BRASSY AND SPOON
Good strokes with the brassy--Play as with the driver--The points
of the brassy--The stance--Where and how to hit the ball--Playing
from cuppy lies--Jab strokes from badly-cupped lies--A difficult
club to master--The man with the spoon--The lie for the baffy--What
it can and cannot do--Character of the club--The stance--Tee shots
with the baffy--Iron clubs are better.
When to your caddie you say "Give me my brassy" it is a sign that there
is serious work to be done--as serious and anxious as any that has to be
accomplished during the six or seven minutes' journey from the tee to
the hole. Many golfers have a fondness for the brassy greater even than
for the driver, and the brassy shot when well played certainly affords a
greater sense of satisfaction than the drive--great as is the joy of a
good drive--because one is conscious of having triumphed over
difficulties. When the ball is lying very well when it has to be played
through the green, the driver is naturally taken, but when the lie is
very low, approaching even to a cuppy character, the brassy is called
for so that an effort may be made to pick the ball up cleanly and
despatch it to the full distance. Again, the stroke with the brassy must
always be a first-class one. One that is a little inferior to the best
may place the player in serious difficulties. On the other hand, the
brassy seldom flatters its user, though in the hands of a master player
it is perhaps the club that will gain a stroke for him more often than
any other, the last bunker being surmounted and the green reached
without any need for a short approach with an iron club. Therefore the
golfer must make up his mind to attain excellence with the brassy, for
mediocrity with it will always handicap him severely.
I have already insisted that the method of play, the stance, the swing,
and all the rest of it, should be the same with the brassy as with the
driver, and that I do not believe in allowing the slightest difference,
the only result of which can be to increase the difficulty of the brassy
shot. Given a ball through the green lying fairly well, a level piece of
earth to stand upon, and a practically unlimited distance to be played,
then the brassy stroke is absolutely identical with the drive, and if
the ball is sufficiently well teed, or its lie is clean enough, there is
no reason whatever why the driver should not be taken for the stroke.
Obviously, however, as the lie which you get for your second shot
depends on chance, and must be taken as it is found, there are times
when a variation from the standard method of driving will be necessary,
and it is to the process of play on these occasions that I shall chiefly
direct my remarks in this chapter.
First, however, as to the brassy itself. Its shaft should be slightly
stiffer than that of the driver, for it has much harder and rougher work
to accomplish, for which the whippy stick of a slender driver would be
too frail. In a desperate case, when the ball is lying in an apparently
impossible place, the brassy is sometimes taken, in the hope that the
best may happen and the situation be saved. That is why the brassy has a
sole of brass which will cut away obstructions behind the ball as the
head of the club is swept on to it. It often happens that you must hit,
as it were, an inch or two behind the ball in order to get it up.
Therefore let the shaft be strong. It should be exactly the same length
as that of the driver, and not a half inch or an inch shorter, as is
often recommended. I do not accept any argument in favour of the shorter
shaft. The golfer having driven from the tee needs to be persuaded that
he has again what is practically a driving shot to make for his second,
and thus to be imbued with that feeling of experience and confidence
which makes for success. When the clubs are of the same length there is
equal familiarity in using them; but if he is given a shorter club to
play his brassy shot with, he feels that there is something of a novel
nature to be done, and he wonders how. The face of the brassy should be
a little shorter than that of the driver, to permit of its being worked
into little depressions in which the ball may be lying; but this
variation of the construction of the head should not be carried to
excess. Obviously there needs to be more loft on the face of the club
than on that of the driver.
The stance for the brassy stroke (see Plate VI.) is generally the same
as for the drive, and for reasons already stated my recommendation is
that, so far as circumstances will permit,--we are not on the teeing
ground when we are playing the brassy,--it should always be the same. If
the player feels it to be desirable, he may stand an inch or two nearer
to the ball, and perhaps as much behind the ball when he wishes to get
well underneath so as to lift it up. The swing should be the same, save
that more care should be taken to ensure the grip with the hands being
quite tight, for as the club head comes into contact with the turf
before taking the ball, the club may turn in the hands and cause a slice
or pull unless perfect control be kept over it.
A more important question is, where and how to hit the ball. If it is
lying fairly well, it is only necessary to skim the top of the turf and
take it cleanly. There is no necessity in such a case, as is too often
imagined by inexperienced players, to delve down into the turf so that
the ball may be lifted up. If the stroke is played naturally, in the way
I have indicated, the loft on the face of the brassy is quite sufficient
to give the necessary amount of rise to the ball as it leaves the club.
