On a recent balmy weekday afternoon, one end of the driving range at Royal Ashburn Golf Club looked as if its golfers were in a time warp. The men were decked in knickers and argyle socks, dress shirts, ties and poor boy hats.
Nearly a dozen men had gathered to take a few swings before their afternoon golf event in Whitby, Ont., and just like their outfits, the golf clubs were vintage too.
Before titanium or graphite, before composites and steel, golf clubs had shafts of hickory wood. That era ended long ago for most golfers, but not for these folks, who today belong to the Golf Historical Society of Canada. While they sometimes play with modern high-tech clubs, these golfers prefer using old clubs that were in use from 1850 to 1935.
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Vaughn Perusse plays his shot from the first tee as Stan Lapidus and Lorne Emery look on. Emery, president of the Golf Historical Society of Canada, has played some 600 rounds with hickory clubs since he first tried them in 2018.
These enthusiasts challenge any notion that one needs the latest cutting-edge clubs to enjoy golf, saying hickory clubs allow you to feel a golf shot and play the game the way it was meant to be played.
The difference in sound is unmistakable. Rather than that metallic ping noise that resonates from a modern driver when a ball is hit nicely on the range, their hickory clubs emit a satisfying thwack. Instead of bantering about their drivers, irons and wedges, these guys are stepping back in time using words such as brassies, mashies and niblicks.
Their outing at Royal Ashburn in late June was one of many historical golf events on the society’s website, from casual rounds of hickory golf to competitive tournaments, including the Canadian Hickory Open in Edmonton this August.
“What attracts us to doing this, is getting in touch with the old method, which by the way still works,” said Lorne Emery, the GHSC president. “Most first try hickories out of curiosity and find that it’s a lot of fun. I find it intriguing. I love to see how the clubs perform.”
Emery is 71 and has played some 600 rounds with hickory clubs since the lifelong golfer first tried using them in 2018. That includes a popular weekly ‘Hickory Fridays’ round at the Cambridge Golf Club.
The GHSC was formed in 1988, yet in recent years, Golf Canada began allowing golfers to keep a separate hickory handicap for rounds played with hickories. About 50 Canadians have one. Emery says his handicap with modern clubs is only about three to four points better than his hickory one.
The society’s 150 members share an interest in the history of golf, the craftsmanship of clubs from a bygone era and the fellowship that comes from the game. Some merely like to collect. Others like to put the old equipment they’ve acquired to use.
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Retired art teacher Vaughn Perusse’s interest in hickory golf was sparked during a trip to Scotland in 1998, when he played Old Musselburgh, one of the world’s oldest courses with rented hickories.
Vaughn Perusse is a retired art teacher who is drawn to the creativity of hickory golf, looking at the terrain and imagining the variety of shots he could use one point to another. While modern golf clubs have larger sweet spots that propel a ball further and lessen the errant ball-flight from mishits, hickory clubs have smaller heads and are not as forgiving.
“It’s tougher to hit, but the degree of satisfaction that you derive from hitting a good shot with a hickory club is off the charts in comparison to a modern club,” said Perusse. “When you hit it well, it’s just unbelievable. That’s the addictive part.”
Perusse wears a kilt when he golfs. His interest in hickory golf was sparked during one of his many trips to Scotland – in 1998 when he played one of the world’s oldest courses with rented hickories, Old Musselburgh. He loved the experience so much, he bought his own hickory clubs immediately after and slowly began using them more often than his modern clubs. For the past 15 years he’s been exclusively golfing with hickories.
Perusse has had four holes-in-one in his golf life, but his favourite is the one he shot at Toronto’s Don Valley Golf Course with one of his hickory irons, called a mashie.
“I’ve witnessed a few friends getting hickory hole-in-ones,” said Perusse. “It’s really neat to see people do something significant with the old clubs.”
The GHSC also hold events for their avid collectors of old golf equipment and memorabilia. Plus, Canada’s golf courses invite them to show up with their 1920s and ’30s-inspired golf wear and hickory clubs to help their membership celebrate their 100-year anniversaries and revisit the sport’s roots. They are helping mark that milestone at two scenic Ontario courses this summer, Kingsville and Saugeen Golf Clubs. They can give others a new – or perhaps old – perspective on the game.
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Jeff Rogers examines one of his vintage hickory iron clubs. He says playing an old course with old equipment helps him appreciate the skill of the players of that time period and the fine craftsmanship of their clubs.
