A chapter of considerable length could be written on the different styles of putters that have been put on the market and the various theories of the people who have advanced them. There is no other club about which there is so much difference of opinion among players and about which an individual player changes her opinion so frequently. When a player is putting badly, after she has blamed every conceivable disturbing element for her lack of success, she generally ends by deciding that there is something wrong with her putter. Generally there is some well-meaning friend at hand who suggests that she try some other variety of club, which she straightway does. For a few weeks afterward she will loudly proclaim the merits of her new club, but later she will become dissatisfied again and will try something else. This is a very common course of procedure and one which does not get a player any farther on the road to consistently good putting.

Of course, if a player is convinced that her putter is wrong, the only sensible thing to do is to cast it aside and get another, but the new one should be selected with care and thought so that it will surely meet with the player's requirements, and then it should be cherished long and affectionately. Constant changing of clubs cannot fail to unsettle one's play and to result in confusion of mind and inaccuracy of stroke.

On the whole the putter that has the most good qualities to recommend it is that with an iron head of sufficient weight to feel firm in the hand, the blade rather broad with the face just lofted enough to be visible, and the lie fairly upright. The length of the shaft depends, of course, on the height of the player, but it is well not to have it so long that in playing short puts, when the hands are placed somewhat down the shaft, there is so much of the grip between the hands and the body as to be awkward.

Some players maintain that a good piece of the shaft extending above the hands acts

Mrs. Blake Playing a chip shot as a sort of counter balance and steadies the club when a short put is being played. Others claim that each player should have two putters, one for long puts, and one for short puts. Neither of these theories is altogether correct. It is true that, when the hands are down the shaft of the club, the club feels lighter and more easily controlled, but carrying this to an extreme cannot help resulting in the projecting shaft becoming a nuisance. On the other hand, there is great danger in changing frequently from one club to another when the conditions are very nearly the same. The necessary physical and mental readjustment is apt to give the player a feeling of strangeness that will impair the delicacy of her stroke.

Mrs. W. J. Faith Finish of put.

Some time ago I had the opportunity of observing closely a class of jewelry makers. The novices were surrounded by rows of shiny, new tools, and as they worked they constantly laid down one tool and picked up another. The master of the class, an old German who had been making handmade jewelry for many years, had a few well-worn implements and he would rarely change from one to another unless the character of his work changed. It occurred to me then that the finest workmen do not burden themselves with a superfluity of tools and I believe that the same principle holds good in golf. It is better to have a few clubs, carefully chosen so that they may be made to meet all possible requirements, and to learn to use them expertly than it is to have a great number, each for one specific situation, and to keep constantly shifting from one to another.

In the past decade the character of the club heads has changed somewhat. Both the iron and wooden clubs have shorter and broader heads than was formerly the custom. This change is a marked improvement in club structure. Taking the putter as an example it is easy to see that a club of this class with a narrow blade, even though it has very little loft, strikes the ball below its center and so has the tendency to give the ball back spin which is exceedingly undesirable in putting.

If the blade is narrow and also has a decided slope back it may even cause the ball to hop off the grass. As the object in putting is to keep the ball close to the green and to roll it smoothly into the hole, a narrow-bladed putter is decidedly unreliable. Probably the best way to determine the proper width for a putter is to compare it with a ball. If the width of the blade is the same as the diameter of the ball, or even a trifle more, then the center of the blade will meet the ball at the point farthest from the hole and the ball will be rolled evenly forward.

There has been a certain vogue for wooden or aluminum-headed putters, and many players claim that they find them very steady and that the ball rolls off them more smoothly than it does from the regular iron-headed variety. Whether or not these qualities exist is a question open to discussion, but there is no doubt that there is a very decided objection to all broad-soled putters. The objection exists in the fact that the wide sole immediately penalizes the slightest error at the moment of contact of ball and club, and in beginning of the follow-through. If, for example, a slightly faulty stroke is made with an iron putter and the club is too much on the rise at the moment of contact with the ball, no serious trouble, in all probability, will result, but, if a wooden putter is being used, in such a situation the back edge of the sole will drag the ground. So, also, after the moment at which the ball is hit, if the club is on an upward sweep, the breadth of sole will cause the club to be grounded. In other words the broad-soled putter makes it necessary for the sole of the club to be kept parallel with the ground before and after the ball is struck; this, of course, should be done, but the broad-soled club leaves much less room for error than the iron one.