t rid of the idea that the player
lofts the ball, or at least gives material assistance to the club in
doing it. What happens? Observe this gentleman when he and his ball are
on the wrong side of a hazard which is guarding the green, and notice
the very deliberate way in which he goes about doing the one thing that
he has been told hundreds of times by the most experienced players can
only be attended by the most disastrous and costly failure. He has made
up his mind that he will scoop the ball over the bunker. He will not
trust to his club to do this important piece of business. So down goes
the right shoulder and into the bunker goes the ball, and one more good
hole has been lost. He doesn't know how it happened; he thinks the
mashie must be the most difficult club in the world to play with, and he
complains of his terrible luck; but by the time the approach shot to the
next hole comes to be played he is at it again. There is nobody so
persistent as the scooper, and the failure that attends his efforts is a
fair revenge by the club for the slight that is cast upon its
capabilities, for the chances are that if the stroke had been played in
just the ordinary manner without any thought whatever of the bunker, and
if the ground had been hit just a trifle behind the ball, the latter
would have been dropped easily and comfortably upon the green. Some
golfers also seem to imagine that they have done all that they could
reasonably be expected to do when they have taken a divot, and even if
the shot has proved a failure they derive some comfort from the divot
they have taken, the said divot usually being a huge slab of turf, the
removal of which makes a gaping wound in the links. But there is nothing
to be proud of in this achievement, for it does not by any means imply
that the stroke has been properly made. To hit the ball correctly when
making an approach with the mashie, it is necessary to take a
little--just a very little--turf. This is so, because the ball will not
fly and rise properly as the club desires to make it do, unless it is
taken in the exact middle of the club, which has a deeper face than
others. I mean middle, not only as regards the distance from heel to
toe, but between the top edge of the blade and the sole. A moment's
consideration will make it clear that if the stroke were to be made
quite cleanly, that is to say, if the club merely grazed the ground
without going into it, the ball would inevitably be tak