GOLF.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18183, 20 September 1924, Page 16

GOLF.

THE BEST SHOTS.

CLEEK AND MASHIE

(SPICXAI.LT WSITTEIT FOB "TKB TZT.3S.")

(By Harry Yardon.)

Somebody me the other day which shots the first-class golfer finds the greatest satisfaction in playing. I should say that those with the cleek and the mashie are the best in the game when a man is in form and feels in his inmost soul that he can hit the ball truly every time. For one thing, these shots call for perfection of judgment in regard to strength, trajectory, and direction, and for another thing, they are the master-strokes in golf in the sense that they are capable of winning matches and competitions with a decisiveness that no other strokes achieve. There is an aphorism that "the man who can putt is a match for anybody," but the player who is unerring with his cleek and his mashie never lias much putting to do, which is the ideal way of making golf easy.

Unfortunately, the cleek is not used nearly so much nowadays as it used to be. Time after time one hears at the end of the round some such remark as: "I tried the cleek again, but it's no good; I must stick to the baffy." The reason is very largely, I think, that few people obtain cleeks chat are suited to their individual requirements. Of all clubs, this is the one that needs to be wholly adapted to the player, since —although it has the power to achieve splendid results —its comparatively straight and shallow face means that it allows very little margin for error. When it is in the least degree too light or too heavy, or otherwise out of harmony with its owner's Bwing and manner of exercising control, it is apt to be very disappointing. But somewhere in the world there is the perfect eleek for anybody. .The difficulty is to discover it. Once it is found, it is a treasure. " Many desk-heads are not forged so well as they might he. There is a ten- • dency to mn&e them & trifle on _ the heavy side with the weight just a. little too pronounced in the toe. This is often sufficient to cause them to be untractable when they come to be shafted and wielded. They may seem all right when you examine them as units, out you cannot tell how a cleek will behave "until you ha.ve had it shafted. Only then does it disclose its qualities. New and Old. The head of my latest cleek seemed perfect, when it came from the forgo, but directly it haul been made up into a club, I knew there was something wrong with it. A few trials disclosed the souroe <rf trouble. There was a trifle too much weight in the toe. It conveyed a certain sense of dragging at the arms; nothing exactly repressive, but enough to be uncomfortable to a man who had once possessed an ideal cleek. And my old Carnitiners cleek, with a stumpy head, was a real joy; unfortunately, it would not last for ever. I had a little filed off the toe of the later club, and that put it right. There can be no doubt that many a golfer loses faith in the cleek •because it possesses—at any rate in the hands of the individual who tries to .use it—some such defect as this, although he is not conscious of the precise cause. o£ its 'waywardness. It is worth while persevering in .the quest of a satisfactory cleek because, when yon have lighted on it arid are hitting the ball well, you can do things with it which are impossible with any •other elirb. It controls the flight of a shot so completely that yott know exactly where the ball is going to drop and that certainly is not the case where its substitute, the spoon or baffy, is concerned. With tliis lofted' wooden club, the best' player in the world maybe an important few yards out in his effort to pitch the ball on a certain spot, even though he seems to have struck it just as he desired.

I recommend a cleek with a sliglitlvlofted face. The virtually straightfaced cleeks which one sees at times are. apt to knock tihe ball into the ground if the player mismanages his swing in only a very small degree. A little loft will "help to make the ball rise-in these circumstances.'

