m 
 
GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
GENEVIEVE HECKER. 
 (iMrs. Charles T. Stout.) 
 
->^ 
 
 Golf for Women 
 
 By 
 
 GENEVIEVE HECKER 
 
 (Mrs. Charles T. Stout) 
 
 National Woman Champion igoi-02 and igo2-OJ ; 
 
 Did Not Compete igoj-04 ; Champion of 
 
 Women's Metropolitan Association 
 
 in igoo-oi and igoi-02 
 
 With a Chapter by 
 
 RHONA K. ADAIR 
 
 Three Tears English Open Champion and Five Tears 
 Irish Open Chat, 
 
 New York: THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 33-37 East Seventeenth Street, Union Square, North 
 
LIteRAKY ..+ CONGRESS 
 Twe Copies Received 
 
 MAR 9 1904 
 
 ■^ Copyright S»itry 
 
 , CLASS ^ XXc. No 
 
 ; ^ s S ^ ^ 
 
 S?1 
 
 Copyright, 1902, 
 By harper & BROTHERS 
 
 Copyright, 1904, 
 By THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I, Introductory, ii 
 
 II. Preliminary Training 41 
 
 III. The Stance 59 
 
 IV. The Swing, 73 
 
 V. The Swing {Continued), .... 86 
 
 VI. The Long Game, 95 
 
 VII. The Long Game {Continued), . . . no 
 
 VIII. The Short Game, 121 
 
 IX. The Short Game {Continued), . , . 130 
 
 X. Approaching and Putting, . . . 140 
 XI. Putting {Concluded), and Tourney 
 
 Play, 153 
 
 XII. Hazards and General Remarks, . . 171 
 
 XIII. Golf Courses for Women, . . . 196 
 Impressions of American Golf, by Miss 
 
 Rhona K. Adair, 205 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Miss Genevieve Hecker (Mrs. Charles 
 
 T. Stout), .... Frontispiece 
 
 A Set of Modern Clubs — Two Views, Facing Page 38 
 
 The Driving Grip, 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 Two Forms of Bad Grip, 
 
 . 
 
 
 48. 
 
 The Address— Front and Side Views, . 
 
 (( 
 
 52 
 
 The Wrist Action in Driving 
 
 -The 
 
 
 
 Up-Swing, 
 
 . 
 
 €€ 
 
 58 
 
 The Wrist Action in Driving- 
 
 -The 
 
 
 
 Finish, 
 
 
 " 
 
 60^ 
 
 The Up-Swing, 
 
 
 tc 
 
 64 
 
 The Follow-Through, 
 
 
 " 
 
 70 
 
 Top of Swing (Back View), 
 
 
 " 
 
 72 
 
 Finish of Swing (Back View), 
 
 
 ft 
 
 72 
 
 Top of Swing (Side View), 
 
 
 " 
 
 74 
 
 Finish of Swing (Side View), 
 
 
 tt 
 
 74 
 
 Top of Cleek Shot, 
 
 
 <t 
 
 114 
 
 Finish of Cleek Shot, 
 
 7 
 
 
 tt 
 
 114 
 
8 , ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Top of Mid-Iron Shot, . . Facing Page 1 1 6 
 
 Finish of Mid-Iron Shot, . . *« ii6 
 
 Grip for Iron-Clubs, . . . ** ii8 
 
 Grip for Approaching, . . . ** 120 
 
 Top of Swing for 3 5 -yard Approach ) 
 
 V ** 122 
 
 Finish of Swing for 3 5 -yard Approach \ 
 
 Top of Swing for 80-yard Approach 
 
 Finish of Swing for 80-yard Approach 
 
 Beginning of Cutting Under- Stroke ) / 
 
 Finish of Cutting Under- Stroke ) 
 
 Positions in Putting, . . . ** 138 ' 
 
 Standing Square — Front View, . . ** 146 
 
 Standing Square — Side View, . . ** 146 
 
 The Putting Grip, . . . ** 150 
 
 Miss RhonaK. Adair— Putting, . ** 188 
 
 / 
 126 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 
 The publishers of this volume beg to ac- 
 knowledge the courtesy of Messrs. Harper & 
 Brothers, publishers of " Golf," in permit- 
 ting a reproduction of the chapters of this 
 book and the photographs, which originally 
 appeared in that magazine. 
 
GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 yl LTHOUGH there have been in the 
 r-\ past few years a great many books 
 written upon golf, detailing how to 
 play the game, and the things one should do 
 and likewise leave undone, there has never 
 been a book which presented the Royal and 
 Ancient game to the feminine inquiring mind 
 and from a woman's standpoint. It is my 
 purpose and desire to supply this deficiency, so 
 far as I may be able to do so, in the chapters 
 that shall make up this book. 
 
 No matter how valuable to a man the pres- 
 ent text-books of the game may be, I have 
 found by my own personal experience and 
 that of many of my friends that there were 
 11 
 
IS GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 many points about the best of them which 
 were, perhaps, familiar as the A B C's to a 
 man, but wholly incomprehensible to a 
 woman. 
 
 That this is quite to be expected is natural, 
 for how can a man understand the ways and 
 moods and means which must be taken into 
 consideration when a woman prepares to 
 golf? 
 
 Until quite recently — that is to say, the last 
 six or seven years — women's place in golf has 
 been so comparatively unimportant that no 
 woman has felt it incumbent upon her to blaze 
 the path, as it were, for her faltering yet en- 
 thusiastic sisters. Happily, that time has now 
 gone, and it has gone never to return. Women 
 in England and Scotland, as well as in Amer- 
 ica, but particularly here, have taken up the 
 game with so much enthusiasm — ^have become 
 such " cranks," to quote from the slang of the 
 day — and, better than all, have become so 
 thoroughly alive to its benefits from a purely 
 physical standpoint, that it does not seem as 
 
INTRODUCTORY 13 
 
 though it would ever be allowed to drop into 
 the oblivion which has heretofore followed all 
 the sports which have in turn been the fad of 
 the hour. 
 
 Nor is woman's place in golf secured to her 
 only by the sufferance and good-nature of her 
 masculine relatives. When she appears on a 
 links the flutter of her skirt is not the signal 
 for a deep and heart-felt, albeit suppressed, 
 burst of profanity, even from those devotees 
 who consider that the old Scotchman who 
 said, ** Never, my boys, allow business to in- 
 terfere with golf," uttered one of the greatest 
 sayings of the world. 
 
 It is quite true that the Powers that Be at 
 St. Andrews, Scotland, by a majority of one, 
 refused recently to allow the Woman's 
 national championship to be played there, 
 but such, a storm of indignation arose over 
 this action, in both the ranks of the 
 club and among the towns-people, all of whom 
 under various rules and restrictions use the 
 historic old course, that the committee have 
 
14 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 practically decided to recall their decision, 
 and most humbly invite the ladies to 
 use their links, and, if they like, their clubs 
 and everything that is theirs, for the cham- 
 pionship meeting, and as long after as they 
 please. Such is woman's delightful position 
 across the water, and here it is even more firm. 
 
 When women in America first began to play 
 golf, they were allowed at many of the big 
 clubs to use the links only at certain hours on 
 certain days when it was thought that their 
 presence would not incommode the Lords of 
 Creation. 
 
 The idea that a woman could learn to play 
 a really good and serious game of golf was 
 laughed to scorn, and if there were many wo- 
 men who evinced a desire to play at the vari- 
 ous clubs, numbers of them would doubtless 
 have followed the example of the Shinnecock 
 Hills Club and laid out a course exclusively 
 for women. 
 
 The small number who, at its first intro- 
 duction, took up the game, however, made 
 
INTRODUCTORY 15 
 
 this quite unnecessary; so, at least, it was 
 thought. 
 
 The first courses laid out in America were 
 very short, and consequently easy. That of 
 the Morris County Club, one of the finest in 
 the country then, as now, had in those days but 
 seven holes, and not one of them was over a 
 drive and iron-shot in length. The women 
 were therefore able to reach them with a drive 
 and brassey, and so were as well off as the 
 men, and their scores soon began to compare 
 very favorably with those of their masculine 
 competitors. This was also true of other 
 courses and clubs, and the women naturally 
 asked for the privilege of playing at any and 
 all hours, urging as an excuse their ability to 
 make low scores. 
 
 After much hesitation and head-shaking 
 on the part of those men who, never having 
 had sisters, had no idea of the physical capa- 
 bilities of a girl, and her ability to do anything 
 she really wanted to, permission was granted 
 ^reluctantly, it must be confessed, but nev- 
 
16 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 ertheless granted — to them except on Satur- 
 day afternoons, when the course was sure to 
 be overcrowded by masculine golfers. 
 
 The women took their hardly won permis- 
 sion with joy, and proceeded to demonstrate 
 that they could play good golf by taking on 
 their detractors for a round and soundly beat- 
 ing them. From that day women have had an 
 undisputed place on the links, and for the 
 past three or four years it has been esteemed 
 an honor for even the Amateur champion to 
 be asked to play in a mixed foursome by 
 any one of a dozen of our leading women 
 players. 
 
 As an evidence of how steadily and impress- 
 iv^ely the quality of golf which our women are 
 playing is improving, the action on July i, 
 1902, of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, one 
 of the oldest, finest, and most conservative 
 clubs in America, of giving up the maintenance 
 of its women's links, speaks volumes. This is 
 only one instance, but it shows the tendency. 
 
 Another point which shows clearly how 
 
INTRODUCTORY 17 
 
 women are improving in their standard of 
 play is the fact that it is not now customary 
 to shorten the men's course for a woman's 
 tournament — even when the drives from the 
 tee require a carry of from lOO to 120 yards, 
 and the bunkers placed to catch a poor second 
 shot are proportionately far away. 
 
 Still another and a most convincing argu- 
 ment, were it needed, to prove the advance in 
 woman's skill, is the fact that with hardly an 
 exception the women who were the stars of 
 the country four or five years ago are hardly 
 rated as being in the second class now, al- 
 though they are invariably playing as well as, 
 and in most cases better than they were, when 
 at the zenith of their fame. Nor is it in any 
 one or two particular points in which the 
 woman of to-day excels those of a few years 
 ago. It is in every department of the game. 
 She drives a much longer ball, she plays her 
 brassey and iron-shots better, and she lays her 
 approaches closer to the hole. If her putting 
 has not gained in the improvement to the 
 
18 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 same extent as have the other departments of 
 her play, it has held its own at least. For 
 these facts there are two reasons accountable. 
 One is that with the spread of the game the 
 number of first-class players is, of course, in- 
 creased. For instance, if there is one in every 
 looo, in every 10,000 there are ten, and if this 
 ratio is carried out to a ten times greater de- 
 gree, these 100 players form a large enough 
 number to affect the percentage of good play- 
 ers materially ; the other reason lies in the age 
 at which the women who are prominent to- 
 day began to golf. 
 
 Before proceeding further, however, I wish 
 to most emphatically emphasize the fact that 
 there is no royal road to success in golf. It 
 comes only by the hardest kind of assiduous 
 and thoughtful practice. 
 
 Furthermore, the practice must be done in 
 the proper way. 
 
 Great achievements can be accomplished 
 only when they are attempted in the orthodox 
 style, and to acquire the proper swing should 
 
INTRODUCTORY 19 
 
 be the first and most lasting ambition of every 
 woman who sets out to master the sport. 
 
 If she does not master it, her efforts to im- 
 prove will all be in vain, and no matter how 
 brilliantly she may play for a single round by 
 means of some unorthodox trick of style, it 
 will surely prove but a delusion and a snare 
 in the end. 
 
 To play golf of the championship class, It 
 is essential that a woman start to learn the 
 game before she is thirty years old, and each 
 year she begins before that, after reaching her 
 fourteenth birthday, is just that much in her 
 favor. It is true that we have in this country 
 a number of women who have obtained na- 
 tional prominence as golfers who did not be- 
 gin to play until they were thirty years or 
 more of age, but it has also been conclusively 
 proven by the records of the game that the 
 number of these women is becoming smaller 
 each year, and a study of their style of play 
 demonstrates that they have not the power to 
 execute the strokes of the game requiring the 
 
20 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 utmost freedom of movement with anything 
 like the ability which their younger and more 
 lissome sisters possess. 
 
 To judge from the style of play adopted by 
 the best examples of this class of women golf- 
 ers, it will be found that their lack of early 
 training lies more particularly in their driving 
 and brassey play, although all shots requiring 
 a full stroke are more or less affected. None 
 of them have ever acquired a full swing, their 
 club under no circumstances ever describing 
 more than a three-quarter circle, and usually 
 not going back further than does the club in 
 the " baseball " swing, which men like Mr. H. 
 P. Toler and Mr. J. A. Tyng have made 
 famous, and which is really hardly more than 
 a half-stroke. 
 
 This is also the stroke of nearly every other 
 woman who has taken up golf at the age of 
 thirty or more, and while it may be due in 
 part to the fact that women of that age are 
 much more apt to wear corsets and tight 
 clothes generally than are the girls in their 
 
INTRODUCTORY 21 
 
 teens, it must be admitted that age has some- 
 thing to do with it. The traditions of all 
 other lines of sport hold that no one ever be- 
 came really great who had not begun his 
 career at an early age, and golfing traditions 
 hold more strenuously than do those of any 
 other sport to this axiom. In fact, there has 
 been for many years a story told at old St. 
 Andrews which illustrates this point to a 
 nicety. 
 
 A beginner was anxiously inquiring of a 
 dour plain-spoken old professional how long 
 it took a man to become a great golfer. 
 " Well," said the old fellow slowly, " if your 
 father and your grandfather and his father 
 before him were muckle good golfers, and 
 you began as a little child, by the time you 
 were grown up you should play pretty 
 fair." 
 
 That may have been true for England and 
 Scotland, but in America our men and women 
 have disproved it by the way in which they 
 have in two or three or four years reached 
 
22 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 the championship class; and this class In 
 America is, I am convinced, very little behind 
 the front rank of players across the sea. 
 
 Nor have we failed to produce feminine 
 players whose game has been a refutation of 
 the tradition that it is necessary to begin 
 young. It is true that there Is no such encour- 
 aging example to the portly matrons and 
 elderly maids In the ranks of their own sex as 
 the men have In our present Amateur national 
 champion, Mr. Walter J. Travis, a man who 
 was quite. If not considerably past, thirty years 
 of age when he began to play golf. It Is said 
 by many good judges that he has reached the 
 limit of his play, and that he cannot Improve 
 further, but this was said of him In 1899, 
 when he disproved It most conclusively by his 
 wonderful series of victories and the increased 
 length of his long game In 1900. In his style 
 there was little Improvement to be noticed, but: 
 he did lengthen his swing a little, which shows 
 that a man beginning even as late in life as he 
 did can still acquire good form. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 23 
 
 It is this fact more than any other which 
 makes one feel convinced that it is more the 
 fault of their clothes than their years which is 
 the trouble with our more elderly women in 
 their efforts to acquire the best style. 
 
 Summing up this matter of age, I think 
 that it is much better for a woman to begin to 
 golf at sixteen years old, but she need not 
 despair of becoming a really first-class player 
 even though she has arrived at the age of 
 thirty without knowing the difference between 
 a brassey and a hazard, while she can rest as- 
 sured that so long as she is young enough to 
 walk around the links and raise her arms with 
 a club in her grasp as high as her head, she 
 can learn to become a golfer. 
 
 PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 As I have said before, there is no royal road 
 to success in golf; and good physique, al- 
 though it may aid one who has the correct 
 principles to get the most out of the game, will 
 not in itself enable one to play well. 
 
24 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Neither can it be said that the most suc- 
 cessful golfers are either big or little. Mr. 
 Herbert Harriman, the Amateur champion 
 of 1900, is a big, broad-shouldered man, who 
 stands six feet at least, and weighs probably 
 200 pounds, while Mr. Walter J. Travis, the 
 present title-holder, is by no means a tall man, 
 and tips the scales at probably less than 150 
 pounds. 
 
 James Braid, the man who last year de- 
 feated Vardon and Taylor for the English 
 Open championship, is six feet four inches tall, 
 but not as broad in proportion. He is prob- 
 ably the longest average driver in the world, 
 for he recently averaged in an eighteen-hole 
 round drives of 243 yards. 
 
 Of the extremes in women who have become 
 famous, perhaps the most notable is Miss 
 Beatrix Hoyt, who held the Woman's na- 
 tional championship for three years in succes- 
 sion. She is about five feet two inches tall, 
 and is very slight, while Miss Cassatt of 
 Philadelphia, and a well-known figure in 
 
INTRODUCTORY 25 
 
 national tournaments, is within an inch or 
 two of six feet, and is very well propor- 
 tioned. 
 
 Thus it may be seen that no one, large or 
 small, or medium-sized, is barred from becom- 
 ing a championship possibility by the limita- 
 tions of her physique. 
 
 The whole question resolves itself into ac- 
 quiring the proper style, as I have heretofore 
 emphasized. 
 
 Several women who perhaps have made up 
 in other sports for lack of skill by a super- 
 abundance of muscle have said to me that they 
 disagreed with me in the statement that one 
 need not be especially strong in order to play 
 class golf, and that by all the laws of com- 
 mon-sense the stronger person would play 
 the better through having the greater 
 power. 
 
 This is quite true provided each has the 
 same amount of skill, but if my critics had 
 seen, as I have, a man who, in his day, was 
 considered one ol the greatest athletes Yale 
 
26 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 ever turned out, a football guard, crew and 
 track man, outdriven by a twelve-year-old boy, 
 they might feel inclined to think less highly of 
 pure muscle. The reason was that the boy 
 knew how to do it, while the ex-Yale giant re- 
 lied on his strength alone. 
 
 When I say a person's size has no effect on 
 the game he may develop I do not include in 
 the statement any enormously stout person, or 
 people who are in any way out of the ordinary, 
 but only those of nearly average proportions. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF CLOTHES 
 
 The most common dress for the links 
 among women is a shirt-waist and short skirt. 
 The material for each may be whatsoever the 
 wearer chooses, the predominating idea being 
 to select something comfortable and light 
 enough not to tire one in the tramp over fehe 
 course. Most women vary their golfing 
 clothes with the season of the year, just as they 
 do their street and afternoon gowns, but this 
 is by no means necessary. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 27 
 
 The most popular style of costume during 
 the summer months is a cotton shirt-waist with 
 a short skirt of white duck or pique, but per- 
 sonally I do not like this color, because I have 
 found it has a tendency to make me take my 
 eye off the ball, particularly in putting, and for 
 this reason I think a broadcloth, tailor-made 
 skirt of any other color than white is the best 
 to play in. 
 
 The matter of shoes may also be left to the 
 individual taste of the player. Some prefer 
 high-laced boots of heavy calf-skin, because 
 of the support which they give to the ankles. 
 Others, equally good players, wear nothing 
 but low shoes. In any case they should be of 
 at least medium weight with broad, com- 
 fortable soles and low military heels. 
 
 No one can play good golf without a secure 
 stance, and the shoes, consequently, should be 
 non-slippable. 
 
 Many players trust their footing to rubber 
 soles. These are very good in dry weather, 
 but useless in wet, and it is a bad plan, I think, 
 
28 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 to change frequently, just as a constant change 
 of clubs tends to unsettle one's play. 
 
 I think the best all-round shoe, therefore, is 
 one with hobnails in the sole. This is the 
 kind that I wear, although I use rubber heels 
 instead of leather ones with hobnails, because 
 the weight in making a stroke is rested rather 
 on the sole of the foot than the heel, which 
 makes it necessary to have the former particu- 
 larly secure, while the rubber heels tire one 
 much less in walking than do the ordinary 
 kind. 
 
 I also make a point of having my shoes 
 heavy, and have them made with a double 
 sole, because I think they are much less apt 
 to hurt one's feet than are light ones in tramp- 
 ing over the rough ground sometimes found 
 on golf courses. 
 
 The question of whether or not to wear a 
 hat is another point in which the individual 
 taste of the player can have full sway. Some 
 players wear hats, and others do not. Still 
 others do one day and do not another. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 29 
 
 I am one of the latter division, and I do not 
 think it has the slightest influence on one's 
 game. If the eyes are not very strong 
 and affected at all by the glare of the sum- 
 mer sun, a hat with a good broad brim 
 that will act as a shade will be found a 
 relief. 
 
 I do not personally like to play golf in 
 gloves, unless my hands are a little sore, and 
 I think that the best players, both here and in 
 England, agree with me unanimously on this 
 point. Certainly none of the professionals 
 play in gloves, and, after all, for grand golf 
 day after day and week after week the profes- 
 sionals are a long way ahead of the amateur, 
 even though the latter occasionally strikes a 
 gait which is equal to the " pro.'s " best. 
 Great delicacy of touch is needed to play a 
 golf stroke to perfection, and it stands to rea- 
 son that one can obtain this much more truly 
 with the bare hand than if the sense of con- 
 tact must be transmitted through a .heavy 
 glove. 
 
30 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Another point against the glove is that the 
 club is much more apt to slip in one's hand, 
 and this follows especially in cold weather, 
 and no matter how much pitch is put on 
 it. 
 
 The question of corsets is one which a 
 woman can decide for herself. In the days 
 of tight lacing they were out of the question, 
 but now that common-sense governs their use, 
 they play no more important part in determin- 
 ing good golf than does the weight or color of 
 a player's skirt. 
 
 TECHNICAL TERMS 
 
 The game of golf is so utterly unlike any 
 other, that no matter how well versed one may 
 be in other sports, a knowledge of them will 
 be of no use to the novice in golf, either as an 
 aid to a correct understanding of the princi- 
 ples of the game, or to the proper method of 
 play. 
 
 There are so many technical terms which 
 are necessary to express one's meaning when 
 
INTRODUCTORY 31 
 
 talking about golf that it has a vocabulary of 
 its own, and it is impossible to write or talk 
 about the game without using many of these 
 terms. 
 
 The names of the clubs, for example, con- 
 vey no meaning at all from their sound, 
 except, perhaps, the *' driver " and " put- 
 ter." The first would naturally be sup- 
 posed to be the club with which the drives 
 are made, but everyone does not know 
 that the drive is the first shot in the play- 
 ing of each hole. The fact that there are 
 two meanings to the word " tee " also has a 
 confusing effect on the mind of the novice, and 
 indeed many who would be indignant at being 
 put in this category. Primarily it is the space 
 of ground from which the player makes her 
 first shot at each hole, but it also means the 
 little pat or mound of sand upon which she 
 places her ball for this shot. 
 
 The most useful word in the golfer's 
 vocabulary — or at least the one which will de- 
 scribe the golfer's efforts at first, most fre- 
 
32 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 quently, I am afraid — is, " foozle," which 
 can be applied to any stroke which does not 
 result the way the player intended it to 
 do. 
 
