Current Hickory Golf Club Players

[Bella Woods]

Attached are pics of my current hickory player set. 

 

Woods are retrofitted R.T. Jones Spalding Cushion Neck Woods Circa 1933/1934.

 

Irons are mostly Tom Stewart, with an Hagen Iron Man (basically my lofted/lob wedge) and

the putter is a Spalding HB (Hollowback) - the "inspiration" for the subsequent Tommy Armour

Ironmaster and Wilson/Arnold Palmer 8802s etc. Irons and putter basically from the mid to late

1920s to very early 1930s.

 

The 2 wood shaft has a "ring" shaft on it, so does the mashie and jigger.

 

Played these in Florida a couple of weeks ago for the first time in a while..... 

[northplatteriver]

Beautiful set.  I really like the Alex Smith "Iron" and the Driving Mashie.  What are the swing weights and lofts on those if you don't mind me asking?

[bcstones]

2 hours ago, northplatteriver said:

Beautiful set.  I really like the Alex Smith "Iron" and the Driving Mashie.  What are the swing weights and lofts on those if you don't mind me asking?

Agree, it's a beautiful set.....but these are hickory shaft, what the heck do swing weights matter - that's applying modern tech to pre-tech.

Edited December 21, 2023 by bcstones

[The Aspidistra in the Hall]

2 hours ago, bcstones said:

Agree, it's a beautiful set.....but these are hickory shaft, what the heck do swing weights matter - that's applying modern tech to pre-tech.

Refer you to Randy Jensen. He aimed to get his SWs between C7 and D1 without the use of lead tape. You will play better with SWs at or near the ideal for you, so it's something you aim for.

[Hickory4ever]

5 hours ago, The Aspidistra in the Hall said:

Refer you to Randy Jensen. He aimed to get his SWs between C7 and D1 without the use of lead tape. You will play better with SWs at or near the ideal for you, so it's something you aim for.

My sentiments exactly. I prefer my SW to be in the D0 to D2 and even higher in Niblicks. 

[northplatteriver]

Also, what are the lengths you have these two clubs at if you don't mind busting out the measuring tape!

[northplatteriver]

As much as I wished swing weight did not make a difference, it actually does make quite a bit of difference.  There is no question that the feel of swinging a club that is B9 swingweight vs a club that is D1 is like night and day.  When you are comparing a club that is C8 and D0 it gets much cloudier since most people (this is from Randy Jensen himself) cannot feel less than a 3 points difference in swing weight anyway.  Having the heavier swing weights for me from mashie on up through the niblick is where it feels most important to have a D swing weight.  When I am swinging the longer irons I actually like them a bit on the lighter side.  Much is personal preference, but I started out with very light Kroydons and MacGregors and have gradually added Stewarts with heavier swing weights to my set.  Most of my set is in the low D's, but I have a Mashie Iron and a Driving Mashie that are low C's.  This being said, there is also no doubt a club can get too heavy.  I have a driving cleek that is at 17 degrees loft and has a swing weight of D5 that is almost too heavy to play at 39 inches.  It weighs a touch over 16 ounces for total club weight which is an additional thing to think about.  Randy Jensen recently said he preferred clubs around 14 ounces or less of TOTAL club weight.  Sometimes you have an iron head that is so heavy that it not possible to keep it under 16 ounces as in my case.  Total weight, length of club and swing weight are all a balancing act that can be tweaked to infinity if one has the time, tools and motivations to do it.

[hollabachgt]

When I first started playing hickory I struggled with the imbalance in the club compared to my modern clubs. I've always been a player who needs to feel where the clubhead is during the swing, which has lead to higher head weights, and thus higher swing weights.

 

I will agree that Swingweighting a hickory club is a bit of applying new tech to old tech, and that due to the overall weight and weight distribution of the hickory shaft compared to steel does not exactly work in a 1 to 1 fashion, but it can still be a useful tool to help balance a set.

