The above remarks contradict, I know, my old views on the subject; but the game has altered a lot in a few years. I used to recommend the policy (which is even now an easy favourite) of striking into the wind and imparting "draw" to the ball. That system could be attempted with safety when the ball was a less lively creation than it is at the present time. It can be tried now on soil more or less heavy, but when the turf accentuates the run, as it does, I suppose, at most times during the spring, summer, and autumn, such a shot in tempestuous circumstances is beset with danger. What I always do is to aim very slightly to the left (just one small degree in the same direction as that in which the wind is blowing), and communicate slice to the ball. The initial velocity of the shot prevents the wind from mastering it. Then when its strength is dying, the spin begins to exert influence, curls the ball into the wind, and brings it down quickly into the middle of the course with little run on it. I am free to confess that the distance to be obtained in this way is not so great as in the case of a pulled stroke, but the policy of the slice is by far the more trustworthy. It is better to lose a few yards and be safe, than to make a stroke of prodigious length into a bad place. In a powerful wind, the slice is easier to regulate than the pull, which sometimes defies perfect adjustment, so exaggerated are the effects of the very slightest error of omission or commission. Therefore, my advice to the golfer who desires to consistently conquer a turbulent air (and, incidentally, his opponent) is to pin his faith to the cut stroke. I believe that in nine cases out of ten, it will pay where the up-to-date ball is concerned.

In playing for the slice, the stance should be open - the ball about opposite to the toes of the left foot, which should be pointing outwards, and the right foot advanced so that the executant finds himself well behind the ball. The feet ought to be about the same distance apart as for the ordinary stroke; the first important matter is to dispose them so that they produce an open stance. Every golfer must discover for himself just what degree of openness he needs, but it will always be something more than the ordinary, because he is going to aim in some measure to the left of the line (that measure depending upon the strength of the wind) and make the ball curl back into the proper path. Now as to the manner of producing this latter effect. I suppose that there is more than one way of doing it. Some people say, "Keep the right shoulder down, and trust to the swing to bring the face of the club across the ball." This is not necessarily sufficient. Personally, I have a method which may - or may not - be different from that employed by the majority of players. I have not so very long satisfied myself thoroughly as to how I secure the slice. Now I am convinced about it. With the weight mostly on the right foot, I take the club up in an outward direction in just the same way as for the cut mashie shot. There is the same slight sway up to the point where the elbows bend, and then as the club comes back behind the head, the latter returns to the proper position. At the top of the swing, in that immeasurably small period when one braces oneself for the effort, I give my body a sharp turn at the hips - a turn of a few inches towards the hole. That action makes my downward swing the corollary of my upward swing where the intentional slice is concerned. That small but emphatic turn of the body the instant before the club starts to descend causes the implement to come down on the same track as that which it occupied when going up. It is sent out into much the same position as that which it occupied at the top of the swing for the cut mashie stroke. Round it comes with quickening speed until it cuts right across the ball. The position of the body is recovered at the moment of impact, and the follow-through is as full and rhythmic, providing that the stroke has been properly played, as for a plain drive, although the club is travelling in a different direction - across the line to the hole, in fact, instead of on it.

I am aware that this explanation refutes the assertion which I have previously made as to the necessity of letting the club always lead, with the body following. The intentional cut is the one shot in which the body should lead at the top of the swing and the arms move next. It is the precedence of body movement that produces the unintentional slice, similarly will it secure the intentional effect. The effort needs an abandonment of most of the essentials of ordinary golf; you do not even aim behind you at the beginning of the downward swing. That turn at the hips sends the club out slightly in front. It must be done neatly and without a jerk, and it must be kept strictly within limits. You do not want to make a jump which will prevent you from obtaining a perfect poise of the body for the moment of impact. The balance must be restored during the second half of the downward swing, if I may so describe that part which comes into being after the arms have gone slightly forward. It must be a small, smooth, and easily recoverable displacement of the body. Then it will, I think, secure the deliberate slice better than any other method. It is, at any rate, the system on which I always execute the shot.

Particularly careful should the player be not to turn his right hand over as he strikes the ball. If you turn the right hand over only a little, the result must almost inevitably be a pull, and as you are already aiming to the left of the line, the ball will swing round to the on-side in a hair-raising manner. I remember on one occasion in America committing an error of this kind. It was in a match against the best ball of two very good golfers at Boston. I recollect it so well because, after a lot of travelling, I did not feel a bit like entering on a hard game. I opened a paper, and almost the first item that caught my eye was a paragraph headed: - " Vardon arrives: Confident of winning and beating record.'