It is an all too common sight to find keen golfers assiduously practising with a club that is built for an entirely different style from their own. Think of the years some people spend before they have definitely settled the style of club to play with; and why? There should be no difficulty about it; but the importance of being properly fitted with your clubs cannot be emphasised too much. I feel I must make my reasons for the advice given above quite clear. First, the professional, however dull you may think him, is bound to know something about the points of a club. You cannot spend years of your life fitting shafts to heads, and handling hundreds of clubs, without acquiring knowledge, and the practical knowledge that counts. You may think this knowledge is also common to many of the crack amateurs, and perhaps it is, but it is astonishing how many of them are hopelessly at sea in judging a club. I had an instance of this some time back. I happened to be in a brother professional's shop soon after a very well-known golfer had paid a visit. My friend drew my attention to a nice-looking iron club, and told me what had happened: the head of the club was badly 'lying off,' and the player had quite failed to realise it, and took some time to grasp what was meant. Now I warrant there are not half a dozen professionals in England that would not have spotted it in a few seconds. Again, the professional can, if he has had any apprenticeship in coaching at all, tell you the style and stamp of club best suited to your methods of play, if you give him a chance. So I hold that from any point of view, if you want advice, the professional is the safest man to go to, and it will mean the soundest economy in the long run. Perhaps I ought to say a word about an idea that sometimes crops up, that the professional is likely to sell you rubbish. That idea is really too stupid. To say nothing about the man's self-respect, it is so ridiculous from a business point of view, so certain not to pay; and the modern professional is neither ignorant of advertisements nor of the value of customers.

And here may I crave the reader's pardon if I introduce, for a brief space, what is not strictly part of the work expected of me. My excuse for doing so is that it affects all professionals and is but vaguely understood by their masters. I am thinking of the growing custom of golfers to buy what they need from the big stores, and from the shops in the town which run golf requisites as a side line. The condition of the professionals' trade has been altered very much of late years; the steady improvement in machinery, and the advent of the rubber-cored ball, has affected the opportunity for business tremendously. A few years ago, repairs were an item that meant something to the professional, and wooden clubs did not stand the punishment from the 'gutty' ball for any length of time. Nowadays, everybody knows that repairs hardly count, and that a driver with ordinary usage will last almost a lifetime. I know well enough that these conditions are in the natural order of things, but I would appeal to all members of the golfing public that what trade there is should be given to the local professional.

Of course I shall be told that the golf professional makes a pretty good thing of it, and we all know that, in the minds of many, fabulous sums are made by the ordinary professional; but in reality the whole reward is outrageously exaggerated. That there are plums in the profession every one admits, and there are still plenty of desirable posts, and those that get them know themselves lucky and are for the most part grateful, but I do think the golfing public have got the whole perspective wrong. What they see is only the foreground of the picture, but there are distances beyond. If the truth must be told, the condition of the rank and file is fast becoming a very serious problem. All those who have had anything to do with the Professional Golfers' Association are painfully aware of it. Under modern commercial methods the golf professional is fast being squeezed out - 'snowed under,' as one very tersely put it, and through no fault of his own. Surely it will be a very great pity, and have far-reaching consequences for the game, when the profession is reduced to that state that it fails to attract the keen working man ! Of course the golf professional can be done without, so we are told, but is it desirable?

Here is a case that came to my notice recently. A new club, inland, advertised for a professional and selected an apprentice, a young keen player, from a seaside course. The announcement of the appointment was made with a flourish of trumpets in the local papers:

'Mr.------ had played round with the committee and had given every satisfaction, and was appointed, etc. etc.' Well, this young fellow had been employed a month at a purely nominal fee, and had so far only been asked to play one round on the course. He certainly had given a few lessons, but not many, and the clubs and balls sold counted for little. What must the point of view of this young golfer be? You can see quite easily what has happened. The committee had made the appointment, and there they finished. The members, if they thought twice about it, surmised that all the other members were engaging the professional all day long, and supporting his shop in the interval; and it was nobody's particular business. The result is that the young fellow would have done far better for himself as a road mender.

I do hope my readers will not consider this an uncalled-for wail. It is a serious problem in the minds of those who have the interest of the profession at heart, and I believe a lot can be done if the needful purchases are given to the club professional. After all, the game of golf to most members is a sport, not to be associated with the business of life, and besides, if I had space, it would be quite easy to prove that buying clubs or balls at the great emporiums is thoroughly bad economics. Their system is a sprat to catch a mackerel, and you don't always get the sprat.