ON THE LINKS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8178, 20 July 1912, Page 14

ON THE LINKS.

THE FULL MID-IKON SHOT. You will notice in the previous article on mid-iron-play, that the full shot with this club was not referred to. It is a matter of taste, but the majority of the best players never take a full sfiot with this club or a mashie, except on very special occasions, which by reason of tficir rarity cause full shots with these two clubs to be regarded more or less as fancy shots used in an emergency; which, by the way, is the best way tor the average player to- regard fancy shots. Braid is quite emphatic about it. “Speaking generally, 1 do not favour taking a full shot with an iron club unless special circumstances render it absolutely necessary, except perhaps with the cleek. Tho iron, clubs are heavier than the wooden ones, and are consequently more under control, and it will bo found that, with a three-quarter swing they will be still more under control, and there will be, or should be, a corresponding gain in accuracy which is all important. ’By a three-quarter swing one means a swing in which the club is carried back for only about three quarters of the distance that it would be taken when making a full shot with the driver, that is to say, not so far as the horizontal. A considerable amount of practice may be needed to regulate these swings, but the player will come to make them with great accuracy if he perseveres.” What wo want to remember is that our clubs are all graded, both in regard to length of shaft and length of shot. The shorter the distance required, the shorter the shaft and, what everyone does not realise, the stockier it should be. Thus it goes from the short, thick-shaft-ed niblick or mashie to the thin, whippy, )3(exiblle (driver shaft. Probably most people think the two former clubs are heavily built only because they are used in bad lies. There is more reason than that. One must hit more with irou than with wooden clubs and the arms and wrists are kept stitfer, a too whippy iron, club shaft would bfend with the force of the downward swing and the ball be not truly hit. AVhcreas in play with wooden club the spring of the shaft is essential to that subtle flick in a swing which adds twenty yards or so, but must never be confused with a hitting motion. Therefore as our clubs are all graded for us and as in our articles we are now approaching the dividing line between a swing and a hit, let us never forget that oft repeated advice against the false pride which makes us want to get a certain distance by pressing with a mashie instead of playing an easy midiron shot, and take chances which .the best players refuse to take of a forced (full inon in preference to a. quietly played cleek or driving mashie. If the great of the golfing world regard the result as the vital thing, .not any false, pride about greater length than an opponent with a certain club, why are so many of us foolish' enough to feel ashamed to'take a wooden club for the distance So-and-So gets with an iron one ? ■ , ■ , ■

However, occasions do arise when for the sake of the greater height obtained it is necessary to play a lull iron or mashie. Then stand with the right foot only a little advanced, weight evenly distributed and good luck go with you! Kemember a full shot -with an iron can be made with the left arm perfectly straight at the top of your swing. To go further back is nearly always fatal. As a general summing-up of iron play we cannot do better than take Horace Hutchinson's remarks on it. “We are inclined to think that the approaching cleek is the most easy for ttu beginner to play with, it set in s to look at the bail an a more straightforward, simple way than the mashies and irons, whose faces always to present them-, selves at somewhat of an angle to the direction in which the ball ought to go; in a word, it seems easier to play straight with them. The mashie is, oi course, rather a dangerous tool in the hands of a tyro, because it has so small a face. There is but little margin for error. “Nevertheless, despite this, word an favour of the approaching cleek, the iron is, of course, the orthodox and recognised weapon with which to approach the hole. When the distance is less than that for which the three-quarter stroke is used, it is commonly called a half-shot distance. Now, it must be said that the three-quarter, half, quarter and wristshots are on a nicely graduated scale, so that a man could nardly say with certainty at what distance one leaves off and another begins. So, too, with the strokes —a man could hardly tell you whether on a certain occasion he were playing a three-quarter or a half-shot. The names are rather arbitrary, and do not correspond to any clearly-defined (pfitaranoes; but roughly we may diffierentiate the strokes as follow: When you are just a little too near the hole for the three-quarter stroke you will use the half-shot. The half-shot is played similarly to the three-quarter shot, save that it is executed by the arms working from the elbow-joints only. Other motions, such as the turning in of the left knee and rising on the ball of the left foot, do, but follow on in. such a way as not to check the motions of the forearms, which are the active agents of the spring. In the three-quarter shot—a shortei distance again—little part is taken in the swing by the arms above the wrists. This is, in fact, a wrist stroke; but is may be distinguished from the wrist stroke proper by the fact that the motions of the lower limbs are allowed, as before, to follow the swing; whereas the strict wrist shot may be said to be one in which the player is practically mo tionless, save for his hands and wrists, with which alone 'the stroke is played. The last, therefore, is .only useful for a very short loft.”