Lorne Rubenstein on Hickory Golf

[David_Tepper]

https://scoregolf.com/opinion/lorne-rubenstein/playing-a-game-the-old-fashioned-way/

[John Emerson]

LR has a way with words that few others posses and as good of command of the written word as any sports writer in history.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have two sets of hickories but am reticent to use them. I fear they might break.

[Ben Hollerbach]

I have two sets of hickories but am reticent to use them. I fear they might break.

I had that same fear for quite some time. When I first started playing I was paranoid of breaking a shaft due to a hard range ball or a mat. Now I know better.
Yes, over my 12 years of hickory play I've broken a few shafts, but much less than one might expect. The key is ensuring the club is properly prepped before play. This would include evaluating and potentially refinishing every shaft before play, and  removing and re-gluing every head. An old and brittle shaft will break eventually, but often a shaft that looks bad just needs a light sanding and a new coat of shellac to gain a new life.

A good hickory shaft is just as strong as graphite and can hold up to quite a bit of abuse, you just have to be willing to let the club do what it was designed to do.

[John Kavanaugh]

The product placement in the article is exhaustive. Seriously though, I find it difficult to believe that a man who represents all we hold dear hasn’t played hickories in 35 years. I can only hope that all the other aspiring influencers and journalists expounding their expertise don’t make the same mistake.

[Matthew Mollica]

Many thanks for bringing our attention to the article David. Lorne does write wonderfully.