ly with the wind in mind, and am not recommending the ordinary
shot when there is a tree or a spinny for a stymie, in contradiction to
what I have said earlier in this chapter.

However, there is one kind of wind difficulty which it is certainly
necessary to deal with by a departure from the ordinary method of play
with the driver or the brassy, and that is when the wind is blowing
straight up to the player from the hole, threatening to cut off all his
distance. Unless measures are taken to prevent it, a head wind of this
description certainly does make play extremely difficult, the
comparative shortness of the drive making an unduly long approach shot
necessary, or even demanding an extra stroke at long holes in order to
reach the green. But, fortunately, we have discovered a means of dealing
very satisfactorily with these cases. What we want to do is to keep the
ball as low down as possible so as to cheat the wind, for the lower the
ball the less opportunity has the breeze of getting to work upon it. A
combination of two or three methods is found to be the best for
obtaining this low turf-skimming ball, which yet has sufficient driving
power in it to keep up until it has achieved a good length. Evidently
the first thing to do is to make the tee--if it is a tee shot--rather
lower than usual--as low as is consistent with safety and a clean
stroke. The player should then stand rather more in front of the ball
than if he were playing for an ordinary drive, but this forward position
should not by any means be so marked as it was in the stance for the
pulled drive. A reference to Plate XX. and the diagram will show that
now we have the ball exactly half-way between the toes, each toe being
twelve inches to the side of the B line, while both are an inch nearer
to the ball than was the case when the ordinary drive was being made.
But the most important departure that we make from the usual method of
play is in the way we hit the ball. So far we have invariably been
keeping our gaze fixed on a point just behind it, desiring that the club
shall graze the ground and take the ball rather below the centre. But
now it is necessary that the ball shall be struck half-way up and before
the club touches the turf. Therefore keep the eye steadily fixed upon
that point (see the right-hand ball in the small diagram on page 170)
and come down exactly on it. This is not an easy thing to do at first;
it requires a vast amount of practice to ma