The Hickory Golfer

I just started playing 1905 clubs and balls after the C B McDonald Challenge and Eastern Canadian Open at Niagara On-The-Lake and have learned a few things.

1. A 185 yard drive is a monster drive. Yes the ball makes a huge difference. Tonight on the last hole my hickory buddy Syd talked me into hitting my Wilson Zip that I use with the 1928 clubs. I cleared the trees on the dog leg, hit the lone tree in the fairway, pissed off the group in front of us that we didn’t see, and almost got into a fight over the apology. Should have stuck with the gutty.
   
2. Most of your shots are in the fairway. It takes a really bad shot to miss the fairway or be out of play. With a modern ball some of the shots would definitely be out of play. I’ll never forget when Jeff Pineo pulled a shot left on the par 5 3rd at Niagara on the Lake. When the ball left the club he gasped the “What have done” gasp only to discover the ball would never reach the disaster.
   
3. You play much faster. Hit the fairway 95% of the time and greens 85% of the time on a course of 5,000 yards and you can finish 9 holes easily in less and 1 hour and 30 minutes. Often I finish in an hour and 15 minutes. This is the way golf was meant to be played.
   
4. The red tees have some really nice tee boxes. Hey they don’t get used all that much so we’re talking a real pristine environment.
   
5. Don’t even think of playing anything over 5,000 yards. Most of the par 3s are playable, but even at 5,000 yards the par 4s are often a long iron.
6. The ball flight is much lower. Lower than even the 1928 clubs. I really think it’s the ball and not the smooth faced clubs. It just doesn’t fly all that high. It’s kinda frightening hitting a low flyer at 100 yards but that’s the game so get use to it quick.
   
7. There is nothing like hitting it pure. Of course that doesn’t mean you’re going to hit the same distance every time. Sunday I hit a 28 degree lofted Stewart 175 yards. I was expecting to be on the front of the green at best and rolled up next the clown playing 2 balls. Today I’m out with my hickory buddy and hit this gorgeous shot from a 165 yards that comes up 10 yards short. Ok the ball was cracked but that is just ridiculously difference in length.
   
8. Iron shots are straight as string and generally low. At least recently they have been.
   
9. The bump and run is your friend. Learn to love it or kill your score. Finding a good high lofted club is really hard and even harder to hit. My 44 degree club is great the 56 degree Harry Vardon Stewart is questionable at this point. Ah it’s getting changed out next week when the newbie comes in anyway.
   
10. The long nose driver is hoot. Hard to figure out but when you hit one great it’s such a awesome feeling.
    
11. Altitude affects the ball differently. At Niagara On-The-Lake I saw more than one ball hit by multiple players “self correct” it’s path. Shots that started off as hooks turned into a slice to get back into the fairway. I haven’t seen any such weird flight patterns in Colorado at 6,500 feet. Straight as a string.
    
12. Sand on your ball is great for backspin. I stuck Jeff in the bunker on hole 2 at Niagra On-The-Lake. The ball got coated with sand. Jeff hits this gorgeous shot out of the sand that hits up by the flag. I figured we’re off the green and then the ball checks up.
    
13. You can back the ball up. Under the right conditions of course. Yes the ball has backspin but not nearly as much as the modern player. That said a sloping green that’s a little furry or a false front will stop a gutty pretty quickly. That said expect the ball to run out on the majority of your shots.
    
14. You don’t need a 56 degree wedge to get out of sand trap. In Canada my highest lofted club was 44 degree and I got out of all but one sand bunker and to within a makeable putt 75% of the time. Just open the face and strike it like you do a normal sand wedge. The principles are still the same, particularly if you have a wider soled iron. My best shot in Canada was on hole 8 when I stuck my second shot next to the edge of the bucker. I had to really open the club race and the ball popped out nicely to within 5 feet of the pin. Actually, I was more worried about hitting the lip of the bunker with my shaft than I was getting out the bunker.
    
15. Don’t clean your ball. One the paint comes off and two there is just something about the grass stains that make the ball fly better. Of course replace the ball on the green with a good ball if the tournament allows it. (And they did in Canada).
    
16. The stymie rule is cool. We had a couple of stymies in our match in Canada and all it did was make me focus even more. My ball slid by Vern Petry’s stymie on the first hole and into the cup. Without it I’m not sure I would have had the same focus.
    
17. The gutta does not float. I was told they would but when my ball dove into the pond tonight it didn’t come up for air. Maybe they do in Lake Ontario but they don’t in Colorado. Wonder what the scuba diver will think when he finds the ball next year.
    
18. At $19.95 or tournament special $9.00 you’ll do everything to find your ball. On Saturday I miss hit a shot on hole 6 that went into the trash. Couldn’t find the ball but the next day with my GPS system on I found it. Oh and don’t try explaining it to people on the course. I lost a ball is hard enough. I lost a $20 ball…forget it.
19. The ball makes this a game of strategy. Forget the tucked in pin behind the bunker and aim for the middle of the green. Look for the narrow strip leading up to the green instead of high shot that lands on the green, takes a hop an stop. Think runout. Yeah it’s a different game and useful when you play your moderns (whether modern mean 1928 or 2010).
20. Know the prevailing wind. The ball will move in that direction. At least a little bit.

Ok that’s enough. Get yourself some 1905 smoothies and a gutty or two and go play.

