COMMENT upon the game would not be complete unless there were some few lines devoted to what was at one time a universal club. In saying this, I am referring to the baffy, a club that at one period of the game was in every golfer's hands; then it dropped almost completely out of the running, and then again it came into use, until at the present time it has been revived in a manner sufficient for it to be found on the courses all over the country.

To trace the uses of the baffy would not be so very difficult; but I can scarcely say so much of its advantages. When the game was in its infancy, then the baffy was a club that had to be reckoned with; but as the game grew in favour, and course after course was laid out, it was felt that it did not exactly answer its purpose. There was a something - a very real something - lacking, and the brains of the club manufacturers were racked in order to discover a solution of the difficulty with which they were faced.

The result of their deliberations was the production of the iron clubs, the iron and the mashie. Their worth was at once recognised, and the day of the baffy had passed. That was as far as the majority of the players were concerned; but there were those, as now, who were faithful to the old traditions, and who refused to move abreast of the times. They still held to the club, and at the present time, as I have already remarked, there is a revival in the use of it

The revival is, I think, to be ascribed in a great measure to the fact that the iron or the mashie are not easy clubs with which to play. The baffy, on the other hand, does not call for the exercise of nearly so much dexterity; it is a far easier matter to play a stroke with it, but - and this must not be forgotten - there is no possibility of accomplishing such a brilliant performance with it as with either of the other two clubs, which are its more particular rivals in the race for public favour.

I certainly cannot say that I favour the use of the baffy, for one of the greatest objections, in my opinion, is that it is a virtual impossibility to impart any degree of cut to a ball with the baffy. The reason is that the broad bottom of this club does not lend itself to the purpose, and it prevents the check action being got upon the ball at the instant of its being struck.

It is also very necessary for the ball to be in a good lie if the stroke with the baffy is to be a success. When the ball is not in a favourable position (perhaps it may be cupped), then the iron or the mashie is the club with which the stroke should be played. The keen, thin blade of either will cut through the turf and pick the ball out of its resting-place, but the shot cannot be played with the broader, thicker baffy. That in itself is a sufficient argument against its being used, for there are no compensating features to make up for its partial failures.

A professional golfer is never known to use the baffy. Would he not do so if it were to his advantage? There is no denying the force of that line of reasoning, and the only thing that can be said about the club is that it is an easy matter to learn how to handle it. That, I think, is why it has been afforded another lease of life.

The strokes that can be played with the older club cannot be placed in comparison with those that may be produced with the iron and the mashie, but that the former is not so difficult to handle is, as I have said, quite certain. That is why we still see it on the links; but my advice is, Drop the baffy, and spend a little time in the art of learning how to use the iron and the mashie. The results will well repay the extra time and trouble spent over the task.