Four Centuries Of Change As Recorded In The History Of The Golf Club
Anyone interested in learning about the history of the golf club will need to turn his or her attention to the east coast of Scotland where the earliest and most primitive forms of golf clubs were first used, and they should not be surprised to learn that in the beginning the clubs were rather odd and the game was played haphazardly as well as casually. Thus, in those early days, the clubs were carved out of wood by the players themselves though with time these players became more accomplished and skilled in producing better golf clubs and other equipment.
King James IV Of Scotland
Perhaps the first reference to golf clubs as recorded in the history of the golf club is when clubs were specially made for King James IV of Scotland by a bow maker who was specially commissioned to make them as early as the year 1502, and much later, King James became ruler of England as well and that was when he appointed William Mayne in the year 1603 who was designated as a royal maker of clubs, and so, during those years it was only Mayne's clubs that were exclusively licensed throughout United Kingdom and used by most golfers of the time.
Then, after many changes the history of the golf club took another step forward when in the year 1826 a person named Robert Forgan from Scotland changed the way golf clubs were made by using American hickory from which to make the golf club shaft. As expected, these new types of golf clubs became very popular even in spite of competition from other golf club makers.
Then, the history of the golf club moved forward once more when in the year 1848 the Rev. Adam Pearson came up and invented the Guttie ball which soon made the older golf balls obsolete and thus had a profound effect on the types of golf clubs being used. Thus, at the end of the nineteenth century, the history of the golf club showed a new type of golf club which was now being made from imported American persimmon that was soon to completely replace the beech and several other types of hard wood from which golf club heads were being made.
Aluminum club heads too became popular at this point of time in the history of the golf club and the reason was because hand-forging metal club heads were the traditional way of making the golf clubs at that time, though in the year 1902, there were introduced groove-faced irons to help the golfer achieve more backspin and so another change took place in the history of the golf club.
However, it was not until the year 1929 that the Prince of Wales used steel shafted golf clubs after which the popularity of steel golf clubs made them the first choice and this in turn marked a radical new change as recorded in the history of the golf club. From that time on till the present, many other changes too have taken place and much improvement has made the golf club a very potent weapon in the hands of the modern golfer and which is a far cry from the ancient wooden clubs with which the game was first played.