When a golfer knows that he is striking the ball accurately—and he knows that instinctively from the feel of the impact—and, the shot goes wrong, ■he has good ground for supposing that his cleelt is not the one suited to him. Then'is the time to consider whether the head is too heavy in the. toe, or otherwise creative of faulty balance. The Mashie's Possibilities. The satisfaction which an ambitious golfer derives from the , use of the s>mashie is-that it lends itself to the playing of every kind of shot—backspin and left-to-right cut spin, the lowflying pitch-and-run approach, and the all-pitclj approach of high trajectory that is designed to drop close to the hole and stop. Here, again, an alternative club has grown in favour. It is the mashieniblick, whidi certainly has one recommendation. Its face is so well laid back* that the player can hardly fail to make the ball rise with it. I suppose that nearly every golfer—good, "* bad, or indifferent—has his ntashie-niblick nowadays. Its adaptability to the business of banging the ball up to the pin—and without the exercise of any particular skill save clean striking—makes it too valuable to leave out of the bag. All the same, the shot that it offers is a coarse kind of shot compared with the range of strokes that can bo prac- . tised with the mashie. V T ery often, the latter is virtually indispensable, and then the player who has concentrated a good deal of attention on it gains his reward from the one who has been content with the expedient of the mashie-niblick. Given firm turf—it is useless to try this on wet soil—it is wonderful how much cat spin from left to right one can apply to the ball with a mashie. The ball should be opposite the middle of the left foot, with the rigEt foot well f forward so as to make the stan06 decidedly open. The arms have to be pushed slightly away from the body as the club goes up—ih such a degree as to transfer most of the weight to the rightleg in the up swing—and the result is that, in the down swing, the . club-face cuts across the back of the ball, or, in other words, across the intended line of flight. His is a valuable shot when the range is short and the green is keen; you cannot very well practise it at lengthy distances. It .is one of the shots that make the mashie a master club. AVONDALE CLUB. 33» following i» the draw for the second round of the medal handicap for the Tisdill Cleek, to be played to-morrow, commencing at 1.80 p.m.:— G. A. Conn&l plays J. H. Rigby. H. B. T. Spanjsr playe J. Mattin. I*. Hutchinson plays.H. E. Goggin. Ij. C. Prankish plays E. Duthie, jun. t le ™* K. L.- Bennett. li-Ai Play* G. Miller. V r rJ- -I- Hamilton plays J. Millarf. MoClymcmt plava J. E. Stokes. SlsiLs' G. Atkinson. - pl»7a Scorer. of met cqlbjbb.)

LADIES' CHAMPIONSHIP. RESULT OF FIRST ROUND. (nxss ASSOCIATION TELEOftAU.) HAMILTON, September 19. The New Zealand ladies' golf championship opened in showery weather. There was a very representative entry. Tho Coronation Medal Competition was won by Miss Kay, of Whangarei, with a score of 75. The first round of the championship resulted as follows: — Mrs Gardner (Whangarei) heat Miss Easton (Maungakiekie), 6 up and 5 to play. Miss E. Brown (Napier) won by default from Mrs Wagg (Hutt). Miss Jefris (Hutt) beat Miss Seifert (Manawatu), 2 up. Mrs Peake (Cambridge) beat Miss Chrystall (Christcliurch), 3 and 2. Mrs Bray (Paeroa) beat Mrs Arthur (Te Arolia), 5 and 3. Mrs Cook (Otago) beat Miss Ward (Wellington), 3 and 2. Mrs Dodgshun (Otago) beat Mi 93 McCormiek (Auckland), 2 and 3. Miss E. Bfell (Wellington) beat Miss Cutting (Auckland), 3 and 2. Mrs Slack (Cambridge) beat Miss Cooper (Auckland), 2 up. WANGANUI TOURNAMENT. (PUSS ASSOCIATION TELSOBAV.) WANGANUI, September 19. The golf tournament -was concluded to-day, whan Goes, ex champion of New Zealand, won the ciianipionship. He played brilliantly iu the semi-final, defeating linlay Saunders, holder of the honour, 6 and 5. Goss' oard waa as follows: Out—4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4—3(x In 4, 5, 3, 4—16. Goss also played a good game in the final, defeating Hussey, 4 and 3» Gosa' card was as follows: Oat—4, 6, 4, 6, 3, o, 4, 4, 5—40. In—2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 4—24. DUNCAN IN FORM. (PEXSS ASSOCIATION TZLIGSAiL) ROTORCA, September 19. The final of the Rotorua golf championship was played between H-. B. Luak (Auckland), and A. Duncan in the morning round; Duncan was 2 up at the turn with eight coneecuiiTe fours and scored 38 to Luak'e 39. Lußk equalised tho twelfth. Danca.ii did the next eix in 4, 0, 8, 3, 2, 4, though Lusk played steadily. Duncan finished the hall in 34 to 37, making tho respective totals 72. and 76. Duncan three op. In the afternoon, Duncan played irresistibly, ending the match on S9th, 8 and 7. The match was played out. Duncan only made two minor mistakes. . Driving straight and far and putting confidently, he lowered tho course record by five strokes from 71 to 66. Duncan's card readT" Out—3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 3, 4, 4," 3—34. . In 5, -4, 4,„ 4, 8, 2, 4. 3. 3—92. The winner received a tremendous ovation on hi* return.