What is a niblick club used for?
A niblick is an old-fashioned kind of heavy golf club. The modern name for a niblick is a nine iron. When golf was brand new, all clubs were handmade out of wood, but as the sport grew more …
What is the difference between a cleek and a niblick?
Definition of niblick. : an iron golf club with a wide deeply slanted face used for short shots out of sand or long grass or for shots where quick loft and little roll is …
What is a rut niblick club?
Apr 13, 2022 · A niblick is an old-fashioned kind of heavy golf club. The modern name for a niblick is a nine iron.
What are Mashie and niblick golf clubs?
niblick synonyms, niblick pronunciation, niblick translation, English dictionary definition of niblick. n. n. An iron-headed golf club with the face slanted at a greater angle than any other iron except a wedge; a nine iron. n golf a club , a no. 9 iron, giving a...
What were the original golf clubs called?
There were clubs called mashies and niblicks (and mashie-niblicks); cleeks and jiggers; baffies and spoons, among others. Today, we call such clubs "antique golf clubs" or "historical golf clubs," or obsolete or archaic clubs. Perhaps the better name, though, would be "pre-modern clubs."Dec 6, 2019
What kind of golf club is a mashie?
The term "mashie" can also be applied to a family of irons used for approach purposes that eventually developed during the named-clubs era. Those clubs included the mid-mashie (roughly equivalent to a modern 3-iron), the mashie iron (approximated a 4-iron), spade mashie (6-iron) and mashie-niblick (7-iron).Dec 6, 2019
What are golf clubs called?
There are several different types of golf clubs in a typical golfer's bag. In fact, today, there are five categories of clubs: woods (including the driver), irons, hybrids, wedges and putters.May 22, 2019
What is a Brassie in golf?
Definition of brassie : a wooden golf club soled with brass or other metal and used especially for long low shots from a favorable lie in the fairway.
What club is a niblick?
Niblick or Rut Niblick – a trouble club and pitching iron and generally the most lofted of the 19th century irons, with a very small rounded head and a loft equivalent to a modern nine iron or wedge.
What kind of a golf club is a niblick?
A niblick is an old-fashioned kind of heavy golf club. The modern name for a niblick is a nine iron. When golf was brand new, all clubs were handmade out of wood, but as the sport grew more popular they became standardized and were sometimes made of iron.
Is the word golf an acronym?
The word 'golf' is not an acronym for anything. Rather, it derives linguistically from the Dutch word 'kolf' or 'kolve,' meaning quite simply 'club. ' In the Scottish dialect of the late 14th or early 15th century, the Dutch term became 'goff' or 'gouff,' and only later in the 16th century 'golf. '
Why are golf clubs called woods?
Even though most 'woods' are made from different metals, they are still called 'woods' to denote the general shape and their intended use on the golf course. Most woods made today have a graphite shaft and a mostly-hollow titanium, composite, or steel head, of relatively light weight allowing faster club-head speeds.
What does each golf club mean?
Generally speaking, a 3-wood is used for a shot in the range of 210 yards, while a 3-iron is used for a shot in the range of 180 yards. A 5-wood is used for a shot of about 180 yards, while a 5-iron is used for a shot of about 160 yards.
What is a Niblick wedge?
It was a higher-lofted iron such as a modern 9-iron. Some golf manufacturers still break out the "niblick" name for wedges and chippers, when they want to try to capitalize on club nostalgia. Jigger: You can think of the jigger as an old name for what today we call a chipper.
What are the names of golf clubs?
The Old Names of (Old) Golf Clubs 1 Play Club (grass club, long club): The historical equivalent of the driver. Golfers used the "play club" to "play away" from the teeing ground. 2 Brassie: The closest equivalent in use to modern 2- or 3-woods. It had that name because of a brass plate on the sole. 3 Wooden Cleek: Used in the manner of a modern 4-wood. 4 Spoon: Used as one would use a modern 5-wood. When spoons first appeared (going back to the 18th century, perhaps earlier), some had concave faces. Shaped like a spoon, in other words, giving them their name. 5 Baffie (baffing spoon): Equivalent to a higher-lofted wood (such as a 7-wood) or even a hybrid. In fact, some modern golf manufacturers have used the "baffie" name on hybrid clubs. It's sometimes spelled "baffy."
What is a baffie?
