s circumstances will permit,--we are not on the teeing
ground when we are playing the brassy,--it should always be the same. If
the player feels it to be desirable, he may stand an inch or two nearer
to the ball, and perhaps as much behind the ball when he wishes to get
well underneath so as to lift it up. The swing should be the same, save
that more care should be taken to ensure the grip with the hands being
quite tight, for as the club head comes into contact with the turf
before taking the ball, the club may turn in the hands and cause a slice
or pull unless perfect control be kept over it.

A more important question is, where and how to hit the ball. If it is
lying fairly well, it is only necessary to skim the top of the turf and
take it cleanly. There is no necessity in such a case, as is too often
imagined by inexperienced players, to delve down into the turf so that
the ball may be lifted up. If the stroke is played naturally, in the way
I have indicated, the loft on the face of the brassy is quite sufficient
to give the necessary amount of rise to the ball as it leaves the club.
But if, as so often happens, the ball is just a trifle cupped, a
different attitude must be adopted towards it. It is now desired that
the club should come down to the turf about an inch behind the ball, and
with this object in view the eyes should be directed to that point, but
as in addressing the ball the said point may be covered by the head of
the club, the sight should be set, not really on to the top of the club
head, but to an imaginary spot just at the side of the ball, so that
when the club is drawn back the turf and the point to look at come into
full view and retain the attention of the eyes until the stroke has been
made. When the club is swung down on to that spot, its head will plough
through the turf and be well under the ball by the time it reaches it,
and the desired rise will follow. Swing in the same manner as for the
drive. The commonest fault in the playing of this stroke comes from the
instinct of the player to try to scoop out the ball from its
resting-place, and in obedience to this instinct down goes the right
shoulder when the club is coming on to the ball. In the theory of the
beginner this course of procedure may seem wise and proper, but he will
inevitably be disappointed with the result, and in time he will come to
realise that all attempts to scoop must fail. What the club cannot do in
the ordinary way whe