Anyone else start with hickory shafts?

[Maninblack4612]

I started playing golf aged 11, possibly younger, in the mid 50s. For my first clubs my father went to the local auction house & brought home a selection of rusty, hickory shafted clubs. The leather grips were removed, shafts cut down & the grips were rewound, nailed to the shaft at the end. The grips had to be soaked in a combination of castor oil & methylated spirit to keep them tacky.

The shafts would snap frequently but that wasn't a problem because there was a plentiful supply of replacements from people changing over to steel. In those days the steel shafts were painted brown to make them look like hickory.

In addition to hickory, I played briefly with aluminium shafts, anyone remember them?

And then came graphite. My first graphite driver was a Taylormade, and what a difference it made. A few of my friends were persuaded to buy one when they saw how I was hitting mine.

I also lived through the transition from the small ball to the current size. The first large balls were difficult to hit any distance at all & impractical for the average golfer until technology improved their performance.

How many othe members have witnessed this much history? I'm starting to feel really old.

 

[robinthehood]

No sorry. Just the odd wooden wood still in use when I first tried the game.

 

[IanM]

Wow! That's some change!

I only started in the second half of the 80s, so biggest changes I've seen are the arrival of bigger headed drivers, the demise of long irons, balls that fly for miles, GPS, Lasers and the rebellion against long socks! (only kidding about the last one!)

I guess rules about mobile phones are in that too....

I just realised that I said "I only started in the second half of the 80s," and for some, that's as distant as the 1950s are for me! (ie before i was born!)

 

[robinthehood]

Wow! That's some change!

I only started in the second half of the 80s, so biggest changes I've seen are the arrival of bigger headed drivers, the demise of long irons, balls that fly for miles, GPS, Lasers and the rebellion against long socks! (only kidding about the last one!)

I guess rules about mobile phones are in that too....

I just realised that I said "I only started in the second half of the 80s," and for some, that's as distant as the 1950s are for me! (ie before i was born!)

Yeah I'd forgot about the like of lasers, GPS and such. Also access to courses that were previously a no go for pay and play visitors has really changed.

 

[IanM]

Good point - I get regular emails from a Surrey course (no need to say which, an old one, but not one of the big names!) saying, "please come and play, please join etc etc!!!! When I was a young lad in Nat West, I turned up for a game in my rusty Hillman Avenger...and I was told to Naff Off! Funny how times have changed!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I started (at 11 or so) with a mixture (most definitely not a mixed set) of hickory and brown painted clubs. They were my dad's from the early 50s though some were much older than that. He didn't really play but obviously at some point he'd had a go and so got hold of this little mixed bag. The bag was a simple canvas tube with steel frame - it weighed a ton. It did have one pocket - a small ball pocket - but as I only ever had a handful of balls and tees it didn't need to be much. My favourite club was a little cut-down hickory-shafted niblick - and though the shaft was bent I loved it as a little chipper...

Still got the steel shafted brassie and the old 3i, 5i, 7i and 9i. The hickory shafted ones eventually broke.

I also remember finding my first ever large ball. It was a Titleist. I was dead chuffed - but don't think I liked playing it... Found it on 16th hole of Deaconsbank Municipal Golf Club on Glasgow south-side (don't know how it found it's way there - it wasn't the grandest of tracks)

On the club membership side. I'd had my name down for Whitecraigs GC Glasgow for 7 years when I eventually got offered membership (in 1983). It had taken that long as I didn't have any family or close friends as members. I had just graduated and didn't know where I'd be working and living so asked if I could put acceptance on hold for a few months until my plans were sorted. They said no - back down the waiting list. Different days back then.

I do recall the auld fellas at Deaconsbank when I started playing - and sometimes played with them if they were in the mood. Some still wore their jacket to play in cold or wet weather. There wasn't a clubhouse as such - just an old single storey building by the 1st tee (it was an old farmhouse I think) that players used to put their shoes on. Given that was about 1970 these lads in their 70s could have started playing in Edwardian times - not long after Harry Vardon wrote The Complete Golfer (1907) Bit weird that when you think about it.

 

[fundy]

this must be like porn for poor old Crow

 

[Orikoru]

I first swung a club in around 1999 so no, not really. Golf shoes have changed a lot since then though. Driver heads have got vastly bigger. Obviously GPS and laser rangefinders coming in as mentioned above. Hybrids being invented, probably near that time when I first started. Besides those I can't think of a huge amount of change I've seen.

 

[Crow]

this must be like porn for poor old Crow

Not without some juicy pictures!


Can't say I started with hickory but when I was 10 or 11 my older brother got hold of 2 or 3 hickories and we used to chip and putt round the garden with them. Earlier this year my younger brother told me he still had the putter if I wanted it, I said yes of course.

I'm almost certain that it's not actually a putter but a cleek and a very nice one at that by Willie Park with a cut down shaft. I intend to reshaft it this weekend as I'm playing a hickory match a week on Sunday and would like to use it.

