enced players,
and it is called the socket driver. The continuation of the neck of this
club is shorter than in the case of the spliced driver, and instead of
there being any splicing at all, a hole is bored vertically into the end
of the neck and the shaft fitted exactly into it, glued up, and finally
bound round for less than an inch. This club certainly looks neater than
the old-fashioned sort, and the man who is governed only by appearances
might very easily imagine that it is really more of one piece than the
other, that the union of the shaft with the head has less effect upon
the play of the club, and that therefore it is better. But experience
proves that this is not the case. What we want at this all-important
part of the driver is spring and life. Anything in the nature of a
deadness at this junction of the head with the shaft, which would, as it
were, cut off the one from the other, is fatal to a good driver. I
contend that the socket brings about this deadness in a far greater
degree than does the splice. The scared or old-fashioned drivers have
far more spring in them than the new ones, and it is my experience that
I can constantly get a truer and a better ball with them. When the wood
of the shaft and the wood of the neck are delicately tapered to suit
each other, filed thin and carefully adjusted, wood to wood for several
inches, and then glued and tightened up to each other with twine for
several inches, there is no sharp join whatever but only such a gradual
one as never makes itself felt in practice. Moreover, these clubs are
more serviceable, and will stand much more wear and tear than those
which are made with sockets. Sometimes they give trouble when the glue
loosens, but the socketed club is much easier to break. On club links
generally in these days you will probably see more socketed drivers and
brassies (for these remarks apply to all wooden clubs) than those that
are spliced; but this is simply the result of a craze or fashion with
which neat appearance has something to do; and if you desire to convince
yourself that I am right, take note of the styles of the drivers used by
the best players at the next first-class amateur or professional
tournament that you witness. The men who are playing on these occasions
are ripe with experience, and so long as they get the best results they
do not care what their clubs look like.

The head of the club should be made of persimmon or dogwood--both very
hard