Shaped like a spoon, in other words, giving them their name. Baffie (baffing spoon): Equivalent to a higher-lofted wood ( such as a 7-wood) or even a hybrid. In fact, some modern golf manufacturers have used the "baffie" name on hybrid clubs. It's sometimes spelled "baffy.".
What is a Mashie iron?
Mashie Iron: Used like a 4-iron. Mashie: One of the better-known of the old golf club names, the mashie most closely resembled today's 5-iron in its function. Spade Mashie: Equivalent in use to a 6-iron. Mashie Niblick: Had the role of the 7-iron among antique golf clubs.
Is the 1-iron gone?
So some of the modern, numbered golf clubs that replaced the named, antique clubs are, themselves, now obsolete, or at least headed that way. The 1-iron is virtually gone from golf, and 2-woods are rare.
What is a brassie club?
Brassie: so called because the base-plate was of brass; equivalent to a 3 Wood.
What was the first golf club made of?
From 1924 golf clubs started to be manufactured with shafts of steel, pyratone, aluminum, and fiberglass or resin; many of them were given a wood-look coating.
What is a Sunday stick?
Sunday sticks or sabbath sticks were the golf enthusiasts' answer to the Church of Scotland 's discouragement of golfing on Sundays. Clubs were disguised as walking sticks, the club head comfortably fitting into the palm of the golfer's hand, until when the golfer was unobserved, the stick was reversed and a few strokes were played.
When were irons invented?
The traditional set of irons was invented by Archibald Barrie, and were used from 1903 until about the 1940s. The introduction of the standardized numbered iron set produced by the Spalding Sporting Goods Company in the early 1930s caused the traditional set of irons to give way gradually to the numbered set.
The Wood-Headed Niblick
The Small, Iron-Headed Niblick
- This version of the niblick started becoming more common than the wood-headed version in the latter half of the 1800s. The clubheads were iron, rather than wood, but were still steeply lofted and still had some spooning in the clubface. And the iron heads were also, like the wooden niblicks, very small for getting into tight spaces. The iron-headed niblicks were often used for, lit…
The Larger, Iron-Headed Niblick
- Beginning in the later 1800s, niblicks started to more closely resemble - in appearance, not just use - today's 9-irons and wedges. The clubheads became larger and rounder (the snub-nosed look disappeared), the spooning was lessened and eventually, in some niblicks, also disappeared. The blade on these niblicks was deeper (longer from top to bottom), and these niblicks were used m…
Overview
Early golf clubs were all made of wood. They were hand-crafted, often by the players themselves, and had no standard shape or form. As the sport of golf developed, a standard set of clubs began to take shape, with different clubs being fashioned to perform different tasks and hit various types of shot. Later, as more malleable iron became widely used for shorter-range clubs, an even wider variety of clubs became available.
19th century irons
• Cleek – A metal-headed golf club having an elongated blade with little loft, equivalent to a one or two iron in a modern set of clubs.
• Lofter – A metal-headed golf club with a moderate loft ranging from a modern five iron to an eight iron.
• Niblick or Rut Niblick – a trouble club and pitching iron and generally the most lofted of the 19th century irons, with a very small rounded head and a loft equivalent to a modern nine iro…
• Cleek – A metal-headed golf club having an elongated blade with little loft, equivalent to a one or two iron in a modern set of clubs.
• Lofter – A metal-headed golf club with a moderate loft ranging from a modern five iron to an eight iron.
• Niblick or Rut Niblick – a trouble club and pitching iron and generally the most lofted of the 19th century irons, with a very small rounded head and a loft equivalent to a modern nine iron or wedge.
Woods
Wooden clubs generally had a metal base-plate and were made heavier with a lead insert into the back of the head; often the face of the club had an insert of bone or ivory to reduce the wear from impact on the wood.
They were:
• Play club: Driver
20th century wood-shafted irons
They were:
• Driving iron: 1 Iron
• Mid-iron: 2 Iron
• Mid-mashie: 3 Iron
• Mashie iron: 4 Iron
Sabbath sticks
Sunday sticks or sabbath sticks were the golf enthusiast's answer to the Church of Scotland's discouragement of golfing on Sundays. Clubs were disguised as walking sticks, the club head comfortably fitting into the palm of the golfer's hand, until when the golfer was unobserved, the stick was reversed and a few strokes were played.
See also
• Hickory golf
External links
• Golf.about.com
• Imdb.com: How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 4: 'the Mashie Niblick'
• P4a.com
• Progrip Golf