But if, as so often happens, the ball is just a trifle cupped, a
different attitude must be adopted towards it. It is now desired that
the club should come down to the turf about an inch behind the ball, and
with this object in view the eyes should be directed to that point, but
as in addressing the ball the said point may be covered by the head of
the club, the sight should be set, not really on to the top of the club
head, but to an imaginary spot just at the side of the ball, so that
when the club is drawn back the turf and the point to look at come into
full view and retain the attention of the eyes until the stroke has been
made. When the club is swung down on to that spot, its head will plough
through the turf and be well under the ball by the time it reaches it,
and the desired rise will follow. Swing in the same manner as for the
drive. The commonest fault in the playing of this stroke comes from the
instinct of the player to try to scoop out the ball from its
resting-place, and in obedience to this instinct down goes the right
shoulder when the club is coming on to the ball. In the theory of the
beginner this course of procedure may seem wise and proper, but he will
inevitably be disappointed with the result, and in time he will come to
realise that all attempts to scoop must fail. What the club cannot do in
the ordinary way when pushed through the turf as I have indicated,
cannot be done at all, and it is dangerous to the stroke and dangerous
to one's game to trifle with the grand principles.
When the ball is really badly cupped, a moment must be given for
inspection and consideration, for the situation is an awkward one. At
the first glance an iron club is usually suggested, but there are many
times when the golfer prefers to take the brassy if there is a
reasonable chance of its proving effective. In a case of this sort the
ordinary methods of brassy play must necessarily be departed from. What
is wanted is a jabbing-out stroke, and to effect it properly the sight
must be set (as before) and the club come down on a spot almost two
inches behind the ball. There must be no timidity about hitting the
ground or anxiety about the follow-through, for in this case the
follow-through, as we have understood it so far, is next to an
impossibility, and must not be sought for. In the upward swing the club
should be taken out straighter than usual, that is to say, the club head
should be kept more closely to the A line, and it should not be carried
so far back as if an ordinary shot were being played. Obviously the club
must be held with an absolutely firm grip, and for the proper execution
of a shot like this the shaft should be exceptionally strong and stiff.
If there is the least suggestion of whip in it the ball is not
extricated in the same way, and moreover there is sometimes a danger of
breaking a slender stick. However, if the golfer only carries one brassy
in his bag--and the average player will seldom carry two--this stroke
might as well be risked, when the necessity for it arises, with the
brassy that is carried for all-round work.
Beyond these few observations there is little more to be said about
simple brassy play, although it is so difficult to master thoroughly, so
supremely important to a good game, and so full of variety and interest.
In the use of no club is constant and strenuous practice better rewarded
by improvement in play and strokes gained.
The man with the spoon is coming back again to the links, and this seems
to be the most convenient opportunity for a few remarks on play with
this club--the baffy, as it is frequently called. One rarely mentions
the spoon without being reminded of the difficulty as to the
nomenclature of golf which beset a certain Frenchman on his first
introduction to the game. "They zay to me," he complained, "'Will you
take ze tee?' and I answer, 'Ah, oui,' but they give me no tea, but make
a leetle hill with the sand. Then they zay, 'Will you take the spoon?'
They have give me no tea, but no matter. I answer again, 'Ah, oui,
monsieur,' but they give no spoon either. So I give up the thought of
the tea, and play with the new club that they do give to me." However,
that is neither here nor there. The baffy, or spoon, is a very useful
club, which at one time was a great favourite with many fine players,
and if it has of late years been largely superseded by the cleek, it is
still most valuable to those players who are not so skilful or reliable
with this latter instrument as they would like to be. The baffy demands,
for the achievement of such success as it can afford, a fairly good lie,
and when this is given it is a tolerably easy club to play with. A good
lie is essential because of its wooden head and long face, which prevent
it from getting down to the ball when the latter is at all cupped, as
the cleek would do, or as the brassy may be made to do when the jab shot
is played. The baffy with its long face cannot be burrowed into the turf
so easily, nor can it nick in between the ball and the side of the cup,
but it makes a bridge over it, as it were, and thus takes the ball right
on the top and moves it only a few yards. A cleek would take the turf
and the ball and make a good hit. Therefore, when the lie is not
reasonably perfect, the baffy is of little use, though in favourable
circumstances it is a useful stick. The shaft should be slightly longer
than that of the cleek, but appreciably shorter than that of the brassy,
and it should be fairly stiff. Its face, as already remarked, is much
longer than that of the brassy, and it is given several degrees more
loft.
The method of play with the spoon is very much the same as with the
brassy, with only such modifications as are apparently necessary. For
example, the club being shorter, the feet will be placed slightly nearer
to the ball; and although the baffy calls for a fairly long swing, the
player will find that he is naturally indisposed to take the club head
so far round to his back as he was with the other and longer wooden
clubs. In other respects, the upward and downward swing, the grip, the
follow-through, and everything else are the same. With many players the
club is a particular favourite for the tee shot at short holes of, say,
140 to 160 yards length with a tolerably high bunker guarding the
green--a type of hole very frequently encountered, and which simply
calls for steady, sure play to get the bogey 3. The baffy does its work
very well in circumstances of this kind, and the ball is brought up
fairly quickly upon the green; but the man who is skilled with his irons
will usually prefer one of them for the stroke, and will get the coveted
2 as often as the man with the spoon.