Having returned from the Easter Canadian Championship and the C B McDonald Challenge at Niagara On-The-Lake in Canada I decided to bring out the smoothies for play at home using the gutta percha replica golf balls we used in the tournament. I truly had a great time playing with the 1905 clubs in Canada which was probably aided by the tournament format.

The first nine holes were a foursomes(alternating shot) and the next nine a best ball (best score amongst the team – not a scramble (ahem – don’t confuse the two)). My partner, Jeff Pineo, and I won the first match 1-0 when I sunk a 3 foot birdie to half the final hole after our opponents drained a 45 foot chip from the side of the green. The match even included an ineffective stymie by Vern Petry on the very first hole. Sneaky Vern, but it didn’t work as I skimmed by his ball and sunk a 7 footer to win the hole outright.

We lost the second match 2-1 which was discouraging since we were up 1-0 with 5 to play. Vern and Bobby Sly played an effective game of ham and egg on those last few holes and there wasn’t a thing that Jeff and I could do. It wasn’t till later that I found out that I was playing with three golf professionals. Vern is a golf instructor and Bobby and Jeff were previously in apprentice program in Canada. Lots of fun playing with quality players. Jeff is out there hitting these high cut shots with the driver. Geez!

Anyway as I said, I was so taken with the 1905 play that I bought an extra ball from Paul Dietz to bring home so that one of my hickory playing partners at home could enjoy this era. Unfortunately, immediately after the tournament I had a couple of speaking engagements in the Ohio region (hey it made the Canadian trip possible), followed by eight days in San Francisco for a major conference. Needless to say I couldn’t get out to play until this weekend with nine holes on Saturday and another nine on Sunday.

Originally I was going to play with the Men’s Club on Saturday but the golf club aerated the greens on Monday so I thought it would be a perfect time to pull out the smoothies. The Saturday round I was just trying to figure out which clubs to use, how far I was going to hit the clubs, and how well the course would play with this “new” combination and at 6,500 feet of altitude. I wisely chose the red tees which are playing about 5,000 yards with the new tee boxes on the first and sixth hole. Maybe a little long for 1905 and the gutta percha ball, but certainly worth a try. I finished the round with a 43 and lost one of my gutta percha balls to the hazard on the sixth (I’m not sure I like the new tee placement). The good news is I walked the entire round, which given my foot injury is a major accomplishment.

Sunday was a much more promising day. Down to three good balls, make that two good balls and one ball that beat to death in Ontario. Anyway, I started out getting up and down on the first two holes then a hard fought bogey on the par five third. Making a mistake with the gutta and it can really compound quickly. Played through a curious threesome on five with a par after paring the par three fourth. Got to the sixth tee and didn’t want to repeat yesterdays missing ball episode so I went back to the white tees (which use to the be red tees six weeks ago). Hooked a drive into the rough. Hit a good recovery to the middle of the fairway. Stupidly hit a driving iron poorly which leaves 90 yards to the green. Softened the next shot to much and caught the false front of the green and died short. Chipped long, missed the putt and I’m three over. Sigh.

Wonder over to the seventh with the firm intention of just putting the 110 yard shot in the middle of the green. Pull it left a little, but it is in the middle of the green. Replace the ball with my one good gutta percha that I have left. (Yeah I hit the other good one thin on a let’s try that again shot and creased it – no more let me see if I can get it right). Forty Five feet and there is no hope that I’m going to make this on the greens that were aerated on Monday. But I’m wrong. I hit the perfect putt and it’s rolling straight to the hole. No mickey mouse bounces away or to the hole and then the ball just dives in the hole. My FIRST BIRDIE with 1905 clubs. This is a way cool way to play golf!

I finish with a par on eight and sand trap laden bogey on nine for a 39. The fact that I walked the course once again is great though my heal is a little sore from the last two days. Afterwards, I went up and got a golf cart and semi made my way around the course. Semi means I played the second hole and then ran over to the sixth to see if I could find my missing gutta perch in the weeds. I’m just looking for ball I told the UCCS PGA students who were on the hole when I pulled up (they must have thought that was weird). Using my GPS I found the ball about two feet in a 165 yards from the tee box.

Overall it was good day of golf. I got a funny look from a player in front of me when I hit a 175 yard shot with my iron that ran up on the green (hey I was as surprised as he was); was able to hit a driver 185 yards once; shot a 39 on a 5,000 yard course; walked the course in a hour and ten minutes; made my first birdie with smoothies and gutta percha; and most importantly found my fourth ball so my buddy and I can play this combination next week.

In baseball if a hitter hits a single, double, triple, and a home run in a single game it’s called hitting for the cycle. It’s a very unique event because it requires a combination of strength and speed. Something that is pretty rare.

Golf doesn’t have the same designation but I would suggest that scoring an eagle, birdie, and a par is about the equivalent. Some might think that the list include a double eagle. I wouldn’t as a you’d be lucky to get a double eagle in lifetime, but a good golfer should be able to card an eagle at least once or more a year. So my definition of hitting for the cycle in golf is an eagle, birdie, and a par.

Of course getting an eagle, birdie, or par requires a certain amount of skill as well as luck. I’ve always said that in order to card an eagle (on a par 5) you have to hit three superb shots in a row; a birdie requires two really good shots amongst the three (though generally that is the last two); and par at least one superb shot (either the last or the next to last) if any of the other three were less than expected.

A couple of Saturdays ago I hit for the cycle in golf carding an eagle on a par 5 with three perfect shots; a birdie on a par 4 with two really good shots and sweet par saved from a bunker (the one special shot) on a par 4.

