This instruction was written by Cyril Walker, a leading player and teaching professional of the 1920's. It is primarily a lesson on getting out of sand bunkers, but also on hitting accurate chip shots from 10 to 30 yards off the green, all with the equipment of that era.
The methods described here were written well before Gene Sarazen introduced his revolutionary club, called a Wedge, in the early 1930's. Sarazen's creation, with its wide, rounded sole and greater loft, was radically different from the thin, sharp-bladed iron heads of the day. It had an immediate impact on golf, in making short pitch shots and recovery from sand bunkers easier than ever before.
Over the years, the concept of the Wedge has been highly refined, to include the Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge and Lob Wedge, and various, precisely defined angles of loft, from 50 to 64 degrees.
So when reading about the techniques of "the stroke at hand is one in which physical strength is an asset", of using a "heavy, deep-faced niblick [approximately a 9 iron] well laid back" and aiming "at a spot a half inch or inch back of the ball" [versus aiming 2-5 inches behind the ball today], we can appreciate how skillful the players of 1921 had to be to have any accuracy on bunker shots with the equipment of that time.
Further on in the article, when a "jigger or midiron" [five iron, more or less] is recommended for 10- to 30-yard chip shots", and advising that "using the niblick or mashie niblick[seven iron] adds to the probability of errors on this shot", we appreciate the skill of modern golfers in using different wedges for most shots of this distance, to avoid possible irregular bounces in run-up shots.
The techniques described in how the golfer of 1921 "corrected faults" around the greens probably won't be effective today.
