There are, of course, some very fine golfers who do let the club slide, but to do so must, as one would think, add to the difficulty of their task. The chances of losing control over the club must be perceptibly increased by any superfluous movement. Of course the grip of the right hand must not be too vice-like, lest freedom be restricted. The right hand must relax a little at the top of the swing, and we can see a noticeable instance of this in the style of Mr. Hilton, who at the top of his swing holds his club with an extraordinarily delicate grip of the fingers of the right hand. But - and this is the important point - he holds the club firmly with the right forefinger and thumb: he does not let the club flop, if one may so call it, into the fork at the base of the thumb, and it is this flopping which I so strongly deprecate.

Only one or two cardinal points in this matter of grip were insisted on at the beginning of the chapter on driving, lest the main issue should be confused, but perhaps it may be well to say a little more now.

Since it is used by such a very large number of fine players, the overlapping or Vardon grip is certainly worthy of a most respectful trial. It has been described and depicted so often that it is almost superfluous to do so again. A finger grip with both hands; the left thumb lying almost straight down and not round the shaft; the little finger of the right hand riding on the first finger of the left: these are of course its characteristics. When this method of holding the club was first introduced to public notice, the chief merit claimed for it was that the overlapping of the two hands made in effect but one big hand of them, and that the wrists were thus likely to work in perfect unison. Doubtless there is some truth in this, but I incline to think that this particular merit of the grip has been a good deal exaggerated. I believe that it has proved beneficial to golfers for other reasons. First, because of the firmness before mentioned, which reduces to a minimum the danger of the club sliding with too frolicsome a spirit in the right hand. Secondly, because of this same firmness it is more difficult for a player grossly to over-swing himself. The left thumb held straight down the shaft does something to stop the club going far beyond the horizontal at. the top of the swing, and the unrelenting grasp of the right hand does more.

There are, of course, many very fine players who hold their clubs in other ways, and it would be very foolish to say that they are wrong. As to the left hand, presuming the thumb to be coiled round the shaft in the elder fashion, it is of no great moment whether the grip be a finger or a palm grip, so long as the knuckles have a decidedly upward turn. As to the right, it is permissible to be more positive and to plump for a finger grip, because the resultant swing is more likely to be smooth and harmonious. To have the club sunk deep in the palm of the right hand tends to produce a style best described as a heaving one, with too much dropping of the right shoulder, a heavy blow instead of a quick one. It is also, I know, the view of Mr. Hilton, acutest of observers, that it tends to too long and uncontrolled a back swing. I may perhaps add, as one conscious of far too long a back swing, that I began life by holding my club deep in the right palm, and have never been able to overcome this over-swinging. A preacher of this doctrine can always have quoted against him Mr. John Ball, possessor of the most beautiful style in all the world, who appears to hold the club sunk home in a clenched right fist. But, in the first place, Mr. Ball is a wholly exceptional player; and, in the second, he perhaps deceives the superficial observer. The right forefinger straying quite loose gives a clue that ought to put us on our guard, and in truth I fancy that it is the three other fingers of the right hand that do most of the hard work of gripping, and not the fist at all.

The golfing beginner nearly always desires to do one of two things as regards the right hand: either to hold the club with this tremendous grasp of the whole fist, or else, if he holds more with the fingers, to lay the right thumb along and not round the shaft. This last gives him a feeling of guiding the club, and perhaps it may be well for a short while to let him have his own way. I doubt it, however, because the right thumb down is almost sure to cramp him, and cause him to take the club up far too abruptly. It is, generally speaking, inimical to a sweeping stroke.

Many good players hold their iron clubs thus, but as regards driving I can only think of one, Mr. Maxwell. There is always an exception, and apart from that Mr. Maxwell has a style as peculiar as it is effective. It is a stiff swing, with hardly anything of the orthodox wrist movement, and an equal measure of genius and physical strength are probably required to imitate it at all successfully. So let the right thumb, unless hopelessly obdurate, be laid across and not down the shaft.

There is one more point in particular upon which modern players have shown a tendency to differ from the older teachers, and that is as to the distribution of the weight at the top of the swing. We used to be taught that in the up swing the weight was transferred from the left to the right foot, so that when the player was at the top of his swing all his weight was on his right foot. Now even if this doctrine is quite correct, and all the weight is on the right foot at the top of the swing, I think it would be a very dangerous one to teach to a beginner, for in his efforts to attain this shifting of the weight he would almost inevitably sway his head and his whole body to the right, the one thing of all things that he is not to do. Even if he kept his head still - and he probably would not - he would yet throw his body about in a very unseemly way. But in truth and in fact I don't believe the doctrine is true at all, or only in a very modified degree. Look at the photographs of any good player at the top of his swing, or at the players themselves, and it will be seen that he has still got a very perceptible amount of weight on his left foot. The sounder and more modern doctrine appears to be well stated by Braid: 'At the top of the swing, although nearly all the weight will be on the right foot, the player must feel a distinct pressure on the left one, that is to say, it must still be doing a small share in the work of supporting the body. If it is merely touching the turf, it is a sign that the weight has been thrown too far backwards, and the proper balance of the body been disturbed.' If there is a fault in this passage, it is that it is not vehement enough in favour of the left leg. The inclination to sway to the right is so deeply implanted in human nature that it is, I believe, better to tell the beginner to keep the weight throughout fairly evenly distributed between the two feet, and let the transference of weight look after itself. I have heard of one very good player and teacher who declares that when he is driving well, he feels as if he were wearing a hole in the toe of his left sock. If this be an exaggeration, it is both a picturesque and useful one.