 A " hazard " is any difficulty, natural or 
 artificial, and a " cop-bunker" is a mound of 
 earth over which the ball must be played to 
 restch the hole. It should have a sand trench 
 three or four feet wide in front of its face, and 
 occasionally the trench, is also placed on the 
 other side as well. Shallow, sandy pits are 
 known as " pot-bunkers " or " traps," and in 
 general any piece of waste sandy ground is a 
 " bunker." 
 
 All bunkers are hazards, but all hazards 
 are not bunkers by any means, a fact .which 
 many even fairly proficient golfers are either 
 unaware of or ignore. 
 
 To " slice " is to drive the ball in a curve to 
 the right, and a " pull " is for it to come to the 
 left. 
 
 A " sclaff " is hitting the ground before 
 or at the same time as one hits the ball, so 
 
INTRODUCTORY 33 
 
 that the stroke loses something of its force, 
 and the opposite extreme is appropriately 
 called a " top." Another appropriately 
 coined term is " addressing the ball," and it 
 describes the attempt of the player to settle 
 into a satisfactory position for making the 
 shot. 
 
 The " caddie " is the person who con- 
 descends to carry one's clubs in the round, and 
 the " cup " is merely another name for the 
 hole. 
 
 The " follow-through " is that part of the 
 stroke which is made after the club has come 
 in contact with the ball, and no essential of 
 style is more important. " Approaching " is 
 any stroke calculated to place the ball on the 
 putting-green, be it made with driver, brassey, 
 or anything else, except a shot made from the 
 tee, which is always a drive. When the 
 " green " is spoken of, it is the putting-green 
 that is meant, and this is the space within a 
 radius of twenty yards from the hole, ex- 
 clusive of hazards. 
 
34 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 The " fair-green " is properly that part of 
 the course which lies between the several tees 
 and their corresponding putting-greens. 
 
 An " iron " is any club with an iron head, 
 and the " hnks " is another general term for 
 the ground on which the game is played. 
 There is no such word as " link " to designate 
 a single hole. 
 
 The " long-game " is any full shot, and the 
 " short-game " conversely means any stroke 
 played with less than a full swing. 
 
 The " odd " is one stroke more than the 
 opponent has played, and the " like " an equal 
 number. " To press " Is to endeavor to hit 
 the ball harder than usual, in order to gain 
 greater distance. " Putting " is the art of get- 
 ting the ball into the hole, once it has reached 
 the green. 
 
 With these startling additions to one's 
 former vocabulary safely and surely in mind, 
 the novice should now learn a few of women's 
 most common faults in order that she may her- 
 self avoid them, 
 
INTRODUCTORY 36 
 
 FEMININE FAILINGS IN PARTICULAR 
 
 This is a topic on which it is more than 
 unusually hard to generalize, for just as 
 golfer's have their pet club and certain strokes 
 which they must play unusually well, so also 
 have they certain idiosyncrasies which crop 
 out to their undoing time after time, despite 
 their utmost efforts to remedy the fault. 
 
 This can be accomplished, of course, with 
 time and patience after the trouble is located, 
 but oftentimes it will take many weeks to dis- 
 cover just what is the trouble, and in trying 
 one new thing after another, hoping to cure 
 some particular fault, another equally as dis- 
 astrous may be developed. 
 
 Naturally, this is discouraging, but in learn- 
 ing the cause and effect of shots as thoroughly 
 as one must in studying out the cause of bad 
 play, one will acquire a fund of invaluable 
 knowledge if one wishes to become a really 
 great player. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest fault among women 
 
-36 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 is impatience. They are so anxious to make 
 their shot that many and many a time they 
 step up to the ball and play it with no more 
 than a casual glance at its lie, the distance to 
 be covered, and the nature of the shot which 
 will yield the best results. I have often seen 
 women, even among the best players, play a 
 full shot with a brassey or driver, simply be- 
 cause they had it in their hand, when, if they 
 had looked at the distance for a fraction of a 
 second, they would have realized that a 
 mashie or iron would have put them quite far 
 enough. 
 
 The same result often occurs through the 
 impatience which will not allow a woman to 
 call back her caddie when he has given her the 
 wrong club, and she plays the shot in conse- 
 quence, hoping that the Goddess of Fortune 
 will aid her to bring off the stroke with the 
 desired result, even though the means are far 
 from what they should be. 
 
 Many a woman has lost a match, and par- 
 ticularly a medal-play competition, by playing 
 
INTRODUCTORY 37 
 
 shot after shot with lightning rapidity. In a 
 bunker I have frequently seen ten or twelve 
 strokes used when, if a moment's study of the 
 situation had been taken, one or two would 
 have sufficed. 
 
 From the tee the average woman, who 
 plays an even moderately good game, usually 
 does consistently well, but if she does fail it is 
 from topping nine times out of ten. With 
 men, failure usually comes from slicing or 
 pulling, but I think that the average woman 
 drives a straight ball nearly always. 
 
 Topping is, of course, caused by taking the 
 eye off the ball a fraction of a second before 
 it is struck, and this is a fault which besets 
 women throughout every stroke from tee to 
 hole. 
 
 Women, at any rate all golfing women, 
 are pronounced optimists, and in their eager- 
 ness to see the ball go into the hole, they are 
 prone to lift their eyes for just that infinitesi- 
 mal length of time that is too soon, and the 
 result is failure. 
 
38 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 When one finds that the practice has be- 
 come a settled habit, the only thing to do is to 
 steel the mind rigidly against looking for the 
 ball until at least a full second after it has been 
 struck. 
 
 Many women accustom themselves to play- 
 ing around without caddies, and this prac- 
 tice is responsible for much of the habit of 
 looking up quickly to watch the flight of the 
 ball. 
 
 Another very common fault among women 
 is overgolfing. The woman begins with a 
 tremendous amount of enthusiasm, and she 
 spends all her waking hours of daylight on the 
 links for the first week or two. She probably 
 improves very rapidly in the first few days; 
 then, as she grows stiff and sore from the un- 
 accustomed exercise, she becomes disgusted 
 with the game, temporarily at least, and it is 
 perhaps a month or six weeks before its fasci- 
 nations induce her to begin the weary road to 
 success once more. 
 
 This is a practice much more common than 
 
INTRODUCTORY 39 
 
 one would imagine, and whenever one hears 
 of a woman who has tried golf, and is not 
 enthusiastic over it, one may put her down as 
 being in one of these intermediate stages. 
 
 The last of the faults which I think are 
 common enough to be spoken of under this 
 general caption is that of becoming nervous in 
 the face of difficulties. It is astonishing to 
 note how a woman who ordinarily will get 
 away a drive of 150 yards with no trouble at 
 all, will hesitate at an obstacle which requires 
 a carry of perhaps but fifty yards. " He who 
 hesitates is lost," is an axiom which every- 
 one knows, and it is particularly true of 
 golf. 
 
 The average woman falters in her mind as 
 she sees the hazard loom up before her, and 
 when she does that, in nine cases out of ten, 
 she fails to carry it. 
 
 Yet it is not lack of pluck which causes this 
 distressing effect. The average woman is, I 
 think, far more plucky in the face of prac- 
 tically certain defeat than is the average man. 
 
40 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 When did you ever see a man hammering 
 away in dead earnestness when he was playing 
 live more in a bunker and his opponent was 
 ten yards off the green? Yet it is no un- 
 common sight in a woman's match. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 PRELIMINARY TRAINING 
 
 THE first thing to do, if one wishes 
 to play golf, is to read some good 
 book on the game, in order to ac- 
 quire a general understanding of what one is 
 trying to do. 
 
 But no matter how good the book, one 
 cannot become a crack golfer by sitting in the 
 house and reading it. Theory is all very 
 well, but it is practice that makes perfect in 
 golf, as well as in everything else. 
 
 Practically every golf club in this country 
 has in its employ a professional golfer, whose 
 duties are to give instruction and repair clubs 
 primarily, but who sometimes, at the smaller 
 links, acts as green-keeper at well. 
 
 Usually he has played golf from the time 
 he left off his swaddling-clothes, and he plays 
 41 
 
42 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 it far more by instinct than by rhyme or rea- 
 son. He plays a successful shot, not because 
 he wants to, but because he can't help it, as 
 an apoplectic old gentleman once remarked 
 indignantly, quite as though the " pro.'s " 
 skill was a personal affront to him. 
 
 There are only a half-dozen or so pro- 
 fessionals in America who were not born and 
 bred at this game, and as a rule they have no 
 knowledge of any other, and some of them 
 are men of little education. They therefore 
 are unable to. explain the faults which arise 
 from the natural efforts of the player to 
 master what she fondly believes is a St. 
 Andrews swing, and those which arise 
 from former flirtations with tennis or basket- 
 ball. 
 
 Ordinarily, it will be found, and curiously 
 so, that the best player is by no means the best 
 teacher, and two of the best instructors I know 
 cannot play eighteen holes within five strokes 
 of the average amateur of their clubs, but 
 they have acquired the knack of telling others 
 
TRAINING 43 
 
 how to play, and of detecting the faults of 
 their pupils. This last is really a much more 
 valuable trait than the former, for, while 
 a person may learn to do a thing from obser- 
 vation and imitation, she can't as easily correct 
 a glaring fault in her play by watching an 
 expert at work. 
 
 If you can get hold of an instructor who 
 really has some idea of telling one how to 
 play, it is best, I think, to begin at least under 
 his instruction, but if you find that the " pro." 
 has little or no idea of telling you how to 
 achieve the desired result, or what you are 
 doing wrong, it is better to leave him alone 
 and work out your own salvation. 
 
 When you have decided that golf Is an 
 absolutely necessary adjunct to your peace of 
 mind and happiness in this world, the first 
 proceeding, after obtaining the proper clothes 
 (is there any occupation whatever from birth 
 to grave for which woman does not consider 
 clothes the most necessary adjunct?), is to 
 secure some of the Implements of war. 
 
44 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 For the proper playing of the game of 
 golf there are six clubs necessary, viz., driver, 
 brassey, cleek, mid-iron, mashie, and putter, 
 and I have also known many golfers to whom 
 a niblick was also useful at times. Besides 
 these, many players carry a jigger and driv- 
 ing-mashie. 
 
 I shall content myself at present by giving 
 the names of the necessary clubs, leaving them 
 to be discussed at length under a separate 
 chapter, and proceeding to generalize on the 
 first day's proceedings. 
 
 While six clubs are necessary to the expert 
 player, it is a great mistake for a novice to 
 purchase so many to begin with. She should 
 buy a driver and a lot of old balls. Don't 
 take new ones, or you will wound your feel- 
 ings deeply when your first shot cuts a gash 
 an inch long and a quarter of an inch deep in 
 the pretty white little globe. 
 
 Take the driver and the balls and proceed 
 to a quiet spot, either with the " pro.," or, if 
 you have decided to play out your own Ideas, 
 
TRAINING 45 
 
 with no one but your conscience, and a caddie 
 to chase the balls. 
 
 All the play that one indulges in for the 
 first few days should be driving away the 
 balls with the driver, and if one can command 
 the self-control, it is wise to practice some 
 time in merely swinging the club over a leaf 
 or bit of paper on the ground instead of the 
 ball. However, this is a precept which it is 
 quite too much to expect the ordinary mortal 
 to be able to follow. 
 
 The tortures of Tantalus are as nothing 
 compared to those of the mortal who has once 
 tasted the joys of a full cleanly hit shot, and 
 if our tyro can be kept from setting out for a 
 round of the links with the determina- 
 tion shining from her eye of lowering the 
 medal record on her first appearance, 
 she is doing quite all that one could ex- 
 pect. 
 
 This last practice is responsible for the 
 wrecking of more promising golfing careers 
 than anything else that one can do or leave 
 
46 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 undone, and I cannot emphasize too strongly 
 its harmfulness. 
 
 Not only should the novice refrain from 
 playing the course for several weeks, but, 
 above all, she should never think of counting 
 the number of her strokes for six months after 
 she begins to play. 
 
 The temptation to do so is of course very 
 great, but if she refrains from it the ultimate 
 reward is quite compensation enough. 
 
 It is very hard to make a beginner under- 
 stand why she should not keep track of her 
 strokes, and thus note her improvement from 
 day to day. The reason is that in an effort to 
 save a stroke here or there, in order that one 
 may cut one's record for nine holes from 125 
 to 124, the excited record-breaker will be led 
 into committing numberless sins of commission 
 and omission which she never would have 
 dreamed of even, but for the fatal lodestar of 
 a broken record luring her on. 
 
 One of these tricks may temporarily bring 
 about the desired effect, but it is sure to be 
 
-r 
 
 / 
 
TRAINING 47 
 
 only temporarily, and by the time she has a 
 repertoire of several such, Miss Novice will 
 find that she has forfeited all chance of ever 
 making a respectable score except by an effort 
 of the imagination which would make Baron 
 Munchausen turn in his grave with envy. 
 
 After becoming comparatively accom- 
 plished with the driver, the novice may take 
 up the cleek. The stroke for this club is made 
 so much like a driver-shot that after one has 
 mastered the rudiments of that club, the other 
 will be very easy. After acquiring a bowing 
 acquaintance with these two clubs, the mashie 
 may be taken up. Go thirty or forty yards 
 from a putting-green with a lot of old balls, 
 and drop them at intervals on the ground, 
 and proceed to play them up as near as pos- 
 sible to the hole. After they are on the 
 green, you can add variety to the practice by 
 getting out your putter and putting them into 
 the hole. 
 
 Putting is a matter entirely of individual 
 fancy. All the other strokes of golf are made 
 
46 GOLFFOR WOMEN 
 
 on more or less general principles, but every- 
 one is a law unto herself when once the put- 
 ting-green has been reached. 
 
 With this knowledge of what to do in mind 
 when the clubs are selected, let us proceed to 
 consider the implements themselves. 
 
 CLUBS 
 
 In looking back to the days when I first 
 began to golf, I remember that it was a 
 matter of absolutely no importance to me 
 whether my club was made of hickory or per- 
 simmon or cast-iron, and that I was far too 
 impatient to get out on the links to stop to 
 .consider whether the advantages of a dog- 
 wood head outweighed those of one made of 
 persimmon or vice versa. I assume that 
 the majority of other girls feel as I did about 
 it. 
 
 With this in mind I shall therefore elimi- 
 nate, at this stage of writing at least, all 
 discussion of a technical nature, and simply 
 try to give a little useful advice in the matter 
 
TRAINING 49 
 
 of selecting one's golfing tools from the or- 
 dinary dealer's or professional's stock. 
 
 The first, and by all odds the most import- 
 ant, point to be considered in selecting a driver 
 (and the other clubs as well) is the balance. 
 This is a matter which everyone must decide 
 for herself, for one's strength of wrist plays 
 a very large part in determining the propor- 
 tionate weights in head and shaft which com- 
 bine to make a club of ideal balance. It is a 
 very difficult thing to obtain a club which 
 *' feels " exactly right, and sometimes a 
 golfer will handle and " waggle " a hundred 
 before finding one which seems as if it would 
 do. Even then a trial on the links frequently 
 shows that what seemed ideal in the profes- 
 sional's shop is far from it in actual play, and 
 the whole work of selection must be gone 
 through with once more. 
 
 It undoubtedly may seem absurd to the non- 
 golfer, this care and attention to the fraction 
 of an ounce in weight or of an inch in the 
 length or slant of a club, but no golfer con- 
 
50 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 siders it anything but a solemn duty and a 
 pleasure as well. 
 
 In fact, the club-makers' shops are always 
 full of players who stop in to handle and try 
 clubs, even when they have no intention of 
 purchasing them, but merely for the pleasure 
 of feeling a good club in their grasp. 
 
 For a player of average height — that is, 
 about five feet five inches for a woman, or 
 five feet nine inches in a man — a driver should 
 be from 37 to 41 inches in the first instance, 
 and from 40 to 44 inches in the second, 
 measuring of course from the extreme end of 
 the shaft to the sole of the club. 
 , The " lie " (meaning the relation which the 
 sole of the club bears to the angle of the 
 shaft) which will give the player the greatest 
 power, combined, of course, with a fair degree 
 of accuracy, must be learned by each . indi- 
 vidual in actual practice. To begin with, it 
 is best to select a club which, when the entire 
 sole rests easily on the floor of the shop, brings 
 the shaft in the natural grip to a point where 
 
TRAINING 51 
 
 it seems natural, and as though a full, power- 
 ful blow could be struck. 
 
 It is best not to go to extremes in selecting 
 clubs. It may appear to one person a conclu- 
 sion so logical that it admits of no denial that 
 a limber or " whippy " shaft and a heavy 
 head make a combination which will produce 
 the best results, or it may appear with equal 
 force to another that a light head and a stiff 
 shaft are the ideal combination. Indeed, a 
 dozen other variations may seem the one and 
 only solution to the art of golf, but one of the 
 uses of the game is to prove that there is no 
 such thing as a logical deduction, and so it is 
 best to start with clubs which are neither at 
 the one extreme nor the other. 
 
 As a general thing, no beginner appreciates 
 for a long time the strength required to swing 
 a golf-club rapidly and swiftly, and she there- 
 fore selects clubs which seem perhaps very 
 light when not in actual use, but are heavy 
 when it comes to playing strokes. 
 
 Another point which at least ninety per 
 
52 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 cent, of beginners fail to recognize is that it 
 is the speed at which a club is traveling when 
 it comes in contact with the ball, far more 
 than its weight, which produces long drives. 
 It is obvious that a lighter club can be swung 
 faster than a heavy one, and as soon as the 
 golfer has this point firmly imprinted on her 
 memory, the sooner will she begin to drive 
 nearer the 200-yard mark. 
 
 Still, the matter of light clubs should not 
 be carried to extremes, any more than any- 
 thing else. If there is no weight behind the 
 swing the additional speed will be wasted just 
 as certainly as weight is useless without speed. 
 
 The weight of the club once decided upon, 
 the limberness of the shaft is the next con- 
 sideration. 
 
 As a general rule, a whippy shaft will drive 
 a trifle longer ball than a stiff one, but as the 
 whippiness increases, so also does the tend- 
 ency to slice and pull, and it is therefore 
 best for the novice to begin with a club with 
 a fairly stiff shaft. 
 
TRAINING 63 
 
 The brassey is substantially the same as the 
 driver, except that it is a trifle heavier, the 
 face is a little more laid back, and it has its 
 sole covered with a brass plate, perhaps a 
 sixteenth of an inch thick. The shaft should 
 also be a trifle stiffer than that of the driver, 
 and about one inch shorter. Otherwise the 
 clubs are the same, and the same reasons 
 govern their selection. 
 
 Until reasonably expert the driver should 
 be used only from the tee, and the brassey's 
 usefulness begins as soon as it is necessary 
 to obtain a long distance after the tee 
 shot. 
 
 Even though the ball be lying badly, and 
 it seems almost impossible to get it out, do not 
 hesitate to use this club, for the brass on the 
 sole will cut through the turf readily, and the 
 loft of the face will throw the ball up suflH- 
 ciently to get away a clean shot. 
 
 In selecting one's wooden clubs, it is well 
 to remember that practical experiments have 
 proven the fallacy of the idea that a driver 
 
64 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 or brassey which has a thick face possesses 
 an advantage over a thin-faced one. 
 
 Indeed the latter is preferable from the fact 
 that, with it, it is much easier to pick a ball 
 out of a bad lie. 
 
 A moment's reflection shows the truth of 
 this, for it is apparent that the nearer to the 
 ground the center of the face is, so much the 
 less does the ball need to be elevated for it 
 to come in contact with the very center of the 
 club. 
 
 The cleek is the next most powerful club 
 on the list, and should be used to play dis- 
 tances between a full brassey and a mid-iron 
 shot, or, say, when distances between lOO and 
 125 yards are to be covered. 
 
 It should also be used when the distance to 
 be covered is greater, but the lie so bad that 
 using a brassey seems but to invite disaster. 
 
 The shaft should be about as stiff as that 
 of the driver, and the head laid back only 
 a small fraction of an inch. Like the brassey 
 and driver, and for the same reasons, the 
 
TRAINING 65 
 
 blade or face should be narrow rather than 
 thick. The face should not be more than 
 33^ inches long, for if it is, it will detract 
 from the club's ability to pick a ball out of a 
 hole, without adding anything to its driving 
 power. 
 
 The patent cleeks, in which the shaft runs 
 through the socket to the sole, and in which 
 the socket is but about an inch long, are rather 
 more powerful driving clubs than those of 
 ordinary pattern. 
 
 The mid-iron, to take the club with the next 
 longest driving capacity, is, as its name im- 
 plies, a club for moderate distances of from 
 perhaps 80 to 100 yards. 
 
 The face should be lofted to an angle of 
 about 45 degrees, rather broader in the face 
 than the cleek. The extra loft throws the 
 ball more into the air than do the aforemen- 
 tioned clubs, and therefore it has less run. 
 
 The mashie or approaching club has a face 
 that is not only the deepest by one-half an inch 
 of all the clubs, but it is laid back to an angle 
 
56 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 of 60 degrees. It should have a head heavier 
 proportionately than any of the other clubs, 
 and, like the rest, should have a stiff shaft. 
 
 All these clubs, as the illustrations show, 
 are shorter in a descending scale, each one 
 perhaps an inch less than the one mentioned 
 before it. 
 
 What is sometimes called the most impor- 
 tant club in the game is the putter, and here 
 there are at least a dozen styles to choose 
 from. Personally, I have found the best 
 results from a heavy-headed gooseneck which 
 has a very httle slant to the face. The shaft 
 should be comparatively short and absolutely 
 ^tiff. 
 
 The niblick is the club of last resort, and 
 when its use is necessary, the player is gener- 
 ally so desperate that " all niblicks look alike 
 to her," to paraphrase a popular song of the 
 day. 
 
 With the outfit of clubs selected, the next 
 thing to do is to learn how to grip them cor- 
 rectly. 
 
TRAINING 67 
 
 THE DRIVING GRIP 
 
 Take the driver and hold it so that the 
 sole lies flat on the ground at every point, and 
 the end of the handle rests against the skirt 
 half-way between the waist and knee. 
 
 Then place the hands on either side of the 
 handle, as shown in the illustration of the 
 driving grip. Fig. I. Care should be taken 
 to see that the shaft runs across the base of 
 the knuckles, and not the palm of the hand, 
 but under no circumstances, on the other hand, 
 allow the club to fall nearer the fingers than 
 the knuckles. 
 
 Fig. II. shows the method in which the 
 hands should close, and Fig. III. the com- 
 pleted grip. 
 
 This grip, I think, is by all odds the best. 
 Fig. IV. shows another which is used to some 
 extent, but it is impossible to get so good a 
 follow-through with it, and it also tends to 
 tighten the muscles of the arms in swinging 
 back for the stroke. This tightening extends 
 
68 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 to the wrists, and prevents obtaining that 
 subtle snap so essential to long driving. 
 
 Fig. V. shows the club correctly grasped 
 with the fingers, but with the thumbs held 
 down the shaft. This is a style which in- 
 variably takes from ten to fifteen yards from 
 the length of the shot, although adding In 
 some Instances to Its accuracy. So, on the 
 whole. It is not to be recommended. 
 
