In the selection of iron clubs there is great scope for variety of taste. I have already warned the beginner against the use of a very lofted club, for reasons just stated with reference to the spoon. If you play the stroke properly, you should not require much assistance from the club itself in order to loft the ball over any ordinary obstacle. And so your approaching club should be the light iron, which you may employ for any distance, from a hundred and twenty yards down to thirty or forty. In addition to that you will need a cleek or a driving mashie for distances of about one hundred and fifty yards, and a driving iron is useful in negotiating distances which are rather shorter, and yet too long for the light iron, and also for playing all kinds of approach shots in a high wind.

The preference among good players seems at present to be in favor of the driving mashie as against the cleek, partly because the face is shorter, and therefore more accommodating when the ball is lying badly, and partly because the extra breadth of the blade admits more latitude for error. The best driving mash-ies are probably those which are made by Forgan and Auchterlonie, in St. Andrews. They are made without the bulge in the back, which is rather a hindrance than anything else. In fact, it is just as well to avoid all iron clubs with the bulge. They do not drive any farther, and the weight is so much concentrated that the slightest deviation from the center of the club involves a very bad stroke.

In choosing between a mashie and what is generally called a lofter, it is much better to take the former. A good mashie should weigh about as much as your light iron, and should not be excessively laid back. A lofter is made after the fashion of a soup ladle, and cannot possibly be used with great accuracy. The beginner clings to it because he finds that he can overcome obstructions with it, forgetting that with a little practice he can obtain the same results by using a less lofted mashie, where the occasion demands it, and as a general rule the ordinary light iron, which is not such a spectacular club, but infinitely more trustworthy.

Up to the present time there seems to be little sign of any great improvement on the part of American club makers upon the implements that come from Scotland, and for that reason the beginner cannot do better than look for the name of one of the great Scotch club makers. Irons are not like drivers. As far as the shape of the head goes, there is no reason why they should not be turned out by the thousand. The name of a club maker on the head of a driver means nothing at all, because only one out of ten wooden clubs is made of properly seasoned wood, and only one out of twenty is worth the price that is paid for it. But when once a club maker has secured a good pattern for an iron club, he should be able to duplicate it forever. Forgan, Morris and Auchterlonie, to mention only three, can always be trusted in that respect, and Simpson, at Carnoustie, turns out some excellent light irons. For-gan's driving mashie is perhaps the prettiest and most useful club of the kind that is made, and all Auchterlonie's irons are good.

As for wooden clubs, it is best to buy them on the spot if you have a good club maker. The Scotch professionals control the market in that respect, because it is almost impossible for any one to make wooden clubs who does not understand their use. The wholesale manufacture of wooden clubs may meet the enormous demand which comes from all parts of the country, as far as quantity goes, but the quality is distinctly lacking. If you have not a good professional club maker close at hand, you must do what you can with the ready made article; but there is no reason why any golf club should not secure the services of a really good professional maker.