The Eagle

We were playing a team event on Saturday and when we approached the par 5 3rd hole our team was already 4 under par and every player was really encouraging everyone else. Bob, a middle aged sports writer with a baseball history, stepped up and hit a high drive that landed near the end of the fairway at 275 yards out. I was next and hit a picture perfect drive on the screws (literally) but at a significantly lower trajectory than Bob’s (which would be typical for hickory shafted driver).

As we approached our balls there was one that was just off the edge of fairway and one another 10 yards further in the fairway. I was a little miffed thinking my ball was the one in the rough but even more delighted when we determined my ball was the long ball. Bob shook his head, “So much for technology.” (I have to admit this is the best part of playing hickories)

Now normally I wouldn’t even consider going for the green in 2 even under the best of conditions. I was 254 yards to the pin on the mid front of the green. Even with modern clubs I would approach this shot cautiously. The fairway is fairly level for 150 yards and then it drops down about 50 feet before sloping back up 15 feet to the green. Complicating this is a sloping fairway to a nasty bush lined lateral water hazard on the right that is exaggerated the closer you get to the hole. Even a good shot can end up in penalty ville.

After analyzing the shot I ask Bob if I should go for it. At that point we had three shots that are going to make par easily so he really encouraging me to go for it. I pulled out my Jack White Spoon (13 degree loft) and hit a perfect shot that was tracking for the hole. About half way there I told the group, “That’s about as perfect as I can hit it.” More prophetic words were never said. The shot hit short of the green about 20 yards in the perfect spot and rolled up over the left edge of the hole and settled 5 feed from the hole. One of course maintenance crew was watching the shot and said if it had been just a bit slower it would have dropped right in.

The 5 foot putt was a simple straight in putt, but honestly there isn’t an eagle putt that is simple. I just focused on making a good stroke and not watching the results. I didn’t even look up until the ball was dead center 3 inches from the hole. PLOP, eagle 3 net 2 and the team came through with two more net birdies and we were 9 under after three.

The Birdie

We kinda sailed through the next four holes, never loosing a stroke to par when we arrived at the par 4 8th. The 8th is a uphill dog leg to the left. There is plenty of landing area to the right of the fairway. Two bunkers protect the left corner and another bunker on the right side of the corner catches the long ball hitters.

The perfect shot is to hit a slight draw on the left side of the fairway that will catch the hill right on the corner of the dog leg and settle in the narrow fairway about 120 yards away from the hole. Isn’t it nice when you do exactly what you plan? Using my Jack White Spoon (should we say blessed spoon after the eagle?) the shot started about 10 yards inside the left fairway line and drifted left landing right on the knob, kicking down into the narrow part of the fairway.

The pin was tucked on right side of the green slightly protected by a bunker. This is such an odd hole for me. I don’t know why but if I have 120 yards to pin my shots here tend to go 130 yards. My only guess is that the green is elevated about 50 feet or more and because hickories hit a lower trajectory the ball must come at an angle that actually produces a longer shot. Yeah I know, shouldn’t happen, but it does. I pulled out my 44 degree mashie niblick and hit one of my best shots dead straight at the pin. When I got up to the hole I had less than 3 feet to the pin, almost a tap in. Another birdie, net eagle for the team and I think at this point we were 15 under.

The Par

There are two types of par in my book: the easy par and the grinder. On the par 4 16th I had the latter. I normally hit a driving iron here because you don’t want to go much past the 150 yard marker as everything slopes down to a dry gulch and a tree that is right in line with green. At the 150 your fine. The problem was I didn’t even get to the 150. I hit on the toe of the driving iron and the ball sputtered out leaving me about 190 yards to the pin. The next shot was pulled into the pot bunker on the left of the green.

Now I’m a pretty good bunker player, getting up and down about a third or half the time. My MO is Dave Pelz method of using different wedges for the distance required. When I got to the bunker I realized the shot was more than my 56 degree wedge would go. In fact I even said out loud, “I’ve got the wrong club.” Instead of going back to my bag and getting the right club I hopped into the bunker instead. I decided that instead of opening the face like normal I would I just squared the face and then hit my normal sand shot.

The shot was picture perfect. Initially, I thought I had hit off the green as I watched the ball come out high, but he ball hit about 3 feet past the pin, took one hop, and then spun back to within six inches of hole narrowly missing a birdie. The tap in par and another team members net birdie put us as 24 under. Later, one my team mates said to me, “I thought we were doomed when you said you had the wrong club.”

Hitting for the cycle is a thrill. I do it once every few years. I have never done with hickory sticks before though and I got to the tell you, it’s just a little more rewarding than it is with modern clubs. Oh yeah, the team finished in first at 25 under and I got $60 in skins.

I monitor hickory golf articles on the web on a daily basis. Most the time there isn’t anything during the week. Last week wasn’t the case. Last Thursday there were three articles in one day that clearly demonstrates that hickory golf is catching on.

We start off with a posting from the Akron Ohio News where Dave and Sue Morgan have transformed Old Pine Golf Course from 18 holes into a mom and pop executive course. At the bottom of the article is meat for hickory golfers with a mention of Dave’s collection and his participation in the Hickory Open in West Virgina. Makes me wonder if the rentals at Old Pine are hickory as well.