 The relation of the hands to each other 
 is a very Important point, and the closer they 
 are held, the longer the shot, for every inch 
 they are apart lessens the drive by twenty 
 yards at least. 
 
 Under any and all conditions the position 
 of the left hand should remain the same, as 
 illustrated In Figs. I., IL, III., and IV. 
 
 The shaft should be grasped with the left 
 hand as firmly as possible, and also with the 
 last three fingers of the right hand. The fore- 
 finger and thumb should barely touch the club, 
 and If at all only at the last second of the 
 downward swing before the ball is struck. 
 
THE WRIST ACTION IN DRIVING. 
 
 The Up Swing 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STANCE 
 
 AFTER settling the question of the 
 /-% proper method of gripping the club 
 to one's entire satisfaction, the next 
 step in order is the determining of the rela- 
 tion the position of the feet shall bear to the 
 ball, and the direction it is wished that the 
 ball shall take. 
 
 This is technically called the stance, and 
 there are almost as many ways of standing as 
 there are of gripping the club. 
 
 The stance may be divided into three 
 classes, which are called : 
 
 I. — Off the right foot. 
 
 II.— Off the left foot. 
 
 III. — Standing square. 
 
 The most common method is the first, and 
 
60 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 probably so because the player can see the 
 direction in which she wishes the ball to go 
 better, and consequently feels more confidence 
 that it will go there. 
 
 In adopting this stance, the right foot is 
 placed in advance of the left, the exact differ- 
 ence depending upon the player's fancy. In 
 other words, if a line were drawn on the 
 ground parallel to the line of flight, the left 
 toe should be just touching it, while the right 
 would be anywhere from one to ten inches 
 over it. The extent to which the right foot 
 is advanced determines the proportion of the 
 weight of the body it should hold ; the farther 
 "it is advanced, the greater amount of weight 
 is rested upon it. 
 
 In driving "off the left foot," the right 
 foot is withdrawn in almost the same propor- 
 tion as it is advanced when driving " off the 
 right foot," and the stance is virtually the 
 inverse of the former. 
 
 In standing square, the stance is as its name 
 implies. Both feet are on a parallel line, and 
 

 Mj^ 
 
 r 
 
 
 THE WRIST AC.TION IN DRIVING. 
 
 The Finish. 
 
THE STANCE 61 
 
 the weight of the body is equally divided be- 
 tween them. 
 
 The distance which the feet should be apart 
 is another matter which must be decided by 
 the individual, and should be regulated by 
 both feeling and physique. 
 
 Roughly speaking, the feet should be from 
 1 8 to 24 inches apart. 
 
 The knees should be bent in the smallest 
 degree, just so that the knee-joint is not stiff, 
 and the arms, when the club head rests behind 
 the ball, are bent in an equally small degree 
 at the elbow. 
 
 The position of the ball and its relation to 
 the feet are most important. 
 
 When the *' standing square " stance is 
 adopted, the ball should be nearly oppo- 
 site the left heel — that is, within two or 
 three inches of the line which a right 
 angle drawn by the feet and ball would 
 make. 
 
 When playing " off the right foot " the 
 ball should be more to the right, and as the 
 
62 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 foot is advanced, so proportionately should 
 the ball be moved to the right. 
 
 When playing " off the left foot " the ball 
 should be inversely moved to the left. 
 
 I favor using a stance in which the feet are 
 practically on a line, as the illustration of the 
 side view of the address for a drive will show. 
 I do not, as I said before, try to place my feet 
 in identically the same position for each shot, 
 and therefore the position of the right one 
 may occasionally vary an inch or even two 
 inches, both in its distance to the right of 
 the left foot and its distance ahead of the 
 left. 
 
 ' Again, I try to have my feet approximately 
 twenty inches apart, but I let the matter settle 
 Itself instinctively, and only try to get a stance 
 which seems natural. The majority of the 
 men who have written books on golf, and also 
 the professionals, agree that it is only the 
 position of the left foot which is really im- 
 portant, and that the right may vary in its 
 place several inches without affecting the re- 
 
THE STANCE 63 
 
 suit of the shot; my experience has been that 
 this is true. 
 
 Another point, perhaps a minor considera- 
 tion, but one which many a beginner on the 
 rocky pathway to golfing fame stumbles over, 
 is the position of the toes. Some think that 
 they must be turned out as nicely as a dancing 
 professor insists upon in the first position; 
 others think that the feet should be straight, 
 and some imagine, or at least a casual ob- 
 server would so suppose, that a good drive 
 can only be secured by turning the toes in. 
 
 No one need worry over this point, how- 
 ever, for as good drives may be made in one 
 way as in another. Ordinarily I place the ball 
 and I tee about three inches to the right of 
 my left heel, and I rest the weight of my body 
 equally on each foot. I have found that by 
 adopting this stance I can obtain a full, easy 
 backward swing, and that I can swing my club 
 in a sweeping circle much farther and 
 straighter in the line of flight of the ball — 
 or, in technical words, can obtain a much 
 
'64 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 better *' follow-through " in this way than in 
 any other. 
 
 The question of the " follow-through " 
 may seem of very little importance to the tyro, 
 but later on I shall endeavor to dissipate this 
 idea. At the present time I shall content 
 myself with saying that it is an admitted fact 
 that it is quite as important as is the part of 
 the swing before the ball is struck. 
 
 The main objection to an accentuation of 
 the left-foot style is that it makes a proper 
 follow-through very difficult to achieve. 
 Owing to the right foot being so far back, it 
 is impossible to be facing front at the end of 
 the swing, and the body pivots on the left 
 foot, thereby encouraging the club to swing 
 round the body. On the other hand, how- 
 ever, if the right foot is advanced too far, 
 the prospect of hooking the ball is almost 
 certain. For these reasons, therefore, I 
 recommend that the right foot be only about 
 an inch ahead of the left, if at all; but every 
 player of any experience will soon pick out 
 
THE STANCE 65 
 
 the position which for some reason, real or 
 fancied, seems to be a trifle the best, and use 
 it for the regular stance. When the time 
 comes, as come it will inevitably to even the 
 very best golfer in the world, that no shot 
 can be made as it should from that stance, 
 then simply try a little change in it, and you 
 willvery soon find that you are once more 
 playing up to your game. When that day 
 comes that the new stance becomes another of 
 the failures and disappointments, try another, 
 and so you will gradually work around to the 
 old favorite once more. In other words, golf 
 is a continual experiment, and those who know 
 when to continue experimenting, and when to 
 be satisfied with the results already achieved, 
 make the best players. 
 
 Never made the mistake of taking up a 
 certain stance simply because some celebrated 
 golfer uses it. Be a law unto yourself, for, 
 unless you stand so that you feel natural and 
 easy and as though you were going to hit the 
 ball exactly as you wish, you never will be able 
 
66 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 to do so. Confidence in golf is at least half 
 the battle. If you find that some champion 
 uses the same stance that you do, well and 
 good. Say to yourself, he uses good judg- 
 ment and is a legitimate champion, and feel 
 well satisfied that the champion follows you, 
 but never follow him. When I say that, after 
 finding the stance which seems best, one 
 should continue using it, I do not mean that 
 one should worry over getting in exactly the 
 same position each time. I take up a stance 
 which is substantially the same, but I do it 
 instinctively, and never think of looking to 
 see just how many inches one foot is away 
 from the other, or how many inches one is 
 in front of the other. 
 
 There is no surer way of producing foozles 
 or of acquiring a stiff and awkward, to say 
 nothing of an improper, swing than to con- 
 tinually worry over getting in identically the 
 same position for every stroke. 
 
 The ball should be teed at whatever place 
 the club head lies when it is gripped in the 
 
THE STANCE 67 
 
 proper way, and then allowed to fall naturally 
 to the ground straight in front of the player. 
 The whole idea is to get it at such a distance 
 that it will be directly in the line of a natural 
 swing. There is a great diversity of opinion 
 about the distance one should stand away. 
 Some of the best drives in the country stand 
 so far that the toe of their club, when address- 
 ing the ball, is quite two or three inches be- 
 hind the ball, while others have the ball even 
 with the neck of the club head. I do not favor 
 either of these extremes. 
 
 If the ball is too far away and the player 
 has to reach for it, as it were, the whole posi- 
 tion is quite apt to be cramped, and the swing 
 is consequently without snap, or else, in en- 
 deavoring to have it free and easy, the player 
 does not always " reach " the exact fraction 
 of an inch which is necessary for the perfect 
 performance of the shot, and a bad slice or 
 pull results. 
 
 With the question of grip and stance 
 properly settled, in mind if not in actual prac- 
 
68 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 tice, the next thing to consider is the swing 
 of the club, from which the force which drives 
 the ball is obtained. 
 
 As I have said before, the swing for all the 
 strokes of the long game, or, in other words, 
 those which are made with the full power of 
 the club in hand, depends upon fixed and in- 
 variable principles, however far good golfers 
 may differ from one another in matter of 
 detail in execution. The swing proper may 
 be divided into three component parts : 
 
 I. — The wrist action. 
 
 II. — The arm movement. 
 
 III. — The body movement. 
 
 Each plays its own particular part in the 
 achievement of the desired result, and no one 
 can hope to become a good long-game player 
 who has not mastered the intricacies of all 
 three. 
 
 While it is true that a mastery of all three 
 of the component parts of the swing is neces- 
 sary to achieve long play, one of these parts 
 is a little more essential than the other two, 
 
THE STANCE 69 
 
 and vastly harder to master. This is the 
 wrist action, and a perfect accomplishment of 
 it is, I think, about the hardest bit of all the 
 hard things in golf. But it is well worth 
 working for, because when it is finally mas- 
 tered, it will be found to have lengthened the 
 wooden-club shots at least fifteen yards, and 
 the full iron shots proportionately. 
 
 In the discouraging moments when it seems 
 absolutely impossible to impart that almost 
 undefinable snap to the wrists as the club head 
 meets the ball, it may seem that a gain of 
 fifteen yards is not worth anything like the 
 trouble it is causing, but when you come to 
 play in a tournament or a match, on the win- 
 ing of which your heart is set, that extra 
 fifteen yards will seem worth anything in the 
 world. 
 
 The illustrations which show the positions 
 of the hands and wrists at the different stages 
 of the upward swing give a far better idea of 
 how the wrists should bend than words can do. 
 As they show, the wrists should be supple 
 
70 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 from the very beginning of the stroke, and 
 should be allowed to turn in a perfectly 
 natural way. There are two benefits to be 
 derived from this turning. The first lies in 
 the fact that through it the club can be swung 
 at a greatly accelerated speed, and, as I have 
 pointed out in a former chapter, it is the speed 
 of the swing which produces the distance of 
 the shots; the second, that it is only through 
 the turning of the wrists, as the club swings 
 backward, that they can be brought into posi- 
 tion for the impartation of a snap to the club 
 as it meets the ball. 
 
 By glancing at the illustrations of the down 
 swing it will be seen that at a couple of feet 
 from the ball the wrists are bent. Just at 
 this point they should be suddenly straight- 
 ened and made rigid, and as this is done with 
 the club moving at tremendous speed it has 
 the effect of imparting a snap to the shot. 
 Do not, however, fall into the error of sup- 
 posing that because you have accomplished 
 this much there is nothing more to worry 
 
THE STANCE 71 
 
 about, for nothing is further from the actual 
 truth. The follow-through of a stroke, while 
 not quite so important as the backward swing, 
 plays a very essential part in the shot, much 
 more so than anyone but a golfer of experi- 
 ence could believe. 
 
 After the ball is struck — and care should 
 be taken to see that the desire to impart the 
 " snap " to the shot does not impair the har- 
 mony of the swing (a point to be treated in 
 the next chapter) — the hands and arms 
 should swing well forward, and as the club 
 moves onto the upward half of its circle the 
 wrists will begin to perform another turn, 
 exactly the reverse of that made in the back- 
 ward stroke. That Is, they will do so if they 
 have been relaxed as soon as the ball has been 
 struck. The illustrations show how the wrists 
 should turn. 
 
 Many players are afraid to hold the wrists 
 relaxed for fear that, if they do, the club's face 
 will be diverted from the angle at which the 
 ball was addressed, and that it will conse- 
 
72 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 quently connect with the ball in such a way 
 as to cause a slice or pull. This is a ground- 
 less fear. If the club is gripped properly, 
 the stance correct, and the wrists allowed to 
 turn naturally, they will take care of them- 
 selves in the downward swing. One should 
 not, however, try to force this turn or disaster 
 will result. It won't be natural. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SWING 
 
 IN the foregoing chapter I laid no stress 
 upon the fact that the left wrist, in con- 
 sequence of gripping the club more 
 tightly with that hand than with the right, 
 did a rather greater share of the work than 
 the right, but this is nevertheless the case. 
 The ideal, of course, is to have the two hands 
 work so harmoniously together that it is im- 
 possible to see where one contributes more 
 strength than the other. 
 
 With the theoretical knowledge of the part 
 which the wrists should play in the full stroke 
 firmly implanted in one's mind, the next steg 
 is naturally to apply the knowledge to a prac- 
 tical use, and like so many other things, it will 
 be found that what works well in theory does 
 not act quite so well in practice. 
 
 Of course the stronger the wrist muscles 
 73 
 
74 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 are, the more power they will be able to exert, 
 and with a realization of the important part 
 which they play throughout the entire game 
 from tee to hole in mind, it is the part of 
 wisdom to spend a few moments each day in 
 simple exercises which are calculated to de- 
 velop them and the muscles, also, of the fore- 
 arm. Any gymnasium or Delsarte teacher 
 can suggest some good ones which can be 
 practiced at home with dumbbells, or even 
 without anything in the hands at all. Of 
 course if one is in the habit of attending a 
 gymnasium regularly, the wrist-machine will, 
 as its name implies, give a great variety of 
 wrist and forearm exercises. 
 
 One very beneficial exercise is to hold the 
 arms out straight from the shoulders, and 
 open and shut the fingers rapidly. In this the 
 arm muscles should be held tense. Another 
 good exercise is to hold the arms either ex- 
 tended or bent at the elbow, and relaxing com- 
 pletely the muscular tension at the wrists, 
 shake the hands rapidly. 
 
THESWING 76 
 
 The second part of a correct full stroke de- 
 pends upon the way the arms are swung. 
 They must be free, and carry the club in as 
 great an arc as possible, but in the endeavor 
 to do this, accuracy and harmony must not be 
 sacrificed. In fact, the harmony or perfect 
 timing of the swing, and the exertion of 
 strength at exactly the proper moment have 
 much more to do with the success of the shot 
 than has the amount of strength which is put 
 into it. 
 
 As I said when writing about the stance, 
 the distance the ball should be from the feet, 
 when addressing it, is a matter for each in- 
 dividual to settle for herself, but it should be 
 great enough to allow of the arms hanging 
 clear and free from the body. In the first 
 part of the backward stroke, as a glance at the 
 accompanying illustration of the up-swing will 
 show, the arms are already extending as far 
 backward as they can without overbalancing 
 the body or causing it to sway in the same 
 direction. I shall later take up the part which 
 
76 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 the body plays, but for the moment I will 
 touch only upon the arm movements. 
 
 After assuming the proper stance, it is a 
 good idea to " waggle " the club two or three 
 times over the ball, but it should never be 
 " lifted " more than an inch over it. This is 
 also a very good exercise for the wrists, and 
 can be practiced as such to good advantage. 
 After waving the club backward and forward 
 two or three times to get the proper feel to 
 it, rest for the space of a second behind the 
 ball, and then begin the backward swing. To 
 digress from this for a moment, let me sol- 
 emnly urge everyone not to fall into the ex- 
 ceedingly bad habit of taking up several 
 minutes in addressing the ball. 
 
 And there are any number of reasons why 
 my advice on this point should be taken, even 
 if it is scorned upon every other. In the first 
 place, it is bad for the stroke one is to play, 
 for it is tiring to eye, nerve, and muscle to 
 make three or four feints, and consequently, 
 when the actual stroke is played it is apt to be 
 
THESWING 77 
 
 just a shade less effectual than if all this extra 
 exertion had not been made. That this is the 
 general opinion also among ninety-nine out of 
 every hundred amateurs of the first class is, I 
 think, a fact, and I also am unable to recall 
 to mind a single professional of recognized 
 ability who indulges in long-drawn-out prepa- 
 rations for his shot. 
 
 This is the argument against it from the 
 purely practical standpoint of the question, 
 but from the standpoint of courtesy and eti- 
 quette it is even more strong. 
 
 A player who wastes two or three minutes 
 in addressing the ball for each shot will not 
 only keep her partner standing in idle and of 
 course helpless wrath, but she will probably 
 keep back, and in a like degree of impotent 
 rage, all the others who have been so unfor- 
 tunate as to tee off behind her. According to 
 the wording of the rules of golf, the player 
 has as long as she likes to make her round, 
 but if she wishes to be unpopular on the links 
 she can take no quicker or more sure method 
 
78 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 of achieving it than to indulge in this prac- 
 tice. 
 
 I may perhaps appear to feel too strongly 
 over this point, but anyone who has been 
 subjected to the annoyance of waiting and 
 waiting after each shot, while someone a 
 couple of hundred yards ahead goes through 
 a half-dozen meaningless swings, will, I 
 think, most heartily indorse all that I have 
 said. 
 
 After this bit of advice let us return to the 
 question of what part the arms are to play in 
 the achievement of a perfect swing. At the 
 beginning of the club's swing, for the first 
 three or four inches of its journey, the wrists 
 perform the work of raising it, as a glance 
 at the first illustration in the up-swing series 
 will show. At that point, as the next cut illus- 
 trates, the arms begin to assert themselves, 
 and they should be allowed to move out 
 freely. Under no circumstances, however, 
 allow the club head to swing up. On the con- 
 trary, when the club begins the backward 
 
THESWING 79 
 
 swing, keep it as close as possible to the 
 ground. There are many important reasons 
 for this. In the first place, this will carry the 
 arms out naturally quite a little further than 
 they would go if the club head went up more 
 perpendicularly, and thus a larger arc of a 
 circle is formed. 
 
 The advantages of this are at once obvious. 
 The more distance that the club head travels 
 on a line parallel with the ball, the less chance 
 there is of it striking the ball above or below 
 it (technically sclaffing or topping), and, of 
 course, this is one point of danger eliminated. 
 
 Another advantage is that the further the 
 club head travels on a line parallel to the ball, 
 before striking it, the greater power it will 
 impart to it. This, of course, is due to the 
 fact that the momentum will be applied more 
 directly behind the ball, and therefore utilized 
 to its fullest extent. If, on the other hand, 
 the club is coming down more perpendicu- 
 larly, part of its momentum will be expended 
 in covering that distance, and even when it 
 
80 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 hits the ball, it will do so with a sort of cut 
 which will take many and many a yard from 
 the length of the shot. 
 
 As the club head draws back, the arms 
 follow, but the elbows should not be allowed 
 to get too far away from the side of the body. 
 Just how far (to the number of inches) they 
 may be allowed to go, no one could specify, 
 but a glance at the illustrations in the series 
 showing the up-swing will give an idea. So 
 much for the arms. 
 
 The third of the three component parts of 
 the swing, the body movement, embraces not 
 only the turning of the trunk of the body 
 from the hips as the club swings up or down 
 (when the body must sway, too), but also 
 the degree in which the knee should bend and 
 the heel turn. 
 
 After assuming the proper stance for ad- 
 dressing the ball, in which, as I stated in the 
 chapter devoted to the stance, the knee should 
 be bent just sufficiently to make the whole 
 position easy, and to allow the body to turn 
 
THESWING 81 
 
 to the right as the club swings backward in 
 the upper part of the stroke, and to the left 
 as it completes the arc, swing the club back- 
 ward, keeping in mind the idea that it must 
 be kept as close as possible to the ground. 
 As it swings, there will develop a strong 
 inclination to turn the entire body from the 
 knees up in the same direction. This should 
 never be done, however. With the hips as 
 a pivot, the trunk of the body may be allowed 
 to turn, but never more than is shown in the 
 illustration. In fact a little less would be 
 much preferable to the slightest degree more. 
 Perhaps the best guide as to the distance 
 the arms should be raised is that the club, 
 when at the very top of the swing, should 
 be a very little past the horizontal line back 
 of and across the right shoulder. As the body 
 turns, and the club swings up, the left heel, 
 if allowed to do so, will naturally raise itself 
 a few inches from the ground, and the foot 
 turn on the toe. This is all very well if not 
 carried to excess, but care must be taken to 
 
82 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 see that only the natural turn is allowed, and 
 that there is no forcing of it. 
 
 When the club has reached the extreme 
 height to which the backward swing is to 
 extend, without pausing for a single second, 
 bring the arms and body around again in 
 the same arc of the circle, and " sweep " the 
 ball away. It is not a blow. It is distinctly 
 a sweep, and this is a most important fact to 
 bear in mind. 
 
 Many persons are imbued with the idea 
 that after the ball is struck, it matters not 
 what becomes of the club, or in what manner 
 the arms and body finish out the stroke. 
 
 No greater mistake could be made. The 
 follow-through of the stroke is considered 
 nearly if not quite as important as that part 
 of the stroke made before the club comes in 
 contact with the ball, and a moment's reflec- 
 tion upon the laws of physics will demon- 
 strate conclusively that this must be true. 
 
 If a ball and a club head are placed in 
 contact with no force, it will be quickly seen 
 
THESWING 83 
 
 that the point of contact is exceedingly small 
 — no larger in fact than the point of a lead- 
 pencil. On the other hand, a glance at the 
 club head after a full stroke has been made 
 often shows a mark of the ball which is at 
 least as large as a quarter of a dollar. 
 
 The composition of which the ball is made 
 has, of course, a certain amount of resiliency, 
 and the wood of the club head also gives a 
 fraction of an inch under the force of a full 
 stroke. Consequently, when these two forces 
 meet each other, it is proof that they are in 
 actual contact for a certain period of time 
 after the club head strikes the ball, and while 
 this period is, of course, an infinitesimal part 
 of a second, the club is traveling so fast that 
 its relative position to the ball during that 
 space is of the utmost importance. 
 
 Naturally, to achieve the perfect perform- 
 ance of the shot, the head should be at an 
 absolute right angle to the desired line of 
 flight, and the further the club can be made 
 to follow in this line, the better. 
 
84 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Consequently, after the ball is struck, the 
 hands and arms should be allowed to swing 
 as far forward as they naturally wish to go, 
 as the illustrations in the series showing the 
 follow-through, illustrate very clearly. And 
 they also show that after the club has swung 
 a couple of feet or a yard past the spot where 
 the ball was, the wrists will begin to turn 
 once more in the inverse way to that in which 
 they turned as the club swung backward, and 
 the finish of the stroke, if correctly carried 
 out, will be the exact reverse of the top of 
 the backward swing. 
 
