instinct, I make an exception this time to my
rule in the matter of illustrations, and offer to my readers no diagram
with stance measurements. From the two photographs of myself putting in
what I had every reason to believe at the time was my own perfectly
natural stance, they may take any hints that they may discover.

[Illustration: _PLATE LVII._ PUTTING]

[Illustration: _PLATE LVIII._ PUTTING]

In the matter of putters, of which there is an infinite variety and a
new one invented almost every month, I believe in a man playing with
just that kind that he has most confidence in and which he fancies suits
him best. Whether it is a plain gun-metal instrument, a crooked-necked
affair, a putting cleek, an ordinary aluminium, a wooden putter, or the
latest American invention, it is all the same; and if it suits the man
who uses it, then it is the best putter in the world for him, and the
one with which he will hole out most frequently. In no other sense is
there such a thing as a best putter. The only semblance of a suggestion
that I will presume to offer in this connection is, that for very long
putts there is something to be said in favour of the wooden and
aluminium putters, which seem to require less exertion than others, and
to enable the player to regulate the strength of the stroke more
exactly. For the shorter ones, I like the putting cleek best. But even
these are matters of fancy, and what a great deal even the vaguest, most
unreasoning belief in a putter has to do with the success with which it
is manipulated I have as good a reason as anyone to understand, since I
owe my first Championship largely to the help of a putter which I had
never used before, and which was really not a putter at all, but, as I
have explained elsewhere, simply a little cleek which I picked up
accidentally in a professional's shop on the eve of the struggle, and in
which I had a new shaft fixed to my own liking. On that occasion I
putted with this instrument as the winner of a championship ought to
putt, but I have never been able to do any good with it since, and in
these days it is resting idly in my shop, useless but quite
unpurchasable for any money. I do believe that it is a good thing to be
the possessor of two putters, with both of which you have at one time or
another done well, and in which you have unlimited confidence. Don't
carry them both in the bag at the same time, but keep one safe in the
locker, and when the day comes