of dropping the
right shoulder too soon, or, when they do drop it, letting it go
altogether, so that it fairly sinks away. The result is exactly what is
to be expected. The head of the club naturally comes down with the
shoulder and flops ineffectually upon the turf behind the tee, anything
from two to nine inches behind the ball. Yet, unless the golfer has had
various attacks of this sort of thing before, he is often puzzled to
account for it. The remedy is obvious.

I can imagine that many good golfers, now that I near the end of my
hints on driving, may feel some sense of disappointment because I have
not given them a recipe for putting thirty or forty yards on to their
commonplace drives. I can only say that there is no trick or knack in
doing it, as is often suspected, such as the suggestion, already alluded
to, that the wrists have a little game of their own just when the club
head is coming in contact with the ball. The way to drive far is to
comply with the utmost care with every injunction that I have set forth,
and then to hit hard but by the proper use of the swing. To some golfers
this may be a dangerous truth, but it must be told: it is accuracy and
strength which make the long ball. But I seem to hear the young player
wail, "When I hit hard you say 'Don't press!'" A golfer is not pressing
when he swings through as fast as he can with his club, gaining speed
steadily, although he is often told that he is. But it most frequently
happens that when he tries to get this extra pace all at once, and not
as the result of gradual improvement and perfection of style, that it
comes not smoothly but in a great jerk just before the ball is reached.
This is certainly the way that it comes when the golfer is off his game,
and he tries, often unconsciously, to make up in force what he has
temporarily lost in skill. This really is pressing, and it is this
against which I must warn every golfer in the same grave manner that he
has often been warned before. But to the player who, by skill and
diligence of practice, increases the smooth and even pace of his swing,
keeping his legs, body, arms, and head in their proper places all the
time, I have nothing to give but encouragement, though long before this
he himself will have discovered that he has found out the wonderful,
delightful secret of the long ball.

Two chapters of detailed instruction are too much for a player to carry
in his mind when he goes out on to the links to