 There are two great points, however, either 
 of which, if neglected, will bring to naught 
 the best efforts of the player, no matter how 
 diligently she practices or how perfectly she 
 acquires the swing. 
 
 They sound delightfully simple, but like 
 many other things which seem simple, are 
 tremendously intricate. They are : 
 
 First — Don't move your head. 
 
 Second — Keep your eye on the ball. 
 
THE SWING 
 
 85 
 
 So Important are these two injunctions that 
 words fail to express their significance. Neg- 
 lect of either, however, will teach it, and 
 teach it in a way to demonstrate that the old 
 saying that experience is a bitter teacher was 
 a most true one. 
 
 The reason " why " these two things are 
 of such importance I shall endeavor to satis- 
 factorily explain in the next chapter. 
 
 In the meantime, burn Into your mind with 
 flaming letters: 
 
 " Keep your eye on the ball." 
 
 " Don't move your head." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SWING (continued) 
 
 IT may seem that there are so many in- 
 junctions in golf to be kept in mind that 
 there cannot be any one point which it 
 is especially imperative to observe, but such 
 is, nevertheless, the fact, and it is the first 
 of the two injunctions I exhorted all golfers 
 to burn into their minds with flaming letters 
 at the conclusion of the preceding chapter : 
 " Keep your eye on the ball." 
 Six little words, but what a tremendous 
 amount they mean ! 
 
 Oh, the sorrows which would have been 
 averted had the injunctions which they record 
 been strictly adhered to! The tears which 
 need not have been shed; the matches which 
 would not have been lost; the six-inch putts 
 which would not have been missed ; the drives 
 86 
 
THESWING 87 
 
 which would not have been topped or pulled 
 or sliced or sclaffed ! 
 
 The things which otherwise would not have 
 been are legion; far too numerous to count. 
 But perhaps it is better that we are but 
 human, and that the eye will wander. Were 
 it not so, golf would be so perfect a pleasure 
 and so great a delight that it might lose part 
 of its charm, for in it, as in everything else, 
 it is the unobtainable which is most desired. 
 
 It might seem to a hasty observer that if 
 one kept either the head immovable or the 
 eye on the ball, that the other essential would 
 follow as a matter of course, but such is by 
 no means the case. It is more apt to occur, 
 of course, but by no means is it a certainty. 
 
 Of the two, I consider keeping the eye on 
 the ball by far the most important, for if it 
 is done absolutely, the chances are very likely 
 that the head will be kept still. 
 
 There is no greater temptation in all the 
 world of golf than to take the eye off the 
 ball a fraction of a second before the club 
 
88 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 comes in contact with It, in order that one 
 may see where it is going as a result of the 
 stroke. Women have from the days of Eve 
 been accused of unlimited curiosity, but I am 
 happy to say that I find from personal experi- 
 ence that men are much more apt to take their 
 eyes off than women, and that, therefore, 
 feminine curiosity, in golf at least, is second 
 to man's. 
 
 I consider this point of such extreme im- 
 portance that I earnestly advise all beginners 
 to not only keep the eye on the ball until it 
 is struck, but to keep it on the spot until the 
 club has reached the end of the follow- 
 through. 
 
 Nor need this advice be considered appli- 
 cable to beginners only. Players of a consid- 
 erable amount of skill may find that their 
 game improves amazingly by following it, 
 and while I myself confess that I do not, 
 when In good form, follow it quite to the 
 extent of not moving my eye until my club 
 has reached the extreme end of the stroke, 
 
THESWING 89 
 
 I do so whenever I find that my game is not 
 up to my best form. 
 
 The expression *' keeping the eye on the 
 ball," however, should not, in my opinion, be 
 taken with too absolute literalness. I think 
 that the eye should be focused not on the 
 top of the ball, where it naturally would be 
 if the ball were its object point, but on a 
 spot of ground directly behind the ball itself. 
 One advantage of this is that one is less apt 
 to top the shot, and another that in this way 
 the object upon which the eye has been fo- 
 cused is not swept away at the middle of 
 the shot, as it is if the eye is directly upon the 
 ball, and it is in consequence much easier to 
 keep it steadier until the end of the follow- 
 through has been reached. Although we are 
 dealing just now Vv^ith the importance of this 
 point in its relations to the long game (as 
 full shots with any distance-covering clubs 
 are termed), it is equally important in every 
 department of the game, down to six-inch 
 putts, a point which I shall endeavor to im- 
 
90 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 press when the other shots are being discussed. 
 Of its corollary, keeping the head in the 
 same position, its value lies in the fact that 
 if this is done, the body will not sway as the 
 club goes back on the up-swing, and hands, 
 arms, and clubs must therefore swing down 
 on the same positions as those which they had 
 assumed in addressing the ball, and which 
 it naturally follows assures the ball being 
 struck in the absolutely correct way. 
 
 So thoroughly and entirely is this true that 
 it is no uncommon feat for a professional, 
 after assuming his stance and getting the 
 correct address to the ball, to allow himself 
 to be blindfolded, and then drive nearly as 
 effective a shot as though his eyes were open. 
 This, however, is something which can only 
 be acquired by years of constant play, but 
 it illustrates the importance of keeping the 
 head still. 
 
 If the player were only satisfied to drive 
 a moderately long ball, and paid much more 
 attention to the correct carrying out of these 
 
THESWING 91 
 
 details than to the amount of strength put 
 into the stroke in an endeavor to make the 
 records of James Braid, Douglas Holland, 
 and their like look insignificant, respectable 
 driving from the tee through the green 
 would not be such a difficult art, but ninety- 
 nine out of every hundred players are not 
 satisfied with this, and, in the endeavor to 
 utilize every atom of strength, sway back an 
 inch or two. There are several methods of 
 practice which will overcome this fault. 
 
 A very excellent one, which has the ad- 
 vantage of being easy to take up at home, if 
 you are so fortunate as to have a full-length 
 mirror or a room large enough to allow of 
 the swinging of a club in it without inter- 
 ference with bric-a-brac and furniture, is to 
 practice swinging in front of the mirror, 
 needless to say without a ball. Then by look- 
 ing up at one's reflection instead of directly 
 at the spot where the ball should be, the 
 movement of the head can be detected. 
 
 This, of course, has the disadvantage of 
 
92 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 taking the eye from the spot it should be in 
 the actual stroke. 
 
 Another method, and probably a better 
 one, is to assume a position on the tee with 
 the sun directly at one's back, and watch the 
 shadow of the head during the swing. In 
 this way one can instantly tell whether it is 
 being held immovable or not, and if not, the 
 swing must of course be practiced until the 
 desired result is achieved. 
 
 The matter of practicing is another point 
 which should be considered seriously, and not 
 done haphazard. 
 
 PRACTICING 
 
 There is only one way in which a person 
 can become a really high-class golfer, and 
 that is by constant and thoughtful practice. 
 The idea that it is the person who plays the 
 most rounds of a course who will be the best 
 player is entirely erroneous. It makes little 
 dijfference in the improvement to be sought, 
 how many times a player makes a certain shot, 
 
THESWING 93 
 
 If each time It Is not made correctly, and In 
 fact It Is worse to play constantly In bad form 
 than not to play at all. 
 
 The golfer who really wishes to Improve 
 will make It a point to practice over and over 
 again for ten or fifteen minutes at a time the 
 same shot, be It drive, approach, or putt, and 
 study the cause and effect of each one. 
 
 It Is unwise to practice one style of shot 
 more than fifteen minutes In succession, how- 
 ever, for the muscles become a trifle tired 
 from repeating the same motion time after 
 time, and one also becomes a trifle careless, 
 no matter how much this Is guarded against. 
 
 To a person who reads this without stop- 
 ping to think. It may seem that playing the 
 regular round would be as good practice as 
 the above method, but In the regular round 
 you make a certain shot, and then have no 
 opportunity of repeating It for five or ten 
 minutes. In which time you have played a half- 
 dozen or more other shots of an entirely dif- 
 ferent nature. 
 
94 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 When one is trying to acquire the proper 
 swing for a stroke, it is by no means necessary 
 that a ball should be used. In fact, it is often 
 a good idea not to do so, for so weak is human 
 nature, that the desire to make a fine drive out 
 of the shot becomes overpowering, and in con- 
 sequence the result becomes of more impor- 
 tance than the method of achievement. 
 
 A good substitute for the ball is a leaf, a 
 bit of paper, or a cork, or anything, in fact, 
 which will serve as an object point for the 
 eye to focus upon. 
 
 An Easy Shat 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LONG GAME 
 
 THE four greatest obstacles to perfect 
 driving are sclaffing, topping, pull- 
 ing, and slicing, and any one of 
 them is wonderfully easy — except when one 
 really wishes to do so. 
 
 With the exception of taking the eye off 
 the ball or swaying the head with the move- 
 ment of the body in the swing, there is prob- 
 ably nothing in the glossary of golf which 
 causes so much trouble as an improper stance. 
 As it may seem, both sclaffing and its very 
 reverse, topping, may be caused by the same 
 fault, viz., standing too much in front of the 
 ball, that is, with it placed nearly opposite the 
 right foot instead of nearly opposite the left. 
 The results of this kind of a stance are at once 
 apparent in one's play, and the result could 
 95 
 
96 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 easily be imagined if the player stopped to 
 consider cause and effect. 
 
 The first result of such a stance is that the 
 swing becomes a " chop " instead of a sweep, 
 and the club comes down either upon the top 
 of the ball or under it instead of being 
 swept away just as the club head begins to 
 rise. 
 
 The " pop-up " shot, which starts away 
 from the tee with such promise, rises high in 
 the heavens, and drops with such a disagree- 
 able and annoying thud about fifty or one 
 hundred yards short of where one expected 
 from its fine start it was going to do, is caused 
 by this kind of a choppy swing, as is also that 
 most distressing of all things, a ball which 
 runs with apparently tremendous speed along 
 the ground, and loses itself in the first hazard 
 upon the course. 
 
 Pulling and slicing, two faults from which 
 only the really first-class player is free, may 
 be caused by an improper stance, but usually 
 are the result of not forcing the arms and 
 
THE LONG GAME 97 
 
 shoulders to finish out the stroke in the line 
 of flight taken by the ball. 
 
 This may happen from allowing the body to 
 fall away from the ball as the club reaches it 
 in the downward swing, or it may be due to 
 pulling the arms around quickly to the left. 
 If this is done, and the ball be struck squarely 
 in the center of the club head, a terrific pull 
 will result, while, if the arms have commenced 
 to swerve enough to the left to cause the ball 
 to be struck on the toe of the club, an equally 
 great slice will result. 
 
 The difference in cause is so slight, and that 
 of result so great, that it takes an experienced 
 player to recognize that both are caused by 
 practically the same error. 
 
 Other little faults which from time to time 
 creep into a player's game, and for a longer 
 or shorter time prevent the perfect execution 
 of a drive, will be found to be due to a loose- 
 ness of grip, or a carelessness regarding the 
 way the thumbs are held, which may cause the 
 club to turn in the hands. 
 
98 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Another common cause for a slice or pull 
 is that the club is not evenly soled when ad- 
 dressing the ball, and in consequence it is at 
 an angle when brought into contact with the 
 ball in the swing. 
 
 This is a more important point than many 
 players believe, and the beginner especially 
 should invariably be sure that both the heel 
 and toe are on the ground, and that the face 
 is at right angles to the tee. 
 
 Another common fault is that of loosening 
 every muscle of the body, and trying to get 
 every particle of strength and weight into the 
 stroke. This can only be done after a player 
 has acquired a good share of proficiency, and 
 while I by no means recommend that a player 
 should endeavor to swing with no suppleness 
 at all, I think it is better to err at first on the 
 side of rigidity. 
 
 Despite all these precautions, however, 
 there will come a time when a drive cannot 
 be made as it should be, and then there is 
 only one thing to do» 
 
THE LONG GAME 99 
 
 Adopt a half-swing, and try to make up 
 for the lack of distance the club travels before 
 reaching the ball by accuracy and power of 
 the follow-through. 
 
 With half a swing this is absolutely neces- 
 sary In order to get any distance at all, and 
 the practice will be found very beneficial to 
 the length of the drive when a full swing is 
 resumed, as well as being absolutely the only 
 method of playing when the unhappy time of 
 being unable to drive with a full swing arrives, 
 as it undoubtedly will. 
 
 PLAYING AGAINST THE WIND 
 
 Nothing is more discouraging than to drive 
 off what you consider a fine ball, and then 
 have a wind take it away to one side, or 
 else stop it at something like half the distance 
 you felt sure it would go. The wind is a far 
 more powerful factor than would seem pos- 
 sible, considering the size of the ball upon 
 which it has to operate, and while its baleful 
 influences cannot always be entirely overcome, 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
100 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 they can in most cases be rendered compara- 
 tively harmless, and in some few instances 
 made actually helpful. 
 
 When playing against a wind which is di- 
 rectly in one's teeth, the player should re- 
 member that the slightest pull or slice will be 
 magnified by the wind one-hundredfold, and 
 accuracy should therefore be the first consid- 
 eration. 
 
 To obtain this one must of course maintain 
 a perfect balance on the feet, and the best way 
 to insure this is to swing easily — not try 
 to put an extra amount of force into the 
 stroke, as so many unthinking players do. If 
 the ball is hit absolutely clean, and the follow- 
 through is all that it should be, the drive will 
 be within a few yards as far as though you 
 had hit it with all your strength, and it is cer- 
 tain that while a " pressed " shot may once in 
 a dozen times be phenomenal, the eleven fail- 
 ures will be more than ordinarily bad. 
 
 It is true that a low ball hit in the right 
 way will travel much further against a wind 
 
THE LONG GAME 101 
 
 than a high ball, but it will not do so if its 
 lowness is the result of a half-top. Trying to 
 half top a ball causes more fully topped shots 
 than one could count, and even if it is 
 done successfully, the ball will not travel very 
 far. 
 
 One should use a low tee under any and all 
 circumstances, and if this is done, a correctly 
 hit ball will not fly high enough for the wind 
 to have much of an effect upon it. 
 
 With the wind directly at one's back the 
 same rules remain in force, except that per- 
 haps the tee might be made a fraction of an 
 inch higher, in order that the ball may get up 
 in the air a little more, and so give the wind 
 an opportunity to exert its force. 
 
 When the wind is blowing across the line 
 of play, it may be made an aid by noticing 
 whether it is blowing from left to right, or 
 right to left, and playing for a slice or a 
 pull as the case may be. By so doing one 
 obtains in many instances nearly as much 
 benefit from the wind as though It had 
 
102 GOLFFORWOMEN 
 
 been from behind. It is so easy, and at 
 times apparently so unavoidable, to slice and 
 pull that it may seem like carrying coals to 
 Newcastle to give advice on how to commit 
 these chief sins of the golfing decalougue, but 
 there are times when they have their uses the 
 same as everything else. 
 
 To pull a ball, the best method is to place 
 the ball very little farther back than usual, 
 aim very slightly to the right, and hit clean, 
 exactly as though you wished to drive a 
 straight ball. If properly carried out, this 
 method will give quite enough pull to the 
 shot to insure Its keeping a little bit more than 
 straight against the wind, and It will have, 
 when it strikes the ground, the rotary motion 
 toward the left which is responsible for the 
 long roll which all pulled balls have. In fact^ 
 so much farther does a pulled drive go than 
 even an absolutely straight one, that the 
 majority of the best players endeavor to im- 
 part a slight pull to every long shot they may 
 be called upon to make, except, of course. 
 
THE LONG GAME 103 
 
 where the character of the hnks makes a 
 pulled shot liable to run into a hazard. 
 
 A common method pursued when it is 
 wished to pull a shot is to stand well in front 
 of the ball and aim well to the right. This 
 is a very bad policy, for it will result in so 
 terrific a pull that it is impossible to gauge 
 the distance it will cover, and much trouble is 
 likely to follow its use. 
 
 Another argument against its adoption is 
 that, if one takes up this stance, the mind will 
 instinctively think about achieving a pull, and 
 the shoulders in consequence will instinctively 
 swing around to the left, in order to help in 
 the desired result, instead of leaving it to be 
 accomplished by the stance, and the resultant 
 pull will be quite too strong to be pleasant or 
 useful. 
 
 Slicing a ball when the wind is blowing 
 from left to right (of course I refer invariably 
 to right-handed players) is one of the most 
 difficult and delicate strokes of the games. 
 The reason that it is more so than is a pull 
 
104 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 comes from the fact that it is easier to overdo 
 it, and also that the wind has much more 
 effect upon it. 
 
 When playing for a slice, aim a little to 
 the left, and keep the ball well in front of 
 you, almost opposite the left foot, and then 
 play your shot exactly as though a straight 
 drive were desired. If such a thing is pos- 
 sible, the follow-through is even more im- 
 portant than anywhere else. 
 
 It may be thought that I have devoted too 
 much space and gone into too many details in 
 analyzing the movements which are combined 
 in the perfect performance of the drive, but 
 if one stops to consider that the stroke is 
 really the fundamental principle upon which 
 are based all the other full strokes of the 
 game, it will be realized that it would be im- 
 possible to dwell too strongly upon so im- 
 portant and far-reaching a point. 
 
 It is far too much to expect that the golfer 
 will be possessed of sufficient self-restraint to 
 refrain from making the rounds of the course 
 
THE LONG GAME 105 
 
 after having once acquired a fairly proficient 
 command of the driver, and I shall therefore 
 proceed to offer some hints of a general char- 
 acter before taking up the technical points in 
 which lie the secrets of the brassey and 
 cleek 
 
 AMOUNT TO PLAY 
 
 The amount that a person can play and 
 yet keep at the top of her game depends ab- 
 solutely on the individual physique and mental 
 temperament. Generally speaking, if one 
 devotes a half hour to practicing certain shots 
 over and over again, and follows this practice 
 with an eighteen-hole round of the links three 
 times a week, it Is quite enough to obtain the 
 best results. Still, the point, like so many 
 others, must be determined by the player per- 
 sonally. 
 
 I think it rather better to play eighteen 
 holes three times a week than thirty-six holes 
 on two days, unless one Is fortunate enough 
 to be able to reach the club with a very short 
 
106 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 journey, for most golfers will find it neces- 
 sary to spend from an hour to an hour and a 
 half traveling befor'e reaching the links, and 
 this trip added to thirty-six holes of golf over 
 the long course and the return trip to town 
 makes a little more exertion than is beneficial 
 to the average woman. Still, if the course is 
 easy to walk over, and a trial finds you fresh 
 and energetic after such a day's golf, there is 
 no reason why your play should not be done 
 in this way. 
 
 OVERGOLF 
 
 There is one point over which the golfer 
 who really desires to improve will come to 
 grief more surely than she who is not so en- 
 thusiastic, and the more earnest the player, 
 the more certainly is she in danger of ship- 
 wreck in this Scylla of golf. This is the 
 matter of playing too much. Once you feel 
 you are overgolfed, lay aside your clubs, no 
 matter what the temptation to play, for sev- 
 eral days, or a week is better if your moral 
 
THE LONG GAME 107 
 
 strength is of sufficient caliber to withstand 
 such a strain, and banish the thought of golf 
 from your mind. It may be the hardest bit 
 of self-denial you have ever accomplished, but 
 it will pay in the long run. 
 
 There is absolutely nothing which will 
 bring disaster on the links and despair to 
 your heart so quickly and fiercely and ever- 
 lastingly as trying to play when over- 
 golfed. 
 
 The novice may think I speak too strongly, 
 but I assure her I do not. Nothing goes right. 
 Your drives are sliced or pulled or topped or 
 sclaffed, your approaches the same. Your 
 putts simply will not go into the hole. Or if 
 they do go in, they will not stay there. They 
 roll around the edge of the cup and hang on 
 the lip, and seem to grin at you with fiendish 
 delight, and the more care you take, the 
 worse matters become. There is but one 
 remedy. Stop playing, and the sooner you 
 realize it the better it will be both for your 
 game and your conscience. 
 
108 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 ACCURACY 
 
 Next to a good style, the most important 
 thing to aim for is accuracy of direction. It 
 makes little difference whether one is five 
 yards more or less distant from the tee after 
 a drive, provided the ball has gone straight 
 for the hole and is lying on the fair green in 
 the center of the course, but if it is in the long 
 grass, or other trouble which almost in- 
 variably is to be found on either side of the 
 line of play, the added five yards of distance 
 which lands one here will be found very 
 costly, for it will take a stroke to get out of 
 the trouble, and another to reach the point 
 where a good second after a straight drive 
 would have placed the ball. 
 
 The same principle is exemplified when the 
 green is within reach. A straight shot reaches 
 it, and then the orthodox two putts should see 
 one down, while a wildly played approach will 
 necessitate a little approach putt and usually 
 the other two as well, the distinct loss of a 
 Stroke. 
 
THE LONG GAME 
 
 109 
 
 One of the best methods to Insure accuracy 
 is to never " press," but use a club which will 
 give the desired distance with an easy swing. 
 
 Thus, if pressing with a cleek will achieve 
 the desired result, take a brassey; if a mid-iron 
 might do it, take a cleek ; and so on down the 
 list of clubs. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE LONG GAME (continued) 
 
 UPON every golf-course there should 
 be, and almost invariably is, a pro- 
 portion of holes so long that it will 
 require two, or even three, shots with the full 
 power of the driver to reach the green. 
 
 The point of arranging the distance of the 
 holes on a golf-course so that it is necessary 
 to play shots perfectly in order to reach the 
 green in two or three or four, as the case may 
 be, is a most important one for the develop- 
 ment of good golf, but one which is, most 
 unfortunately, only too often overlooked. It 
 is so manifestly unfair to have a hole of such 
 a distance that a player can make a poor drive 
 and still reach the green in two by making a 
 good brassey, and be just as well off as a 
 player who has made a good drive and a good 
 110 
 
THE LONG GAME 111 
 
 approach shot with a mashie, that it is very 
 discouraging to the good player, and to play 
 over a course so arranged takes away much of 
 the pleasure of the game. 
 
 Supposing, however, that the course has 
 been correctly laid out and the distance ar- 
 ranged so that full shots with the driver are 
 required, the point arises, as soon as a bad lie 
 Is found, of what club to use which will not 
 only lift the ball out of the bad lie, but has the 
 power to achieve the desired distance. The 
 club designed for the express purpose is the 
 brassey. Of course, where the lie is good 
 enough, the driver should be used, but when 
 there is any doubt whatsoever of the ability 
 to get the ball away with the driver the 
 brassey should be taken. 
 
 This club is really like a driver, except that 
 its face is usually laid back a trifle so as to 
 impart a loft to the ball, and on Its sole is 
 fastened a thin piece of brass. 
 
 In playing a brassey, practically the same 
 §wing should be used in the drive proper, ex- 
 
112 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 cept that it should not be allowed to swing 
 back quite so far. 
 