 

I play my modern irons around D5, Early in my hickory "career" I took my favorite mashie to the range with a role of duck tape and my modern 7 irons. I hit shots with each, adding lead tape to the mashie until which point the two clubs felt similar during the swing. I then went home and measured the swingweight of the mashie to use as a baseline for the rest of my irons. What I found  is I'm most comfortable with my hickory irons playing at D9, with the niblicks moving up into the E2 range.

 

This of course means my clubs are plastered with lead tape and are quite heavy.

[northplatteriver]

Bella, I keep looking at your set in awe... your clubs are some of the best looking Stewarts I have seen.  All the stampings are deep and crisp... The soles of each of the clubs are all very wide, just an incredible looking collection.  I am guessing they are all lined face also.  My set is mixed with lined and dot faced (and also a lone smooth face).  I would love to see more pictures and also some shots of your grips.  A single shot of the irons is not nearly enough!

Edited December 21, 2023 by northplatteriver

[ezgoer]

57 minutes ago, northplatteriver said:

Bella, I keep looking at your set in awe... your clubs are some of the best looking Stewarts I have seen.  All the stampings are deep and crisp... The soles of each of the clubs are all very wide, just an incredible looking collection.  I am guessing they are all lined face also.  My set is mixed with lined and dot faced (and also a lone smooth face).  I would love to see more pictures and also some shots of your grips.  A single shot of the irons is not nearly enough!

I 2nd this wish l. Please give us more of these fantastic clubs. 

[Bella Woods]

Attached are the specs for all of my game ready hickories. The ones in red

are in the bag at this point.

 

Will post more pics of the clubs as well as some comments on replies......

[Bella Woods]

I have always played my irons in the D-8 to D-9 range, in the beginning because I always added (or ordered at the factory)

3/4" to my shaft length. In effect, adjusting the factory D-0 or D-1 swingweight upward because of that, and I got used to it. 

And I also got used to playing heavier clubs. Like Hollabachgt, I like to be able to feel the club throughout the swing. I believe

Arnold Palmer's irons were in the D-9 range.

 

The 4 toughest clubs to obtain with decent weight and/or swingweight (because of the clubhead shape or otherwise) are long irons,

jiggers, mashie niblicks and putters. The key to getting them with decent swingweight and flex is the shaft. To some extent, it is 

counterintuitive. You need a stiff, heavy raw or original shaft to get the light long iron head at a decent swingweight/flex, not a 

lighter one. 

 

I spent about 20 hours a piece on the woods on the club spec sheet., from start to finish. But they are made for me to every detail.

The shaft flex and bend points were created, not a coincidence. Same for the swingweight. I probably spent about 5 or 6 hours on the 

face of each of those woods. Face angle, bulge, roll, loft, lie, the inserts etc are all hand made/done for me (so I have no excuses if I hit a 

bad shot). All the irons were tweaked as well, with maybe 3 or 4 hours per iron in time spent.  It does take a while to acquire and get

a hickory set adjusted to your liking, but it makes a big difference in the quality of your hickory shots/game. 

 

I think it is a pretty good bet that serious players in the hickory era did a lot of work on their hickories, Especially high level amateurs

and pros.

  

[Bella Woods]

Northplatteriver:

 

Your right that it is a balancing act between club weight, shaft flex &  swingweight. As to your question on grips, all of the

clubs have been regripped with Grip Master Uluru leather straps - I attached a pic of one.

 

Also attached a couple of better pics of the woods and irons, and a couple of methods of lengthening an original shaft. The 

MR shaft designation on my list are modern replacement shafts (Tad Moore raw shafts shaped by me), and the OR designation

stands for an original shaft (some lengthened). 

[ezgoer]

Thanks, I love 8802s and IM’s so searching out a Hollow Back is now on my list. I’m just guessing this but is that WH The Iron Man one of the rarer clubs in the bag? Even 40-50’s wedges looking similar to that don’t seem very common. Fantastic looking wedge. All the iron’s are so finished and rounded off and curved looking compared to 90 percent of the flat plate steel looking hickory clubs I usually see. 