In the Columbia Daily Tribune the 91 Charlie Digges reluctantly talks about his game. Turns out he consistently shots less than his age. The article contributes his success, which includes several club championships, as well as his longevity to pumping iron the last few years and his hickory putter he’s had for 50 years. Humm…wonder if that’s an Otey or if it’s from the hickory era.

Finally, in Tea with the Vintage Baroness husband Derrick has consistently put off the Baroness’ desire to dress him in vintage clothes. That is until he went to Scotland and played with hickory clubs and plus fours on the open day of Kingarrock Hickory Golf at the Hill of Tarvit in 2008. Now if you ask most of serious hickory golfers spouses, we’re generally not into vintage clothes, but we will dawn our knickers and argyle socks when we go out and play. Of course if we have to run an errand after playing we generally don’t change unless the course has a locker room so you might catch us in vintage clothing outside the club occasionally (oh all right more than occassionally). Of course if you ask my mid 20’s daughter opinion on the matter, one time outside the golf course is one too many. So keep it up Derrick with the plus fours on the golf course. Your wife is happy you’re dressing vintage and you look perfect on the golf course with those hickory sticks.

Oh, and if you want to go back a day to Wednesday you can read the story about long time Canadian PGA professional Pat Little that carded his fourth hole in one and the first one with a hickory set. Of course for all of us that have NEVER gotten a hole in one we would rather dwell on the present rather than the past….Oh all right! Congratulations Pat….Share the wealth, will ya!

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.

At the end of February Steve Keller wrote a blog New life for a Bygone Era – Hickory Clubs about his discover of three hickory clubs in the family basement. I especially enjoyed the following five sentences:

They must have belonged to my grandfather. The warn, rich brown leather wraps looked like something his strong hands would have used. The honey colored shafts, still smooth and showing the character of the wood so sought by club-makers, straight and strong. The forged steel heads, slightly worn, displaying a weathering from years of idleness. Overall the clubs were onetime cared for, and surely used to their full extent.

When I read Steve’s story I thought of my own first experience finding a relatives hickories. I wanted to write about it immediately after reading the story but hesitated waiting on a picture of the owner playing with the clubs. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and then last week we were looking at a wedding album and wallah, there was the picture.

In 1981 my wife and I traveled to Pawnee City, Nebraska to help my wife’s mother clean out her mother’s house and bring back any items that we wanted to keep within the family. If you asked my mother in law I was a mad man looking in every crick and corner of the family abode. I disappeared on the second day into the attic of the small garage attached to the New England styled house oddly dropped into South Eastern Nebraska. I found some interesting furniture and other items which at some point in their lifetime it was decided they were no longer needed, but for one reason or another were worthy enough to kept in the smallish one car garage attic.

In a back corner of the attic I found a long Wilson golf club box. The weathered red box with black lettering when new contained a set of Patty Berg signature clubs. And what do you do when you get a new set of clubs? You put the old discarded clubs in the new box and relegate those clubs to garage attic. Out of site, out of mind. When I opened the set I found this wonderful collection of 11 clubs that belonged not to the man of the house, but his wife Helen, my wife’s grandmother.

As soon as my mother-in-law saw the clubs the stories about Helen started to come out. See Helen was an an outdoors girl. Born and raised in New York City something happened somewhere along the line that made this city born and bred girl into a lover of the outdoors. She worked a summer or two before she got married at a Lake Placid, NY resort. We don’t know if she was a skier but we do know she was an avid ice skater and we have a picture of her on sled while she was up in New York.

Somewhere along the line she learned to play golf. Living in New York she had access to some of the finest sporting good stores in the country as this collection bears out. I don’t have any physical evidence like an invoice that indicates where she bought her clubs, but the Harry C. Lee marking on one of the clubs and Alex Taylor on another indicates she bought at least one club from each store.

The mainstay of the set is four clubs with the Aberdeen brand. The Aberdeens were made by MacGregor and includes the driver, brassie, mid-iron and putter in this set. The rest of the clubs are rather eclectic grouping which was quite common in this era. There is a really nice round muscle back Harry C Lee with the import-retail cleek mark with an additional “H R” stamping for it’s owner. It’s country mate in the set is a wide soled Scottish mashie niblick by Spence & Gurley. Finally, the set is rounded out with two unique MacGregor clubs. The first is an R-1 Backspin mashie niblick and the other is the “17” from MacGregor.

It’s the last two clubs that are the most valuable. When I returned from my trip I showed my local pro the clubs. When he looked at the R-1 he said, “Don’t hit that one ever, it’s very valuable. Worth well over a $1,000.” I’m not sure he was correct, but today you can get one on E-Bay for about $75. The MacGregor “17” though is the predecessor of today’s hybrid. The aluminum head was most likely made by Mills in Briton and then stamped by MacGregor. I’ve only seen three of these on E-Bay in the last few years and each one is fetching around $200 to $300. It’s a beautiful club to hit from fairway traps. I wouldn’t call the set top of the line, but certainly a very good set of clubs.

As interesting as the clubs are, the real story is about their owner. Remember I said Helen was an athlete and an outdoors kind of girl. She was already an accomplished golfer (that’s her on the left) when she moved to Pawnee City in the late 1920s to marry Allen B Edee, Junior (Lord, what he must have told her to attract her from New York to this small county seat in southeastern Nebraska). The question was where would she play golf because she was going to play golf.

