NOT so very long ago it was considered on all sides that the task of manufacturing golf-club heads by means of machinery would be an impossible one. This was an entirely erroneous impression. For to-day it is the simplest of simple matters to turn out heads to any required model in the course of a very few minutes.

If an incision for the insertion of the lead or horn has to be cut, a machine is capable of doing it; if it becomes necessary to reduce the shaft, the case is the same; if a club has whipped, still the machine is there to do what is required of it. As a matter of fact, to such a standard of excellence has machinery been brought that by its means a golf-club can almost be produced in its entirety.

This being so, what is the result? That where at one time golf-clubs could only be produced by the dozen or the score, they can now be manufactured in their thousands.

This is beyond question. But is a machine-made club equal to a club produced by hand? From a player's point of view this is an important question, for he is as much interested as the manufacturer. It would be quite easy to argue the case from either side, but it can be safely left to the truest test of all-the test of time. I do not think it possible to discover a satisfactory solution in any other way.

The clubs will work their own salvation, and the problem will gradually solve itself. Provided that the machine-made club is capable of showing an unmistakable superiority to its rival on the field of play, there can only be one result. It will hold undisputed sway. But, on the other hand, if it is no better than the hand-made club, its fight for existence is certain to be a hard one. There is a certain amount of prejudice to be overcome in this matter of a machine-made club, and golfers will not take it up unless they can clearly see it is to their decided advantage to do so. Consequently, as I have already remarked, this question must be threshed out in a practical, not an argumentative, fashion.

My own opinion of the matter is that machinery is fully capable of fulfilling a very useful purpose in the way of club manufacture, provided that it is not required to accomplish too much, and so defeat its own ends. At certain stages in the forming of a golf-club there is a great deal of rough work to be done, and it is perfectly immaterial whether the hand or the machine is called into service.

But after this rough state has been reached the greatest care is required over the finer parts of club-making. Should this care devolve solely upon a piece of machinery, then I fear the result will be failure, for the machine will not be found capable of coping with the exigencies of the situation.

If, on the other hand, the rough work is wholly done by hand, I think something of a similar kind may possibly be experienced. The mechanic having expended considerable time and trouble over this rough work, what more likely than that he may not devote sufficient care and precision in putting the finishing touches to the club upon which he is engaged ? These possibilities have to be faced, and in considering the case it is necessary to approach it from every possible standpoint.

What I would recommend is briefly this: hand the rougher portions of the work over to the machine, and leave a fair amount upon which the mechanic may lavish his care and attention. By combination it appears to me that the best possible work should be secured and the best results produced.

America stands very high when a matter of machinery has to be considered, and I must admit that the clubs I had an opportunity of examining when I was touring there were by far the neatest in finish of any I have seen turned out under such machines as I have referred to.

Competition has become very keen in this department of the game, it will still become keener, and to be successful in his vocation a golf-club maker must necessarily put the best of his work into his manufactures. But it is impossible to turn out high-class work upon second-rate material, and here again another tribute of praise must be given to America.

We have to thank Americans most of all for the aid they have afforded us in the matter of the wood used by the club manufacturer. Our shafts, as far as my experience serves me, have, I believe, invariably been of American growth, but beech and apple were requisitioned for the purpose of manufacturing the heads up to very recent years.

Then we were in a quandary. The game sprang into popularity, the demand for golf-clubs advanced by leaps and bounds, and it became almost an impossibility to secure a sufficient supply of hard wood for the all-important purpose of turning out reliable heads.

The timber merchant was, like the manufacturer, placed in an unenviable position. He had purchased trees which at the first glance were apparently well calculated to answer his purpose. Upon their being cut down, however, the reverse was very frequently found to be the case, and if not absolutely useless, it was discovered that they were far from being of a sufficiently high standard of excellence.