 In driving a ball from a tee, one should 
 endeavor to hit it as cleanly as possible, but 
 when the lie is such that a brassey is being 
 used, one should not endeavor to do this. 
 
 On the contrary, the club should be brought 
 down more perpendicularly, and the ground 
 struck at the same time with the ball. 
 
 In playing a brassey, do not imagine that 
 because the ground should be struck as well 
 as the ball, an extra amount of force must be 
 imparted to the stroke. 
 
 Rather to the contrary, for the whole se- 
 cret of successfully negotiating a bad lie is 
 the cleanness with which the ball is picked up, 
 and, as I have reiterated in former chapters, 
 the " follow-through." 
 
 In addressing the ball for a brassey-shot, it 
 should be a trifle nearer the right foot than 
 when a tee shot is being played, and that foot 
 should also be somewhat further advanced 
 than in the other instance. It may sound 
 
THE LONG GAME 113 
 
 absurd to say that one inch Is about the dis- 
 tance, but a golfer will readily appreciate the 
 difference which such an even apparently in- 
 significant distance will make. 
 
 If the player has been wise enough to ac- 
 custom herself to the use of a low tee she 
 should have no difficulty in hitting her brassey- 
 shots cleanly, but if she has been accustomed 
 to driving off from a mound of sand any- 
 where from one to three inches in height, she 
 will probably find that the brassey-shots are 
 being topped most distressfully. This is one 
 of the punishments of using a high tee, and 
 should offer an argument in favor of a low 
 one, sufficiently strong to make the golfer 
 discard that violation of the traditions of golf 
 at once and for evermore, and the argument is 
 equally applicable to all the shots played 
 through the field. 
 
 The best way to remedy the fault, after 
 discarding the high tee, is to fasten the eye 
 on a spot directly behind instead of upon the 
 ball when preparing for a stroke, as was ad- 
 
114 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 vised in the first place. This has the effect of 
 bringing the objective focus of the eye to a 
 spot a trifle lower than in the other method, 
 and the result is that the club is instinctively 
 swung a little lower, bringing it down to the 
 proper level. 
 
 Sometimes a player will strike the ground 
 so hard a blow, in endeavoring to avoid top- 
 ping, that the wrist will receive a severe jar, 
 and the memory of it will cause the player to 
 err on the other side, with the result that a 
 long series of " tops " will result. There is 
 only one way to overcome this, and that is to 
 play the shots easily and carefully until the 
 feeling of flinching disappears. 
 
 If one is sclaffing brassey-shots continually 
 in an effort to avoid topping, it may be over- 
 come by looking at a spot just ahead of the 
 ball, on the same principle that constant 
 topping may be overcome by looking be- 
 hind it. 
 
 Beyond these points the advice laid down 
 for the performance of a drive, the timing of 
 
THE LONG GAME 116 
 
 the stroke, the necessity of accuracy, etc., etc., 
 appHes equally to the brassey. 
 
 One of the hardest " lies " from which to 
 negotiate a good shot is from what is called 
 a " hanging lie," that is, when the ground 
 behind the ball slopes upward. The ball may 
 be perched upon a tuft of grass which sets it 
 up as high as though it were on the tee, but 
 nevertheless it is an extremely difficult and un- 
 pleasant situation. The only way to nego- 
 tiate it successfully is to allow the club to go 
 through after the ball in accordance with the 
 dip of the ground; and another thing to be 
 very particular about here, and in the per- 
 formance of every other stroke as well, is 
 to see that the face of the club is not turned 
 in, or in other words, that the end of the face 
 is not nearer the left foot than the heel. 
 
 The next most powerful club, meaning the 
 distance which it will drive the ball, is the 
 cleek. 
 
 This is an almost straight-faced iron club, 
 and with it one should be able to get within 
 
116 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 about twenty or thirty yards of the distance 
 one can get with a brassey. It is played prac- 
 tically like a brassey, and should be used in 
 its place when one is afraid of overplaying 
 with the latter, or when the lie is particularly 
 bad and it is necessary to get distance. 
 
 Next to the cleek in power is the mid-iron, 
 and then the mashie. 
 
 APPROACHING 
 
 Technically, of course, every shot, except 
 the drive from the tee, which is expected to 
 land the ball upon the green, is an approach, 
 but the term is usually regarded to mean only 
 shots played with a mid-iron or mashie, or, in 
 other words, those from a distance of about 
 1 1 o yards down to where the putter is em- 
 ployed. There are many ways of playing 
 approach shots, and there is no more im- 
 portant part of the game than this, not even 
 excepting putting, which is, I must confess, 
 usually regarded as the most difficult and 
 most important part of the game. While 
 
THE LONG GAME 117 
 
 putting is undoubtedly of the greatest im- 
 portance, the player who can lay her ball 
 within a very few feet of the hole from a 
 long approach shot practically saves a stroke, 
 for she should occasionally go down in one 
 putt, and always in two, while it is a grand 
 putter indeed who can always go down in two 
 putts when her ball lies thirty or forty feet 
 away. 
 
 In playing approach shots, the importance 
 of accuracy is intensified, for the distance to 
 be covered is so small that the short player is 
 just as well off as the long one, and the ad- 
 vantage which the latter enjoys from her su- 
 periority in that department from the tee and 
 through the field is lost. 
 
 In playing a full shot, while it is extremely 
 pleasant to see the ball go sailing away clean 
 and sweet and dead on the line of the flag, it 
 makes really no difference whether it does 
 just that or whether it goes ten or fifteen yards 
 to the right or left. When it comes to ap- 
 proaching the green, however, it is a different 
 
118 GOLFFORWOMEN 
 
 matter, and this ten or fifteen yards to one side 
 or the other resolves itself into the question 
 of a stroke more or less. 
 
 In playing approaches, the point mentioned 
 in a former chapter regarding the use of a 
 club which will carry the required distance 
 without either pressing or trying to spare the 
 shot is particularly apropos. 
 
 There are two ways of playing approach 
 shots. 
 
 One is to play them up in the air with a 
 little cut on the ball so that they will drop 
 with comparatively little roll, and the other is 
 to play them low and depend upon a long run. 
 
 Both have advantages, and while it is better 
 to settle upon one way and use it whenever 
 practicable, one should endeavor to master 
 both methods, for upon every course there will 
 be some holes where each will be found 
 necessary. 
 
 When golf was younger in America than 
 it is to-day, and our courses were consequently 
 more imperfect and rougher, the highly lofted 
 
THE LONG GAME 119 
 
 approach which would drop with compara- 
 tively little roll was the favorite among 
 players generally, from the fact that if one 
 dropped the ball upon the green it ran truly, 
 while an approach played so that it would 
 bound and roll along the ground (which in 
 those days was usually quite rough) exposed 
 it to the chances of being turned widely from 
 its true course by contact with the lumps in 
 the ground. 
 
 A point against the highly lofted approach 
 was that it was quite as liable to be swerved 
 from its proper course by the wind as the low 
 shot was by the rough ground. 
 
 This objection still holds good, while in 
 the last year or two courses have improved 
 so greatly that the ball in the vast majority of 
 instances may be depended upon to roll 
 straight, and for this reason the low approach 
 shot is more generally used, when the condi- 
 tions are such that a choice can be made, 
 
 Another point in favor of this style of ap- 
 proach shot is that it is decidedly easier to 
 
120 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 correctly gauge the proper amount of force 
 necessary to cover a given distance when 
 hitting with a straighter-faced club than when 
 using a well-lofted one. 
 
 Still another point in its favor is that if 
 one fails to hit the ball exactly as one should, 
 the results are not so disastrous, for a half- 
 topped or a sclaffed shot from off a compara- 
 tively straight-faced club gets much nearer 
 the mark than when this unhappy result is 
 achieved with a greatly lofted one. 
 

 ^ 
 
 
 I 
 
 ^^' 
 
 ^ 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SHORT GAME 
 
 A LTHOUGH the term " approaching " 
 /-\ technically includes every stroke 
 which will place the ball on the 
 putting-green, be it made with driver, cleek, 
 mashie, or even putter, the usually accepted 
 definition of an approach shot is one made 
 with a mid-iron or mashie, and executed with 
 a three-quarters, one-half, or wrist stroke. 
 
 This is the first reference which I have 
 made in these chapters to anything less than a 
 full shot, and lest someone should mistake my 
 meaning when reference is made to three- 
 quarters or half shots, I will explain imme- 
 diately that this is the manner in which shots 
 executed with a swing which is but three- 
 quarters or one-half of the arc described by 
 a full stroke, are designated, and have no 
 131 
 
122 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 reference whatever to the distance about to 
 be covered. Frequently a half-shot made 
 by a person with especially strong wrists 
 can be made to go nearly as far as a full 
 shot. 
 
 The wrist shot is, as its name implies, made 
 practically through the action of the wrists 
 alone, and necessarily calls for the utmost 
 accuracy and delicacy. 
 
 At the beginning of this work the point 
 was made that it is much easier to play cor- 
 rectly a shot which would cover the distance 
 with ease than to play it with a club with 
 which one must press, and important as that 
 point is in the playing of full shots, it is even 
 more so when approaches are to be made. 
 To my mind, the shorter the shot, the more 
 difficult it is to play correctly. 
 
 In the first place there is always an instinc- 
 tive feeling of carelessness induced by the 
 apparent easiness of the shot, and this is the 
 forerunner of a sclaff or a top. 
 
 In a short approach, too, these sins are 
 
TOP OF SWING FOR 35-YARD APPROACir. 
 
•%^ 
 
 FINISH OF .SWING FOR 35-YARD APPROACH. 
 
THE SHORT GAME 123 
 
 usually more severely punished than the same 
 deflections from the perfect stroke would be 
 in a full shot. There Is so little force behind 
 a thirty- or forty-yard approach shot, that 
 unless It Is hit cleanly it will be considerably 
 short, while if an amount of force Is put Into 
 it sufficient to allow for a sclaff or top, and 
 still reach the cup, then, if one happens to 
 make the stroke cleanly, the ball will be away 
 over the hole. In a full shot, on the other 
 hand, the momentum of the club is so great 
 that one can frequently sclaff a little or even 
 half top the ball and still get practically the 
 same distance as though It had been hit clean, 
 and there is also the point that two or three 
 yards, when one is one hundred and fifty 
 yards away, make vastly less difference than 
 does the same distance when one is thirty or 
 forty yards away. 
 
 To emphasize the importance of good ap- 
 proach play would be futile. As one mentally 
 reviews past matches and remembers how the 
 medal at such and such a tournament was lost 
 
124 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 by a poor drive, it would seem as though the 
 long game was by all odds the most im- 
 portant part of a successful career on the 
 links. But at many another meeting we re- 
 member that the cup was lost despite a long 
 game in which not even the most carping 
 critic could find a flaw, and solely because of 
 a poor approach shot now and then. Then 
 it is that one forgets the fact that the long 
 game is important and sighs, *' Oh, for an 
 always perfect approach ! " And then again 
 it is a great, albeit sad, truth that it is useless 
 to hope to win golf matches if one cannot be 
 sure of putting out in two after reaching the 
 green. 
 
 So it goes. And the most important part 
 of golf remains, like the will-o'-the-wisp, a 
 phantasma which one wearily pursues only 
 to find that, just as it is within one's grasp, it 
 has changed its hue and the chase must be 
 resumed once more. Still, good approaching 
 means many saved strokes. 
 
 The player who can depend upon holing 
 
THE SHORT GAME 126 
 
 out in three from the approaching distance 
 will never be beaten very badly. 
 
 The idea is of course to lay the approach 
 so close to the hole that one's first putt is 
 sure to be stone-dead, if not down indeed. 
 She who can do this should be happy. 
 
 Of course it is by no means impossible to 
 get down in two from whatever part of the 
 putting-green the approach has left you, but 
 it is an unpleasant feeling io feel at each 
 green that one must lay a thirty-foot putt 
 stone-dead, and even the best of us some- 
 times fail by a yard or two. Then, it is a 
 case of nerves truly. 
 
 No doubt all readers of this humble work 
 would be quite equal to holing eighteen 
 two-yard putts in a round, but everyone is 
 still mortal, and it is much better fun, to my 
 mind, to be three inches away and have one's 
 opponent playing to hole a two-yard putt for a 
 half than to be in that position one's self. Be- 
 sides a stroke is a stroke, and one saved by 
 holing out in one putt is as valuable an aid to 
 
126 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 winning a match or a medal as one gained in 
 any other way. Decidedly, then, we must 
 admit that approaching is useful. 
 
 Another point is that everyone holes a 
 certain proportion of all putts, no matter what 
 the distance. 
 
 And that proportion decreases very rapidly 
 with each foot added to the distance to be 
 holed. 
 
 It may be eighty or ninety per cent, at a 
 foot, and it is quite likely to be one-tenth of 
 one per cent, at thirty feet, and so naturally 
 the more putts one has to hole at the shorter 
 distance, the higher will be the percentage, 
 and the greater will be the number of strokes 
 saved. 
 
 In the last chapter I devoted considerable 
 space to a discussion as to the advisability of 
 playing one's approaches high in the air or 
 running them along the ground, and therefore 
 will pass over that point now. 
 
 When the distance is such that the player 
 determines to make her approach with a cleek 
 
TOP OF SWING FOR 80-YARD APPROACH. 
 
FIXISIl OF SWIXG FOR 80-YARD APPROACH. 
 
THE SHORT GAME 127 
 
 or iron, the stance and swing differ but little 
 from those with which she has become familiar 
 in learning to drive, except that ojie usually 
 advances the right foot an inch or two more, 
 and stands a little more upright, or, in other 
 words, closer to the ball. Another point of 
 difference is that the club should not go back 
 so far in the upward swing, and it should also 
 be raised more vertically, not trailed along 
 back as closely to the ground as possible, as 
 in a drive, and the difference should be ac- 
 centuated as the distance of the shot decreases. 
 For making an approach shot of any dis- 
 tance between that for which a cleek is the 
 proper club and approximately down to lOO 
 yards from the hole, I use a mid-iron. In 
 playing a shot of this kind, the same rules 
 which governed the cleek play may remain 
 in force, except that, as the distance to be 
 covered in the shot decreases, the right foot 
 should be advanced a trifle. The ball should 
 also be a trifle nearer the right foot, say an 
 inch or possibly two, than for a cleek shot. 
 
128 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 The grip to be employed when grasping the 
 club for a cleek or mid-iron shot differs 
 slightly from that used when making a drive 
 or brassey. As the accompanying illustra- 
 tions show, the fingers grip the club somewhat 
 more closely, the most noticeable difference 
 being that the forefinger of the right hand is 
 more closely wrapped around the club. After 
 waggling and swinging the club backward 
 and forward a few times to accustom one's 
 self to the new way of holding the club, grip 
 it tightly and take the proper stance. In 
 doing this, it should be remembered that a 
 straight line drawn through the center of the 
 ball and the hole is the direction to be played 
 for, and this must be aimed at regardless of 
 where it seems from the stance that the ball 
 should fly. 
 
 Also be sure that the face of the club, as 
 Its sole rests on the ground when addressing 
 the ball, is at right angles to the hne of play. 
 
 In making a drive, brassey, or cleek shot, 
 it is an extremely desirable thing to hit the 
 
THE SHORT GAME 
 
 129 
 
 ball with such cleanness that the ground re- 
 mains untouched, but in making an approach 
 with a mid-iron, mashie, or jigger, the club 
 should be allowed to cut the turf a little, just 
 as the ball is struck by the club head and starts 
 away. To allow the club to touch the ground 
 before reaching the ball would spoil the whole 
 stroke, as the ball could not then be hit clean, 
 and this is absolutely essential if a truly gauged 
 approach is to be made. The club should not 
 be stopped in its swing, however, for as much 
 importance attaches to the follow-through of 
 an approach shot as to that of a drive. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE SHORT GAME (continued) 
 
 WITH the very agreeable supposi- 
 tion fixed in mind, if not in actual 
 practice, that the cleek and iron 
 have been thoroughly mastered, and that a 
 shot of one hundred yards or more is now one 
 of the easiest things in the world for her 
 Ladyship-o'the-Links to accomplish perfectly, 
 let us take up the shots which range from 
 that distance downward until the putting- 
 green itself is reached. 
 
 These may be played with a jigger, which 
 is a sort of cross between a mid-iron and 
 mashie, or a mashie itself, as the individual 
 preference of the player may indicate. 
 
 In any event I adopt a decidedly different 
 style of grip for playing these shots. As the 
 accompanying illustration will show, my hands 
 
THE SHORT GAME 131 
 
 are interlocked as they are in the grip for 
 driver and brassey, and in this particular there 
 is little change. The radical point of dif- 
 ference lies in the position of the thumbs, and 
 particularly the right thumb. This I press 
 firmly on the top of the club shaft, so that 
 my entire thumb is in contact with it. The 
 advantage of this departure from the other 
 grip is in the better direction one can secure 
 with it when making a short shot. 
 
 When one is about to play an approach shot 
 of one hundred yards or less, and there is no 
 bunker or other hazard, the question arises 
 whether to play a running-up approach or a 
 boldly lofted one. 
 
 There are advantages to be gained from 
 each style of play. 
 
 Providing it has been determined to play 
 the lofted shot, one should take several pre- 
 liminary swings a couple of feet away from 
 the ball to gauge the force with which to 
 swing in order to put the ball on the green. 
 In the cleek and wooden-club shots, where 
 
132 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 one hits with only a desire to carry as great 
 a distance as possible, a preliminary swing 
 is useful only as a means of loosening one's 
 swing, but in approaching it also acts as a 
 gauge to the amount of force. 
 
 One of the greatest evils of a short ap- 
 proach shot is the tendency to drag the club 
 through the stroke, as it were, instead of 
 striking it sharply and firmly, as should be 
 done. And the tendency to do this increases 
 in the same ratio as the distance to be cov- 
 ered diminishes, for it seems, with but a thirty- 
 or forty-yard shot to make, that if one hit 
 the ball sharply it would go over the green. 
 
 The remedy for this is, of course, to shorten 
 the swing until at some distances the club 
 head may not swing backward over six or 
 eight inches, while the entire action is brought 
 about by the wrist alone. 
 
 As the right foot is advanced a trifle, when 
 making a cleek-shot, over the position it 
 should hold when making a full shot with 
 a wooden club, so does the same foot con- 
 
BEGINNING OF CUTTING UNDER-STUOKE. 
 
FINISH OF CUTTING UaXDEK-STllOKE, 
 
THE SHORT GAME 133 
 
 tinue to advance as the distance to be covered 
 decreases, and the result is that when the 
 player is making a thirty-yard approach, the 
 right foot is so far in advance that its heel 
 would be about two or three inches over 
 a line drawn at right angles from the ball 
 to the left toe. In the same ratio does the 
 amount of space from the ball to the right 
 foot diminish, so that when the stance for a 
 thirty-yard approach is taken, the ball is 
 within an inch or two of a line drawn straight 
 through the heel and toe of the right foot, 
 and perhaps from eighteen to twenty-four 
 inches in front of the right toe. The in- 
 stinctive effect of the advancement of the 
 right foot has been to turn the body to the 
 left — or towards the line of play, in other 
 words — and in consequence one is practically 
 facing the disk when making a very short 
 shot. 
 
 In the performance of the strokes hereto- 
 fore discussed, stress was laid on the impor- 
 tance of getting the weight and momentum 
 
134 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 of the body into them, but this becomes of 
 less and less importance as the distance de- 
 creases. In fact, all the shots of from sixty 
 to thirty yards should be made with the arms 
 alone, although the body may be allowed to 
 turn an inch or so if one feels that by so do- 
 ing the swing will be freer. Under no cir- 
 cumstances, however, should one endeavor 
 to have the body take any part in the 
 stroke. 
 
 The action of the wrists is extremely im- 
 portant in all shots, and never more so than 
 in approaching. In fact, when making shots 
 of the shorter distance mentioned above, and 
 under, one should use them to the very full- 
 est extent, and hold the arms as immovable 
 as possible. 
 
 The methods detailed above are those 
 which are the natural results of the methods 
 of making a full shot, modified to suit the 
 conditions of the distance to be covered, and 
 the system, I think, is certainly the best for 
 that reason, if no other. 
 
THE SHORT GAME 135 
 
 Still, one can make good approaches by 
 keeping the elbows and wrists stiff and per- 
 forming the whole stroke with the shoulders. 
 The only advantage I can see to this style 
 of play, however, is that the ball does not rise 
 so high as it does when played in the other 
 way — an advantage, it must be admitted, 
 when the wind is blowing strongly; but this 
 can be secured also by using a straighter- 
 faced club with the other style of swing. 
 
 If you glance at the photographs illus- 
 trating the approach shots, it will be noticed 
 that the knees are bent slightly more than 
 they are when playing the long game, and 
 that the body is likewise bent over a trifle 
 more. 
 
 The weight of the body should be very 
 gradually shifted from being divided pretty 
 equally between the two feet, as it is in the 
 long game, to the right foot as it advances 
 with the shortening of the shot, but under no 
 circumstances should either foot be allowed 
 to move. 
 
136 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 When playing a lofted approach, it is, of 
 course, desirable to have as little run follow 
 the landing of the ball as possible, it being 
 thus easier to judge the distance to be 
 covered. 
 
 After one has achieved a fair degree of 
 skill, the ball, even if played naturally, will 
 not run many yards. But still it may be 
 wise to endeavor to acquire the art of play- 
 ing short approaches sixty yards or less with 
 what is technically known as a " back spin," 
 the idea being to drop the ball dead. This 
 comes into play most handily in such a situ- 
 ation as a green with a bunker or other 
 hazard immediately at its back and some- 
 thing directly before it, over which the ball 
 must be pitched. 
 
 There are not, it is true, very many such 
 holes on the standard golf-courses, but time 
 and again a match has been won or lost by a 
 single hole. 
 
 The way to impart this back spin to a ball 
 is to play it with a slice or cut, and this is 
 
THE SHORT GAME 137 
 
 made by drawing the arms in towards the 
 body as they descend in the downward swing, 
 stopping the stroke as soon as the club touches 
 the balh It is an extremely hard shot to play 
 correctly, and I do not advocate it except 
 in some extreme case like that mentioned 
 above. 
 
 If one has a beautiful lie with the ball teed 
 up so that it is easy to cut under it, the shot 
 is not so impossible, but when the lie is bad, 
 it is a " class " player indeed who can bring 
 it off successfully. 
 
 If it is to be attempted, however, one must 
 bear in mind that the effect of the back spin 
 will be to make whatever run there is to the 
 ball take effect to the right of the spot where 
 it touches the ground. 
 
 This, of course, makes it necessary to play 
 for the left of, and not straight at, the flag. 
 Just how much allowance must be made, ex- 
 perience only can accurately tell, but it will 
 be found to be somewhere around one or 
 two yards. This shot should never be at- 
 
138 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 tempted when at a longer distance from the 
 hole than sixty yards, for if it is, it is likely 
 to be so greatly deflected that the result 
 would be more disastrous than if played 
 straight. 
 