In 1922 a group of local men built the Fairview Golf Club which opened April 1. The lofty goal was a full fledged country club sporting a $15 yearly membership fee and caddies available at a members beckon call. But don’t try to play on Sunday between 10 and noon, the course was closed as everyone was expected to be in church. But like a lot of courses in Nebraska it had sand greens. But that didn’t deter Helen, she adapted her game to “pasture” golf and became the first women golfer in Pawnee City.

Fairview Golf Club is still there with it’s sand greens, the 10 foot hog shed on the par 3, a beef barn, and a tractor pull pit to challenge your skills just like it did Helen’s. But it can’t be that bad, Helen, from New York City, played there in the 20’s along followed by her daughter in the 40’s and her kids in the 60’s.

The local newspaper got out and about at the Tad Moore Hickory 4 Ball event this last April and got some pretty interesting quotes that were published in the Selma Times – Journal.

Not sure I agree with Roger Andrews initial comment about playing to connect with history, but I certainly agree with his comments on club advancement that has made game to easy. In fact if you ask any hickory golfer why he’s playing hickories you’ll probably get at least one reason being that the game got to easy. Conner Lewis has posted a couple of times in forums that his handicap went from a 4 to a 7 playing hickories. I’ve actually seen my own handicap take a similar move up wards from a 0 to a 7 though I suspect that this year it is going to drop back down to around a 3 or 4.

Breck Speed’s comments about the sweet spot being smaller and timing and tempo really emphasizes the point that hickory golf requires a more consistent, reproducible swing than the modern clubs do. Today’s phrase of Bomb and Gouge referring to philosophy of hitting has hard as you can with a driver and then using your error forgiving wedges to extract from the rough (when you occasionally get in it) doesn’t work in hickory golf. In hickory golf mistakes are magnified. Yes this week I hit a 299 yard drive when everything went perfectly. I also hit a 200 yard dud the same round.

The key is consistency which is what Breck is alluding to when he says a good golfer will still be a good golfer. But I would rephrase it to say a good ball striker will be a good ball striker with hickory but a poor ball striker or a golfer with fundamental swing flaws will play much worse (the author being a good example of this). The last few years I’ve seen some pretty awful swings that are sporting low single digit handicaps with modern clubs. They would easily be a 15 or higher with hickories. Ask any real good hickory player and they will tell you that they would be a much better player using modern clubs if they were so inclined (which they aren’t).

And I agree with Mike Just that we’re playing a simpler form of golf, but the truth is that this simpler form of golf that requires much more imagination than you get with modern clubs. Look at any junior club player today and you see that total lack of imagination when it comes to shots. How far is to the hole and what club goes that far is a about as imaginative as they get. But put a hickory stick in their hands and it changes almost instantly. Look at my friend Sid and our play last Sunday. With a simple introduction about what a spade mashie and jigger were designed for he started creating this highly imaginative shots in his first round of play.

Finally, Tad has it right, golf is a social game and hickory golf is a good example. I got into hickory golf for a variety of reasons but one of the big ones was the afternoon I spent with John Rigg at Muirfield. At the time I wouldn’t have ever played there but John started talking to my wife on a veranda of New Lundin and somehow the discussion got around to hickory golf. Next thing you know I’m getting to play Muirfield and having lunch in the clubhouse. (Please don’t ask about the grilled tuna my wife had in town)

Another example is this last year at the Mid-Pines Hickory Tournament. I went out to play a practice round and figured out I was playing with my friend Paul Dietz from Canada. Immediately I knew I was going to have a good time and two days later when we paired together for the final round I just relaxed and went out and parred the first 12 holes (don’t ask about the quad on the 13th). Afterwords, at the awards luncheon my wife and I had the pleasure of sitting with Paul and his wife along with Jay Harris and his wife. We had a great time chatting it up about who knows what. In short a great time socializing on and off the course.

So get out of your rut of playing modern bomb and gouge golf and go find your local hickory golfer or a hickory golf tournament. You’ll find great set of competitors who really understand the game. Just look around they are everywhere and more are popping up all the time. If you’re in Colorado, you can look me up and we’ll go play a round.

I’ve known Sid ever since I joined my local club about three years ago. It was the same time that I started playing hickory clubs exclusively. Sid works a day or two a week at the club either in the cart barn or as a marshal. As the only hickory player at the club, and to some extent in the city, I’m pretty recognizable when I’m on the course, particularly when I’m wearing my knickers. For the first year Sid would comment on my hat or the knickers when he was marshaling or ask about the round when he was working in the cart barn. Last year when one of my prized Tom Stewarts snapped off the shaft and went tumbling in the weeds he offered to come out and help me find it.

Two Sundays ago we both showed up to the course in the late afternoon looking to get in as many holes as possible before dark. Sid’s been interested in my clubs for quite a while and on the 5th tee he said, “If you’ll put together a set of hickories, I’ll play a round with you.” That was about all the motivation I needed to get a really good set together. Well that and three PGA students at the local college that asked almost the same question the following Tuesday. So off I went for the next two weeks assembling three sets of the finest hickory club sets from my collection of clubs. Not all the clubs in my collection are restored, but I wanted to really put a good foot forward so I worked hard at restoring about twelve to eighteen clubs. I finished two sets in the middle of the week and had plans to finish the third set on Saturday/Sunday so I gave Sid a call on Saturday to see if we could play on Sunday afternoon.

