very club you are
wanting to make your game perfect, and you will rejoice to renew its
acquaintance when you take it out of your locker. We can see too much of
even our best friends.

* * * * *

Always make up your mind definitely and finally before taking up your
stance what club you are going to use and exactly the kind of shot that
you want to play with it. When you have taken up your position but still
ponder in a state of uncertainty, it is very probable that your mind
will be affected by your hesitation, and then your swing and the result
thereof will be bad.

* * * * *

There are fewer certainties in golf than in any other game, and dogged
pluck is rarely so well rewarded as on the links.

* * * * *

If you are playing golf in the afternoon, do not lunch any more heavily
that you feel to be necessary. A heavy lunch tends to take the keenness
out of a golfer, and at the same time it has--what very few people
suspect--a very serious effect upon the eye and its capacity for work.
The golfer's eyes often give way to the strain that is put upon them
long before his limbs.

* * * * *

When we talk about keeping the eye on the ball, we do not mean the top
of the ball. Your object is not to hit the top of the ball with the
bottom of your club. For an ordinary stroke keep your attention fixed on
the grass immediately behind the ball. This should result in the sole of
your club sweeping evenly along the turf and taking the ball just as it
ought to be taken. But there are special occasions, as when a low shot
against the wind is wanted (fully explained in previous chapters), when
it is desirable to hit the ball rather higher up. The eye should then be
fixed on the edge of the ball just half-way up from the bottom to the
top. The accompanying diagram shows exactly the points to be looked at
when playing the different strokes. You may get in good strokes when
looking at the top of the ball, but it is only because you have
accustomed yourself by long experience to make a small allowance for so
doing. The practice is theoretically bad, and it is mainly the reason
why beginners top their balls so frequently. Of course when you look
down the side of it in the manner indicated, you have the ball always in
view.

[Illustration: POINTS TO LOOK AT WHEN ADDRESSING THE BALL--(I.) FOR AN
ORDINARY STROKE; (II.) FOR A PUSH S