ay it we want the ball to stop dead almost as soon as it reaches the
turf at the end of the pitch. If there is a tolerably high bunker
guarding the green, and the flag is most awkwardly situated just at the
other side, it is the only shot that can be played. A stroke that would
loft the ball over the bunker in the ordinary manner would carry it far
beyond the hole--too far to make the subsequent putting anything but a
most difficult matter. Or, on the other hand, leaving out of the
question the hole which is hiding just on the other side of the hazard
protecting the green, it often happens in the summer-time, when greens
are hard and fiery, that it is absolutely impossible to make a ball
which has been pitched on to them in the ordinary manner stay there.
Away it goes bouncing far off on to the other side, and another approach
shot has to be played, often by reason of a hazard having been found,
more difficult than the first. If there must be a pitch, then the thing
to do is to try to apply a brake to the ball when it comes down, and we
can only do this by cutting it. There are greens which at most seasons
of the year demand that the ball reaching them shall be cut for a dead
drop, such as the green laid at a steep angle when the golfer has to
approach it from the elevated side. A little cut is a comparatively easy
thing to accomplish, but when the brake is really wanted it is usually a
most pronounced cut, that will bring the ball up dead or nearly so, that
is called for, and this is a most difficult stroke. I regard the
ordinary mashie as the best club with which to make it, but there are
some good golfers who like the niblick for this task, and it is
undoubtedly productive of good results. However, I will suppose that it
is to be attempted with the mashie.

The stance is quite different from that which was adopted when the
running-up shot was being played. Now the man comes more behind the
ball, and the right foot goes forward until the toe is within 8 inches
of the A line, while the instep of the left foot is right across B. The
feet also are rather closer together. An examination of Plate L. will
give an exact idea of the peculiarities of the stance for this stroke.
Grip the club very low down on the handle, but see that the right hand
does not get off the leather. This time, in the upward swing let the
blade of the mashie go well outside the natural line for an ordinary
swing, that is to say, as far away from the b