Of course as soon as I placed the call I thought you dope, it’s Mother’s Day. There is no way he’s going to play, but fortunately his wife is as understanding as mine and we scheduled a late afternoon outing. When I got to the course I gave him three sets to choose from: an RTJ set of Stewarts (only 2 RTJ clubs but very similar otherwise), my Sandy Anderson set of Stewarts, and a Stainless set of Stewarts. The last two sets are similar in makeup to what Francis Ouimet used to when the US Open in 1913: A mid-iron, mashie, mashie niblick, and niblick as the core and a 1 iron for a driving iron along with a jigger. Sid chose RTJ set and then I totally forgot he was left handed for putting but he brought an old Bullseye putter. Ok, we all agree that the Bullseye isn’t a hickory club, but hey we’re making do here.

While we’re warming up on the tee box waiting for a couple groups to tee off (I’ve never seen more people playing on Mother’s Day. What is wrong with these people?) we’re chit chatting along and he says he’s from Nebraska. “Really, where from?”, I ask like I’ve asked people a 1,000 time before fully expecting to not have any connection to the answer. Same town my wife’s family grew up in. Do you know wife’s-Maiden-name Elementary? Yeah he says, I lived right near there. No kidding I say, that was named after my wife’s grandfather who was the superintendent. “Do you know Rusty wife’s-Maiden-name?”, he asks. All of sudden I feel like Goliath with a stone in the middle of my forehead. Uh, yeah, he’s my father-in-law. The conversations continues to make sure we’re talking about the same man. Sure enough we are.

It’s time to tee off and the first hole is just a little bit on the intimidating side. Even more so when you have clubs you have never hit before. You have to clear a creek at 170 yards but can’t go more than 225 unless you thread the eye of needle through a 25 yard slot that goes down to another creek about 300 yards away. I instinctively pull out the 1 iron from my bag and he asks if he should use a 4-iron. Well a humm…no….see that 4 iron has 28 degrees of loft so it really isn’t a four iron. The first rule of hickories is there are no standards. Hit the RTJ 2 iron in your bag instead. He pushes the shot to the right and it lands in the ditch while I smash my 1 iron straight and true but a tad bit to long. He pitches out to a perfect layup while I push my higher lofted mashie to the right side of the green. His next shot is muffed into the creek using one of my Wilson Elite Fifty he has borrowed. I’m so glad they are only a dollar. Found and retrieved he hits a nice pitch with a 60° niblick (don’t I treat newbies to a nice set of clubs) to within 10 feet and we’re putting. First hole done I’ve got par 4 and he’s got a 7.

On #2 we pull out the drivers for the first time. He its a nice drive about 260 in the middle of the fairway and I pull one slightly that ends up on the edge of the bunker. I hit this monster 40° mashie that bounds to the back of the green and he hits a nice mashie niblick at the pin that bounds by. My new Nicoll’s Gem putter slides the 60 footer to inside the leather and Sid bumps it back to me and then he pitifully putts his ball well short of the hole. “I just need a heavier putter”. Yep…I’ve got one back home.

The next few holes continue with a lot of strategy never before employed and questions about what club to use. I explain that the spade mashie was designed to get out of rough and Sid hits a really nice pitch shot from the rough on the one the holes. He’s already improvising. Use the RTJ Mid Iron right? Yep. By this time I’m starting to notice his swing just a little bit more and then it hits me, that’s my father-in-laws swing. Same set up, same hands, same little cocking of the wrists, same position on the backswing and downswing and same follow through. Figures when you think about it, they both grew up on the same course in Nebraska though a good 25 years apart in age. My father-in-law played golf there when Sid was just a youngin and kids imitate good players within the club. I’m not saying all club members swing alike. Maybe it’s something simple like they had the same pro, but there was an uncanny similarity.

By the 5th Sid is starting to get it with irons at least half the time and he’s beginning to use his imagination to create shots he never would have with his modern set. He hit a really nice draw that bounded to the back of the green on 5 followed by a delicate chip with a spade mashie (something I would have never done) for a tap in. The driver though was a mystery to him and on the 6th it went sputtering to the right. Findable, but in the trash, he recovered nicely up to my drive. I hit a nice 2 iron (mid-iron) for my second on the par 5 and Sid pushed his third one into the hazard. “You’ve got the bound tos about losing the ball don’t ya?”, I kidded him. Nope he found it. In about a foot or two. I hit a “aim dead straight” mashie niblick to the back side of the green and Sid followed with a really nice niblick just a bit deeper. When my putt dropped we slammed knuckles. I’m one over at this point and I’ve been striking the ball quit nicely.

The par 3 I hit another “aim dead straight” for the pin that slides by some 15 feet and Sid pushes a poorly hit shot to the right. He comments that the thing about these clubs is they accentuate a poor shot. You don’t get away with miss hits like you do with modern clubs. He’s beginning to see how playing with a set of hickories can actually help your modern game as well. On the 8th I have him hit my Jack White driver. Hey, if you’re going to play an RTJ set you have hit a Jack White driver right? It’s not a good drive but it gets up to within 145 yards. I bound by him settling in the sand trap. He asks if he should use the mashie niblick and I tell him to use the spade mashie instead since it’s uphill. “Wow that was pure.”, he says as the club comes off the head. It’s a really nice looking shot, that should be on the backside of the green. I hit a blind mashie niblick pure out of the trap to within 10 feet of the hole, but just on the edge of the green. His perfectly struck ball crawled up the hill on the back side of the green and his pitch was little tough coming out. After 8 holes I’m just one over and he’s having a great time.

