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 But it lives on today among a coterie of enthusiasts who revel in
their anachronism, spurning modern clubs that promise maximum
"moment of inertia," minimum "cross-sectional deformation," and
other attributes from that twilight zone between technology and
marketing.
"Some people think steel shafts will catch on, but I don't want to
rush into it," says Philip Truett, president of the British Golf
Collectors Society. Many golfers felt likewise a century ago, when
steel shafts first appeared, painted brown to look like wood.
But by the mid-1930s, steel had vanquished wood, except among
hardcore holdouts.
Truett only plays with hickory-shaft clubs. That is extreme, even
among hickory golfers.
Most have modern clubs with steel or graphite shafts for regular
rounds. They reserve their wooden shafts for special events.
Among them: the annual Scottish Hickory Championship, the
Transylvanian Hickory Open in Romania, the Open de France Hickory
and a biennial America v Europe event known, reverently, as the
Hickory Grail.
The next one is in October at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey,
which has hosted several professional major tournaments (played with
modern clubs).
Just what inspires devotion to yester-tech equipment is not obvious.
Typical golfers shell out hundreds of dollars for cavity-backed,
face-balanced, nano-alloy carbon fiber creations, hoping for longer
and straighter shots. Annual golf-equipment sales total about $12.5
billion worldwide, industry studies show.
But to wood-shaft enthusiasts, it is more satisfying to hit a
hickory "mongrel mashie" than its modern equivalent, a five iron.
"It brought back the memory of why I played the game to begin with,"
explains former American professional Mark Carnevale, now a radio
golf analyst, who played his first hickory round last summer and
hopes to play in October's World Hickory Open at Carnoustie in
Scotland.
"I could go out there and be an artist, so to speak."
HICKORY HACKER
Neil Millar, a London university professor and hickory enthusiast,
added: "There's a tactile aspect, the feel of the ball on the
clubhead."
Millar "stumbled into" hickory golf five years ago at a
club-collectors meeting, and was surprised to see collectors playing
with their clubs.
Indeed, collectors started hickory-golf events to do something with
their clubs besides look at them. Members of America's Golf
Collectors Society, founded in 1970, staged "hickory hacker"
tournaments before founding the Society of Hickory Golfers in 2000.
It has 800 members and a twice-yearly magazine, the Wee Nip.
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The British Golf Collectors Society, founded in 1987, is about the
same size. It has a formula for converting golfers' regular scoring
handicaps (the number of strokes allowed above par) to hickory
handicaps. Golfers with regular handicaps between nine and 14, for
example, get an extra five strokes when playing with hickory clubs
-- for good reason.
While modern golf clubs have extra-large sweet spots that propel a
ball further and minimize the errant ball-flight from mishits,
hickory clubs have smaller heads and are not forgiving. The ball
does not go as far and slightly off-center hits fly far afield.
"In hickory golf you remember your good shots," says Tony Hunt from
Sevenoaks, England, winner of the English Seniors Hickory
Championship two years ago.
"In modern golf you remember your bad shots."
And while modern clubs emit a metallic 'ping' sound when striking a
golf ball, he adds, hickory clubs resonate with a satisfying
'woosh'.
Hunt discovered hickory golf six years ago, when he spotted old
clubs at a furniture auction, bought them and tried them. Later, the
retiree turned his hickory hobby into a part-time business.
Today he owns more than 60 sets of hickory clubs, which he restored
himself. His business, South of England Hickory Golf, hires out the
sets for "vintage golf" outings at courses celebrating special
events, such as centennial anniversaries.
Players don period dress, such as plus-fours and argyle socks. Hunt
staged 20 events last year, and did one recently at the Royal
Automobile Club's Old Course in Epsom (where this writer was an
eager, though often hapless, participant).
Some rare collectible hickory clubs cost more than $5,000. But most
restored hickories sell for $60 to $150. A set with five to seven
clubs suitable for play can be had for $500 to $600 -- not much more
than a new graphite-composite driver.
"I carry just five clubs -- a driver, a putter and three irons,"
says Truett, far less than a modern set's 14 clubs. The temptation
to splurge on new equipment every year, he adds, is "out of the
equation".
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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