s
of the club, or it would not be employed, and the average golfer of whom
we speak, who has still a handicap of several strokes, is usually
tolerably well satisfied if with it he places the ball anywhere on the
green, from which point he will be enabled to hole out in the additional
regulation two strokes. And the green is often enough a large place, so
the iron is fortunate in its task. But it goes without saying that by
those who have the skill for it, and sufficiently realise the
possibilities of all their tools, some of the finest work in golf may be
done with the iron. When it is called for the player is within easy
reach of the hole. The really long work has been accomplished, and the
prime consideration now is that of accuracy. Therefore the man who feels
himself able to play for the pin and not merely for the green, is he who
is in the confidence of his iron and knows that there are great things
to be done with it.

The fault I have to find with the iron play of most golfers is that it
comes at the wrong time. I find them lunging out with all their power at
full shots with their irons when they might be far better employed in
effecting one of those pretty low shots made with the cleek at the half
swing. It is not in the nature of things that the full iron should be as
true as the half cleek, where there is such a reserve of strength, and
the body, being less in a state of strain, the mind can be more
concentrated on straightness and the accurate determination of length. I
suspect that this full shot is so often played and the preference for
the iron is established, not merely because it nearly always does its
work tolerably satisfactorily, but because in the simple matter of looks
there is something inviting about the iron. It has a fair amount of
loft, and it is deeper in the face than the cleek, and at a casual
inspection of its points it seems an easy club to play with. On the
other hand, being a little nearer to the hole, the average player
deserts his iron for the mashie much sooner than I care to do. Your
10-handicap man never gives a second thought as to the tool he shall use
when he has arrived within a hundred yards of the hole. Is he not then
approaching in deadly earnest, and has he not grown up in golf with a
definite understanding that there is one thing, and one only, with which
to give the true artistic finish to the play through the green?
Therefore out of his bag comes the mashie, which, if it