ers will only bring themselves to ignore the wind, then it in turn
will almost entirely ignore their straight ball. When you find your ball
at rest the aforementioned forty or fifty yards from the point to which
you desired to send it, make up your mind, however unpleasant it may be
to do so, that the trouble is due to an unintentional pull or slice, and
you may get what consolation you can from the fact that the slightest of
these variations from the ordinary drive is seized upon with delight by
any wind, and its features exaggerated to an enormous extent. It is
quite possible, therefore, that a slice which would have taken the ball
only twenty yards from the line when there was no wind, will take it
forty yards away with the kind assistance of its friend and ally.

[Illustration: METHOD AND EFFECT OF PULLING INTO A CROSS WIND FROM THE
RIGHT.]

However, I freely admit that there are times when it is advisable to
play a fancy shot when there is an excess of wind, and the golfer must
judge according to circumstances. Let me give him this piece of advice:
very rarely slice as a remedy against a cross wind. Either pull or
nothing. If there is a strong wind coming from the right, the immature
golfer who has been practising slices argues that this is his chance,
and that it is his obvious duty to slice his ball right into the teeth
of that wind, so that wind and slice will neutralise each other, and the
ball as the result will pursue an even course in the straight line for
the flag. A few trials will prove to him that this is a very
unsatisfactory business, and after he has convinced himself about it I
would recommend him to try pulling the ball and despatching it at once
along a line to the right directly against that same wind. When the pull
begins to operate, both this and the wind will be working together, and
the ball will be carried a much greater length, its straightness
depending upon the accuracy of allowance. The diagram explains my
meaning. But I reiterate that the ordinary shots are generally the
easiest and best with which to get to the hole. The principle of the
golfer should be, and I trust is, that he always wants to reach the hole
in the simplest and easiest way, with a minimum of doubt and anxiety
about any shot which he is called upon to play, and one usually finds
that without these fancy shots one comes to the flag as easily as is
possible in all the circumstances. Of course I am writing more
particular