HICKORY GOLF NEWS

There is a harmony In Autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which thro’ the Summer is not heard or seen. P.B. Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, 1816   Autumn Golf By MacDuff As it must, fall approaches. Though I wish it would hold off just a few more weeks. I feel certain that I am on the brink of […]

Wisconsin’s finest hickory players, here gathered for the Cherokee CC match, are forming a hickory players association. They have issued a challenge to neighboring Midwest states for hickory matches. Any takers?   On Saturday, Sept. 15, eight hickory players from Ridgeway CC in Neenah, Wisc. visited Madison, Wisc. for a hickory golf match with seven players from Cherokee CC. The […]

2012 Gutty Slam Results    On Friday, Sept. 7, the final rounds of the 2012 Gutty Slam were played at historic Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course, in Ontario, Canada.      In order to qualify for the finale, a player must have participated in at least two of the other three gutty golf events – the All American Hickory Open played at […]

Hickory courses we love to play The Warren Golf Course South Bend, Ind. 123456   The Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore. It’s the course of the University of Notre Dame and is not shy to describe how they feel Coore and Crenshaw, calling them “arguably the greatest golf architects of the […]

Links to ExploreAncient Golf 123456   This site is maintained by Geert and Sara Nijs, independent sports historians from the Netherlands. It focuses on ancient “stick and ball” games, the predecessors of golf. There are headings for colf/kolf,  jeu de crosse (choule), jeu de mail (pall mall) and their relation to the Scottish game of golf. The couple, according to […]

“As dogs to wanton boys are we to the golf gods, they tease us for their sport.”Paraphrasing the great Shakespeare, from King Lear There is, in this wonderful game we love, room for everyone. It is a democratic pastime that denies no one the opportunity for embarrassment or, equally, ecstatic triumph. From ragged caddies to silver spoons, public links rats […]

“Hickory golf is a challenging sport. If you don’t like the challenge, go take up putt putt golf.” Ralph Livingston III was nothing if not passionately devoted to the game he embraced in the early 90s. His research into authentic hickory equipment and their relationship with the golf course architecture of the time led to ground-breaking theories of the game’s […]

Alabama’s Highland Park Golf Course is the home of Tad Moore’s Southern 4-Ball Hickory Championship. It’s been a popular choice as some 70 players were in the field for the 2012 contest. So, why do they like it so much? The course, the oldest in Alabama, was established in 1903 as the Country Club of Birmingham. The country club had […]

123456 Can’t imagine why this site hasn’t been covered here earlier. Perhaps it was just too obvious, or perhaps we are just too busy with hickory golf and the USGA whispers not a word of such activities on its site. Nonetheless, the website of the reigning and governing body of modern golf in the United States is worth bookmarking for […]

From “The Golfer”August 1903 Being a Toast at a Golfers’ DinnerBy William Shaw Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen: “In spring a young man’s fancy fondly turns to thoughts of love. That may be with the fancy of the ordinary young man – the young man who does not golf. But in the spring the fancy of the young golfer turns fondly […]

At a recent Hickory Event, my group was kept in the field for more than six hours on a very hot day – at least two hours too long to be kept from the bar! In this case the main reason was given as interloping golfers jumping in at various holes between the Tournament groups – a not uncommon hazard […]

NOTICE to MEMBERS: Newly Approved Hickory Shafted Replica Clubs available to be played in SoHG sanctioned events.    The Equipment Committee – Rob Ahlschwede, chair – has approved the application of the BTI Company (playhickorygolf.com) for a set of irons and a special niblick for play in Society of Hickory Golfers-sanctioned events.     The irons are replicas of the early RTJ […]

It may not be one of the easiest courses to get to. First you’ve got to drive to the tip of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Then you park your car, load your gear on a ferry and take the 20-minute crossing to Mackinac Island. Once on the island, a horse-drawn taxi will get you to your lodging. Plenty of places to […]

I well remember my Father looking down his nose at the game of golf – “An old man’s game to be taken up when you can no longer play tennis.” We played our last game of tennis together when he was 87, and I waited in vain for the request of a round of golf, as he was then fully […]

The whispers had started before we had embarked on our annual pilgrimage to Oakhurst, and sadly they were confirmed with the official announcement by Louis Keller that the Property will be set on the auction block at the end of July. For those who have not tasted this unique hickory golf event, and the bonds of friendship and camaraderie it […]