see that your shafts are well dried and then to give them a thoroughly
good oiling with linseed oil, applied with a rag kept specially for the
purpose. This will keep them in excellent condition. The tops of the
club heads may be oiled in the same way; but extreme care should be
taken that not a drop of oil is allowed to touch the face of the wooden
clubs. It would tend to open the grain, and then, when next you played
in the wet, the damp would get inside the wood and cause it gradually to
rot. I counsel all golfers when playing in wet weather to have covers or
hoods attached to their bags, so that the heads of their instruments may
always be kept in shelter. This will do much for their preservation,
and at the same time add materially to the satisfaction of the player,
for he can never feel that he has the means to do himself justice on the
tee when the head of his driver is in a half soaked state. No player,
whatever his abilities as a golfer, should refrain from exercising this
precautionary measure because he has seen only the very best players
doing so, and because he fancies it may be regarded by his friends as
affectation. The fact that it is chiefly the best players who do these
things only indicates that they know better than others what is due to
their clubs and how to look after them. There is no affectation in
copying their methods in this respect.

CHAPTER V

DRIVING--PRELIMINARIES

Advantage of a good drive--And the pleasure of it--More about the
driver--Tee low--Why high tees are bad--The question of
stance--Eccentricities and bad habits--Begin in good
style--Measurements of the stance--The reason why--The grip of the
club--My own method and its advantages--Two hands like
one--Comparative tightness of the hands--Variations during the
swing--Certain disadvantages of the two-V grip--Addressing the
ball--Freaks of style--How they must be compensated for--Too much
waggling--The point to look at--Not the top of the ball but the
side of it.

It has been said that the amateur golfers of Great Britain are in these
days suffering from a "debauchery of long driving." The general sense of
Mr. Travis's remark is excellent, meaning that there is a tendency to
regard a very long drive as almost everything in the playing of a hole,
and to be utterly careless of straightness and the short game so long as
the ball has been hit from the tee to the full extent