As for the manufacturer, he could not help himself or alter the course of events. He had ordered a quantity of wood to be worked up for his business, and found upon receiving it that it was not suitable for the purpose, and unlikely to act as an advertisement of recommendation of the durability of his goods. It could not be helped, there the wood was; and although, had it been certain that better fortune would attend a second attempt, the inferior wood would not have been used, that certainly could not be assured, and so the best had to be made of a bad position, it being trusted that fortune might supervene and that things would not eventually prove to be so black as they appeared to be.

Under these circumstances the player was made to participate in the general trouble, for occasionally he found that after playing a few holes with his recently purchased club, a leather face was wanted, or worse still, having struck a ball too near the heel, he might find a new head a necessity, as the old head developed an unmistakable tendency to part at the neck.

This in a great measure was the condition of affairs at the time golf spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the American shores. The Americans were not long in discovering that the imported clubs would not successfully withstand the wear and tear to which they were subjected, and naturally they cast around in order to discover a way out of the difficulty in which they were placed.

They were not long in finding the solution, for in their own timber yards they had ample supplies of persimmon, dogwood, and hickory, any of which are far more durable than either beech or apple. Hence other woods were introduced, although it is still a fact that there are players who still pin their faith to heads manufactured from beech. Their assumption is that beech drives farther than any of the harder woods, and if it be simply for the very best players, there is ample wood to supply their requirements, but for the majority of players the harder woods are by far the more preferable.

In my opinion the real difference in the amount of driving power of either of the woods I have mentioned is not worth more than a moment's consideration. As, however, the sympathy of a player has a great effect upon the manner and method of his playing, possibly the best thing for each individual to do in matters of this sort is to fellow to a reasonable extent wherever his fancy may lead him.

My experience has told me that there are players who instruct their club-maker to invariably select for them the softest possible pieces of beech from which their wooden heads shall be manufactured, claiming that the extra yard or so gained in this manner fully compensated for the necessity of having new heads fitted after a use of but a few days.

As a club-maker purely (apart from the playing side of a game), I think there would be reason for rejoicing if an army of golfers should think in this way, for we have ample material on our hands which can be used for no other purpose. As a player, however, I must say that I consider the benefit, if there is one, secured by this method of obtaining long drives very doubtful indeed. The constant exchange of clubs is not to be recommended in the slightest degree; it must necessarily render a player unsteady, and a good honest "top" or two during the playing of a round would mean that far greater ground would be lost than could be regained by the few extra yards on the drive.

But while I heartily agree that all who prefer to use soft wood should certainly do so, it still remains a fact that far superior wood is being used in the manufacture of clubs at the present time than at any previous time - a fact, I believe, rejoiced in by manufacturers and their customers alike.

As a further means of strengthening wooden clubs, a method of bending straight pieces of wood to the angle required for the correct lie of the club, thus bringing the grain straight up the neck and rendering it almost impossible to smash a club at the neck, has been thought out and put into practice. By doing this the necessity of sawing the heads to shape from the plank is done away with, though this is a method that is being used by a great many club-makers, both at home and abroad.

The methods of rendering a club stronger, work for the good of the game, for it is certainly no pleasure for a player who, having purchased a set of new clubs, discovers before he has played half a dozen holes that the only ones then fit for use are those which are formed of iron. Neither is it any pleasure to the maker when his erstwhile satisfied customer returns and seeks information as to the why and wherefore of the clubs having so broken, and wanting to know what can be done about it.

He may succeed in smoothing this little difficulty over, but there is the ever-present fear that it will happen again. In America the case is vastly different, for the golfers there are not so readily satisfied as are their British comrades. They require good wood to be placed in their clubs, so that they shall wear for a very long time almost up to the point of general decay, indeed.

In this country the golfer is content to hope for the best. If he succeeds in getting hold of a good piece of wood, well and good. If not, he hopes better fortune may attend his next attempt. The American player would be surprised at such a failure; and by the aid of the material which is now being constantly imported into this country from the other side of the Atlantic, I trust that before long we shall be justified in anticipating a similar condition of affairs upon this side of the water.

SCIENCE AND PRACTICE