On the ninth he uses my driver again and plunks it into the sand about 210 yards away. I hit this perfect drive that leaves me a cool 90 yards to the green. Sid confirms that a spade mashie is the way to go. I know the distance is good at 145 yards but I’m not sure if it will dig into the sand on him, but there is no digging on his shot. “Woooo”, he exclaims, “beat that” he crows as his bunker shot lands by the pin and settles about 10 feet away. Under full pressure now to out preform the newbie I hit probably the best shot I’ve hit ever with my 50° niblick to within 6 inches. “How’s that?”, I ask. He just shakes his head and knocks it out for a birdie 3 as he goes back to putt his ball. “That was almost an eagle.”, he says.

Sid had to leave after nine. I ended up shooting even par on the front nine and I have no idea what Sid shot but I know he had fun and learned a lot. We’ve already made plans for future Sundays. On the way home I called my father-in-law. You’ll never believe who I played hickory golf with today…

Yesterday I got out to my home course in the early afternoon. It’s a semi-private club that was the center piece of a development back in the early 90s. On the weekend it’s pretty busy but during the week I can generally get 18 holes in in about 3 hours. On this day George sent me off the back because there was a foursome that just teed of 1 and it was going to be slow. No Problem.

When I round the turn a single was just teeing off. I asked if I could join, or he asked if I wanted to play with him, I’m not sure which, but I teed up and off we went. Standard thing about playing hickories is everyone seems to notice the head first on woods, then the shaft. After the first hole he asks if all my bag is full of hickories? He just shakes his head and we continue on. On this day I’m striking the ball exceptionally well, too well in some approaches to the green. I’m scrambling saving par and the putter is cooperating. On the par 3 4th I hit this most gorgeous 3 iron 196 yards that lands about 4 feet to the right of the cup. He’s yelling it’s going in but I know better. I settle for par and head on the par 4 5th.

On paper the 5th looks easy. It’s only a 343 yards dog leg to the left. And it would be if there wasn’t this whole area of native grass that ends with a steep in embankment 215 yards from the our tee box. You can’t cut the corner easily unless you go over the cottonwood that is 100 yards out on the corner and even if you did the architect created this nice mound of, you guessed it, native grass, that not only prevents a clear view of the hole, but is nasty if you get into during the summer time. So the smart play is up the fairway on the right where the carts are in the picture. But I’m not smart, I’m cocky and I’ve been knocking the cover off the ball today, so even though there is a head wind I figure I can clear the 215 yards and make it over the trash. I hit a perfect 214 yard shot that fades slightly and hits the embankment and settles into the thick grass (which isn’t massively thick this time of year). A draw and it’s over the trash; straight and it’s over the trash. “That was great shot. It made it over didn’t it?”, my playing partner asks. No it’s in the trash. Rub of the Green 1.

The lie isn’t that bad and I figure with a chop shot from my mashie niblick I can reach the green 100 yards away. I can’t see the pin because of the ledge and the mound so I take a quick peek. Unfortunately it was too quick of peek. The hole is protected by the mound and three bunkers: one on the left, which rarely comes into play; and two on the right. Today the hole is tucked back in behind the bunkers on the right. I don’t look carefully enough and think that the edge of the bunker is to the right of my target line. I hit a perfect shot that clears the ledge right on target for the pin then darts into the bunker dead right on it’s first bounce. Perfect shot except that I thought the bunker was not on my line. Visually it wasn’t on my first peek but now I see that is. Nuts! “Man that was an awesome out until it hit that bump next to the bunker”, my playing partner says. Rub of the Green 2.

I’ve become a pretty good bunker player even with hickories. Of course it helps that I have a wide soled Tom Stewart that is 62 degree loft and 6 degrees of bounce. Yes it’s really a Tom Stewart from the 1920s. Now you would think that with that carom I would have a good lie and the ball is setting up but it’s on a hill and my club is at least 8 inches above my feet. I open the club face, aim a little right with the side hill lie and do my soft swing to pop it out to a pin maybe 15 feet away. Problem is the sand here is rock hard and while it hit 2 inches behind the ball the head bounces at ground level rather than floating an inch below the surface like it’s suppose to. The ball comes out hard like a chip instead of a sand shot and flies to opposite site of the green. It really was an amazing sand shot, landed softly, it was just some 45 feet from the pin. “Too bad”, my playing partner says. Rub of the Green 3.

With all the hazards you got the figure the green would be simple and straight forward, but have you ever known a short hole that didn’t have a tricky green? 45 feet right to left break of 4 feet heading towards Pikes Peak. I’m resigned to bogey. Just get it close and get out of here. My playing partner is managing the stick like a professionally caddie and I my strike is about as pure a stoke as possible. It’s a good putt but I’m not sure it’s all that good, but my playing partner is. About 10 feet out he thinks it looks good, at three feet he says it’s in the hole. I’m like right…it’s close but not…PLOP….in the hole. PAR!!!!

I look at my playing partner and smile. There is nothing like dropping a 45 footer to snub a triple rub of the green!

My work unexpectedly finished early today so I thought I would try to get a little further away from the office and play an ocean side course. I don’t remember where I saw it but somewhere, somehow I remembered seeing something that said The Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay was a modern links type course that was open to the public. I’ve been traveling to the bay area for over 10 years and didn’t know this gem existed.

