THE MASHIE SHOT WITH CUT. Finish for a stroke of medium length.

Finish for a longer shot (say, 30 to 70 yards).

Personally, I have come to like the club very well for approaching. It was with a niblick that I played the best shot of my life. The occasion was a tournament at Northwood a few years ago. At the eighteenth hole, I sliced my second shot.

The ball lay within about four feet of the club house, which was now between me and the hole. As you can imagine, it was a pretty big stymie, and for a while I hardly knew how to tackle it except by playing out to the left. At last I decided to try and carry the building, and reach the green. The people on the veranda looked rather surprised when I asked them to stand aside in case I should strike them. The veranda was protected by wire netting, but I knew that I should have to hit the ball hard to make it rise almost straight into the air until it reached the top of the club-house, and put enough spin on it to cause it to carry forward thirty yards to the green. It is not difficult to get a ball to rise almost perpendicularly, but to make it start to move forward when it is thirty or forty feet from the ground is a different matter, and I was afraid that, if the shot failed, I might send the ball through the netting and hit somebody. So, smilingly, they moved aside. I used a niblick for the shot. The ball flew up, moving forward no more than a yard until it was about thirty feet in the air; then it went on, carried the club-house, and stopped a yard from the hole. And then I missed the putt. That was a wretched finish; but the shot from directly behind the building was the best I ever played, and I am frankly and boyishly proud of it. Occasions when the running-up approach offers the simplest means of reaching the vicinity of the hole are becoming more and more numerous. There are not so many cross-bunkers as there used to be, and, in their absence, it is sometimes safest to keep such a lively article as the rubber-cored ball close to the ground all the way. For this stroke it is desirable to stand more forward than for the ordinary mashie shot; the hands should be in front of the ball. This will tend to keep the ball low. If the shot is being played with an iron or mashie so as to produce a slight loft at the start in order to skim over rough ground and finish with a run, it is necessary to impart a pull to the ball. The pull will make it run; without that influence, the ball might collide with a wormcast, or some other obstacle, and stop almost immediately. With the pull, it will go forward in spite of its contact with such an unnecessary nuisance. The thing is easily done. It is a matter of striking the back of the ball quite cleanly, and turning the right hand over at the moment of impact. That turning over of the right hand (the action of locking a door with a key, as it has been aptly described by Mr J. L. Law) is the essence of the pull. It is important, however, not to make the action too emphatic. Perhaps it would be better to suggest a half-turn of the key in the lock in order to produce the right effect on the golf course. The distance which you take the club back must be governed, as in other cases, by the length of shot required, but it is worthy of remembrance that you can get a long way with a short back-swing by playing in the manner indicated. My own running-up mashie is my mongrel club. It is nearly straight-faced, and it is wonderfully useful for odd jobs. It gets me out of long grass; it keeps the ball low against the wind; it runs me up; it seems to be always coming in handy when no thoroughbred would meet the situation. A good mongrel club is a treasure.

THE RUNNING-UP SHOT.

Stance. The hands are in front of the ball, which is opposite the right heel.

Top of the swing. As will be seen by a glance at the pole at the back, the body has moved considerably forward towards the hole from the stance. The club is going to describe practically a semi-circle.

THE RUNNING-UP SHOT.

Finish. The right hand has turned half over, as will be seen by comparing this picture with that of the finish for the ordinary mashie shot. The body is almost erect, with the head leaning towards where the ball has been, but this position must not be assumed until the ball has been struck.

Well, we have approached the hole in a variety of ways. It is high time that we were on the green.