tyles, and will help to explain my meaning.
The slope is supposed to be coming from the top of the page, as it were,
and the plain curved line is the course taken by the ball which has had
no cut given to it, while that which is dotted is the line of the cut
ball. I am giving them both credit for having been played with the
utmost precision, so that they would find their way to the tin. I submit
all these remarks as an idea, to be followed up and elaborated in much
practice, rather than as a definite piece of instruction, for the
variety of circumstances is so bewildering that a fixed rule is
impossible.

[Illustration: PUTTING WITH CUT ON A SLOPING GREEN.]

One of the putting problems which strike most fear into the heart of the
golfer is when his line from the ball to the hole runs straight down a
steep slope, and there is some considerable distance for the ball to
travel along a fast green. The difficulty in such a case is to preserve
any control over the ball after it has left the club, and to make it
stop anywhere near the hole if the green is really so fast and steep as
almost to impart motion of itself. In a case of this sort I think it
generally pays best to hit the ball very nearly upon the toe of the
putter, at the same time making a short quick twitch or draw of the club
across the ball towards the feet. Little forward motion will be imparted
in this manner, but there will be a tendency to half lift the ball from
the green at the beginning of its journey, and it will continue its way
to the hole with a lot of drag upon it. It is obvious that this stroke,
to be played properly, will need much practice in the first place and
judgment afterwards, and I can do little more than state the principle
upon which it should be made. But oftentimes, when the slope of the
green is really considerable, and one experiences a sense of great risk
and danger in using the putter at all, I strongly advise the use of the
iron or mashie; indeed, I think most golfers chain themselves down too
much to the idea that the putter, being the proper thing to putt with,
no other club should be used on the green. There is no law to enforce
the use of the putter, but even when the idea sometimes occurs to a
player that it would be best to use his mashie on the green in
particular circumstances, he usually rejects it as improper. On a steep
incline it pays very well to use a mashie, for length in these
circumstances can often be judged very