In an admirable paper on 'How to learn 'in The New Book of Golf, Mr. Croome went almost further than Sir Walter. He recommended, chiefly for beginners, but also I think for more advanced practises, what he called the 'Fundamental Shot.' His whole description of it should be read, but I may quote this succinct and comprehensive one: 'It might be called a half-shot, seeing that it is played almost entirely with the arms; body turn hardly enters into it at all. It constitutes the whole of a short pitch-and-run approach, and forms the essential beginning of every longer stroke.' I offer this prescription to the out-of-form practiser as that of a good golfer with the gift for clear thinking and subtle analysis. Personally I can only say that I have on occasions tried it, and found it effective with iron clubs. With my wooden clubs it was less successful. Probably I was too deeply sunk in old and vicious courses. With those less hardened I quite believe it may prove a very good plan.

There is one more point as to practising with wooden clubs-perhaps I should have mentioned it before-and that is the question of tees. If we are practising with a driver, with which we are accustomed to a teed ball, we had better take a tee now, though not, as we may be tempted to do, too high a one. With a brassy or spoon, which we habitually use through the green, to take a tee is obviously foolish. We may indeed do so for a shot or two with the brassy just to put a little courage into us, in the same way as we allowed ourselves at first an open stretch of country. We must not go on with it, however. It is just the fact of the close-lying ball that has frightened us off our shot as likely as not. How often, when the ball is lying close through the green, do we dig with our right shoulders and lift up our whole bodies, in the feverish desire to get the ball into the air, even though on the same day we may be hitting quite well from the tee. No tees, then, for our brassy practice, and even with a play-club it is sometimes a good plan to 'tee the ball in a hole 'for a while. The very fact of making the shot as difficult as possible, and concentrating our attention on it, forces us to go carefully. Certainly I have once or twice found the lost art of timing restored this way as if by a miracle. It is a remedy that does not always act ; but when it does the cure is a comparatively lasting one.

With iron clubs we should not indulge ourselves at all in open country and the teed ball, and we had better, if we can, always play up to a hole. This makes our practice as like as possible to the real thing, and we ought not to have any illusions as to our improvement. Straightness and accuracy are the objects of iron play. Mere clean hitting, though of the greatest help towards attaining them, will not do in itself. There is the flag, and there are the balls that we have aimed at it. If the two are not reasonably near together, we cannot pretend to ourselves that the strokes were satisfactory.

According to our weakness we should choose the hole at which to aim. If our pitching is at fault we must have something to pitch over. Whether we are half-topping our pitches or taking them too heavy ('grumphing 'them, to use Mr. Guy Ellis's onomatopaeic verb), a bunker in front of us is equally terrifying. And we must be terrified in order to prove that we have conquered terror. Whichever of these two is our fault, taking the eye off the ball has most likely something to do with it. We want that bunker to tempt us to lift the eye. It may be, on the other hand, that we are not in the least afraid of trouble directly in front of us, but are persistently pulling or pushing out our pitches. If we are pulling, of course we want a bunker on the left of the hole to frighten us, but we had much better have one on the right as well. If we do not, the mere fact there is somewhere a locus poenitentiae may lull us into false security. In short, we want to reproduce faithfully and mercilessly the circumstances under which we shall in our next game have to play a real pitch. The one place where we need not perhaps insist upon trouble is behind the green ; or if there is a hazard there, do not let us be downcast if we get into it. To be up is always a virtue, and more so than ever when we are nervous or depressed.

What I have said about pitching applies pretty generally to practice of other shots with iron clubs.

Of course we do not want a bunker in front of us if we are playing running-up shots, and it would be almost equally futile to practise that shot over soft and heavy ground. But whatever the shot, we shall be all the better for side-hazards and for playing up to a green. Also, if there is a wind we should practise both with and against it, with it on our back and on our face. In order to do this we shall have to play at several different holes, another argument in favour of peripatetic rather than stationary practice. There is a natural inclination to practise too much with the wind at our backs. It is amazing how the lightest breeze behind us makes us braver, smoothes out the tangles in our swing, and minimises the extent of a hook or a slice. Do not let us pamper ourselves. In the same way, when we are practising, it is of little use to truckle to a fault by making allowance for it. In a match where our main object is to win the hole, it is otherwise. It is then foolish to be too proud. We must make the best of a bad job. If we are slicing, and there is a wind on our left and out of bounds on our right, it may then be true wisdom to aim towards mid-on. But we shall not cure ourselves that way. From being indulged our demon will be the lustier and more uncurbed, and the object of our practice was to exorcise him altogether.

One occasional indulgence we may allow ourselves with iron clubs. It may be licit, it may even sometimes be wise to take out two at a time. It is ridiculous to take out a wooden club if we want to struggle with an iron: the strokes are quite dissimilar. But the strokes as played with different iron clubs may be said to melt into one another. Therefore an occasional shot with the iron that we can use may be not only harmless : it may actually help to restore touch and confidence with the one that we cannot; but it must be only occasional.