t of contact is a
little off the centre in a long-faced club than when it is the same
distance removed from the centre of a short face. Moreover, despite this
fact, which will soon become apparent to the golfer, the knowledge that
he has a long-faced driver may very easily get him into a loose way of
playing his tee shots. He may cease to regard exactness as
indispensable, as it always is. The tendency of late years has been to
make the heads of wooden clubs shorter and still shorter, and this
tendency is well justified.

The question of the whip or suppleness of the shaft must generally be
decided by individual style and preference; but I advise the beginner
against purchasing a whippy driver to start with, whatever he may do
later on. He should rather err on the side of stiffness. When a man is
well on his drive, has a good style, and is getting a long ball from the
tee every time, it is doubtless true that he obtains better results from
a shaft with a little life in it than from a stiff one. But the
advantage is not by any means so great as might be imagined, and many
fine players drive their best balls with stiff clubs. It must always be
remembered that when the stroke is not made perfectly there is a much
greater tendency to slice with a supple shaft than with a stiff one, and
the disadvantages of the former are especially pronounced on a windy
day. It is all a matter of preference and predilection, and when these
are absent the best thing to do is to strike the happy medium and select
a shaft that is fairly supple but which still leaves you in the most
perfect command of the head of the club, and not as if the latter were
connected with your hands by nothing more than a slender rush.

Weight again is largely a matter of fancy, and there is no rule to the
effect that a slender player should use a light club and one of powerful
build a heavy one; indeed, one constantly finds the slim men employing
the most ponderous drivers, as if, as it were, to make up for their own
lightness, while heavy men will often prefer clubs that are like
pen-holders to them. Once more I suggest the adoption of the medium as
being generally the most satisfactory. I have a strong dislike to
drivers that are unusually light, and I do not think that anyone can
consistently get the best results from them. They entail too much
swinging, and it is much harder to guide the club properly when the
weight of the head cannot be felt. Of course a clu