Why are golf clubs made of Hickory?
The wood shafts are made of hickory for it's strong and yet elastic flex and feel, and they are generally tapered to be a smaller diameter at the head and larger at the grip. The handle end of the shafts are larger so that you could apply one layer of friction tape and a user desired leather grip to create a standard grip for use by most golfer.
How much are my hickory golf clubs worth?
Individual clubs in poor condition may be worth as little as $5 each with warped shafts and missing grips. Smooth face clubs are older and should be worth $60 or more per club, even substantially more! In general, less than 5% of all hickory wood shafted clubs have value beyond decorative or playable worth.
Do the best golfers use The 2-iron?
The 2-iron is sometimes used by the best golfers, but almost never seen in the bags of recreational golfers (nor offered for sale by that many golf manufacturers anymore). Was this page helpful?
How can you tell if a golf club has a hickory shaft?
Check to see if the magnet sticks mid way along the shaft since some metal core shafts from the 1930's onward do have real wood inserts at the top of the grip which could fool you into believing the club has a hickory shaft. Antique wood golf club guides can help verify age.
Do they still make hickory golf clubs?
There are three modern makers of hickory clubs whose products are approved for play by the Society of Hickory Golfers: Louisville Golf (www.louisvillegolf.com) Tad Moore (www.tadmoore.com) St.
What is a 4 hybrid equivalent to in irons?
A hybrid with a loft of 21 degrees is considered a 4 hybrid and is a great replacement for a 3 iron. The slightly longer shaft, lower center of gravity, and increased forgiveness make up for the loft difference and will hit the ball at a very similar distance.
When did they stop using hickory shafts?
1935With the arrival and eventual legalization (1929) of steel shafts, the demand for hickory's started to diminish, by 1935 the production of hickory clubs had stopped.
What club is a niblick?
16. Pitching Niblick – this is the old way to refer to a golf club which achieved the same function as the modern 8-iron, or short iron. 17. Niblick – the old name for a sort of golf club which corresponds to the 9-irons golfers around the world use nowadays.
Is a 4 hybrid the same as a 5 wood?
Differences Between 4 Hybrid and 5 Wood The loft on a 4-hybrid is weakened in comparison to a 5-wood. The 4-hybrid has an average loft of 22 to 24 degrees, while a 5-wood is set at 18 degrees. Naturally, the 5-wood delivers 15 yards more distance than the 4-hybrid.
Is a 5 wood the same as a 3 hybrid?
Differences Between a 5 Wood and a 3 Hybrid A 5-wood and 3-hybrid share a similar loft profile and lie angle, which in theory would produce the same result. However, hybrids feature a shorter shaft than a 5-wood and a clubhead with increased offset to promote straighter shots.
What are the most valuable vintage golf clubs?
What Are The Most Valuable Vintage Golf Clubs?Long Nosed Scraped Golf Club: this vintage club was sold at a Sotheby's auction in 2007 for $91,000.Square Toe Light Iron Golf Club: this club was auctioned at the Sotheby's 2007 auction for $151,000.More items...
Are old golf clubs worth anything?
According to GolfWeek, the most valuable antique golf clubs can sell for as much as $80,000 at auction. However, it's not at all common to see this type of value. Most individual clubs sell for between $15 and $100 at auction or in resale shops.
What are hickory clubs?
A basic hickory golf set includes a wood such as a driver or spoon (3-wood), mid iron, mashie, mashie niblick, niblick, and putter. These roughly correspond to a three iron, five iron, eight iron, and pitching wedge.
Is Niblick a good golf brand?
Constantly inventive and always focused wholly on quality and style, Niblick's products represent premium quality and top-notch value. Just what you need when you are out on the course, doing what you love. As a major brand in Australian golf, we will continue to be a leader with innovation and design.
Why was a 9 iron called a niblick?
The Wood-Headed Niblick It is these niblicks that give the club its name. According to The Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms, "niblick" derives from Scottish Gaelic and is a diminutive form of "nib," meaning "nose." So niblick loosely translates to "short-nosed."
