I could’t resist this thread.
As a wee laddie back in the early 60’s I was first weaned on golf, as were my brother and cousins, on a quirky little golf course on the Isle of Arran with hickory clubs dug out of the attic by my granny.
The clubs belonged to her father, my great grand father, who used to play at the Cowall Golf Course, a James Braid Course near Dunoon in the 1890’s till the 1930’s.
We had a mixed bag of hickories - our golf vocabulary included Niblicks, Mashie Niblicks and Spoons. The only clubs with a number was a spade looking tool with the number 10 on it and a long iron Nr.3
The putter had been cut in half and had “putting cleek” engraved on it..
My first golf shot I can still remember to this day.
My uncle, a good player, instructed me take my Mashie Niblick and with a quarter swing, bounce the ball on to the fairway in front of the green and let it roll on.
The thrill was immense when I managed to clip the ball and get it to roll on the green. I was hooked. I spent many happy summers playing with the hickories on the quirky old course.
As I grew up the clubs were gradually replaced except for the Mashie Niblick and the Putting Cleek, which I kept in my bag for all my shots round the green, to the scorn of my contemporaries.
In fact I refused to putt with any other putter except with my beloved hickory putting cleek for another 20 years!! It was just deadly - even if I was bent double to adjust to the cut down shaft.
Eventually the putter head came loose, and it was relegated to the attic again.
Back then I preferred hickory clubs to modern clubs around the greens, as the centre of gravity of the hickory clubs weren’t as low as the modern clubs, giving me, as I felt, a better feel.