Every player of experience has of course re-marked the great difference between the professionals and the amateurs, and it is in the irons that the former excel so markedly. A sleek in their hands is as accurate and will put the ball against the pin as well as the midiron or mashie, and when it is considered that it is in the distance they are designed to send the ball and not direction that they differ, the player will grasp the fact that he is woefully lacking when he cannot put the sleek on as good a line as he would the mashie.

In fact, the mashie is the more difficult club inherently to control.
Players who know can tell you that they cannot force a mashie shot and keep their line, but these same players are not aware, practically, that they force both their midiron and cleek. If they were to use the same self-control in playing their cleek that they do in playing their mashie they would quickly see how much they are forcing their deck shots.

The same easy swing they use on their mashie would give them a beautiful long ball, purely from the difference in the design of the club, due to the greater leverage and the straight face. Every one knows how easily he can get one hundred yards with a mashie, and yet it cannot be brought home that the same effort exactly will produce with a cleek from fifty to ninety yards more, simply from the design of the club. It does not require one ounce more power.

A fact that I would like to draw attention to in playing the cleek, and it is the same exactly with the other irons, is the matter of the fore-arms and wrists and the greater extent to which these enter into the playing of irons than with the wooden shots.

The wooden shots are really sweep strokes, with the forearm doing comparatively little work at the instant of contact with the ball, while with irons it is the forearms which put the ginger into the stroke at the last instant; this is because turf must be taken and the shorter circle is necessary. By this I mean that in the wooden shots, with the club once under way, it is as though the arms were flabby or held loosely, and the swing made from the shoulder with the arms just sweeping along to keep up with the club head, while with irons the arms are held a little more firmly or the muscles tightened slightly so that a sharper and shorter circle can be performed by pivoting the bulk of the stroke upon the left wrist.

It is as though the circle or sweep was being performed with the club only, with the circle pivoting upon the left wrist while you sweep the arms along only enough to bring the hands into position as the club head reaches the ball. The reason for doing this is that you use, or should use, a shorter swing with irons, as your shaft is shorter than with wooden clubs and you can get up speed more quickly with the same amount of energy. The shorter swing enables you to be more accurate since your weight is on both feet longer because you do not have to turn so far around.

If you will take the trouble to observe the average professional's forearm development you will know that the forearms are doing a great deal of work. The forearms of the average amateur are used mostly in a death grip upon the club and their power is not utilized in making the short circle I have just described. Stiff arms but flexible wrists make for good iron play.