El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-17
Golf: Hints on Playing Safe
By "Straight DriUe''

group of top notch amateurs headed by
jerome ID. TraYers and Walter J. Travis
there are few who can do it success
fully. There are others who can get
the distances, but are so erratic in di-
rectiOn that they may be said to pay
dearly for the additional yards they
gain.
The face of the brassey is well laid
hack in order TO get the ball up from
the turf quicker and cleaner than with
the more straight faced driver used in
connection with perfectly teed oau
every time. Under all reasonable con-
ditiOnS where a braSSey should be used
the loft of the club will get the ball
up without any WrenchlnS or raising
ball away. As 1 have stated before, II
is such efforts that most often bring
disaster to the duffer particularly anX-
ious to bring off a sweet shot When
you cannot be reasonably sure of get
ting the ball up and away with stroke
almost identical to the drive from the
tee with the brasSey it is far better to
resort to either cleek or a midirOn. For
a cuppy lie the club should be taken
back a bit more vertical than Ordinar-
lily in order to give the club chance
to do its work.
For down hill or hanging lie there
is no better rule than to play the ball
well off the left foot and to look at
the back center of the ball, Then the
stroke is almost identical to the tee
shot, and the ball travels fairly low
earth. To dig for it with the wrists is
to court disaster by a top, schlaff, or
defective direction. and even if you get
it. it is usually skied for loss of dis
lance. For an uphill lie seek to avoid
getting too far under the ball If you
can bring off a slight hook by playing
off the right foot and get a low ball
of strong carrying powder you can get
best results. The trouble with most
players is that they get either a skied
or sliced ball in their effort to get 1t
away.
Side hill lies with the brassey. where
the player is either above or below the
ball, cause the duffer much trouble
simply because he does not understand
the theory of the stroke called for.
Shorn of cumbersome description, it
may be fatty stated that on such shots
the inclination is for the ball to go
up hill. For instance, on ball below
you, you are most apt to fail to get the
club head in proper contact with the
ball and to fall forward on the stroke
and dig under it and get a pull. The
ball shoots off toward the left to
higher point on the side hill. Then
when the ball is above YOU along a side
in to avoid digging into the ground,
and a general tendency to fall back
from the ball, which will result in a
slice. If a player will but stop to apply
this rule and prehaps make a slight al
lowance for moderate pull or slice he
will get much straighter ball.
In the hands of a person familiar
with the peculiarities of the brassey it
is a very useful club to get distance
out Of many very heavy lies in long
grass, rough or sand traps In my own
game I use brassey for all my wooden
shots from the tee and through the
greens. I started doing so two or three
years ago on an occasion when I was
temporarily hopeless with my driver.
and got such uniformly satisfactory re-
suits that l made up my mind that il
was safer golf to stick 10 the one club
for all full shots AS a consequence 7
flatter myself that I understand the
club, and even though I may sacrifice
a shade of distance, can hold the cen
ter of the course more consistently
than I would if I changed about from
driver to bras2ey and hrasseN to driver.