Edited December 22, 2023 by ezgoer

[mubob1977]

Did the leather wrap traps come from Tad Moore? I am thinking of putting those on my own hickory set.

[Bella Woods]

mubob1977

 

The straps are Grip Master from Golfworks, pricey but they last for years....

Tad sells a leather strap on his website still I believe too.

[Bella Woods]

ezgoer

 

Yes the Hagen Iron man wedges are a little hard to find. The club is a beast as you can see from the spec sheet.

It takes a while to get used to it but it is good out of the sand, for flopping and pitching shots around the green

(rough or fairway) and out of weeds/trouble. I don't use it for longer shots, it's to "unwieldy".  It was made with hickory

and steel shafts near the end of the hickory era. The iron is only "legal" for SOHG hickory tournaments if it was originally

hickory shafted. You can normally tell by the width of the hosel, hickory was a wider one.

 

The HB is the best putter I have ever had, and I have probably had at least a hundred over the years. I use it in the 

modern bag as well. Wright & Ditson and Spalding made the club. They are decent weight, but not easy to find an

original - I think Tad Moore sells a reproduction on his website. 

[bcstones]

@Bella Woods was admiring your work bench...have you thought of making your own leather grips? Actually a leather grip is just a thin strap that is cut at an angle on both ends to create the spiral. I'm not sure where you're located, here in the US, there is Tandy's Leatheer....I'm guessing that for the price of a set of Golfworks' Grip Masters, you could get a partial side of leather & and make many sets of grips. Tandy makes it easy cuz they also offer a strap cutting tool w/a device to vary the width of the strap..
Anyway, just thought I'd ask...those are absolutely beautiful clubs.

Oh, and thanks for those pics of the end pieces, I've thought of doing something similar for steel shafted.

[LeftyMac]

There is a serious amount of lead tape on a few of these.  Had everything from B3 to D0 when I started.  Swing weight might be post hickories but you can be sure that the better hickory players back in the day were selective about the clubs they used and I doubt the lighter heads got a run.

[gticlay]

On 12/23/2023 at 2:47 PM, LeftyMac said:

There is a serious amount of lead tape on a few of these.  Had everything from B3 to D0 when I started.  Swing weight might be post hickories but you can be sure that the better hickory players back in the day were selective about the clubs they used and I doubt the lighter heads got a run.

Wow, that’s a sweet looking bag of clubs there. I’ve gone and entered myself into a hickory event in a few weeks so I’m scoping out and learning about these type of clubs. I’m particularly interested in the set you posted as I’m naturally a lefty and was thinking to find a lefty set when I play hickory. Anyway, can you post more about your set and how you “built” it? Thanks!

[northplatteriver]

On 12/23/2023 at 4:47 PM, LeftyMac said:

There is a serious amount of lead tape on a few of these.  Had everything from B3 to D0 when I started.  Swing weight might be post hickories but you can be sure that the better hickory players back in the day were selective about the clubs they used and I doubt the lighter heads got a run.

Lefty,

Where did you get your bag?

[LeftyMac]

Online - wasn't expensive.  Ebay from memory.

[LeftyMac]

On 1/12/2024 at 10:05 PM, gticlay said:

Wow, that’s a sweet looking bag of clubs there. I’ve gone and entered myself into a hickory event in a few weeks so I’m scoping out and learning about these type of clubs. I’m particularly interested in the set you posted as I’m naturally a lefty and was thinking to find a lefty set when I play hickory. Anyway, can you post more about your set and how you “built” it? Thanks!

I have about 4 or 5 lefty sets.  Started a few years back just picking up clubs and then met a local guy in Melbourne who has a massive collection of hickories and who restores them.  A chunk I bought from him.  The Maxwell's started because I found a mashie which I really liked and then a guy had 4 or 5 more on Ebay that were beaten up and I grabbed them.  Had them restored and just continued to find individual clubs.  One day discovered I had enough for two sets.  The niblick was the hardest to locate.  Came out of the US and cost a bit.

 

I have a set of Stewarts and a couple more sets of odds and ends.