CLOSELY allied to the main question of the wooden clubs is the subsidiary one of length of shaft. The extremely long shaft has had many adherents and probably as many opponents. Of course, the obvious argument is that the long shaft gives a larger radius of swing and consequently more power, but that is hardly the whole story.

For example, it always appears a little remarkable to see a man using a long-handled club and gripping that handle away down at the bottom of the leather. It makes one wonder why he ever had such a long shaft put in the club if he could find no use for it. But there are a great many men who thus fail to utilize anything approaching the full length of the shaft they have had put to the head of their club and there is no doubt a certain degree of wisdom in their apparently peculiar methods, as one can undoubtedly swing more freely with a long-handled club. Moreover, such a club is easier to control when held some distance down the leather and it will be found that the majority of first-class players are not at all prone to hold the club at the extreme top of the shaft.

In a sense this method of gripping the club down the shaft is a latter day introduction in connection with the playing of the game, as I can well remember, in my younger years, being instructed to hold the club at the extreme end. In those days the majority followed this method, and it was considered the correct and orthodox thing to do, and there was a time in connection with the playing of the game of golf when players really did pay attention to these little questions of form, good and bad, and the man who altogether departed from the recognized and regular theories was looked upon as a heretic.

Personally I first wandered away from the straight and virtuous pathway, in connection with the orthodox principles of holding a club, through a mere question of chance, and I am sorry to say I have remained a sinner ever since. It happened thus: I was the possessor of just one driving club. One fine day I found myself possessed of only a part of a driving club, as the head decided to part from its moorings, a not unusual incident in the days of the hard gutty ball. As this untoward incident happened while playing a round, I either had to use an iron club from the tee or borrow a weapon from my opponent. The latter was the policy I adopted and my opponent being a boy some years my senior, and, moreover, many sizes larger in physique, I found myself wielding a club which was very different from my own pet weapon, in that it was some inches longer in the shaft and considerably heavier in the head.

To me it appeared a particularly cumbersome club, not to say a little impossible, but I had to manage with it some way or other, and finding that it was impossible to wield it when holding it at the extreme end of the shaft, as I had been accustomed to, I had recourse to holding it short, almost at the lower end of the leather. The result was more than satisfactory, as not only could I keep quite as straight as with my own club, but, moreover, I suddenly blossomed out as a comparatively long driver. It was quite a revelation to me and from that time forth I dismissed my old theories of holding the club at the extreme end of the shaft, with a light and delicate grip, and have ever since taken to gripping the club comparatively low down on the handle, a method which not only enables me to keep more control over the swing, but also enables me to use a much heavier club.

In a recent discussion of this question of the relative merits of long and short clubs the opinion seemed to be that comparatively short clubs were the best for the purposes of accuracy, and there was no doubt a great deal of truth in this contention, if only on account of the fact that the majority of the leading professionals do not use clubs with long shafts. What the leading professional does not know about the clubs best suited to his style of play is hardly worth knowing, and if a man can swing a short club with freedom he is wise in using one. But it is not every man who can swing either freely or truly with these short clubs, and I must acknowledge to be one of them. If I use a short handled club, I find I cannot well take much more than a half swing with it without taking the risk of losing control of the club, probably on account of my shortness of arm and inclina-tion to be muscle bound in the shoulders. It is ! essential that I should use a club with a comparatively heavy balance to force the club back on the backward swing.

The very weight of the club counteracts the comparative stiffness of my shoulder muscles and enables me to swing sufficiently long to get power into the stroke. There is, however, a danger in the using of these long, heavy clubs, and that is the possibility of the club swinging the player off his balance; if one holds the club at the extreme end of the shaft, this danger is considerably accentuated, as I found out some time ago when I lent my driver to a player in order that he might find out whether a long, heavy club suited him better than the short, comparatively light clubs he had been in the habit of using. I felt assured that the long, heavy clubs would suit him better, but the first attempt did not go a long way to prove my contention as correct. At the first drive he only just touched the ball on the top and at the second attempt the club head passed clean over the top of the ball and, moreover, his body swung round and he only just saved himself from sitting down.

This seemed somewhat extraordinary considering that the club he ordinarily used was infinitely lighter and shorter in the shaft than the one he was using. One would naturally have thought that the inclination would have been to delve into the ground with the longer, heavier club. But the truth was he was holding the club at the extreme end of the shaft, thus making the balance of the club particularly heavy, so much so that it sufficed to swing him almost clean off his feet. Naturally he came to the conclusion that such clubs were not for him, but I told him to hold the club lower down on the handle and try again, and the result was sufficiently satisfactory to prompt him to use long, heavy clubs ever since. The balance of clubs differs materially and the player himself has to find out the peculiarities of balance of each individual club and the point on the grip where it is most advisable to hold it.