For instance, if you will make the attempt to get off an unusually high drive you will find it will have a slice nine times out of ten. It is almost impossible to avoid it.

As this point is one of the fundamental principles in golf I think it would be well for all players to consider carefully when they go off on a certain club to stop and see whether they are not trying to do the lifting instead of letting the club do the work. I know that in my own case it is one of the first things I think of when the suggestion of a slice appears in any of my shots.

If players will give this serious attention they will find that it will be of the very greatest help to them in curing many of their troubles.

The most prevalent cause of topped iron shots is not looking up, as most every one will tell you, but is the mental desire to get the ball up. With a desire to lift the ball, and not to leave that to the club which was built to do it, the player will unconsciously shift his pivotal center to the right of the ball, and in his downward swing the effort to avoid hitting the ground is bound to make him top in the majority of cases.

The instant you shift the pivotal center' your eye is the watchful guide which shows you your mistake, and it is practically impossible to avoid topping. If you have had the habit long enough you may have been able to make enough allowance for it in order to hit the ball, but you will be bound to get a slice, even if you don't top.

When you realize what a small percentage of players really get good iron shots it may strike home if you will really try to take a fresh gage of your ball the next time you go out to play and see how low you can send your ball and how clear on the center of the club you can connect with it. This will probably do more to correct slicing with irons than anything I know of, and it applies equally to the wooden shots.