Of the Driving-cleek there are many forms. The plain driving-cleek is just an ordinary clock, with less loft than usual on the face and a longer shaft, the spring of it being suited to the weight of the head. Various patent driving-clocks are to be obtained - one is a patent of my own. My patent was, I believe, the first to come out. The general principle is the weighting of the blade of the clock behind the point of impact with the ball, and all driving-cleeks are made more or loss on this principle or a modification of it. There is no doubt that these clocks enable a longer ball to be driven than can be done with an ordinary cleek; but of course the best club for driving is a driver. When, however, a ball is lying badly, and it is not possible to pick it up with a wooden club, a driving-cleek is of use, as it will get away a longer stroke than is possible with an ordinary cleek.

Driving-mashies may be said to be modifications of driving-cleeks; the mashie-shaped head is retained, but made with more or loss pitch - frequently with almost none - to suit the tastes of various players. They are very useful clubs on heavy greens, as the small head is well adapted for making the best of a bad-lying ball.

Putting-decks and irons and metal putters are all intended to be used in place of wooden putters. Some players maintain that the ball can be made to run straighter and truer off iron than off wood, but this is, I think, a matter of taste as much as anything else.

The supposed distinction between putting-cleeks and irons and metal putters is that the cleeks usually have some loft on the face, while the latter are deeper in the face and have no loft at all. This want of loft is, in my opinion, rather a disadvantage than otherwise, because, unless there is loft, the club is apt, under certain conditions, to make the ball jump, and it need hardly be said that this is fatal to good putting. Putting being one of the most important parts of the game, if not the most important, a great deal of attention has been directed to perfecting this club, and several makers have taken out patents for improvements on it. Among others, I have endeavoured to improve the ordinary putter, and hold a patent for a putting-cleek of my own invention. This cleek has a bend in the neck just above the blade; it is shown in the group of clubs, Fig. '3. The idea occurred during practice for a tournament, when I happened to be playing with a cleek that had a shaft slightly bent over. I observed that in putting with this cleek the balls seemed to run with more accuracy than usual, and, following up the idea, the patent putter was produced. It is difficult to explain the principle of this club. With an ordinary putter the stroke is of the nature of a push, while with this patent it is more a pull than a push. It has also the advantage of allowing the player to see the blade of the cleek while addressing the ball, as the line of the shaft is in front of the blade. Although I run the risk of being accused of partiality for my own patents, I cannot refrain from saying that I find 1 can putt much better with this club than with any other I have hitherto tried, and I have received testimonials in its favour from many of the best players of the day. both amateur and professional.

The Driving-putter is really a driver with a short, stiff shaft and a deep face, more upright than an ordinary driver and flatter than an ordinary putter, and it is used for playing long putts and also for driving against a head wind; the shortness and stiffness of the shaft ensure accuracy, and less tendency to pull or heel the ball.

Driving-irons have less loft than usual, and are used for strokes shorter in distance than a clock shot, and yet beyond the reach of an ordinary iron.

Lofting-irons have more loft, as their name implies, and are used for wrist shots and short approaches, lofts over hazards and similar strokes. The chief object of these irons is to pitch the ball on to the green in such a way as to make it run as short a distance as possible alter alighting. It must be borne in mind that the more loft there is on an iron the more difficult is the club to handle, and any errors in judgment or in striking the ball are the more severely punished. The reason for this is explained hereafter in the chapter relating to approaching.

Having given a general explanation of the various clubs most frequently used, I will now endeavour to give some directions for the guidance of the player in selecting a suitable set from the stock which will be open to him for inspection when he makes his choice.

The materials principally used in the construction of clubs are: for the heads of wooden clubs, beech and apple; for the heads of metal clubs, malleable iron and gun-metal; and for shafts, hickory white and brown, ash, lancewood, orangewood, bloomahoo, greenheart, purpleheart, and lemon wood. It must not be supposed that the above is by any means an exhaustive catalogue, because as a matter of fact many other varieties of wood have been tried, and are daily being tried.

Wooden clubs are most extensively made with beech heads and hickory shafts. Apple heads are also made, but the supply of that wood is so limited that it can scarcely be got, and it docs not make such a good driving club as beech.

Beginners, especially those who are hard hitters, until they get into the proper way of striking the ball, find it difficult to get a club that will last them any length of time. An ordinary club-head will not resist the strain of a hard topped ball, or a ball hit off the neck: and besides the annoyance and vexation, not to speak of the expense of such breakages, players frequently find great difficulty in getting a club exactly the same as the broken one. Clubs are like individuals - no two are alike, however similar in appearance they may be, - and if you break your favourite club, you have, so to speak, to serve an apprenticeship to another before you can use it as well as its predecessor. Complaints about the frailty of all wooden clubs having been frequently made to me, I endeavoured to manufacture a club-head which, while able to stand more strain than a beech head, would yet not be inferior in driving power, and for some time past I have been making club-heads of wood compressed and otherwise treated to make it more enduring. In this club the wood forming the head is bent so that the grain runs down the neck and along the head, making it practically unbreakable; and, in fact, I guarantee that with ordinary tear and wear such heads arc indestructible.