If there should be any doubt as to what is considered a hazard, rule No. 15 is very explicit. "A hazard shall be any bunker of whatever nature—water, sand, loose earth, mole hills, paths, roads, or railways, whins, bushes, rushes, rabbit scrapes, fences, ditches, or anything which is not the ordinary green of the course—except sand blown on to the grass by wind, or sprinkled on grass for the preservation of the links—or snow, or ice, or bare patches on the course."
Figure 9.
SHORT APPROACH SHOT WITH THUMB DOWN THE SHAFT.
In match play, rule 29 states: "A ball must be played wherever it lies, or the hole be given up—except as otherwise provided for in the rules." Whereas in medal play, rule 8 reads: "A ball may under a penalty of two strokes be lifted out of a difficulty of any description, and be teed behind the same." The niblick, in bunkers where the sand is at all heavy, is rather a better club to use than the mashie, being so short, thick, and powerful in the head, therefore capable of delivering a stronger blow into the sand. A most useful club for bad lies through the green, is the driving mashie, made much after the order of a cleek, only being shorter in the face and very solid in the sole, it is able to hit a long, powerful shot under the most trying conditions in the way of bad lies.
Having spoken of the many clubs used from the tee till the green is reached, the putter alone remains for a few words. Till quite recently this was made of wood only, rather in shape like an elongated driver-head. In fact these very old clubs, such as were used by celebrities like Jamie Allan, young Tommy Morris, Mr. George Glennie, and others, are now worth fabulous sums of money. But of late years, steel and gun metal have come much more into vogue. Park's patent putter with the twisted socket or neck, is a universal favourite, the fact of looking straight down the shaft on to the ball appearing to make the line of transition somewhat more easy for the eye to take in. The mode of holding the putter is similar to that of the iron, only that the thumbs are both placed downwards and the fingers are called more into play, as shown in Figure 10. The general grip is a trifle looser, although the right hand requires to be firm. Mr. Horace Hutchinson, in the Badminton Book on Golf, says as follows: "The principal secret of good putting, as of good driving, is that the club should travel as long as possible on the line—or a production of it—on which the ball is to travel.
"Putting is a stroke made almost exclusively with the wrists. The wrists do not hit the club on to the ball and then check it, but the club is swung by a movement of the wrists... any checking of the club as it meets the ball being fatal to consistent good putting.... The hands should be allowed to fall into a natural position.... The putter should be held rather short, and preferably with a light grip, and should be worked backward and forward by the wrists, mainly perhaps the left wrist.... The left elbow may, if preferred, be a little crooked to the front: the club head will in this method be swinging somewhat after the fashion of a pendulum, and if a golfer gets the hanging arrangements of this pendulum correct, it can not very well swing out of the true line."
Figure 10.
PUTTING OFF THE RIGHT FOOT.