When a ball is lying in a cupped lie, it is better to hit it with the heel of the club and to swing more uprightly. Turf should be taken, and the shot is played with almost a little jerk, caused by getting the wrists well into the stroke just as the club head comes into contact with the ball and the ground. I say the ball and the ground, because in this sort of stroke the club should meet them both simultaneously. This jerk will force the ball a long distance, and is particularly useful against a wind, as with it the ball can be kept fairly low. When the stance is unfavourable, a very important point to remember is not to try to do too much; in fact, not to press. When the ball is lying below the player, the fault which has most to be guarded against is letting the body fall forward. When the ball is lying above the stance, the grip of the club should be shortened and the swing kept rather flat and short. One of my earliest golfing recollections is seeing Lady Margaret Hamilton Russell play a beautiful approach shot of this description at the old chapel hole at Portrush, during one of the rounds of the 1893 open ladies' championship.

With that most objectionable of all lies, the hanging lie, much will depend on the nature of the ground immediately fronting the ball. If the ball has to be raised suddenly, it is nearly always wiser to withstand the temptation to try a wooden club, and to be content with a cleek or an iron. If there is no necessity to make it rise at once, the shot is not nearly so difficult as many people imagine. If the club is allowed to do its work by itself, and the swing kept perfectly natural, everything should go well. In fact, it is best not to think too much of the difficulty of the lie, but to play the shot easily and naturally, letting the club follow well through after the ball is hit. The player may take up a stance rather more behind the ball than usual, that is to say with the left foot approximately in a line with the ball, as the further she gets behind her ball the more quickly she will be able to make it rise. But on no account must she try to force the shot up by dropping the right shoulder. As was said before, this is a fatal fault, and one which invariably leads to direful consequences. The old links at Greenisland, Co. Antrim, used to afford wonderfully good practice for the playing of uprising and hanging lies. The course ran straight up the face of the mountain, zigzagged a little at the highest level to which it ascended, and then came straight down again. The members of the club became very proficient in dealing with every variety of queer lie and stance. The only other links on which I have played, laid out on similar lines, was at a delightful little place in North Wales, where some of the holes were so steep that it was killing work to get up to the greens, and a golfer with a bad head for heights might have been in serious danger of falling off some of the tees. One experiences a great sense of power in playing straight down a steep hill, but the balls frequently do not travel as far as might be expected.

A club which comes next in order to a brassey, and which many people use instead of a cleek, is a spoon, baffy, or toby - it may be called by any of the three names. It is a modified brassey, shorter and stiffer in the shaft, and with the face more laid back. It is a much easier club to play with than a cleek, and with it the balls can be picked up out of quite bad lies. It is a useful club to have in one's bag for occasional shots. With it the ball runs comparatively little, and pulls up much more suddenly than it can be made to do with a cleek. It is also excellent for a push-shot against the wind. I do not think, however, that it really takes the place of a cleek, and I strongly advise the beginner who wants to master the game to learn to use both clubs. The swing for a spoon shot is on the same lines as that for a brassey, but slightly curtailed. The stance may be a little closer to the ball. For the push-shot against the wind the wrists are kept stiff and the swing is taken more round the shoulders.

A cleek is a very difficult club to use well. It is hard to understand exactly why it should be so, but general opinion seems agreed on the point. Curiously enough, many golfers start the game with a cleek, and a cleek only, and get on splendidly, but after they have made some progress with other clubs and are qualified to use the ordinary bagful, they seem to lose their skill with their original favourite. This is, in fact, quite a common experience. A possible reason why cleek play presents such a problem may be that, although there are many thousands of such clubs turned out of the workshops each year, it is more difficult to find a cleek to suit one than any other club. Miss L. Moore, who is a fine cleek player, stated in a recent article that she purchased eight cleeks before she could get one which really suited her. Now, as every one could not afford to be so lavish in making a choice, the probability is that many people have to put up with clubs that they do not quite like. And of all the hopeless tasks to attempt in golf, that of trying to play with a club which, to use a north of Ireland expression, one has 'taken a scunner against,' is the most hopeless.

Miss L. Moore is one of the few leading women golfers who use the overlapping grip for all their shots. She describes her methods of cleek play as follows: 'I always use the overlapping grip and a stance which is almost square. I use this stance, as I find it enables me to keep the ball lower than with an open stance. I find it necessary to grip rather more tightly with the cleek than with other clubs, as when coming into contact with the turf it is apt, unless firmly held, to turn in the hands. Then I swing the cleek more like a driver than an iron, because I find I get better results. In the back swing, which in my own case is rather short, the left hand does practically all the work. But in the down swing I assert the right hand at the moment of impact of club and ball rather more than I do with any other club. The shot I favour most is the half-cleek shot. . . . One of the most fatal errors of cleek play, and an error which is most easily made, is letting the body come through too soon. I am most careful to start the hands coming through first, the body being held back as long as possible. By doing this I get more power into the shot, and much more satisfaction in the way the ball leaves the club.' Miss Moore goes on to say that the faults she finds most easy to commit are: (1) Not keeping the head perfectly stationary in the backward swing of the club, and so pulling the body off the ball; (2) bending the right knee in the up swing, and by this destroying the axis on which the swing is based, and also not keeping enough weight on the left toe at the top of the swing.'

Among other expert players with a cleek may be mentioned Miss Dorothy Campbell, Miss M. E. Stuart, and Miss Margaret Curtis. Miss Cecil Leitch does not use this club at all, but makes a mashie iron serve the same purpose. Neither does she approve of the push cleek shot for women, a shot which is such a favourite among men players of to-day, as she says it requires great power of wrist and forearm. I do not quite agree with her in this point, as the push cleek is a very useful stroke against wind, and strength of wrist can be augmented by practice. Golf undoubtedly increases the size of the wrists just as it increases the size of the hands and feet. Not very long ago an article appeared in Fry's Magazine written by 'An Oxford Blue,' in which an elaborate table was compiled of the difference between the physical measurements of the perfectly formed woman, and of a prominent athletic woman of the day of the same height. In this the wrist measurement of the perfect woman was given as six and a half inches and the wrist measurement of the athletic woman as seven inches. No doubt golf is one of the athletic exercises which produces this result. Indeed, it is a very good plan for those who wish to improve their game, and for those who cannot obtain regular practice on the links, to keep their wrists strong and supple by wrist exercises. They will find that doing so materially helps their play. The wrists have such an important function to fulfil in golf, that it is essential to keep them in good working order. But this is digression, for after all the push cleek is not a shot for a beginner to trouble about; it can be left to a later stage.

For ordinary cleek play the swing is merely a reproduction on a smaller scale of that used with a wooden club. As a cleek is usually shorter than a driver or a brassey, the player must stand somewhat closer to the ball, and rather more forward of it than usual, that is, with the right foot nearer it. The left foot may be withdrawn, leaving the stance rather open. The grip must be firm and even, thumbs round the shaft, and a general feeling of control should be experienced - control, not constraint, as constraint in golf is always bad. A controlled swing means one held within bounds, as it were, a swing in which the player never lets the body, arms, or club take charge of the proceedings, but keeps them all in due subjection and harmony. A constrained swing means an unnatural pose of body and arms by which the player is cramped, and rendered uncomfortable. All authorities on golf lay great stress on the point that the swing for all iron clubs should be comparatively slow. This reduction in the pace of the swing conduces to the general feeling of control, and is very important in connection with cleek play.