ches behind the ball. If the sand is exceedingly light and dry, so
that it offers very little resistance to the passage of the club, this
distance may be slightly increased, or it may be diminished if the lie
in the bunker is very heavy, consisting of gravel or clay. It is on this
point, so far behind the ball, that the eye must, of course, be sternly
and rigidly fixed, and it is a duty which the beginner frequently finds
most difficult to fulfil. In the downward swing the club should be
brought on to the spot indicated with all the speed and force of which
the golfer is capable. At other times he may have had a yearning to
press, which he has with difficulty stifled. He may make up for all
these ungratified desires by pressing now with all the strength in his
body, and the harder the better so long as he keeps his eye steadily
fixed on that point behind the ball and is sure that his muscular
efforts will not interfere with his accuracy. After all, the latter need
not be quite so fine in this case as in the many others that we have
already discussed, for an eighth of an inch one way or the other does
not much matter in the case of a niblick shot where there are two inches
of sand to plough through. Swing harder than ever on to the sand, with
the knowledge that the swing will end there, for a follow-through is not
desired and would in many cases be impossible. When the heavy blade goes
crash into the sand and blows it, and the ball with it, up into the air
as if the electric touch had been given to an explosive mine, the club
has finished its work, and when the golfer is at rest again and is
surveying the results of his labours--with his eyes, let us hope,
directed to the further side of the hazard--the blade will still remain
in the cavity that it has made in the floor of the bunker. If any
attempt were made to follow through, it is highly probable that
sufficient sand would not be taken to make the ball rise up soon enough.

However, the more one reflects upon bunkers and niblicks, the more does
one feel that the circumstances must govern the method of playing each
of these strokes, and there is no finer field for the display of the
golfer's judgment and resource than this. The next best accomplishment
to the negative one of avoiding bunkers is that of getting out again
with the least waste of strokes and distance; and, indeed, I should say
that the man who is somewhat addicted to being bunkered but invariably
makes a g