shots are
being considered. Again, on making a critical examination of these
measurements, the golfer of a little experience will promptly ask why my
mashie is an inch and a quarter longer than my iron. It is longer
because one has sometimes to play high lofting shots over trees and the
like, and in such cases the loft of the mashie is necessary and a
considerable amount of power as well--hence the extra stick.

As I have said, the collection of a set of clubs that conform in
essentials to their owner's ideal is a very slow and often an expensive
process. A club that was bought in the shop for six shillings might have
cost its owner six sovereigns when the many unsatisfactory and discarded
articles that were bought while this one perfect gem was being searched
for are taken into account. Therefore it behoves the man who is to any
extent satisfied with his clubs to take a proper pride in them and look
well after them. I like to see a golfer play with bright irons, and
shafts that give evidence of tender and affectionate care. It jars upon
one's nerves to see rusty irons and mashies which have evidently not
been cleaned for months, and which are now past hope. Such a man does
not deserve to have good clubs, nor to play good strokes with them. But
many golfers, even when they have a tender and careful regard for the
excellent merits of their favourites, seem to imagine that the beginning
and end of their duty towards them is to keep their irons bright and
free from the slightest semblance of rust. More often than not the shaft
is never given a thought, and yet a perfect shaft that just suits the
man who has to play with it is one of the rarest and most difficult
things to discover. It would be difficult to replace it, and to keep it
in its best condition it needs constant care and attention. An
unreasoning golfer may play with his clubs on wet days, see that the
irons are brightened afterwards, and store his collection in his locker
without another thought concerning them. And then some time later when
he is out on the links snap goes one of his shafts, and "Confound that
rotten wood!" he exclaims. But it is not a case of rotten wood at all.
When shafts are constantly allowed to get wet and are afterwards merely
wiped with a rag and given no further attention, all the life dries out
of the wood, and they are sure to break sooner or later. It should be
your invariable practice, when you have been out on a wet day, first to