The Hickory Golfer

Every great golfer has a secret. Some secrets are about the swing; others about how to play (on and off the course); and others are about equipment. Ben Hogan had a swing secret that wasn’t revealed until well after his death by his daily practice caddie at Shady Oaks Country Club. Tiger had a secret until late last year. Harry Vardon had a secret as well but his was an equipment secret. (Note: Harry Vardon also had a secret similar to Tigers, but carried that one to his deathbead.)

Harry’s secret is quite simple, install the leather grips on your shaft with rough side out. Duh, that’s no secret! Well actually it was. Every player during his era had the option of how to install the grips. Some chose smooth side out and a few chose the rough or suede side out. Harry chose rough side out, but he never said why. I never realized how effective this method was until today when it was pouring rain in the middle of one of our club championship matches. What Harry discovered over time was that playing with rough side out gave him greater control over the club during wet weather which is a constant in the Scotland and England.

Now I had heard this advice in Randy Jensen’s, “Playing Hickory Golf“, but never realized the benefits until today when we got got in a downpour on the 9th hole. The harder it rained the easier it was to hold my clubs. While everyone else was struggling to hang on to their clubs, mine were almost glued to my hands. Never did the the club slip during the swinging process. I’ve played in rain before. The most vivid was a round with John Rigg at Muirfield when we both were soaked to the bone. But, I’ve never had the gripping power I had today.

But like every good idea, it’s up to the next generation to come up with an improvement, a corollary, that is a significant advancement. Randy Jensen’s done that by taking time honored baseball tradition of adding pine tar to a baseball bat and applying it to a rough side out leather grip on a hickory shaft. The results are a grip that is tacky during a hot sunny day as well as the chilly rain disaster I played in this morning. The added benefit is that when your club is drying out in your car or home there is a nice pine scent. Just make sure you get 100% liquid pine tar which you can tell by the smell. If it smells like a pine tree you’re ok. I’ve added pine tar to all my new players and it’s simply amazing how effective the combination of rough side out and pine tar is.

One last piece of advice for playing on a rainy day with hickories. When you have finished your round, take each club out the bag (I’m assuming a soaked bag) and hand dry the head and the shaft then put in the passenger part of the car to dry out. Don’t put it back in your wet bag. I didn’t do that today and after running 2 errands and an hour later I had rust forming on the heads. Ugh more clean up work.