Evolution of Golf Club

The introduction of mass-produced guttie balls radically changed the type and design of the golf club. The first golf clubs, long-nosed woods, were made from a variety of woods, often fruit wood inlaid with ram's horn. It was a skilled individual craft and club-makers such as William Mayne, Simon Cossar and Hugh Philp were much sought after as suppliers of the finest equipment. But the advent of the guttie changed the shape of the golf club because a guttie ball was much harder than a feathery. No longer was it necessary, or possible, to sweep the feathery off the turf with a long flat swing, and the delicate, long-nosed clubs made by Hugh Philp began to split when they were used with the harder guttie balls. To counteract this, the head was redesigned. It became shorter and broader, more like a modem wood, and the new clubs were known as "bulgers".

A few years later, iron clubs became increasingly popular as the guttie withstood the impact of an iron in a way that a feathery never could. Irons could be made in forges and so mass-produced just like the guttie. Robert Forgan, a nephew of Hugh Philp, took over his club making business and started the mass-production of golf clubs. He introduced the hickory shaft which was used in the best clubs for many years, but by the turn of the century, club makers were experimenting with steel shafts. The first steel­shafted clubs were made in Britain in 1912. They were widely used in the USA by the 1920s but were banned by the Royal and Ancient until 1929 when the Prince of Wales used a set at St Andrews. Many Of the leading professionals of the day started using steel­shafted clubs as they found them more consistent than those made with hickory.

Golf clubs have continued to evolve over the last 70 years and new materials like carbon, titanium and boron have made clubs lighter and stronger so that the ball can be hit even further. The "Big Bertha" range of drivers is the latest introduction. The basic shape of a golf club has changed little since the end of the nineteenth century.

The last major change was the introduction of the Haskell rubber-cored ball in 1901, which did to the guttie what the guttie had done to the feathery. The Haskell ball flew much further and gave the professionals much more control over their shots. It increased the popularity of the game tenfold. Modem balls may have improved in aerodynamic design but essentially the rubber-cored ball has remained the same for the last 95 years.