The Antique Golf Club

If you can read the history of a great old tree through the rings on its trunk; then you can learn the history of golf through the development phases of the antique golf club.

In the start

Not surprisingly, the earliest golf clubs were made by golfers themselves and both clubs and balls were carved from wood. The competitive nature of golf soon stretched into the area of equipment creation and the carver/players strove to improve the quality of their play by improving the quality of their equipment.

The first mention of a craftsman-made set of clubs was that commissioned by King James IV of Scotland. It is good to be the king, because when he became the king of England, a royal maker of clubs was appointed. William Mayne became the first to hold that position in 1603.

Since clubs were made entirely of wood, it is terribly doubtful that you may find an antique golfing club from that period in time. If you were to find such a valuable club on view in a collection or museum, you could find a longnose used for driving. Medium range shots were manufactured by golfing green clubs, short range shots by spoons, niblicks were the forerunners to the modern wedge, and putts were tried with putting cleeks. A step away from the wooden ball and toward the modern sphere was taken in 1618 when the Featherie golfball was introduced. It stayed the standard for two hundred years.

Chapter Two

Robert Forgan, a club-maker in Scotland, commenced using Yankee hickory for shafts rather than ash or hazel. Hickory became the standard for top-ofthe-line clubs. An antique golfing club of this period would be a real treasure.

The Featherie golf ball was replaced in 1848 when the Reverend Adam Peterson introduced the Guttie ball. This ball increased the stress on the club resulting in the need for a club with a more bulbous head. Longnoses became obsolete and clubs began to resemble modern woods. Lines of clubs and balls associated with professional players were established in Scotland and the equipment was exported world-wide.

An antique golfing club made after 1900 would likely have a head of persimmon wood which replaced the hard woods of earlier club heads. Hand-forged club heads of aluminium was also found at that point and in 1902, E. Burr started selling groove-faced irons.

Although the late 1890's brought experimentation with steel shafts, their use was not legalized till 1929 after the Prince of Wales used them on the Old Course, St. Andrews. The very first major tournament won with steel shafted clubs was the 1931 U.S. Open by Billy Burke. An antique golfing club of this time reflects a genuine step forward in golfing history.