Anyone here play hickory golf?

[Bill Seitz]

I have a set of pre-1935 hickories and I really like that each club has its own personality, so some days you just go with those clubs that feel "right" and manufacture shots for the situation.

I have a set of Stewart irons that my wife bought for me as a wedding gift.  Another friend bought the putter as a gift, and picked up a couple of woods sometime thereafter.  But I don't really play them enough (I don't really play my regular set enough either these days) to know how far I really hit any of them, so you can laser a yardage for me, but it doesn't really mean anything.  It's all feel based on what the loft looks like, where I grip the club on the shaft, and how hard I swing.  Also helps to play them almost entirely off of really well maintained fescue.  Hope to get at least one round in with them next weekend.

[Peter Flory]

I have a set of Stewart irons that my wife bought for me as a wedding gift. 

That's unbelievable. 

[Bill Seitz]

I have a set of Stewart irons that my wife bought for me as a wedding gift. 

That's unbelievable.

Yeah, it was a pretty awesome gift.  it's not a perfectly matched set, but they're pretty good.  When we were married I was playing a lot with some Kingsley guys that play hickories, and she didn't want me to be left out.  And Chris Hufnagle (via Jud Tigerman) put her in touch with a guy in Carolina who hooked her up, and then he's who I contacted to buy the woods.  And Kingsley is really a great place to play hickory golf.

[Tony Ristola]

Do you find a performance difference between the replica's and the original gear?

That is an interesting question.  The short answer is that I don't find any real difference- but that is after 5 years of finding the perfect clubs and dialing them in. 

If you had a month to assemble a set, you'd likely experience a very big difference because you'd have originals where the shafts vary, where leading edges would be too sharp, where the swing weights would be all over the map, etc. 

But now that I have clubs with great weighting and shapes, I'm convinced that I'm slightly better with them than I would be with replicas.  i.e. if I had to play for my life, I wouldn't switch back to replicas.  But part of that might be personal because I'm not a big divot taker and I find the lack of bounce on the irons to fit my swing.  As Ben mentioned, the replicas have much more bounce- so for someone with a higher angle of attack, they might find that extremely helpful. 

One other thing that I've noticed is that the raw forged heads of the originals really feel soft and pleasing.  Some clubs were chrome plated so that they wouldn't rust, and those feel much more clicky/ harsh.  I just send those off to get them de-chromed now whenever I get them.  The replicas are cast and you don't get that same feel.  The whole experience makes me want to get a set of modern forged irons with a raw finish.

I have a set of pre-1935 hickories and I really like that each club has its own personality, so some days you just go with those clubs that feel "right" and manufacture shots for the situation.  The new replicas are not the same experience, as they are very well balanced and machined -- equal to a good set of 1980's clubs.  Finding old clubs that work together and do what you want is one of the charms of Hickory golf.

I'd read a comment about a guy using modern hickories, and gushed over the ability to hit them higher; like modern clubs. That's why I asked. If it's the case, it defeats the purpose of playing hickories.

[BHoover]

I played a match yesterday with a friend. I played 1920s-era hickories, most of which have replacement shafts from Louisville Golf, and my set consisted of two MacGregor woods (brassie and spoon) and Tom Stewart irons. He had a set of Louisville Golf woods and Tad Moore irons. We were pretty evenly matched, but his long irons were definitely easier to hit higher than my long irons. That was the biggest difference I saw. He is a very good player and he had no trouble getting his 2-iron up in the air and stopping it quickly (and it was impressive to watch). It was much more difficult to get my 2-iron up in the air enough to get it to stop on the greens.


The other big difference is that modern hickories have enough bounce that you don’t worry about digging into the turf. With vintage clubs, I need to make sure I sweep the turf to avoid taking a deep divot.

[Thomas Dai]

Curious how the word ‘hickory’ seems to have morphed into the word to use in relation to any wooden shafted club when all sorts of different types of wood were actually used for golf shafts including bamboo, hazel, danga, ash etc.
Curious also how the word ‘persimmon’ has morphed into the word used to describe any wooden club heads when not only have other types of wood been used but many are laminated and laminating wood is a very different manufacturing process.
As the photo below shows, 'woods' have changed a fair bit over the decades too!
Atb

[Mark Chaplin]

My club has a thriving hickory group and an 1980s group is gathering momentum.

[Peter Flory]

I have a set of Stewart irons that my wife bought for me as a wedding gift. 

That's unbelievable.

Yeah, it was a pretty awesome gift.  it's not a perfectly matched set, but they're pretty good.  When we were married I was playing a lot with some Kingsley guys that play hickories, and she didn't want me to be left out.  And Chris Hufnagle (via Jud Tigerman) put her in touch with a guy in Carolina who hooked her up, and then he's who I contacted to buy the woods.  And Kingsley is really a great place to play hickory golf.

Bob G? 

Pretty much everyone that I've met in the hickory world is very generous with their knowledge and will bend over backwards to help a new player find clubs and get oriented.  They either love history, architecture, or they are the tinkering/ craftsman types. 

I do love the way that the Stewarts hit.  There is a wide spectrum depending on the attributes of any club, but the high quality Stewarts are very solid.  If Ouimet and Jones favored them (as amateurs), that is pretty telling. 

[Bill Seitz]

Bob G? 

Pretty much everyone that I've met in the hickory world is very generous with their knowledge and will bend over backwards to help a new player find clubs and get oriented.  They either love history, architecture, or they are the tinkering/ craftsman types. 

I do love the way that the Stewarts hit.  There is a wide spectrum depending on the attributes of any club, but the high quality Stewarts are very solid.  If Ouimet and Jones favored them (as amateurs), that is pretty telling.

I think his name is Brad Gregory.  Sells quite a bit on ebay, but if you're looking for a play set or club, it's good to connect with him directly.  A friend of mine found a set he liked on ebay and pulled the trigger without really researching it, and ended with a set that had been used in a wall display, and had been bent so upright that he couldn't play them.  Buyer beware. 

[Marty Bonnar]

The Scottish Championships were held at Fortrose and Rosemarkie yesterday. Some pics of the entrants on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/100002914041793/posts/3941972272576535/


Anyone recognise a few?
Cheers,
F.

[Peter Flory]

I want to give a little comparison here between the originals and the replicas because I think the replicas might be getting an unfair rap.  The Tad Moore Star OAs are a very popular replica set.  I have a set of those from when I got into the hickory game and also the Macgregor OAs that they are modeled after.  Tad has different sets, but he created this one after a very playable set of Macgregors that had flanges to fit the American golf courses with their lusher, irrigated turf.  So these are easier to play than a lot of the earlier clubs because those were more suited to the UK turf conditions.  Macgregor made the first flanged OAs in about 1918 and they were popular with American players during the golf boom. 

Here is a side by side comparison of the Mashie (35 deg loft- like a 7i) and the Mid Iron (24 deg loft, like a 4i). 

Original mid iron/ Replica mid iron  and    Original mashie/ Replica mashie


Original Mid-Iron/ Replica Mid-Iron


Replicas Mashie/ Original Mashie


Mashies on top, Mid-Irons on bottom (I recently stripped the chrome off the originals and they haven't rusted yet because I haven't played with them, so they look a little strange right now)


Semi-related:

Here is what a modern 56 degree SW looks like next to an original Spalding flanged niblick from the hickory era.  The original has 54 degrees of loft. 


As easy as all of these clubs appear, I still think that I play better with the thinner sole and higher CG Tom Stewart style irons.  I find the Macgregor OAs to be a bit clunky feeling and the ball balloons much more in the wind.