t
naturally, pursuing its own direction, comes inside the line taken in
the case of the ordinary drive. The result is that at the moment of
impact, and for that fractional part of a second during which the ball
may be supposed to be clinging to the club, the face of the driver or
brassy is being, as it were, drawn across the ball as if cutting a slice
out of it. There is no means, so far as I know, of gauging how
unthinkably short is the time during which this slicing process is going
on, but, as we observed, when we were slicing unintentionally and making
the ball curl round sometimes to an angle of ninety degrees before the
finish of its flight, it is quite long enough to effect the most radical
alteration in what happens afterwards. In that short space of time a
spinning motion is put upon the ball, and a curious impulse which
appears to have something in common with that given to a boomerang is
imparted, which sooner or later take effect. In other respects, when a
distant slice is wanted, the same principles of striking the ball and
finishing the swing as governed the ordinary drive are to be observed.
What I mean by a distant slice is one in which the ball is not asked to
go round a corner until it is well on its way, the tree, or whatever it
is that has to be circumvented, being half-way out or more, as shown in
the diagram on opposite page. This is the most difficult kind of slice
to perform, inasmuch as the ball must be kept on a straight line until
the object is approached, and then made to curl round it as if by
instinct. In such a case the club should be drawn very gradually across,
and not so much or so suddenly as when the slice is wanted immediately.

[Illustration: TRAJECTORY OF BALL WHEN A DISTANT SLICE IS REQUIRED.]

[Illustration: TRAJECTORY OF BALL IN THE CASE OF A QUICK SLICE.]

When the tree or thicket that stymies you is only twenty or thirty yards
away, the short sliced shot is not only the best but perhaps the only
one to play, that is to say, if it is first-class golf that is being
practised and there is an opponent who is fighting hard. Take a case for
exemplification--one which is of the commonest occurrence. There is a
long hole to be played, and some thirty yards from the point which will
be reached by a good drive, but well away to the right there is a spinny
of tall trees. The golfer is badly off the line with his drive, with the
result that he now has the trees in the direct line between