Right after the last meeting I did a quick check to see how much I was going to have to pay for this adventure. Humm….$80 after 3:00pm and $50 after 5:00pm. I could easily make the 3:00pm I thought and then I did something really stupid and read my email. Next thing you know I’ve got another early afternoon meeting that doesn’t finish until 2:30 and before you know it it’s 3:30 before I really get on the road. Then to top it all off there was some type of accident that occurred just before you get into the town that stopped traffic for 30 minutes. (I was told this is a regular occurrence) Then like an idiot I turned the right way not knowing where the course was only to turn back around within one mile of the course when I thought it wasn’t in that direction. I finally pulled my GPS out (don’t ask why I didn’t use it in the first place) and discovered it was back where I turned around just another mile up the road. Next thing you know I’m at the course at 5:30pm. Geez!!!

I figure I’ve got two hours of daylight. If there isn’t anyone on the course it’s going to be tight to get 18 holes in. Worst case scenario I’ll finish in the dark after 9 holes. When I get to the tee box there are two guys standing there but only one bag and two cards. Humm….thinking…..this is weird. Turns out one of the guys is actually the starter. I introduce myself to the player. Turns out that Oliver is an accountant for resort (isn’t that a dream job, for accountants that is) and can play when ever he wants. While he snaps his first drive on this blind dog left to the right, I hit a nice rope down the middle. The starter comments, “Nice shot with those old school clubs.” I’m hoping that Oliver is a fast player otherwise this is going to be one really slow round.

Well it doesn’t take me long to realize that Oliver knows his way around this course and doesn’t take his time doing it. The first hole green, pictured above, is visible once you get out to the dogleg, tucked neatly behind a burm. On the way to my ball I notice this is one really nice setting, a great layout and well maintained. The fairways are relatively narrow but the rough is manageable. The cart paths are well out of the way of play. If you hit one you deserve the results. And if you go to far afield the high grass is going to kill you. The greens are very fair and nicely contoured. There aren’t any great front to back slopes here but a lot of undulations that make golf ball go the opposite of what you intend.

The first three holes are true links styled holes. The second hole will ask point blank how straight of a driver are ya! If you think you’re that good then fire away at the 332 yard monster with a mane of thick protective grass around the green that guarantees an extra stroke or two if you can find your ball. The third is a short par 3 of 110 yards but I dare you to put it close to the hole on this highly protective undulating green.

The fourth hole starting working it’s way from the ocean and you begin to see the beauty of the architecture. The best way to describe the course is the marriage of a horizon pool and golf course. It literally looks like some of the holes just have the ocean right off the back mounds of the greens. The inland holes still have the links flair to them. In fact you’ll find no trees in adjoining fairways on the course though you do find a few that border the outer edges like the monsters on hole #8. I swear they are living and love golf balls.

This a true in and out course. When you do eventually get to 10 after three par 3 holes you’re about as far way from the clubhouse as you can get. Take a moment on the 10th box to admire the farmers spread that lines the 10th and the 15th fairway. What a spread. Then while you’re playing 10 or 15 look back at the club house. Oliver you’ve got a really tough job my friend. The scenery here is just amazing.

One thing that really impressed me about the layout was the pattern that was used on the inland holes. Hole 4 is on the northern perimeter with 5 looping back and 6 and 7 going back the same direction as 4. Then the true beauty of the layout takes place. Hole 8 begins just past 4 green following the northern parameter. Number 9, the short par 4, follows the perimeter southward. 10 then turns back to the ocean following the southern edge. 11 does a u-turn back west but is significantly short of 9 green. As I’m walking up 11 I’m thinking where is 12. I can see 8 but where did he put 12. Number 12, a longish par 3 is tucked neatly between 11 and 8 fairways ending near the 7th green. To me this was the beauty of the layout. Not just a back and forth layout but something with some imagination.

Light was a precious commodity so I played 13, 14, and 15 rather quickly. In fact I just drove the cart on 15. Why the rush? Well it’s pretty simple. The last three holes border the ocean and I wasn’t about to miss one of them. 16 is a rather short downhill par 4 that when the wind is blowing my guess is it’s about a nightmare and half. Then just to be ornery there is this trough of grass in front the green. Hugh this could have some huge numbers to it.

Next is the par 3 17th. You can hear the ocean roar below. Roar is it laughing as you gasp when you hit your shot hoping it was the right club. Keep your focus on this hole until you finish putting because if you look up you’re going to start thinking about your next tee shot and that would be a major distraction.

The finishing hole is a par 5 masterpiece. It starts with a mentally challenging but technically not a very difficult drive across the ravine. All kinds of evil thoughts go through your mind. My suggestion is get up and just hit it. The more you think the worse it is. Then on top of the hill pull out your spoon and smack it to the right of the 150 yard marker. It then finishes with an uphill green that is nicely protected by bunkers in the front. Don’t skull one here or you might be talking to the resort manager about replacing a window.

I finished the round with just enough light. When I got back to the cart shed the usual how did it go started and then they noticed by clubs. One of the assistant pros started looking at the clubs and asking questions. He said there is a group of 6 guys that play hickories at the course. They’re trying to get all the pros to play a round with them. Funny thing, the young pro says that he as instructions on how to repair the old clubs but no one brings them into him. I explained that when it comes to hickories, most of us do our own repairs. I left my card with him to give to his local hickory players. Hopefully the next time I play there I can play with them. Hummm…, I wonder if they would be there tomorrow before my plane leaves?