What degree is a niblick?
The Cleveland Niblick will be available in a 9 or a 10, the 9 being a 37 Degree and the 10 being a 42 Degree loft. They will have 8 Degrees of bounce, which is 4-6 degree more then the typical short iron. They will be similar in width to a putter and will be available in a 35″ length.
What is a hickory putter?
The Putter. The putters in the Play Hickory playsets are mostly of the blade style head. These clubs are usually made of forged steel and have a great feel when struck in the sweet spot. Sometimes a little light weight, but if you hold them lightly in your hands they will feel pretty good.
How to swing a hickory club?
The first thing to do is to grip the club as if to hit it. Feel the weight. Hickory clubs are often heavier the today’s modern clubs, but if you hold the club lightly and waggle the head you should gain a “feel” for the club. As you begin a practice swing, keep a light grip and continue to feel the weight of the club head as it makes it’s way through the swing.
What degree is a play hickory wood?
Tee the ball lower than with your modern driver. The woods in Play Hickory play sets are all lofted as fairway woods between 12-20 degrees. The wooden heads naturally hit the ball lower than today’s clubs and should be thought of as a fairway wood, not a driver.
What is the shortest hitting club?
The niblick is the shortest hitting club, like a wedge, with a hitting range of up to 100 yards for the strong players. You should use this club for pitching lofted shots around the green, for approaches where you need carry, and to the best of your abilities out of a bunker!
Where is the name stamped on a golf club shaft?
These are either the professional’s name or the customer’s name for whom the club was made .The wooden heads are made from persimmon, the shafts are hickory. The grips are real leather strips, cut and wrapped around the handle end of the club.
Do hickory clubs torque?
The hickory will torque, or twist much more than a modern club. Therefore, keeping your swing as smooth as possible will help hit more accurately (not that it won’t help with modern clubs too!). But today’s player typically swings a stronger shaft than that of these hickory clubs. But don’t get the idea these are toys!
What is hickory golf?
Hickory golf is a delightful step back into golf history. It’s golf played with mashies and niblicks, spoons and cleeks rather than wedges and 7 irons. The 40 pound tour bags are gone, replaced by small round leather and canvas bags – easier to manage equipment during a game played as it was a century ago and more, on the ground, ...
How many yards does a hickory golf ball travel?
The Open Division at Belvedere this year will play 6,000-6,100 yards. Most hickory tournaments are 5,800 yards to 6,100 yards as the ball travels about 70% less far when compare to modern clubs.
When were hickory clubs invented?
They date from the 1935 era and before (1935 is when steel shafts were first manufactured).
Does a putter have a hickory shaft?
The putter also has a hickory shaft and will require some getting used to as well. I do not carry a Spoon, which is the equivalent of a strong lofted 3 wood with about 13 degrees of loft.
Do hickory shafted golf clubs match modern clubs?
Finally, once the old hickory shafted clubs are in good condition for tournament use, the golfer must experiment and learn how to hit them and get the distances down as well. They often require hitting “two more clubs” to match modern clubs.
Is hickory golf for everyone?
Hickory golf isn’t for every player. If you thrill to the high soaring shot off the tee and the 250 yard approach with a 3 iron you may need to stick with your modern equipment. But if you want to get closer to the origins of the game and experience the battle of ball vs terrain, you may want to give hickory golf a try.
What are some old 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.". You can think of modern golf club sets as those containing ...
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 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 is a mid mashie?
Mid Mashie: Used in a manner of a modern 3-iron, and occupying that space in the golfer's bag. One of the several lower-lofted irons. 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.
What is the closest equivalent to a 2- or 3-wood?
Golfers used the "play club" to "play away" from the teeing ground. Brassie: The closest equivalent in use to modern 2- or 3-woods. It had that name because of a brass plate on the sole. Wooden Cleek: Used in the manner of a modern 4-wood. Spoon: Used as one would use a modern 5-wood.
When did clubmakers start making mashie?
