So much for getting the ball into the air. There remains the task, which at first sight would appear to be a great deal easier, of making it run along the ground. I am inclined to think it is in fact easier, but that does not seem to be the opinion of the great bulk of work-a-day golfers. There is no shot at the prospect of which they so palpably flinch as the run-up. They possess very often just two methods of hitting the ball, the full swing and the pitching shot. Anything outside these two strokes they deem it apparently not only impossible to play, but in the highest degree presumptuous to attempt. Why, it is difficult to say, but the fact remains. Let there be a hurricane blowing, let there be a steep bank in front of a plateau green, let there be no bunkers within a hundred miles, and still they will insist on cocking the ball up into the air with a lofted club, so that it will either be blown to perdition by the wind, or, if it alight on the plateau, will never succeed in staying there.

This is rather violent language, and it may be taken as showing that I 'believe in running up,' or 'do not believe in pitching.' I hope not, because, if so, then I am very effectually writing myself down an ass. No sensible person can be a thick-and-thin adherent of either stroke, because there must be some occasions when it is obviously right to run up, and others when it is an equally obvious duty to pitch.

There are, however, occasions in plenty when there is no very definite right or wrong; when Taylor, or Vardon, or Mr. Hilton, for example, would probably pitch the ball, while Braid or Andrew Kirkaldy or Mr. Low would elect to run it. As to these dubious cases, it is likely enough that if one has the pitching gifts of a Taylor, pitching is the most profitable, because, on the whole, less fearful things can happen to the ball in the air than on the ground. But I very much doubt whether the average golfer will ever learn to pitch well enough to play an essentially pitching game. I think he is much more likely to attain to a reasonable measure of steadiness in playing the running shot, if only because the run-up shot possesses this negative virtue - that it is harder to make a complete and hopeless foozle of it. At any rate, it is every golfer's duty to learn to play the run-up merely for those occasions when it will clearly be the right stroke for him to play. These occasions are, moreover, becoming more and more frequent, since the tendency of modern golfing architecture is to do away with cross bunkers in front of the hole, and to perch many of the holes upon plateau greens.

RUNNING UP WITH THE IRON.

[To face p. 101.

The stroke can be played with a variety of clubs, but is most often perhaps played with the club having the odious name of 'jigger,' or with the approaching cleek, which is much the same thing with a pleasanter name and a hump on its back. Without launching into reckless extravagance in the club-maker's shop, the essentials of the stroke can be comfortably acquired with the iron. In its very shortest form it is little more than a prolonged putt, in most instances it is a great deal more, but in any case it is no bad thing for the learner to keep the action of putting in his mind's eye. It is another case in which I venture to think that a mental attitude may do something towards the hitting of a ball. If the player has putting in his mind he will probably do one or two of the things that he ought to do: he will stand fairly close to his ball and well over it, and he will keep his club moving close to the ground. If he does those two things it is something gained, but it is not quite enough. He must - and this is important - stand with his weight forward on the left foot, the ball being fairly far back towards his right foot, and this attitude will naturally bring the hands well forward, and somewhat in front of the head of the club. Further - and this rather less emphatically - the right hand should be held well over the club. This will help not only in keeping the ball down, but also in getting a horizontal swing of the club, and that is what is wanted - a rather short, low, flat swing of the club, well round the legs. The right wrist should turn over just after the ball is hit; indeed, it should be getting ready to turn over just before the ball is hit. If the club is taken back in the right way, this turn over of the wrist will come in a measure naturally; but it may be encouraged a little artificially, because it is of such great value in approaching any kind of plateau. The ball that is struck without the wrist turning will falter and fade away at the foot of the hill, but one hit with the action that has been well described as that of locking a door, is imbued thereby with additional vitality, and will go on without so much as a stagger, clambering up the hill with the utmost gallantry.

About the whole stroke there is to be an air of comparative stiffness and rigidity. The wrists must be kept particularly firm and taut in taking back the club, and the whole body is to be rigidly under control. Perhaps, as the club comes through, the body may go forward a little, but this is not to be too much encouraged, for the hands are naturally well forward and the ball rather far back, and any ill-timed body movement will infallibly be disastrous.

FINISH OF RUN-UP SHOT.

[To face p. 102.

Just because of the great risk of lurching forward with the body the player should, at first at any rate, refrain from trying to run the ball up from a long distance. Let him play the shot well within the compass of his powers, and I solemnly declare it to be an easy shot, easier at any rate than a pitch. But to try to hit the ball really far and hard with so curtailed a movement of the club is to be in great danger of moving that body about which I talk so everlastingly. Would that we had only astral bodies: we should be far better golfers.

There is one more stroke, or rather one group of strokes, that should perhaps be mentioned. It consists of those little shots, chips or runs-up as the case may be, which have to be played when the ball is within quite a short distance of the edge of the putting-green. In a sense they are only abbreviated versions of the longer pitching and running shots, but I am tempted to make one remark about them. Most bad players play these shots particularly villainously, and they seem to me to have less idea than usual of how to control the club. It runs away with them altogether, so that they lack both sureness and delicacy of touch, the two things most requisite. My recipe, for what it is worth, is the adoption of a rather grovelling attitude, and the holding of the club quite low down on the shaft. It is of the utmost importance that these little shots should be played crisply and decidedly, and a reasonably short grip of the club makes it much easier to hit the ball fairly hard. When the ball can run the whole way and there is no pitching necessary, it can be stroked gently up to the hole after the manner of a putt; but when it is necessary to pitch the ball ever so little, crispness of hitting is essential, and anything that makes it easier to hit the ball hard is worth considering. I also incline to think that many people put the ball too far back in playing their little chips, and would do better if they had the ball well forward, and played rather off the left leg. It seems easier thus to get the ball into the air by the natural loft on the face of the club and without using any artificial means. That, however, is a suggestion founded on purely personal experience.