 Nor is it good generalship to try to put 
 a back spin on the ball because the wind is 
 behind it. If the wind is strong the effect 
 of the back spin will be neutralized, and if 
 it is not strong, it will have but little effect 
 on the ball anyway. 
 
 It is a fact that the longer an approach is, 
 the less run there will be on the ball, and 
 therefore a little twenty-five-yard wrist shot 
 often has a longer run than a hundred-yard 
 full iron. 
 
 Perhaps the best way to play a ball with- 
 out run is to lay back the face of the club. 
 When this is done the player should stand 
 more behind the ball — that is, her left foot 
 should be nearer it than the right. The same 
 result may be accomplished by having a 
 special club for just such shots made with 
 
THE SHORT GAME 
 
 139 
 
 the face abnormally laid back, but both of 
 these methods are open to the disadvantage 
 that with them the chances are about equal 
 of cutting under the ball without touching it, 
 and thus making a rank foozle. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 APPROACHING AND PUTTING 
 
 THE very best way of all of playing 
 an approach shot so that it will 
 have a minimum of run after it 
 lands is, like the best of everything else, the 
 most difficult to acquire. 
 
 Among golfers it is known as " cutting 
 the feet from it," and difficult as it is to put 
 into execution, it is still more difficult to 
 describe it so that an unpractical golfer will 
 know what is meant. The accompanying 
 illustrations, however, show the main point 
 of difference from the ordinary approach shot 
 very clearly. 
 
 The main point is the decidedly more per- 
 pendicular swing necessary for the stroke. 
 The grip and stance need not be changed. 
 The club must be brought down sharply and 
 carried right into the turf, not swept over 
 140 
 
PUTTING 141 
 
 It as in an ordinary approach shot, and then 
 at the moment of impact the arms should 
 be whipped right up into the air as quickly 
 and as straight as possible, the whole stroke 
 giving a decided snap to the ball. As it is 
 necessary to cut well into the turf to perform 
 this stroke with the best results, it should not 
 be attempted unless the turf is soft enough 
 to admit of a club cutting into it easily. 
 
 And while speaking of cutting into turf, in 
 this connection I am going to give a bit of 
 advice which will, I am afraid, bring down 
 upon me the wrath of all Green Committees, 
 but which I must perforce brave. If I am to 
 set forth truly my ideas on the game. 
 
 In making all approach shots, I cut away 
 the grass, and sometimes take a bit of turf 
 as well, and I think that so doing adds con- 
 siderable steadiness to one's play. 
 
 I am far from being an advocate of taking 
 a divot with the stroke. There Is nothing 
 more reprehensible to my mind than the 
 golfer who goes serenely along the course, 
 
142 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 tearing out great chunks of earth three or 
 four inches long and equally wide, and from 
 one to three inches deep, at each stroke. The 
 class of golfers who do this are invariably 
 not only of very mediocre ability, but they 
 are either so ignorant of the rules and eti- 
 quette of the game, or so utterly selfish and 
 careless, that they pay no heed as to where 
 the divots fall or to the place whence they 
 were torn. These become, of course, little 
 cups into which the ball of the next player 
 and all succeeding ones roll with unvarying 
 regularity, with the result that it is rarely 
 indeed that the ball can be played as it should 
 be, and a loss of a stroke is thereby recorded. 
 
 No matter how small an amount of grass 
 or turf be cut away, see yourself that it is 
 replaced and trampled down. Far too many 
 players leave this important duty to caddies, 
 who, as a general rule, are carelessness and 
 inefficiency personified. 
 
 Before closing the chapter on approaching, 
 it is only right that the second most general 
 
PUTTING 143 
 
 method of approaching should receive men- 
 tion. Of course every golfer will modify 
 any style to a greater or less degree to cor- 
 respond to her own personal likings and limi- 
 tations, after she has attained a fair degree 
 of proficiency, but next to the method already 
 described, the majority of approaches are 
 played from the stance technically known as 
 " playing off the left leg," 
 
 In this position the ball is nearly on a line 
 with the center of the left foot, and that is 
 quite a distance back of the right one. The 
 weight, instead of being principally on the 
 right leg, is principally on the left, and the 
 body is bent over a trifle more, perhaps, than 
 in the other method. The arms also are kept 
 in rather more towards the body. 
 
 I cannot see that there are any advantages 
 in this method myself, but its advocates 
 claim that with it one can secure a much 
 straighter line of play, and when one is a little 
 off in the orthodox method, it might be well 
 to try this. 
 
144 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 PUTTING 
 
 When the ball has once been safely landed 
 on the putting-green and mashie laid aside, 
 one lays aside with it all the pretensions to 
 a single style of play which has been under- 
 lying all the strokes heretofore discussed. In 
 other words, while all drives, brassey-strokes, 
 cleeks, and even mashie-shots are performed 
 by strokes the principles of which are based 
 upon one general principle, however much 
 individual preferences may cause them to be 
 modified, putting is performed exactly as 
 each individual player sees fit. One way 
 seems quite as good as another. The whole 
 point is to get the ball in the hole in the 
 fewest possible number of strokes, and there 
 are as many different ways of standing and 
 as many different ways of hitting the ball as 
 there are players. 
 
 Another point in which putting departs 
 from the other departments of the game is 
 that no player even pretends to always putt 
 
PUTTING 145 
 
 in the same way or even with the same club. 
 Of course the change in clubs might be ex- 
 plained by the difference in the nature of the 
 turf over which one was putting if the games 
 were being played on different links, but one 
 is quite as apt to see the change in putting 
 take place two or three times during the 
 progress of a championship match on an 
 eighteen-hole course, as on different days on 
 different links. 
 
 All good golf depends more or less upon 
 having one's eye " right," but this is very 
 much more true of putting than any other 
 stroke in the game. It is no uncommon thing 
 for a professional or even a high-class ama- 
 teur to take his stance, swing a driver two 
 or three times over an imaginary tee, then 
 blindfold himself, have a caddie tee up a 
 ball on the spot over which his club swung 
 before, and then drive away practically as 
 good a shot as he would have done had his 
 eyes been open. No one could hole a two-or- 
 three-foot putt with eyes blinded, however, 
 
146 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 no matter how many times he or she had 
 previously holed the putt from a certain 
 stance. 
 
 The reason of this is, of course, the abso- 
 lute accuracy required to putt the ball over 
 a piece of turf, filled as are even the very 
 best of putting-greens with miniature in- 
 equalities, and have It going with sufficient 
 velocity to reach the cup surely, but yet not 
 so swiftly that It will not be caught and held 
 by the lip of the cup. 
 
 This cup is so small (It is barely 2j4 inches 
 In diameter) that unless the ball strikes abso- 
 •lutely the center of the back of it, it will roll 
 around the rim and run out, a performance 
 which is one of the most annoying and exasper- 
 ating things In the whole catalogue of such 
 things, and of which it sometimes seems that 
 the entire game of golf Is completely com- 
 posed. 
 
 It is a very strange, yet a very true, fact 
 that hardly one golfer in ten realizes the 
 important part which putting plays In the 
 
PUTTING 147 
 
 game of golf, from the fact that, If one has 
 become a fair master of the mashie and mid- 
 iron, one may play along for a half-dozen 
 holes or so and never be called upon to play 
 a putt of more than six or seven feet, and 
 this distance at a casual glance seems so in- 
 significant as compared to the distances to 
 be covered with drives or irons that the un- 
 thinking player immediately decides that the 
 longer shot is of the more importance. A 
 moment's reflection, however, shows most 
 emphatically that it is not. 
 
 A player of average ability should reach 
 three-fourths of the putting-greens in the 
 average course in two strokes, and the other 
 one-fourth in three strokes. Now, on the 
 other hand, there are no players, even of the 
 very highest class, who hope to hole out after 
 reaching the putting-green in less than an 
 average of two strokes, and there are quite 
 as many times when three will be necessary 
 as there are when it will be necessary to take 
 three strokes to reach the green itself. 
 
148 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 As it is sad, but emphatically the fact, that 
 a putt of two inches counts just as largely in 
 one's score as a drive of 200 yards, it will be 
 seen that the number of putts required in an 
 average game will be quite as great as the 
 number of strokes of all other kinds com- 
 bined required to complete the round. 
 
 If more golfers realized this there would 
 be much more practicing done on the putting- 
 green than there is to-day. 
 
 As a matter of fact, I think it is quite 
 safe to say that many players, even among 
 those who practice driving and approaching 
 •most conscientiously, never think of taking a 
 putter in their hands, except during the course 
 of a match. Among the first-rank players, 
 however, the reverse is quite true. The few 
 moments' practice with the wooden clubs and 
 long irons suffices them, and then they will 
 put in an hour holing out putts of from 
 eighteen inches back to the edge of the 
 green. 
 
 There is a term often used in the news- 
 
PUTTING 149 
 
 papers and among golfers which frequently 
 puzzles those whose knowledge of the Royal 
 and Ancient game is perhaps more confined 
 to " hitting the ball " than studying the fine 
 points of the game. This term is " the ortho- 
 dox two putts," and comes from the fact that 
 in figuring a par or a bogey score the player 
 is allowed two putts after reaching the put- 
 ting-green, whether the ball is on its extreme 
 edge or whether it is within a foot of the 
 hole. V 
 
 The reason for this is, that in figuring par 
 or bogey play it is customary to figure that 
 one should be able to lie dead to the hole, 
 — or, in other words, so close to it that the 
 next stroke will certainly put the ball in in 
 one shot, leaving the other for the accom- 
 plishment of the few inches which remain 
 to be covered. 
 
 There is no less chance of winning a stroke 
 on the way to the putting-green than there is 
 once the green has been reached, for most 
 of the average players will reach it in two 
 
160 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 or three or four strokes, as the case may be, 
 as well as the most expert, the difference being 
 in the nearness one reaches to the hole; and 
 whether one reaches the green in a drive and 
 mashie, or drive and brassey, and whether 
 one is ten feet from the cup or twenty makes 
 very little difference if one can putt. 
 
 Good putting goes by streaks. On certain 
 days one cannot miss holing every putt for 
 ten feet down, and occasionally one from the 
 extreme edge of the green, while putts of a 
 yard or two which formerly have frozen his 
 heart with terror at the mere thought of 
 trying to hole them, have become like de- 
 lightful old friends of whose kindness and 
 regard one is always sure. Miss them? 
 Never; and the happy golfer cries, "Eu- 
 reka ! I have discovered the secret ! No 
 more will I mentally weep and gnash my 
 teeth at the missing of the putts. The world 
 is mine ! Hurrah ! " On such glad, glorious 
 days as these even the putts of between 
 eighteen inches and three feet, which are ac- 
 
THE PUTTING GRIP. 
 
PUTTING 151 
 
 knowledged by all players of quality to be 
 the hardest to hole, lose their terrors. 
 
 To digress for a moment more : it is a 
 fact, and a most curious one, too, that after 
 a player attains a fair degree of proficiency, 
 it is much harder for her to hole a putt of 
 this length than it has been when she was 
 much less expert in her general play. 
 
 It is a case of when too much knowledge 
 is a dangerous thing, although not one of 
 " where ignorance is bliss 'twere folly to be 
 wise." 
 
 The reason for this apparent anomaly is 
 that in holing a putt of a yard or less there 
 is no particular credit. Everyone expects 
 you to do it. You expect to do it, and you 
 know everyone else expects so, too. It really 
 looks so very easy, and in the early days of 
 one's apprenticeship it would be, because one 
 would go out with serene confidence that it 
 would be impossible to miss it. After one 
 has become something of a golfer, however, 
 a long line of sad experiences which go to 
 
152 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 prove that it is quite possible, nay, even 
 probable, that one will miss it, takes away this 
 bland and cheerful confidence; and as one 
 reflects on the putt, the resultant laughter 
 which will follow if one misses, and the 
 anger which will fill one's own mind, one 
 becomes nervous, and unless one takes one's 
 courage in hand at once and plays the putt 
 boldly, disaster is sure to follow. 
 
CHAPTER Xr 
 
 PUTTING (concluded) and tournament 
 
 PLAY 
 
 NEXT to having one's eye " right," 
 the most essential thing for suc- 
 cessful putting is confidence, and 
 this is the explanation of the high average 
 that one can score when out on a green, prac- 
 ticing alone ; so much higher, alas ! than the 
 best one can do in a regular match or compe- 
 tition of any kind. 
 
 The fact that there will be dire conse- 
 quences ensuing if the putt is missed has a 
 most nerve-wrecking effect, and the more a 
 player ponders over the shot, the more ner- 
 vous she will become. However, I do not 
 by any means advocate hasty or careless 
 putting. 
 
 One of the truest and best-known axioms 
 153 
 
164 GOLFFORWOMEN 
 
 of the game owes its origin to the putting- 
 green, and it is, " Never up, never in." 
 
 This is absolutely true, for, while the ball 
 may go to the cup, it can never come to the 
 ball. Consequently the first principle to im- 
 plant firmly in one's mind when one reaches 
 the green is always to be " up," or, in other 
 words, always play the stroke strongly enough 
 to run past the hole, if the ball does not go 
 in. It is really surprising how fast a ball 
 may be traveling and yet be caught by the 
 rim of the cup, if it strikes it directly in the 
 center; and playing boldly for the back of 
 the cup is one of the never-failing distinctive 
 earmarks of the " class " golfer. 
 
 When the putt to be negotiated is a yard 
 or less long, one should hit the ball with 
 sufficient force to send it about six inches to 
 a foot past the cup, while from a longer dis- 
 tance one should play to overrun from two 
 feet to a yard. 
 
 The advantages of this policy are many. 
 In the first place, you will hit the ball with 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 155 
 
 more confidence the harder you strike It, and, 
 as I said above, confidence holes quite as 
 many putts in a round as does skill. Then, 
 again, a ball rolling swiftly is much less likely 
 to be deflected from a true course by rough 
 places in the turf than is one which is going 
 slowly, and the hard-hit putt consequently 
 goes down many times, when the gently 
 tapped ball would be turned to one side by 
 a bit of earth or a spear of wire-grass, and 
 perhaps rim the cup. 
 
 Besides all these points, there is a glow 
 of satisfaction which steals over one as the 
 ball is heard banging against the back of the 
 cup and dropping down with a thud. The 
 feeling is not only an extremely satisfying 
 one at the moment, but Induces an accession 
 of confidence at the next shot, and many 
 more thereafter. And this is worth a good 
 bit in a hard-fought match. 
 
 With all the above facts and fancies re- 
 garding the theory of putting inculcated, the 
 next thing to do is to try to make the shot. 
 
166 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 There are two prime essentials in the put- 
 ting stroke,— one the grip, and the other the 
 stance. To take up the former, the accom- 
 panying illustration shows clearly what I have 
 found to be the best method. The club should 
 be held firmly, but not so tightly that the 
 muscles are rigid, and it may be held at either 
 extreme of the leather on the handle, or at 
 any intermediate place. Just as it is a wise 
 plan to change the putting stance and the club 
 itself when one finds that everything is not 
 going as well as it ought, so it is a good plan 
 to change occasionally the spot where one 
 grasps the club. 
 
 There are three ways in which one may 
 stand to negotiate putts, and each in turn de- 
 serves recognition. The first is standing with 
 the main portion of the weight on the left 
 foot; the next, with the greater amount on 
 the right foot ; and the third, with the weight 
 resting equally between the two feet. 
 
 When the first method is used, the ball is 
 placed nearer the left foot, and inversely 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 157 
 
 when the second is employed, it is nearer the 
 right. 
 
 With the grip and stance satisfactorily ar- 
 ranged, the next problem is how to hit the 
 ball so that it will go into the hole. The first 
 thing to consider is whether or not the lay of 
 the ground between the ball and the cup is 
 such that it would roll in, if it were hit with 
 absolute accuracy. If this were usually so, 
 putting would be robbed of half its terrors. 
 Unfortunately, such is not the case. There 
 are few putting-greens over which one does 
 not have to calculate more or less for the un- 
 dulation of the ground, and here is where 
 some of the finest headwork called out in the 
 entire game is displayed. Many players go 
 to the opposite side of the hole from that at 
 which the ball is lying and study its line from 
 there, supplementing this scrutiny by another 
 observation from the back of the ball, along 
 the line to the hole. I believe, except in ex- 
 ceptional circumstances, that this is quite 
 sufficient, and that trying to study the line 
 
158 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 from the other side only confuses one, 
 and thus destroys the advantage already 
 gained. 
 
 In calculating a putt, where it is necessary 
 to allow for anything except the force and 
 stralghtness with which one hits the ball, the 
 best plan, I have found. Is to take a small 
 piece of grass or something similar, play di- 
 rectly for that, and trust that the lay of the 
 ground will send the ball down Into the 
 cup. 
 
 In all putting, and particularly In such In- 
 stances, judgment plays an important part. 
 • Little things, like remembering to play a 
 putt on a rolling hill-side so that if the cup 
 is missed the ball will stop on the downward 
 instead of the upward side, from which It is, 
 of course, easier to hole ; using a putting-cleek 
 with a loft to it instead of a straight-faced 
 putter when the green is particularly fast; 
 and there are a dozen other similar nuances 
 serving to distinguish the good player from 
 the bad one. 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 159 
 
 One of the most prominent is the question 
 of playing for the hole or for a half, and 
 many a match has been won or lost by good 
 or bad judgment here. If one has only one 
 stroke for a half, then by all means take any 
 chance to hole the ball. For if the chance 
 comes off, you are saved, and if not, you are 
 lost anyhow. But when one has one to win 
 or two to halve, and the match not at a des- 
 perate score, it is much better to get a sure 
 half than try wildly to win, and end by not 
 even getting a half. All that can be done is 
 to point out similar instances, and leave the 
 actualities to the player herself. And in 
 speaking of judgment, the quality and nature 
 of the greens to be played over are quite as 
 important factors in deciding whether or not 
 to change the putter as is the fact that one 
 is putting badly. 
 
 On a really smooth and true green, with 
 any keenness at all, the regular putter is quite 
 as good a club as any, although many players 
 prefer a putting-cleek under any and all cir- 
 
160 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 cumstances. The advantage of it lies in the 
 fact that it has a slight loft, and as this loft 
 imparts a little back spin or cut to the ball, it 
 can be hit harder, with less chance of over- 
 running the hole, than if it were struck with 
 the ordinary straight-faced putter. No mat- 
 ter what the club head may be, however, one 
 should see that the shaft is stiff, as it is there- 
 fore much easier to gauge the amount of 
 force required. 
 
 Wooden putters I consider distinctly in- 
 ferior to metal, both from the fact that one 
 cannot hit so hard with them, and greater 
 delicacy of touch is therefore necessary, and 
 from the fact that a ball is more liable to be 
 deflected from its course off one of them than 
 it is from a metal club. But some players use 
 them with good effect for what are really 
 short approach shots. 
 
 Putting, after all, is really a question of 
 hitting the ball with the club face absolutely 
 at a right angle to the hole, for if the ball 
 strikes the back of the cup directly in the 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 161 
 
 center, it will stop and go in, even if running 
 with a pretty fair speed, and it is for this 
 reason that one sees good players always 
 rest the club for a second in front of the ball 
 before putting, it being, of course, easier to 
 get a line, without the ball to interfere with 
 the line of vision. 
 
 Of course, the old injunction of " keep 
 your eye on the ball " still holds its impor- 
 tant position in the categories of golf, and 
 likewise the injunction not to move the head. 
 The body, also, for the first time should be 
 held immovable, for, in putting, the whole 
 stroke should be made with the arms and 
 wrists, and principally the latter. Still they 
 should not be allowed to predominate so 
 greatly that there is anything like a jolt in 
 the striking of the ball. 
 
 It should be a distinct hit, not a shove, but 
 the club should follow through after the ball, 
 and on a straight line along the line of the 
 putt desired. The elbows should be held in 
 well to the sides, as this makes it easier for 
 
162 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 the club to follow through straight. The 
 eyes should be fastened at a point just a frac- 
 tion of an inch back of the center of the ball, 
 and great care taken not to look up for at 
 least a second after the ball has been struck 
 by the putter, and it is really remarkable 
 what a difference in one's putting this last 
 point makes. In putting, I think a vast 
 majority of players have a tendency to 
 slightly pull the ball, just as in driving, the 
 majority have a tendency toward a slice; and 
 if one finds such is the case, try to hold the 
 left elbow closer to the side. 
 
 STYMIES 
 
 So much for putting when there are only 
 the ordinary troubles of ground and space 
 to overcome. It is hard enough, even then, 
 to put the ball into the cup ; but when to these 
 difficulties is added what is known as a stymie 
 the problem becomes difficult indeed. A 
 stymie is that condition when the balls on 
 the putting-green are directly in the line of 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 163 
 
 play and more than six inches from each 
 other. 
 
 There are three ways of getting your 
 ball into the hole under these circumstances. 
 One is to loft your ball over the other in a 
 straight line; the second to roll it along the 
 ground, and put a bias on it so that it will 
 curve to one side of the other, go around 
 die obstruction, and into the hole ; thirdly, by 
 striking the offending ball hard enough to 
 knock it out of the way, and let yours follow 
 on and go down. 
 
 Lofting the stymie is the more common 
 way out of the difficulty, and the club with 
 which to attempt it is a mashie, and the one 
 with the most loft of any you own. The 
 shot must be made entirely with the wrists, 
 and the club cut under the ball without touch- 
 ing the turf. It is one of the most difficult 
 of all shots, but as stymies must be played in 
 all match-play tournaments, it is well worth 
 cultivating. 
 
 The curve putt is made by turning the 
 
164 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 face of the putter considerably to either the 
 right or left, according as to which side the 
 curve is desired, and hitting the ball so that 
 the club is either drawn in or forced out, as 
 the case may be, thus producing the desired 
 " English " and its consequent curve. 
 
 TOURNAMENTS 
 
 No better fun, to my mind, can be im- 
 agined than playing in a tournament, whether 
 it be a " picked-up " affair, arranged in five 
 minutes, with a half-dozen starters, or a na- 
 tional event, which has been planned about 
 and thought about for months, nor is there 
 anything which will be of more benefit to 
 one's game than participation in tournament 
 play. 
 
 It gives a zest to the match which a man 
 perhaps may enjoy by wagering his opponent 
 on the number of strokes or holes he will be 
 up or down, but which a woman can obtain 
 only in this way, and it also has a steadying 
 effect on nerves. 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 165 
 
 After playing in a few tournaments, the 
 feeling of nervousness, which is bound to 
 come to the most stout-hearted players in 
 their first close match, wears away, and 
 nothing more is thought of it. 
 
 The " gallery," as the crowd which follows 
 the more important matches in big tourna- 
 ments is called, is apt to have a very de- 
 moralizing effect on the player unaccus- 
 tomed to spectators, but this is soon for- 
 gotten. 
 