“We like to give their members a chance to have a tactile experience, to play a hole with our old clubs to see what it was like back then and celebrate history,” said Jeff Rogers, a past president of the historical society.
“It helps you see the way the course was designed, based upon the fact that 100 years ago, nobody could hit the ball 280 yards with graphite shafted metal-headed woods.”
Rogers says that playing an old course with old equipment helps him appreciate the skill of the pros and amateurs of that time period as well as the fine craftsmanship of their clubs.
His interest in historical golf was sparked when he and his father visited the Golf Museum at Oakville’s Glen Abbey in the 1990s. Years later, while at a yard sale, Rogers bought a ragtag hickory set of irons and mismatched woods. He has acquired many more old clubs over the years, from newspaper ads and antique markets. He takes duteous care of them, using oils on the hickory shafts and brushing the suede grips.
He even uses the clubs when playing with his men’s league – among friends using modern clubs. They sometimes poke fun, but his enjoyment of the hickories has enticed many of them to have a try.
“Everybody at first thought it was a novelty,” said Rogers. “Then I think I kind of sobered them up when they actually saw you can play golf with these.”
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The golfers taking part in the ‘Hickory Golf’ event at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club in Whitby, many of whom are among the 150 members of the of Golf Historical Society of Canada. They share an interest in the history of golf and the craftsmanship of clubs from a bygone era.
The GHSC is largely men who are retired. Their groups sometimes draw women and younger golfers, but they would like to invite more. It can be challenging to attract those focused on driving the ball far with modern equipment. Yet when these ambassadors of historical golf show up on a course, in fascinating old golf wear, it prompts other golfers and staff to zoom up close in golf carts and ask questions, to hold a hickory club in their own hands, to survey the weight of it, to study the old names etched on the clubfaces.
Chris Hawes welcomes those interactions. The Ottawa native has travelled to many countries with his light carry bag of hickory clubs and says they never fail to start conversations.
On the course, he carries vintage wooden sticks to prop his golf bag. He sports classic brown knickers with suspenders, and a white dress shirt into which he tucks his short tie while swinging the club.
“I like to get dressed up,” said Hawes. “If you’re going to golf, why not be as classy as you can be?”
Hawes loves hickory golf so much that he made the trip from Ottawa to Whitby for the event at Royal Ashburn. He says the camaraderie in hickory golf is unmatched.
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Ottawa native Chris Hawes is so passionate about Hickory golf that beyond playing the game he also promotes hickory play days for corporate events, leads tours to Ireland, and has started a line of hickory replica clubs.
Many of the same golfers were among the 118 participants in a tournament he played host to in early June – the Ottawa Hickory Golf Challenge, at Manderley on the Green.
He also promotes hickory play days for corporate events, leads tours to Ireland and has started a line of hickory replica clubs. Yes, replicas are acceptable in hickory golf, especially in wet, cold weather, or to fend off overuse of some old delicate clubs.
“Not going to get me rich, and lots of hard work,” said Hawes. “But I am enjoying every minute of it.”
It’s not unusual at an historical golf event to see players trading or sharing clubs or collectibles in the parking lot.
Their shared passion for this yester-year tech is on display. It’s obvious they’ve been hopelessly smitten with the sport for decades. They show off antique golf balls – the kind they rarely hit for fear of cracking or losing. They show off putters with smooth faces – before the days of ridges on club faces.
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Avid collector Stan Lapidus shows off some of his vintage golf memorabilia collection, including tins, antique head covers, golf balls, and a portrait of American golfing legend Bobby Jones, who dominated in the 1920s. Lapidus became interested in golfing with the same kind of equipment that Jones had once used.
Stan Lapidus has brought to the Royal Ashburn a handful of treasured items he’s collected over the years – small golf statues and tins, antique head covers, books, treasured golf magazines and a portrait of American golfing legend Bobby Jones. Many eras of golf are represented among his memorabilia and his clubs. Some historical events, like this one, are listed as “all vintages” so Lapidus sometimes brings vintage steel clubs.
Taking part in hickory golf has livened up golf for him.
“I enjoy it because it’s pure golf and a nice change of pace from the same old golf with the modern equipment,” said Lapidus.
“We love going back to a different era. It’s just fun. I love the guys that I play with in these hickory events. We all share this thing in common – a love for the roots of the game, and we want to perpetuate it. We don’t want to see it go away.”
