deprive him of the needful control of both his club and general bodily movement.

3.   Again, the temptation is to smite the ball with all the sledge-hammer force at command. Not until the player has realised, by experience, the tremendous difference in effect between a "hit" and a clean, easy sweep of the club-head, will he be convinced of the uselessness of the former. Those who have ever manipulated a sling, such as one is wont to attribute to the skilful David, will recall how the forceful flight of the pebble depends upon the clean circular sweep of the arm, which travels on unchecked after the missile has been released from its imprisoning thong. The ball, in much the same way, must be taken up by the club-head and carried with it, the club-head meanwhile keeping on its course with its own momentum. When, therefore, your kind - hearted observant opponent or caddie tells you that you are " pressing," or you are disappointed that your apparently well-and-truly-hit ball falls, perpendicularly, with a dull, sickening thud, far short of the expected length, you may depend upon it that the sling-like motion has not entered into the stroke, and that you really have "hit" it with much mis-used energy.

4. It is not enough that the club-head should hit the ball; it must sweep it away and follow on straight in the intended direction of the ball as far as possible, with no attempt at checking its course. The hands should come to rest just above the left shoulder, and the right shoulder should follow the arms as a matter of course.

One word more before passing on to the discussion of the path of the club-head from the beginning to the finish of the stroke. Attention has been directed to the necessity of keeping the head motionless; the trunk must also assume, relatively speaking, an immovable attitude. The player should imagine that a long iron rod passes through his backbone into the ground, and upon this axis his body must move harmoniously with the swing of his club, which, for the purpose of the stroke, is a mere extension of the combined forearms and connected with them by a pliant joint - to wit, the partnered wrists.