 I do not believe that a woman should sub- 
 ject herself to any especial preparation for 
 a tournament, except to get plenty of rest 
 and sufficient practice in the two or three 
 weeks before the tournament, so as to be at 
 the top of her game. Such practice should 
 consist of the usual routine, but should never, 
 under any circumstances, be continued up to 
 the very day of the tournament. Even if 
 you should feel that you are in woeful need of 
 practice, it is best not to touch a club for at 
 least two days before the tournament. The 
 
166 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 reason for this is that if you play each day up 
 to the beginning of the tournament, by about 
 the twentieth or thirtieth day of it you have 
 become overgolfed, and this means certain 
 defeat. 
 
 One should always endeavor to play in 
 practice against a stronger player, for in this 
 way one becomes accustomed to being 
 " down " throughout the match and outdriven 
 from the tee. Consequently if one meets 
 these conditions in a match, it is accepted 
 as a matter of course, while if accustomed to 
 being always the leader, it has a demoraliz- 
 ing effect to play someone who is as good as 
 or better than one's self. 
 
 Tournaments in America are almost in- 
 variably arranged to begin with an eighteen- 
 hole (or, for men, sometimes a thirty-six 
 hole) qualifying round at medal or stroke 
 play, the makers of the best eight or sixteen 
 or thirty-two scores, as the case may be, con- 
 tinuing on at match or hole play. 
 
 This is, all in all, the best way to conduct 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 167 
 
 a tourney, I think, for it not only gives a 
 chance to as many as wish to compete, but it 
 makes it necessary for a player to be adept 
 at both medal and match play. There are 
 many old-fashioned persons who maintain 
 that only match play is golf, and that it is the 
 only form of the game which should be con- 
 sidered, but I do not agree with them. No 
 one can be considered a really high-class 
 golfer who cannot play well at either form of 
 the game. 
 
 In tournaments it is popularly supposed 
 that the players are drawn by chance to play 
 as partners on the qualifying round, but the 
 Goddess of Fortune usually receives a little 
 aid from the tournament committee in making 
 her selections. This is quite as it should be, 
 for the entry list contains players of every 
 imaginable amount of ability, and to force 
 a first-class player to play with a fourth-rank 
 enthusiast, who has entered in hopes of a 
 miracle happening, is manifestly unjust to 
 both, — to the best player, because the poor 
 
168 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 play of her partner makes her play carelessly, 
 and a little sympathetically, as it were, while 
 the poorer player, after a few holes, becomes 
 demoralized at the superior play of her 
 partner, and " presses " in a vain attempt to 
 hold the same pace, with the consequence that 
 she returns a score several strokes worse than 
 it should be. 
 
 The question of whether or not the draw 
 for the match play should be " arranged " or 
 left solely to chance has many good argu- 
 ments on either side. Those who advocate 
 that it should be left to chance point to the 
 fact that sometimes one player will have a 
 series of desperates matches to reach the final 
 round, while the other contestant will have 
 a very easy time. A case in point is the na- 
 tional championship tournament of 1899, 
 when Mrs. Caleb Fox, the runner-up, in order 
 to reach the finals, had to meet Miss Beatrix 
 Hoyt (the title-holder). Miss Marion Oliver, 
 and Miss Anna Sands, playing extra-hole 
 matches with the two latter, while Miss Un- 
 
TOURNAMENT PLAY 169 
 
 derhill, the ultimate champion, had a very 
 easy time reaching the final. 
 
 Another argument against the " arrang- 
 ing " of the draw is that there are no two 
 women in America, who stand so pre-eminent 
 that it would be fair to put them at opposite 
 ends of the draw, and give them as easy a 
 path as possible to the finals. Such being the 
 case, it seems to me that the partners for the 
 qualifying round should be selected so as to 
 give each person as equal a partner as possi- 
 ble, but that In the match play chance should 
 decide the drawings. 
 
 In a tournament I believe that the best 
 way to do Is not to try and defeat your op- 
 ponents by an overwhelming score, or to 
 strain every effort to leading the field in the 
 qualifying round, but to play along with the 
 greatest ease consistent with winning the 
 match or qualifying. In this way, when the 
 crucial test comes, you will be able to play 
 at your very best, whereas, if one has ex- 
 hausted one's energies in breaking records 
 
170 
 
 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 and endeavoring to win by lo up and 8 to 
 play in eighteen holes in previous days, this 
 will be impossible. 
 
 To be a successful tournament-player, no 
 matter how skillful one may be, it is essential 
 to be able to use the occasion, and " play 
 better than one knows how," as the sporting 
 papers say when the occasion demands it. 
 Women, I am proud to say, show a relatively 
 greater degree of nerve in golf than do men, 
 and particularly is this so when on the putting- 
 green. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 HAZARDS AND GENERAL REMARKS 
 
 IN the instructions which I have given in 
 the foregoing chapters I have written 
 upon the supposition that the ball is 
 lying upon the fair green and not in any 
 hazard. The definition of the latter is, to 
 quote from the rules of the United States 
 Golf Association, " Any bunker, water (ex- 
 cept casual water) , sand path, road, railway, 
 whin, bush rushes, rabbit scrape, fence, or 
 ditch. Sand blown in the grass, or sprinkled 
 in the course for the preservation, bare 
 patches, snow and ice are not hazards. Per- 
 manent grass within a hazard shall not be 
 considered part of the hazard." 
 
 It will thus be seen that playing from a 
 hazard carries so many conditions that ability 
 to play out of one with the loss of but a stroke 
 171 
 
172 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 at most, or perhaps without any loss at all, 
 is a most valuable acquisition to one's game. 
 As if the adverse natural conditions existing 
 in a hazard were not enough to handicap the 
 player the rules of the game provide that 
 nothing in a hazard — such as a loose piece of 
 dead wood, a stone, or anything which inter- 
 feres with the performance of the stroke, 
 and which, when existing on the fair green, 
 can be moved — can be touched. 
 
 In other words, no matter how bad the 
 lie, the ball must be played as it is found. 
 
 And the point which adds difficulty to the 
 playing out of a hazard is that the rules pro- 
 hibit the soling of one's club, the great ad- 
 vantages of which one does not realize until 
 one Is deprived of the benefit of so doing. It 
 gives a steadiness to the stroke, an assurance 
 to one's swing, and, above all, a confidence 
 which is worth a great deal. The most im- 
 portant consideration, when one finds the ball 
 in a hazard, is to get it out. 
 
 Of course if you can play it on the green, 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 173 
 
 or if it is a hazard a long distance from the 
 cup, get a shot of considerable length on 
 the line to the hole, so much the better, but if 
 this is impossible to do, be satisfied to get well 
 out. It is much better to get well out, playing 
 the ball in a directly opposite direction to the 
 hole, than to play it straight for the hole and 
 run a risk of not getting out. This applies 
 only, of course, as a general thing. There 
 are cases when it is do or die, and then every 
 chance must be risked. 
 
 As an instance, suppose you are in a bunker 
 before a hole and playing 2 more than your 
 opponent, who is on the green, and prac- 
 tically sure to go down in 2 more. 
 
 Your only chance is to get on the green 
 from the bunker, and trust that you can get 
 down in another, so that your opponent will 
 miss her putt and give you a half. 
 
 If playing medal play it would probably 
 be better to play back, and surely get on in 
 the next, than to run the risk of not getting 
 over, for by that time you would have played 
 
174 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 so many more that the hole would surely be 
 lost. That is, supposing you are playing 
 match play. 
 
 An alternative to either playing back or 
 directly from the hole is to play over at an 
 angle. 
 
 If, however, there are reasons, — such as 
 hazards on either side, or whatsoever it may 
 be, — that cause you to decide not to try and 
 play off at an angle, and you are going to 
 play back, be sure that you go back far 
 enough. 
 
 It makes no difference whether you have 
 to play a mashie-shot of ten or of twenty-five 
 yards; and if you hit at the ball with a deter- 
 mination to go the latter distance, you are 
 pretty sure, even if you foozle, to go the 
 former, while a foozle from a shot meant for 
 the lesser distance will probably fail to get 
 out of the hazard. 
 
 It is also well to remember this point if the 
 green is a long way off, for if one plays back 
 far enough to use a driver or brassey instead 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 175 
 
 of a mashie, the extra distance the wooden 
 club will give will more than make up for the 
 extra distance back one must play in order to 
 be sure of clearing the bunker with it. 
 
 Playing from, a bunker requires a very 
 different sort of stroke than does playing a 
 ball lying in the fair green. 
 
 For a bunker shot it is not desirable to 
 hit the ball cleanly, as it is when in the fair 
 green. On the contrary, the point is to hit 
 behind it and cut through the sand. 
 
 In playing a bunker shot it is usually diffi- 
 cult to get a firm stance, for the soft sand 
 gives under your feet as the weight of the 
 body swings over to the right, no matter how 
 firmly one may think one is standing. It is 
 well, therefore, after obtaining the stance 
 wanted, to work one's feet into the sand, and 
 get as near the foundation of the bunker as 
 possible. It is also advisable to place the feet 
 a little further apart than usual if one can 
 feel natural and at ease when so doing, but if 
 not, then use the regular stance. 
 
176 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Grip the club firmly with both hands, for 
 the stroke to be made is one of brute force. 
 All finesse and delicacy of touch are forgotten. 
 One must " club " the ball, and the more 
 vertical the swing the better. 
 
 It is because of this that many men who 
 have been baseball players, and then taken 
 up golf, play this sort of shot better propor- 
 tionately than they do any other, for the 
 swing is just like the one they learned when 
 playing baseball. 
 
 As it is the object to hit the sand behind the 
 ball and not the ball itself, the eye should 
 be fixed on a point an inch or two behind the 
 ball. 
 
 It is a good idea to hold the club for a 
 second directly over this spot, being very 
 careful not to let it touch the ground, and 
 then swing it back as straight up as possible. 
 In learning to play bunker shots, the natural 
 tendency will be found to hit too near the 
 ball, if not the ball itself, for the one great 
 point which the learner has been trying to 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 177 
 
 observe is to hit the ball, and therefore she 
 will instinctively keep on trying to do so. 
 Therefore it is better to try to strike the 
 ground a couple of inches back of where one 
 really wishes the club to come in contact with 
 it, in order to allow for the instinctive and 
 at first uncontrollable tendency to hit the 
 ball. 
 
 All the above points apply to bunker shots 
 when there is a cop two or three or more feet 
 high within a yard or so of the ball. When 
 it is lying In a trap bunker, as are called those 
 which are merely shallow sand pits without 
 cups around them, a rounded swing, more 
 like that used for a fair-green shot, may be 
 used. One may also return to the original 
 principle of hitting the ball instead of back 
 of it, except that it is well to sclaff a little. 
 When the ball is in long grass the same prin- 
 ciples should be employed as when it is in a 
 bunker, — that is, the straightest possible 
 swing should be used, and the ground struck 
 a few inches back of the ball instead of the 
 
178 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 ball itself. The reason for this is that if the 
 rounder and longer swing is used, the grass 
 is apt to catch it and break its force, and even 
 if the force is not broken, to deflect it from 
 its course. Another point to remember for 
 use in an emergency, both when playing from 
 a hazard, and at any other time, is that by 
 turning the face of the club the ball can be 
 made to fly at an angle, even when played 
 with a straight swing, and this knowledge is 
 often handy when there are trees or fences or 
 other obstructions which make it impossible 
 to play a full stroke in the direction in which 
 it is wished to send the ball. 
 
 Another point which most beginners seem 
 to find impossible to comprehend is that the 
 loft which its maker gave to a mashie or 
 niblick is quite sufficient to loft the ball when 
 it is struck with the ordinary stroke. Why 
 this is such a diflScult matter to understand 
 I cannot imagine, but it is a fact that nine 
 out of every ten players make the mistake. 
 That it is one, a moment's reflection will 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 179 
 
 show, for if the club's face were not made 
 as it is for just this purpose, why should it 
 be changed from the straight face of a 
 cleek ? 
 
 Under no circumstances, therefore, try to 
 make a swing which will aid the ball to rise 
 — all that you need to do is to play the stroke 
 correctly and see that you hit the ball. 
 
 Of course if you are within a couple of 
 feet of the high bunker, and it is surely a 
 case of " lost hole," unless you clear it, it is 
 advisable to turn the club in your hand so as 
 to lay back its face a little, and to stand a 
 little further behind the ball than usual, but 
 under ordinary circumstances the club's face 
 will do all that is required, provided you hit 
 the ball squarely 
 
 CADDIES 
 
 The question of a caddie is a serious propo- 
 sition, and it bears a very prominent relation 
 to one's game. This is true of masculine 
 golfers as well as feminine, in a measure, but 
 
180 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 its importance is much greater with the latter 
 than with the former. 
 
 The reason for this is merely a question 
 of temperament. Men by all the laws of 
 nature and science are much more independ- 
 ent and self-reliant than women, and conse- 
 quently they are much less apt to be influ- 
 enced by the actions of their caddies. 
 
 The duties of the caddie, to quote from 
 the formal language of the United States 
 Golf Association rulings, are simply to carry 
 one's clubs; but besides this he may give 
 advice. 
 
 There has been considerable discussion 
 aroused at the National Women's Golf 
 championship of the past two or three years 
 over the question of caddies, but it seems to 
 have worked out its own salvation. The ar- 
 gument first started over the fact that a 
 number of the contestants in the tournament 
 had excellent amateur golfers to carry their 
 clubs and act as advisers. This was all very 
 well for those who had plenty of friends at 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 181 
 
 their call who could play good golf, but not 
 every contestant was in so fortunate a posi- 
 tion, and some of those who were not tried 
 to equalize matters by hiring professionals. 
 
 I can see no reason why this was not quite 
 as fair as it was to have a first-class amateur 
 act in that capacity, for, while the professional 
 might be a little better player, he would be no 
 better coach and have no better judgment 
 than the amateur. As a matter of fact, he, in 
 all probability, would not have the ability to 
 inspire anything like the steadiness and con- 
 fidence which the amateur, from his superior 
 intelligence, would, and so would not be so 
 useful at a most essential part of the duties 
 of a caddie. Very few of the players seemed 
 to realize this, however, and some rather 
 severe criticism has been hurled at those who 
 have had professionals to carry their clubs in 
 tournaments. The chief accusation seems to 
 be that it was taking an unfair advantage. 
 This it might be were only one player to do 
 so, but when more than half of the chief con- 
 
182 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 testants are doing it, I must confess I cannot 
 acknowledge the justice of the insinuation. 
 If everyone would agree to abolish every kind 
 of caddie except the regulation small boy, who 
 is merely useful as a means of propelling 
 one's bag of clubs over the links, well and 
 good, but until there is some such agreement, 
 I think the matter is one of individual choice, 
 and all players should be left to decide the 
 point for themselves. Precedent certainly 
 indorses the employment of professionals, or 
 anyone else whom the player wishes. 
 
 There has never been a question raised in 
 America as to a man's using a professional if 
 he so desired, and it has been done very fre- 
 quently. Why, therefore, it should be con- 
 sidered unfair or unsportsmanlike for a 
 woman to have her clubs carried by the best 
 caddie she can obtain I cannot understand. 
 Not only in tournaments, but in general play, 
 does the caddie play an important part. If 
 he is a good one he is of much service, but I 
 would much rather, and I think that nearly 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 183 
 
 all players will agree with me, play a round 
 with no caddie at all in preference to having 
 a poor one. There really are no good 
 caddies in this country except professionals. 
 The average caddie on an American course 
 is a boy ranging from ten to sixteen years of 
 age, who looks upon the carrying of clubs 
 as an irksome means of making money, and 
 a thing which must be shirked as much as 
 the good nature or ignorance of the player 
 for whom he is carrying will permit. He 
 knows nothing of the game. He is unable 
 to tell you whether the distance of any shot 
 Is such that you should use a mashie or a 
 driver, and, above all, he never knows how 
 many strokes your opponent or even you 
 yourself have played. 
 
 He insists upon lagging about ten yards 
 behind you, and annoys you not only by his 
 indifference in this respect, but never under 
 any circumstances handing you the club neces- 
 sary for the shot, even if you tell him yourself 
 which one you want. 
 
184 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 The simplest part of his duty, building 
 your tees, he cannot do properly; and if you 
 are foolish enough to try to have him do it, 
 he will either build you a miniature mountain 
 of sand, or else put down such a tiny pinch 
 that you will be forced to sclaff badly in order 
 to hit the ball at all. As for finding your ball 
 after a shot, the average caddie never thinlcs 
 of such a thing. If you are fortunate enough 
 to have driven it straight down the fair 
 green, where it is in plain sight, this negli- 
 gence of his will not prove costly, but if a slice 
 or pull or a bad bound has sent it off the 
 dcourse into long grass, or any other place 
 where it will be difficult to see readily, the 
 caddie will be the most absolutely helpless 
 and ignorant person as to its whereabouts of 
 anyone on the entire links. I have never had 
 the pleasure of playing golf across the ocean, 
 but from what I hear, the caddies over there 
 are the exact opposite of the boys who make 
 hfe for the American golfer a round of 
 misery. There the caddies begin to carry 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 186 
 
 clubs when they are as young as our Ameri- 
 can caddies, but, unlike them, they do not 
 give it up at the end of a year or two. On 
 the contrary, many of them have spent their 
 entire lives carrying golf clubs, and they 
 know every inch of the distance and every 
 spear of grass on the courses. They know 
 even better than you, perhaps, what club you 
 should use for each and every shot, and they 
 are as keenly interested in your play and as 
 jubilant over a good score as you ever could 
 be yourself. A lost ball with one of these 
 old Scotch caddies is an almost unheard-of 
 occurrence, while I do not suppose there was 
 ever one known to annoy his employer by 
 lagging behind during the round. How to 
 obtain a class of caddies of this caliber is 
 one of the great problems of American golf, 
 and until it is solved the game will lack the 
 very highest acme of enjoyment. 
 
 Conditions might be very much improved 
 if the professional of each club would hold 
 a sort of school for fifteen or twenty minutes 
 
186 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 each morning as soon as the caddies reach the 
 clubhouse. He could explain to them just 
 what their duties were, what they should do, 
 and how they should do it, and if every club 
 would adopt this idea, there is no doubt but 
 that the caddie service would soon reach a 
 much higher plane than it has at present. 
 
 BALLS 
 
 The evolution of the golf-ball has been 
 rapid and radical in its development. For 
 a great many years golf-balls were made by 
 taking a round leather cover and stuffing it 
 full of feathers, pounding them down so that 
 several quarts of feathers were compressed 
 into a globe about an inch arkd a quarter in 
 diameter. 
 
 After using this kind of ball for years and 
 years, someone discovered that gutta-percha 
 would make a much more lively and much 
 more durable ball than the one of compressed 
 feathers; and although its introduction was 
 bitterly opposed by the best players of the 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 187 
 
 time, its qualities were so superior that it 
 quickly won its way, and for a long period 
 of time was the standard ball. There were 
 a great many makes, and they were made 
 with different varieties of " nicks," and all 
 were about equal in desirability and excel- 
 lence. 
 
 No one thought that there could ever 
 be an improvement made upon the gutta- 
 percha ball, but during the last three years 
 Yankee genius has invented one which is as 
 much superior to the " gutty " as the 
 " gutty " was to the old feather ball. It is 
 made by taking a rubber core, and winding it 
 with a thread of pure rubber until it is very 
 nearly the size required. (The regulation 
 ball is of 27^ pattern, but there are some 
 used 27 size and a few 28.) After the thread 
 of rubber, tightly stretched across, has been 
 wound around the rubber core (the process 
 being done by machinery, of course, to secure 
 absolute mechanical accuracy), the ball is 
 incased in a thin shell of gutta. This shell is 
 
188 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 not more than about one-sixteenth of an inch 
 thick, as its only object is to furnish a surface 
 upon which the nicks, necessary in order to 
 obtain the greatest flight to the ball, can be 
 made. Another consideration is that it may 
 save the rubber thread from being cut by a 
 stroke of the club, and by the stones on the 
 course. The difference between this ball and 
 the regulation " gutty " is, of course, in its 
 resiliency. 
 
 Experts who have used both balls differ as 
 to whether they can get a longer one from a 
 driver by using a " gutty " or the new rubber- 
 filled ball, but all agree that one can obtain 
 from ten to twenty-five yards farther with 
 the new kind from an iron-shot. For the 
 mediocre player there is no doubt that, the 
 new ball is a distinct advantage. She 
 can drive it much farther, whether she is 
 using a wooden or an iron club; it will roll 
 nearly as far after a topped shot as though 
 it had been struck truly; and, best of all, it 
 has a happy faculty of bounding along the 
 
MISS RHONA K. ADAIR, PUTTING. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 189 
 
 ground and jumping over the bunkers, which 
 rejoices exceedingly the heart of a player 
 who is accustomed to spending a large por- 
 tion of her time in sorrow and sadness, striv- 
 ing to play the aggravating ball from the 
 hazard. It is not, however, so pleasurable a 
 ball to use as the ** gutty," if one is playing a 
 fairly good game, for a cleanly hit full shot 
 from the latter gives a click, as the ball and 
 club come in contact, which is the sweetest 
 of music to a golfer; on the other hand, the 
 rubber-filled ball flies off the club with a 
 soft, squashy sound, as though one had hit a 
 lump of putty. Still, it requires much less 
 effort to drive it than does the " gutty," and 
 as endurance plays a considerable part in 
 golf matches, this is a strong point in its 
 favor. 
 
 No matter how much cut is put on a high 
 approach shot, it is impossible to make the 
 rubber-filled ball drop dead, and on some 
 greens it is almost impossible to play it with- 
 out running away past the hole. However, 
 
190 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 its advantages much more than counterbal- 
 ance its disadvantages to my mind, and par- 
 ticularly so for women. All golf-balls should 
 be kept for some time before being used, the 
 *' gutty " ball from eight or nine months to 
 a year, and the rubber-filled ball a little less, 
 and all balls, no matter what kind, are im- 
 proved by being remade. This can be done 
 by any golf-club maker, or molds can be 
 bought for a few dollars in which a player 
 can remake the balls herself. Sometimes the 
 paint will chip off when the ball has been kept 
 for a long time, but this may be remedied by 
 dipping the ball in fairly hot water for a little 
 while, in order to moisten up the paint. Care 
 should be taken not to allow the ball to be- 
 come soft by staying in the hot water too 
 long, however, and in summer, during the ex- 
 tremely hot weather, it is a good idea to keep 
 one's golf balls in as cool a place as may be 
 convenient. 
 
