Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-03-19
GOLF GOSSIP

. prevails. anu lilc dI IitS vi
the putting greens, the mid-iron is
one of the most useful clubs in the
entire collection. With the exception
Of the second, third, fifth, eighth and
ninth holes, the mid-iron is invariably
used for the second shot, and many
players, with the ground as hard as 1t
is now, have discarded their mashies
for the short approach, and affected
the running-up shot with the iron,
with marked success. ..... III.
Considering then, the Importance of
the iron to local players, the follow
| ing observations on iron play by
Stephen Armstrong, the well known
student of the game who writes for
the Christian Science Monitor, will
be of interest here:
Having decided that We should never
be careless with mid-iron. We will
now consider the club itself. In the
first place, it is practically the first
club in the list from driver down to
putter, with which we play shots of
varying degrees of length. True, a
half-cleek is a useful shot, especially
on seaside-links, but one very
/ S6luOUl StcS II uOcu SOuhtI =
where the inland courses enable US to
use a mid-iron more easily for this
length of shot without the same
, danger of the ball being DETECTED by
! the wind
Thus we may say the mid-iron is
| the first club which We use for half
! swing. Few shots are prettier than
/ this particular one when correctly
played. Yet, as / said before, how
! seldom edo we see this accomplished
am not going into details as to how
to do it, but one point to be empha-
sized is the straightness of both arms
at the moment the club meets the
ball. Also, il you have hit it just
right, at the finish the upper edge
of your club head should be perpen-
dicular to the ground, SO that line
drawn along it and then extended
| would reach the earth. The bottom
edge of the face will therefore be the
nearest part of the club to the hole,
the toe being directly above the heel.
Running Up
The mid.iron is particularly useful
for little running up shots to the
green. There should be absolutely
no movement of the body and very
| little of the arms. 1t is. nearly al
| from the wrist. One special thing |
have noticed abroad was how slowly
the club is taken back in these shots.
Thege is nothing jerky about 1t. 1T
starts slowly and having such a short
J distance to travel backwards, no great
speed can be obtained. The club is
brought through In spite of its being
so short a swing So many people
in the old country carry two mid
irons, a heavy one and light one.
For the above shot the heavy one is
almost invariably used
Another time when a mid-iron Is
taken in preference to mashie is
when playing on muddy course. II
the ball lies partially imbedded OF
course you must use the latter club,
but If lying fairly well, though the
ground be soft so that taking turf is
not desirable, mid-iron is very useful
for approaching. If you were to play
such ball with mashie you would
have to make sure of hitting the ball
nearer it's center. in other words, de-
liberately half-topping it. The way
to do this is to look at the back of
the ball instead of the ground behind
it as is usual in mashie shots. This. en-
PEASANT, is an invaluable hint for shots
played with an iron club off tee,
| II you want distance. However, in
regard to the shot from soft, muddy
lie it will be readily understood that
by taking the mid-iron instead of the
mashie the chances of failure are
considerably lessened.
A. Bad Habit
/ had always made use of my
mashie under such circumstances and
after good deal of practice achieved
a certain amount of success. My
qualification in mastering this shot
was rudely disturbed last year, how
ever, when lost a very important
match played on beautiful dry, sun
my day after the previous round had
been played in rain and mud. In spite
of these disadvantages my victory in
the former match had been principally
due to laying these purposely half
topped mashie shots within holing dis
lance Judge of the disappointment
the next day when my mashie played
traitor and lost the game for me. Shot
after shot was topped. One usually
! learns something from being beaten
and sat down and worked this out
afterwards. l. as but natural that a
number of shots purposely topped in
succession should make one likely to
continue topping with the same club.
Therefore instead of playing a mashie
! thus on soft ground try mid-iron
with its straighter face instead of the
more lofted club with its tendency to
! take turf. In word it pays to use
mid-iron very frequently in wet wealth
er for those approach shots for which
you would take a mashie under ordi-
nary circumstances. 1t is not because
/ the mashie could not be successfully
used, but in order. to eliminate the
! danger of throwing yourself off your
! ordinary game. Having proved this
to my satisfaction by number of
experiments asked one of our best
professionals if he agreed with this
! theory and found he ALWAYS amnlovS