I started playing properly in the late 1970s when the small ball was still very common, first set of clubs were MacGregor Jack Nicklaus bought piecemeal from Argos.
Had a long break from the game for marriage, mortgage and kids before coming back and getting a used set of Ben Sayers Power Pact Oversize, then Mizuno MX23 followed by JPX 825.

Since then it's all been retrograde steps!

 

[fundy]

Not without some juicy pictures!


Can't say I started with hickory but when I was 10 or 11 my older brother got hold of 2 or 3 hickories and we used to chip and putt round the garden with them. Earlier this year my younger brother told me he still had the putter if I wanted it, I said yes of course.

I'm almost certain that it's not actually a putter but a cleek and a very nice one at that by Willie Park with a cut down shaft. I intend to reshaft it this weekend as I'm playing a hickory match a week on Sunday and would like to use it.

I started playing properly in the late 1970s when the small ball was still very common, first set of clubs were MacGregor Jack Nicklaus bought piecemeal from Argos.
Had a long break from the game for marriage, mortgage and kids before coming back and getting a used set of Ben Sayers Power Pact Oversize, then Mizuno MX23 followed by JPX 825.

Since then it's all been retrograde steps!

View attachment 28320

Pervert

 

[garyinderry]

Not hickory but my first ever golf bag as appeared on ebay. Brings back fond memories. I might just have to buy it for old times sake.

 

[Hobbit]

My first bag, in July 68, was a mismatched set of all sorts. Don’t think there was a hickory in there, or maybe there was. I do remember hitting them back then, so maybe.

There were definitely some brown metal shafts, and I do remember using the small ball.

A lot more recently was the introduction of metal headed woods - why do we still call them woods. And then graphite shafted woods.

 

[Kennysarmy]

First clubs were from an auction house in Berwick Upon Tweed - my brother and I then started playing by hitting golf balls around a field in Northumberland - all the clubs were wooden!

We'd "invent" holes, such as to the top of the field, around the beech tree and back to the oak!

Hazards were mainly piles of cow *** and rabbit holes.

 

[13Aces]

My first clubs were wooden driver, brassie, 5 iron and very low loft iron (which was used as a putter). i clearly recall the head of the wooden driver breaking off during a shot which turned out to be reasonably good! And oh the small balls, Penfold Ace, Dunlop Warwick, Slazenger Star, Superjets!!! I have had (and still have) much joy and heartache from this game --over the last 60+ years!!!

 

[Orikoru]

My first bag, in July 68, was a mismatched set of all sorts. Don’t think there was a hickory in there, or maybe there was. I do remember hitting them back then, so maybe.

There were definitely some brown metal shafts, and I do remember using the small ball.

A lot more recently was the introduction of metal headed woods - why do we still call them woods. And then graphite shafted woods.

Butch Harmon doesn't.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I first swung a club in around 1999 so no, not really. Golf shoes have changed a lot since then though. Driver heads have got vastly bigger. Obviously GPS and laser rangefinders coming in as mentioned above. Hybrids being invented, probably near that time when I first started. Besides those I can't think of a huge amount of change I've seen.

My first golf shoes were the cheap rubber ones with the kilties. No chance back then of me being able to afford leather shoes.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Not without some juicy pictures!


Can't say I started with hickory but when I was 10 or 11 my older brother got hold of 2 or 3 hickories and we used to chip and putt round the garden with them. Earlier this year my younger brother told me he still had the putter if I wanted it, I said yes of course.

I'm almost certain that it's not actually a putter but a cleek and a very nice one at that by Willie Park with a cut down shaft. I intend to reshaft it this weekend as I'm playing a hickory match a week on Sunday and would like to use it.

I started playing properly in the late 1970s when the small ball was still very common, first set of clubs were MacGregor Jack Nicklaus bought piecemeal from Argos.
Had a long break from the game for marriage, mortgage and kids before coming back and getting a used set of Ben Sayers Power Pact Oversize, then Mizuno MX23 followed by JPX 825.

Since then it's all been retrograde steps!

View attachment 28320

This is exactly what my first 'putter' was like - hickory shaft and rust and all. A multi-purpose club

 

[Orikoru]

My first golf shoes were the cheap rubber ones with the kilties. No chance back then of me being able to afford leather shoes.

Even when I started most golf shoes were like smart office shoes with very little padding and metal spikes affixed to the bottom. The rubber spikes were only just starting to appear at that time, and subsequently the more sporty designs.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

First clubs were from an auction house in Berwick Upon Tweed - my brother and I then started playing by hitting golf balls around a field in Northumberland - all the clubs were wooden!

We'd "invent" holes, such as to the top of the field, around the beech tree and back to the oak!

Hazards were mainly piles of cow *** and rabbit holes.

I did this in the private school playing fields round the corner from home. Had the advantage of having long jump and high jump sandpits for bunkers - and a burn running down one side and a big tree to protect one of my 'flags' I didn't dig holes but stuck canes into the ground in the four corners and by the sandpits - and just played between the 'flags' in various combinations

I can recall that the playing field was 119 paces from top to bottom - longer on the diagonal. And it was there that I first got a golf ball properly off the ground.