 After a ball has been used for a 
 little while, the most satisfactory thing to do 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 191 
 
 and the most economical as well, is to send it 
 to a professional or to one of the big ball- 
 making manufactories, and have it remade. 
 Any ball manufactory will do it for one dollar 
 to two dollars a dozen, or they will exchange 
 old balls for new ones. If, however, one de- 
 lights in trying to do things for one's self, a 
 can of paint prepared especially for renewing 
 the whiteness of golf-balls may be purchased 
 at any golf-goods store, and the player can re- 
 paint them herself. The ball should first be 
 soaked in a solution of potash or lye until the 
 old paint has been entirely removed. Let 
 them dry for a day or so, and then they can be 
 painted, either with a brush or by taking some 
 paint on the palm of one's hands and rolling 
 the ball around in them. About four coats of 
 paint will be required, and I think that one 
 experience at trying to become a golf-ball 
 maker will be all that anyone will require to 
 satisfy herself that this is a department of the 
 game better left to those who make a business 
 of it. 
 
192 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 COURTESY 
 
 The etiquette of golf suggests many little 
 points of courtesy which any player of experi- 
 ence would, from instinctive good breeding, 
 recognize, but there are some little points 
 which, through carelessness, are not always 
 observed, and it would add much to the en- 
 joyment of those playing on the same links, 
 and detract nothing from their own pleasure, 
 if their attention should be called to them. 
 Of course any woman playing in a match 
 whose opponent lost her ball, would, from in- 
 nate courtesy, try to help her find it, and like- 
 wise, no one would think of leaving the tee, 
 having had the honor, before her opponent 
 had played, nor would anyone think, no mat- 
 ter how careless she might be, of moving or 
 speaking while her opponent was preparing 
 or making her shot. 
 
 All these and many more matter-of-course 
 courtesies are extended from one opponent to 
 another, but there are some courtesies due to 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 193 
 
 the players directly behind one, and also di- 
 rectly preceding one, which are frequently not 
 accorded, and it is to these that I wish to call 
 attention. 
 
 If you are playing in a match, in which 
 your opponent is a very slow player, or if you 
 are one yourself, or if, for any reason whatso- 
 ever, you find that you are falling behind the 
 player just preceding you, and are, in conse- 
 quence, delaying all those behind you, it is 
 only the courteous thing to allow the player 
 behind to pass. So annoying and disastrous 
 to good play is it to all those behind that I 
 really think a rule should be framed providing 
 that any player playing so slowly as to compel 
 the player behind to wait, should be compelled 
 to give way, and let the fastest players go on. 
 
 As conditions are now, few players like to 
 request permission to pass a player ahead of 
 them, no matter how slowly the former is pro- 
 ceeding, and many players are offended at 
 such a request, thinking, most unnecessarily 
 and unjustly, that such a request is almost in 
 
194 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 the light of an insult, or at least a reflection 
 on their playing ability. Such is by no means 
 the case. It is simply a recognition of the fact 
 that some people naturally play faster than 
 others, and if by the luck of the start a slow 
 player begins her round early, she should be 
 considerate enough to allow anyone who plays 
 faster to pass her. 
 
 If the conditions are reversed, and you and 
 your partner are the faster players, you would 
 naturally appreciate such courtesy, but, on the 
 other hand, you should remember the feelings 
 of those in front of you. The rules of the 
 game provide that a player must not play a 
 shot until the players preceding have played 
 their second, but, unfortunately, this rule is 
 very frequently forgotten, or at least over- 
 looked. 
 
 CORRECTING FAULTS 
 
 No matter how good a player may be, there 
 will inevitably come a time when she will get 
 off with some club or another, and for a cer- 
 
GENERAL REMARKS 195 
 
 tain time will be absolutely unable to make a 
 shot with it. The very best way to regain 
 one's skill, when this unfortunate state of af- 
 fairs happens, is to take a complete rest and 
 not touch any club for several days, or, if one 
 feels that it is necessary to play, endeavor 
 not to use this particular club. If a little rest 
 does not put one back in form, take a dozen 
 old balls, and practice that one particular shot 
 for half an hour. In this way one will gener- 
 ally be able to discover what is wrong, and 
 this is not only the best way to practice to ob- 
 tain skill, but it is by all means the best way of 
 correcting faults. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 GOLF COURSES FOR WOMEN 
 
 GOLF in America has spread to such an 
 astounding degree in the compara- 
 tively few years of its existence that 
 the links over which it is played are laid out 
 on any and all sorts of ground. In Scotland 
 and England the great majority of courses are 
 laid out on flat sandy ground, and one does 
 not have to use up the best part of one's 
 strength in the physical exertion of climbing 
 up and down hill. Owing to the varying char- 
 acteristics of country in the United States, 
 however, many popular links are laid out, 
 from necessity, on ground which is so much 
 up and down hill that a woman is really tired 
 out from the exertion of walking before half 
 the course is played. Even for a man, it is 
 decidedly unpleasant to play over hilly links. 
 196 
 
COURSES FOR WOMEN 197 
 
 For a woman it makes the sport so arduous 
 that it is only the most intense enthusiast who 
 will play very steadily or for a very long time. 
 In choosing, therefore, land on which to lay 
 out a golf links, the first consideration, in my 
 opinion, is to select ground over which it will 
 be easy to walk. 
 
 The ideal soil on which to lay out a golf 
 course consists of a sandy subsoil, with a 
 quick, thickly growing turf, a turf which will 
 give at the impact of a club and which will 
 grow again very quickly. This is the kind of 
 soil which is found in almost every instance in 
 England and Scotland, and it is only on ac- 
 count of the recuperative powers of the turf 
 there that permits of the really wonderful 
 amount of play which goes on all over the 
 foreign links. In this country Garden City 
 approximates more nearly the ideal turf than 
 does any other links, but the Chicago Golf 
 Club at Wheaton, the Apawamis, Nassau, 
 Morris County, Baltrusol, Glenview, and 
 Midlothian Clubs also have splendid turf. 
 
198 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 To my mind, turf is a secondary consideration 
 to a level or slightly rolling country, and I 
 should, therefore, place it in the secondary 
 point of consideration when fixing upon a site 
 for a course. 
 
 For the really scientific and high-class play- 
 ing of the game of golf it is absolutely essen- 
 tial that the distances and hazards of the 
 course be so arranged that every good shot is 
 rewarded and every poor one penalized. Un- 
 fortunately, there are very few courses in 
 America on which this is invariably the rule at 
 each hole, although the number of properly 
 laid out links is increasing every day. To a 
 certain extent the rubber-filled ball which has 
 come into prominence and popularity within 
 the last year or two is responsible for this state 
 of affairs, for playing with it, anyone gets a 
 longer shot, and this is particularly empha- 
 sized in the case of a woman. Consequently a 
 hole which, when laid out to be two full shots 
 with a wooden club, playing with the old 
 gutta-percha ball, becomes, when played with 
 
COURSES FOR WOMEN 199 
 
 the new one, a drive and iron shot, which, of 
 course, is a bad hole, for the reason that if the 
 drive is a bad one, one can still reach the green 
 by using a driver or brassey for the second 
 shot, instead of the iron, and thus be exactly as 
 well off at the end of the two shots as though 
 the first one had been played perfectly and the 
 second played with an iron. It is this sort of 
 thing which breaks a good player's heart. She 
 says to herself, " What is the advantage of 
 my making a drive forty yards further than 
 my opponent, if the latter can be on the green 
 in two, just as well off as I am, even though 
 she may have used a driver, while I played 
 with a mashie." In laying out a course, there- 
 fore, the first thing to be considered is that 
 each hole should be one, or two, or three, or 
 four, as the case may be, full shots from tee to 
 green. In considering what distance a full 
 shot should be counted one must endeavor to 
 strike the distance which a first-class player 
 averages to drive. For a woman, i6o or 170 
 yards is a fair distance, and for a man 20 or 
 
200 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 30 yards may be added to that. In deter- 
 mining the distances of the holes, however, 
 the natural lay of the land must be taken into 
 consideration and, as in everything else, an 
 arbitrary rule must give way to common sense. 
 For instance, if the line of play Is over a slight 
 down grade one can count on ten or fifteen 
 yards' roll for the ball, while if it is over a 
 shght up-grade a similar distance must be 
 subtracted from the number determined upon 
 as the average full shot to counterbalance the 
 fact that there would be little less flight and 
 much less roll than if a shot were played on 
 r an absolutely level piece of ground. 
 
 HAZARDS 
 
 The distances of the holes, however, are not 
 the only requisites for the laying of a first- 
 class golf links. The proper placing of the 
 various hazards which lend a spice and variety 
 to the performance of the shots play a very 
 important part in the construction of a scien- 
 tific course. In the first place, there should 
 
COURSES FOR WOMEN 201 
 
 never be a hazard placed so as to endanger a 
 good shot, let alone trap a phenomenally good 
 one. This would seem to be the most ordi- 
 nary of common sense, but I have frequently 
 seen bunkers and hazards so placed that the 
 exceptionally long player was worse off than 
 the short driver. The fundamental principle 
 of arranging the hazards is to punish every 
 poor shot without placing any good shot in 
 jeopardy, and if this principle is kept firmly in 
 mind there will be comparatively little trouble 
 in arranging the course properly. A hazard 
 does not need to be formidable to have all the 
 effect which is its purpose. The moral effect 
 of a hazard is usually quite as great if it is 
 a bunker three feet high as if it is ten, and 
 as the moral effect is quite as important as the 
 material difficulty to be surmounted, the 
 smaller one is consequently quite as useful as 
 the other. 
 
 In my opinion it is not necessary or even 
 advisable to have hazards on a course from 
 which it is extremely difficult to get out. 
 
202 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 I think that one shot lost is quite penalty 
 enough in medal play, and, as for match play, 
 if one can't win the hole after receiving the 
 advantage of a stroke, then one deserves to 
 lose it. In my tournament experience I have 
 seen so many first-class players fail to qualify 
 in a medal play round simply because one bad 
 shot landed them in a hazard so difficult that 
 it required six or eight strokes to get out on 
 the fair green again, and their chances for the 
 entire tournament or championship were lost 
 just through this one bad stroke. It was a 
 misfortune of this kind which caused Miss 
 Frances Griscom, then the title-holder, to fail 
 to qualify in the Woman's National Cham- 
 pionship of 1 90 1, and many other nearly as 
 notable instances will be recalled by anyone 
 who has followed the tournament play of 
 American women during the past few years. 
 Not only should bunkers be made small 
 enough, so that a really good player can get 
 out in one stroke, but they should be turfed 
 over, and then a rule made that the ball should 
 
COURSES FOR WOMEN 203 
 
 be played from where it lay, and not dropped 
 back a club's length. Another point is that 
 for at least five or six feet back of the bunker, 
 in the direction from which the shot is to be 
 played, the turf should be taken up and the 
 hole filled in with soft sand, in order that one 
 can cut deeply under and behind the ball, and 
 thus get over the bunker, a thing which is 
 practically impossible when the soil is hard or 
 turfed. 
 
 The following table of distances should, in 
 my opinion, form an almost ideal course for 
 women's play, although, of course, the nature 
 of the ground might cause some alterations to 
 be necessary: 
 
 I. — 365 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 2. — 340 yards, driver, brassey, 2 putts. 
 3. — 179 yards, driver, 2 putts. 
 4. — 395 yards, driver, brassey, half-iron, 2 
 
 putts. 
 5. — 320 yards, driver, mid-iron, 2 putts. 
 
204 GOLP FOR WOMEN 
 
 6. — 465 yards, driver, brassey, mid-iron, 2 
 
 putts. 
 7. — 280 yards, driver, half-iron, 2 putts. 
 8. — 375 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 9. — 400 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 10. — 167 yards, cleek, 2 putts. 
 II. — 335 yards, driver, cleek, 2 putts. 
 12. — 300 yards, driver, mid-iron, 2 putts. 
 13. — 378 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 14. — 350 yards, driver, brassey, 2 putts. 
 15. — 180 yards, driver, 2 putts. 
 16. — 425 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 17. — 387 yards, driver, brassey, mashie, 2 
 
 putts. 
 18. — 343 yards, driver, brassey, 2 putts. 
 Total, 5984 yards. Bogie, 77. 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICAN GOLF 
 
 BY MISS RHONA K. ADAIR 
 
 I AM afraid that this is a pretty big subject 
 to write about, for, to tell the truth, my 
 individual impressions are not quite so 
 keen as they might have been had they not 
 been fogged a bit by the wave of pleasure and 
 all-round jollity into which I was plunged al- 
 most the moment I put foot on the steamship 
 dock. 
 
 Perhaps the best starting point is by a com- 
 pliment which I can pay with the utmost sin- 
 cerity to the American woman golfer. It is 
 one equally deserved by Mrs. Charles T. 
 Stout (who is, I consider, decidedly the best 
 American woman player I have seen), and by 
 the poorest player that has been at any of 
 the courses over which I have played. 
 
 This is in regard to their pluck. Never in 
 205 
 
206 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 all my experience have I seen such universal 
 grit, sand, or what I believe you call " nerve " 
 as is displayed by every woman golfer In 
 America. It is really astounding. I don't 
 believe that there Is a bad sportswoman in 
 America. Certainly, if there be one, I have 
 not seen her. In England it is very uncommon 
 /> to find a woman playing out a hole if she has 
 
 A/ been bunkered, or yf?LS driven out of bounds, 
 
 or is for any reason whatsoever playing sev- 
 eral strokes more than her opponent. I find in 
 America, that with the never-say-die spirit 
 which I have always heard was typical of all 
 America, they keep right on playing until their 
 opponent's ball Is actually In the hole. Nor 
 does this apply to one hole only of a match. I 
 have seen women with a score of four down 
 and five to go staring them In the face tee 
 up with quite as much pluck and cheerfulness 
 as they showed on the first tee, and in a good 
 many instances with much more. That is the 
 spirit which wins golf matches, and while I am 
 loyal to the last to my home and friends, I 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 207 
 
 must in fairness admit that American women 
 seem better able to rise to a bad situation and 
 play " better than they know how " when such 
 a feat is demanded by the exigencies of the 
 score, than either English, Irish, or Scotch 
 women. 
 
 It may be that I have been particularly for- 
 tunate in the friends whom I have made in 
 America and in the atmosphere into which I 
 have been drawn at the tournaments I have 
 attended. But it seems to me that there is a 
 much greater degree of good-fellowship and 
 sociability connected with your meetings than 
 there is on the other side. During a match 
 there it is quite as unusual for opposing play- 
 ers to chat during the round as it seems to be 
 unusual here for them not to do so, and in this 
 way one, of course, gets much better ac- 
 quainted than is possible when a round is 
 made in silence, except for the formal cour- 
 tesies and speeches of the game. Then, too, 
 over here girls become better friends in a 
 week's tournament than they would in Eng- 
 
208 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 land in two or three such meetings, and this, 
 it seems to me, is one of the most charming 
 features of American tournaments. 
 
 A point which seems most curious to me is 
 the difference shown in dress when golfing by 
 American women. At home we wear about 
 the same things whether the weather is pleas- 
 ant or unpleasant. Over here, it seems to me, 
 the girls pay rather more attention to their 
 clothes and general " get-up " when the sun is 
 shining than we ever do. But they also go to 
 the other extreme, and when the weather is 
 unpleasant they simply do not care what they 
 wear. 
 
 In England, dowdy and careless in 
 dress as we are supposed to be, I have never 
 seen women in such unbecoming and careless 
 and rough costumes as I have seen here. So 
 far 'as the nature of dress for play is con- 
 cerned, I think we all dress about alike. A 
 heavy pair of boots, any kind of a short skirt, 
 and a waist which leaves one free for a good 
 full swing are all that are necessary, and they 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 209 
 
 are alike the world over. It is more common 
 for women to wear gloves on the other side 
 than it is here, I think, and that little detail 
 is simply another link in the chain of plucki- 
 ness of which I spoke above, the inference 
 being that the American woman would rather 
 take the trouble to massage and manicure out 
 the grime which she is bound to accumulate 
 without gloves than to run the risk of spoiling 
 a shot by a glove slipping in her grasp. So 
 far as clubs are concerned, I don't see any ap- 
 preciable difference in those made here and 
 those made on the other side, although per- 
 haps we at home use a shghtly lighter club 
 than the average woman here. After all, 
 though, a good club's a good club, and must 
 be suited to its owner and no one else. 
 
 Of the American courses I have nothing 
 but praise. They far exceed what I had "been 
 led to expect, and while improvements could 
 be suggested, one or two at which I have 
 played rank quite on a par with the best links 
 abroad. 
 
210 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 Of course the nature of the soil is different, 
 and so are the turf and putting-greens, but 
 the latter average to run quite as true as ours 
 at home, although they are not, as a general 
 thing, so large. I think that the average of 
 putting should be better here than in Eng- 
 land, for the reason that your greens are much 
 slower than ours, and the slower the green the 
 harder one can hit the ball. 
 
 I have been simply astounded at the' excel- 
 lence of links which I have been told were 
 only three or four years old, for we believe 
 that a course must have been played over 
 several years more than that number to reach 
 its greatest perfection. Should some of the 
 links I have seen improve in the next few 
 years as much as they have in the past, they 
 will be the best in the world. 
 
 American men may have an advantage over 
 our masculine players through using a rubber- 
 filled ball, but our women have adopted it al- 
 most altogether, and I think that its use not 
 only improves one's game, but adds a deal of 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 211 
 
 enjoyment to playing, as with it one is not 
 compelled to exert anything like so much 
 strength to achieve the same results. 
 
 This is a valuable point in any country, 
 but particularly so in the United States, where 
 I find that the climatic conditions are such 
 that physique plays a very important part in 
 one's golf. I think it is no exaggeration to 
 say that it takes more strength to play an 
 eighteen-hole round in the United States than 
 to play thirty-six holes at home, and this is 
 due solely to the atmospheric pressure and not 
 to any appreciable difference in the lie of the 
 land. 
 
 Despite this fact, however, I do not think 
 that there is much difference in the length of 
 carry one obtains from a shot, the ball fly- 
 ing to all practical purposes as well here as at 
 home. 
 
 It is because of the fact that thirty-six 
 holes of tournament play are too much to 
 ask of a woman in America in one day that I 
 think that the qualifying round, as you play it 
 
212 GOLFFORWOMEN 
 
 here, Is a decidedly necessary adjunct to tour- 
 naments. I thoroughly believe that match 
 play is the truest golf, and hope that at home 
 we shall always decide our tournaments by 
 it exclusively; but with the big fields which 
 you turn out here, one of three things must be 
 done in the decision of tournaments. Either 
 there must be two rounds of eighteen-hole 
 matches each day ; tournaments must last two 
 weeks, or there must be a qualifying round, 
 and this last is, by all odds, the best alterna- 
 tive. 
 
 There are, of course, other arguments in 
 favor of the qualifying round aside from the 
 one of time-saving. 
 
 In the first place, it teaches carefulness and 
 steadiness, and steadiness is what the Ameri- 
 can player lacks more than any one other thing. 
 Match play, with all its advantages, does in- 
 duce a degree of carelessness in play when one 
 feels that a hole is hopeless from the fact that 
 one says, " Oh, well, one hole — what does it 
 matter?" while in medal play, with every 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 2lS 
 
 stroke counting, a moment's carelessness may 
 mean loss of the medal or tournament. 
 
 One great fault, which it seems to me is 
 very prevalent in America, is in the fact 
 that American women devote too much time 
 to perfecting themselves in one stroke, and not 
 enough to the all-round development of their 
 game. I have found, in consequence, that the 
 women here can average a much better drive 
 than they can any other shot, for, as driving 
 is the most pleasurable part of the game, they 
 have developed their skill at that, without re- 
 gard to iron-shots or putting. 
 
 American women really drive quite as well, 
 if not better, than do English women, and, 
 for this reason, I am convinced that the time 
 is not far distant when the standard of skill 
 will be as high on this side of the ocean as it 
 is on the other. If a team of six or eight 
 American women come abroad next year, as I 
 hope they will, I expect our team to defeat 
 them, but from what I have seen here we shall 
 have to bring out our very best players and 
 
914 GOLFFORWOMEN 
 
 have them at the very top of their game to do 
 so. 
 
 By all odds the best woman player in the 
 United States whom I have seen is Mrs. 
 Charles T. Stout. I consider her, all things 
 taken into consideration, a wonder, while 
 Miss Margaret Curtis is a phenomenal driver, 
 and at times an extremely brilliant player. 
 She is so erratic, however, that she can- 
 not be considered as being in Mrs. Stout's 
 class. 
 
 In fact, Mrs. Stout, I have been told, was 
 considered by all good judges here to be quite 
 in a class by herself, and from what I have 
 seen I am quite prepared to accept their ver- 
 dict as being true. Never have I seen a player 
 display more ideal form than does she in every 
 particular, and, in my opinion, she is quite the 
 equal of any woman golfer in the world. Her 
 play is a worthy model for every woman to 
 pattern after, and, should she come abroad 
 next year for the Ladies' English champion- 
 ship, she would have a chance second to no 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 215 
 
 one's of winning it. Besides the beautiful 
 style in which she plays, the main beauty of 
 her game is that it is so evenly developed, and 
 not one stroke perfected at the expense of 
 others. 
 
 Of the American Amateur champion, Mr. 
 Walter J. Travis, I can only express admira- 
 tion. His game, while not as good relatively 
 to that of our best amateurs, as is Mrs. Stout's 
 to our best women's, is one which deserves the 
 highest consideration in any company, and 
 when I was told that he did not begin to play 
 golf until several years past thirty, I was more 
 than amazed. 
 
 I have seen very few other of the high- 
 class amateurs play here, but from what I 
 have heard of the way Mr. Travis outclasses 
 them, I do not think that they rank so well 
 relatively with our amateurs as do the women. 
 
 SHOT MOST NECESSARY 
 
 In considering such a point as this. It must 
 not be overlooked that on any links, and under 
 
216 GOLF FOR WOMEN 
 
 any circumstances, it is putting which wins the 
 match. 
 
 In America, as I said above, it strikes me 
 that women and men, too, pay far too much 
 attention to driving, sacrificing everything to 
 it, while at home, if any stroke is practiced to 
 an undue proportion, it is putting. From the 
 nature of the majority of the links over which 
 I have played in America, I should say that 
 ability to play a low, rolling-up approach shot 
 would be as useful a shot as anyone could 
 name. I had been told before my arrival that 
 I would have to pitch up all my approach 
 shots, and endeavor to have them drop dead, 
 but I found that a running-up approach suf- 
 ficed in most instances. 
 
 CADDIES 
 
 Really, the only thing in which I found 
 America much" behind us at home was the 
 caddies. 
 
 Much as I hate to seem unpleasant or cap- 
 tious, I must say that I consider the genus 
 
AMERICAN GOLF 
 
 217 
 
 caddie, as found on American links, the worst 
 fraud ever perpetrated. They know nothing; 
 they are lazy and indifferent, and it is almost 
 as much trouble to make them keep up with 
 one on the journey round the links as it is to 
 caddie for one's self. Generally they do not 
 know one club from another. 
 
 At home the caddies are usually men who 
 have been born and brought up on the links, 
 and are really almost as much use to a player 
 as a professional is here. They are uniformly 
 faithful and courteous. 
 
3lv77-3 
 
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 III 
 
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