The History of the Golf Club
The humble golf ball has changed throughout history and any changes to the golf ball affected the history of the golf club. Golf clubs changed to suit changing golf balls. The modern gold ball looks nothing like it did when golf was just beginning.
Likewise the history of the golf club would surprise you at how different the early clubs were from today's modern clubs. Other things also influence the history of the golf club; the terrain that golf was played on and the technology available to produce clubs also affected the shape and size of the clubs.
Feathers to Dimples
The very first golf balls were not manmade, they were pebbles. Unfortunately for early golfers pebbles proved to be quite hard to play with. This led to the early gold balls that were basically leather bags filled with feathers.
That's right, they were not balls at all. As you can guess these ‘balls' did not travel very fast and were quite delicate. For this reason the early part of the history of the golf club shows that golfers mainly used wooden clubs to avoid destroying the balls.
Irons were available at the time of the feather balls but they tended to be crudely made and would probably destroy the feather balls in use. Irons made by blacksmiths tended to be quite heavy and the hosels, or shanks, were very big.
The modern golfer takes the hosel, the part where the shaft and club head are joined together, for granted. However the hosel greatly affects the distance that the golf ball travels. The early irons did not allow great distance.
When drop forging emerged in the 1800s better clubs were produced and golf clubs now had hickory shafts. Clubs with wooden heads continued to be produced by hand. From 1910 onwards golf became very popular and golf clubs were factory produced to keep up with the growing demand.
The grooves that appear on all modern golf clubs did not make an appearance in the history of the golf club until 1908. This innovation came around the same time that golf balls were made with dimples. Both these new designs were meant to allow balls to travel greater distances.
It may even surprise you to know that wooden shafts were the norm only up to the 1930s. After that iron shafts were used in all golf clubs, as they did not break the way golf clubs made with hickory shafts did. Golf clubs have continued to evolve with new materials and technologies over the years.
