If you will chalk the face of your driver and hit the ball clean you will find that it will leave the imprint of the bramble on the face about the size of a quarter. This proves it must collapse. If it collapses it must rebound. As the club head was traveling very fast when it first compressed the ball the rebound must be very rapid.

In order to get the full benefit of the rebound you must have the face of the club in contact with the ball.

The first effect of meeting the ball is to bend the shaft because the head of the club is delayed by the contact. The shaft will stay bent, if the power is applied steadily, until the strength of the shaft has overcome the drag of the ball and straightens out again. This should make it feel, when the ball is correctly struck, as though the ball and club head were in contact for a couple of feet. The more limber the shaft the longer this contact seems to last.

I have found from my own experience that I get an equally long ball with a "whippy" shaft and with a stiff one. I prefer a stiff shaft be-cause it wears longer, on account of the greater amount of wood in it, but I think that older players and those who do not naturally have a rapid swing should use the "whippy" shaft be-cause their slower swing is transmitted into speed by the whippy shaft when they maintain a steady pressure against the ball.

A stiffer shaft moving slower will not keep the club head against the ball so well.

These details, however, are refinements of the game and I suggest that the beginner give but little attention to them. If you apply all the power you are capable of before you connect with your ball you will lose a great deal of the rebound. Grasp this idea thoroughly and you will find it will take care of the "timing" of the stroke. The next time you go out to play just think of this matter of applying your greatest effort after hitting the ball and it will astonish you how many things it will smooth out in your stroke, as well as the amount of distance you can obtain. It was undoubtedly the discovery of this fact that changed james braid, the famous scotch professional, from a very ordinary driver to one of the longest drivers in the world.