One clubmaker's mashie, in other words, was roughly the same as another's (but not necessarily identical in playing characteristics) by the early 1900s, and companies began making sets with the following names and relationships.
When did golf clubs become modern?
The transition to such modern sets was completed in the late 1930s, early 1940s. In the earliest days of golf, and up into the mid-1800s, there was very little uniformity from one clubmaker's clubs to another's, and sometimes little conformity even within different sets made by the same clubmaker. Not much was standardized, from set ...
What to look for in the condition of hickory golf clubs?
What to look for in the condition of your hickory golf clubs for value and pricing purposes: Clubs that show lots of use, rust, pitting, have a warped or cracked shaft or hosel, bad or missing grips, are not of 'high quality" or that have been cleaned, restored or refinished are the "least desired" and bring lower prices.
What are the factors that indicate your clubs are common and at the low end of the value chart?
Factors that indicate your clubs are common and at the low end of the value chart include: Stainless steel, chromed, or chromium heads. Clubs with dots, hyphens, lines or other face markings. Metal caps at the end of the grip. Yardage ranges stamped on the back (70-100) (100-125) (140-150) yards.
What is a wood putter?
Wood headed putters. Irons or putters with unusual shaped heads. Irons with no face markings, or unusual face markings. Woods that have a thick curved oval neck, covered with 4 or 5 inches of string whipping.
What are numbered irons?
Numbered irons from sets, or "matched set" irons that have numbers instead of the old names. No manufacturer's name, or common names like: Hollywood, Thistle, Biltmore, Bonnie, Metropolitan, Columbia, Ace, Majestic and other commonly high produced, low quality clubs.
Where to look for shafts on golf clubs?
Shafts: Look at the top of the club hosels (the part where the club head and shaft come together). Check the "pin" that holds the shaft in place, doest it look rough like it was worked on, or is it not smoothly aligned with the hosel.
Is a hickory shaft golf club rare?
Hickory shaft clubs are not really that rare. Millions of hickory shaft clubs were made so there are still oodles of hickory shaft clubs still around. The basic rule on antique wooden shaft golf club value is in general, the older the rarer, the rarer the more value... Now that being said, obviously there are some variables to that rule.
What are golf club heads made of?
Most wooden golf club heads are made from persimmon wood which was considered the highest-quality golf club heads for those clubs referred to as "woods". Persimmon woods are still made, but in far lower numbers than in past. The wood shafts are made of hickory for it's strong and yet elastic flex and feel, and they are generally tapered ...
What are the grips on a golf club?
The grips are usually real leather strips, cut and wrapped around the handle end of the club. These grips are held on with two sided friction tape, tacks and waxed linen thread that is used to transition to the wood, just as on the irons.
What are golf shafts made of?
The wood shafts are made of hickory for it's strong and yet elastic flex and feel, and they are generally tapered to be a smaller diameter at the head and larger at the grip. The handle end of the shafts are larger so that you could apply one layer of friction tape and a user desired leather grip to create a standard grip for use by most golfer.
What is the wood shaft test?
The Wooden Shaft Test - Whether or not the shaft is made of wood is a primary indicator of age. Steel-shafted golf clubs were introduced in the 1920's about the same time that some club makers started using the current numbering system to identify different clubs instead of the old creative names. Some of these clubs had metal shafts ...
What are putters made of?
What Age Characteristics To Look For On The Putter. Putters are mostly found with a blade style head. They are usually made of forged steel and have a great feel when struck properly in the sweet spot.
What are iron heads made of?
On the irons you will notice that the iron heads are made of forged steel, with an old look and feel. Like the woods, the iron heads may be stamped with the name of the maker or the professional’s name and the golf course he was associated with. The iron heads will also be stamped with one of the old colorful names that are common ...
When did golf clubs have grooves?
The grooved marking of faces on antique iron clubs was not introduced until the first few years of the 20th century. While this will not rank as an exact method of dating an old golf club, a smooth face would certainly indicate that it is a club that dates prior to 1905. The Metal Club Head - Simple test.
