ing
anyhow. In such circumstances a really natural and proper swing is
rarely accomplished, and, before the golfer is aware of the frightful
injustice he has done himself, his future prospects will probably have
been damaged. But if he has no ball before him he will surely learn to
swing his club in exactly the way in which it ought to be swung. His
whole mind will be concentrated upon getting every detail of the action
properly regulated and fixed according to the advice of his tutor, and
by the time he has had two lessons in this way he will have got so
thoroughly into the natural swing, that when he comes to have a ball
teed up in front of him he will unconsciously swing at it in the same
manner as he did when it was absent, or nearly so. The natural swing, or
some of its best features, will probably be there, although very likely
they will be considerably distorted.

At the same time the young golfer must not imagine because he has
mastered the proper swing when there is no ball before him, that he has
overcome any considerable portion of the difficulties of golf, for even
some of the very best players find that they can swing very much better
without a ball than with one. However, he may now taste the sweet
pleasure of driving a ball from the tee, or of doing his best with that
object in view. His initial attempts may not be brilliant; it is more
than likely that they will be sadly disappointing. He may take comfort
from the fact that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they are so.
But by and by a certain confidence will come, he will cease, under the
wise advice of his tutor, to be so desperately anxious to hit the ball
anyhow so long as he hits it, and then in due course the correctness of
swing which he was taught in his first two days will assert itself, and
the good clean-hit drives will come. There will be duffings and toppings
and slicings, but one day there will be a long straight drive right away
down the course, and the tyro will be told that the professional himself
could not have done it better. This is one of the most pleasurable
moments in life.

His system of practice thereafter should be upon the following lines. He
should continue to practise diligently with his driver until he gets
these good, long balls nearly every time, sternly resisting the
temptation even to so much as look at any of the other nice new clubs
that he has got in his bag, and whose mysteries he is exceedingly
curious to inv