Sensible golfers, either of experience, or who have devoutly accepted my previous remarks upon caddies' advice, know the folly of forcing themselves to do, or not to do, these things when told they are standing too much in front, not letting- their arms away, not getting their shoulders in, etc. They (the sensible golfers of both sorts) know from experience, or from this book, that direct surgical treatment is of no use, and that, although their caddies' comments are quite just, they are better to keep hammering on, leaving the cure to nature, than to attack the symptoms. If they are very sensible, it is, however, no harm that they should know the causes of these things. We get too much front (see Fig. 1) when the sweep we picture ourselves giving the ball is concave, like a scythe-cut, instead of straight. It is very common to drift into this mental attitude towards the stroke. ( Our club describes a semicircle through the air. Why not another over the ground? Why not, indeed, when there is a feeling of greater power, too? There is nothing- to be said against this so long as all goes well; but sooner or later there will be a wild shot or two, a consequent loss of confidence, exaggeration of the position, and a general breakdown. What the player should do under these circumstances, is to set himself to what ought never to have been abandoned - the sweeping of his club straight in the direction the ball is wanted to go. Let him not think of his feet; they will follow his intention.

When we are not letting our arms away, it is useless to begin pushing them out after the ball. It is rather the time to nip it firmly, and, above all, to remember that the best of our force must not be expended in swinging the club back. At once things will come right, unless one of the results already spoken of reveal that we are too near the ball.

We do not get our shoulders in when it is the idea to follow the ball upwards the instant it is struck. There is nothing more tempting than to do this. We feel that it is our place to lift it; that otherwise it must grub along the ground, which of course it would, were it not for friction, or gravitation, or some such thing which the golfer naturally forgets about, if he ever knew.

It is extraordinary, but nevertheless true, that the most serious, complete, and persistent breakdowns are due to elementary aberrations. Very often a long run of exceptionally steady play will force on us, in spite of previous experience, the conviction that at last we have discovered that will-o'-the-wisp, the secret of driving, and that, by remembering it, we will be steady for ever. We are temporary victims of the illusion which the bad player never shakes off at all, with this difference, - that by certain extraneous expedients he hopes to play, and never does, whilst we, playing well, hope to stereotype the means by which we are doing it. Yesterday we were driving far and sure; to-day we are determined to play with hands and feet placed, and club swung exactly in the same manner. We do not quite get a hold of it; search, and break down; search more, and break down worse. There are few of us wise enough to learn, once and for all, the lessons here taught, viz.: - 1st, that as soon as any point of style is allowed, during the shot, to occupy the mind more than hitting the ball, a miss, more or less complete, will result; 2d (and this is less obvious), that nobody can acquire complete uniformity. If we arc driving well, do not let us trouble ourselves unduly about how it is done Let us rather bear in mind that slight nuances of difference in grip, or stance, or swing, arc of no importance. For instance, I am driving well, and cannot help observing that I have my hands more than usually over the club, just because I have noted the fact, there will be, next time I take my stance, an inclination to alter this. It would be a mistake to balk myself. If we are not thinking of style at all, being too intent upon the match, there will be little variation; but if we arc, let us give way to it, saying to ourselves, 'All right, do what you like about that - I am busy with the main issue.' I do not mean that we can over-swing or get into a constrained position with impunity; but there is no danger of extremes so long as differences of attitude, mental or bodily, towards the ball, are not expected to drive it. It will be within the experience of many, that when an adversary, after playing a few holes, explains that he feels he is going to drive well to-day, because he has hit upon the proper something or other, he ends by being an easy victim. But if he says, 'I feel that it does not matter how I go up to the ball,' we may be sun: that nothing but good play will secure us the victory after a hard-fought battle.

It does seem as if, when a breakdown takes place from attempting to stereotype a successful style, nothing were simpler than to recover. But this is not always, nor, indeed, usually, the case. Of the best players it has often to be said for months that So-and-so is not playing well. Nay, a breakdown may last so long that a first-class player becomes an acknowledged second, and remains so for years or for ever. This is not a common case; but retrogression, more or less complete, of from a day to three months is. It seems as if periods of bad play ought never to last long. The player does not anticipate it. Nothing seems easier than for him to recollect the manner or manners in which he hit when steady. He tries for them, one after the other, and fails.

Although a shot is made in a moment, there are many which remain green in the memory, and of which the player can recall, long after the particular sensation, how his shoulders seemed to get into that one, his feet to grip the ground for another, his hands to have held the club as if made for it for another. A man has always a dozen pet shots in stock, to the sensations of which he tries (and fails) to return when a breakdown comes. Then he says, 'Never mind; perhaps I am thinking too much of how to hit, and too little of hitting.