1840s Replica Long-Nose Golf Clubs for Featherie Golf: Hickory Golf - Fresh Finds Fridays #1
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
- Connecticut hickory golfer Christian Williams shares the story behind his favorite recent acquisition, a set of three 1840s replica long-nose golf clubs for featherie golf made by friend and channel subscriber Brad Korando from templates provided by expert clubmaker Elmer Nahum in his book, "Practical Clubmaker," and shows some highlights of his and Brad's first round of featherie golf in October 2021 as guests of Denny and Cathy Lane of Hickory Lane Featheries and The Honorable Company of Illinois Hickory Golfers in this first episode from the Fresh Finds Fridays series.
In this video:
Intro to the Lane Featherie ball: 2:43
Playing modern featherie golf in America: 3:45
A closer look at the three-club replica long-nose featherie golf clubs Brad made: 10:15
Highlights from my first round of featherie golf in October 2021: 14:07
Background on Brad: 16:02
Brad explains how he makes his replica long-nose golf clubs: 18:47
Other links related to this video:
Buy Denny and Cathy Lane's fantastic replica - and playable - featherie golf balls at Hickory Lane Featherie: www.hickorylan...
Keep tabs on and join The Honorable Company of Hickory Golfers on Facebook: / hickorygolfillinois
Follow expert clubmaker and author of "Practical Clubmaker," Elmer Nahum, on Instagram: / practicalclubmaker and here on UA-cam: / @practicalclubmaker6152
#antiquegolfclubs #hickorygolf #golfhistory
Super job on the video Christian! Thanks so much for showcasing the long nose clubs I'm making and for a fantastic editing job to make me much more presentable than the "real live" Brad. We're going to have a lot of fun putting the wood to leather come this April. I can't wait!
We’re going to have a blast and the clubs are going to work great!
Hi chaps...just watched the vid...nice job fellas. So ...was golf played in the USA during the feather ball period....the answer is "absolutely, yes". A few people working together ( not me) who are part of the British Golf Collectors Society have found records of clubs and "Caledonian" balls (featheries) being transported from Leith (the port of Edinburgh) to Charleston, Virginia, in the early 18th century...don't quite me but I think they found a few records, the earliest being from 1720! There are also records of clubs and balls being sold in New York in the late 1700s as well. As someone has posted...wherever Scottish Regiments within the British Army went...so did golf/ gowf/ goffe / goffing !! :) I live in hope that someone in that part of the States will find some early clubs and balls hidden away...it could happen ! After all the Troon Clubs were found in a hidden cupboard in a house in 1899....my personal belief is they date early 1700s....others believe earlier....
Thanks for the comment, Gavin, and for the info. I hadn’t heard about that shipment in the 1790s to Charleston, but just read about it in one of my resource books that covers the earliest days of known golf in the U.S. And you’re right - it seems logical to assume that where there were Scottish regiments, there was likely also golf. I think it’s really interesting, though, that aside from the references you mentioned and a couple other passing remarks about golf in the colonial U.S., there’s no other evidence of anyone playing golf here or laying out courses until the 1870s. As I mentioned in another comment, interest in featherie golf as a recreational pastime must have been very brief or not worth writing about, because it’s just not part of the established historical record of the game here, at least in what I’ve read. It’s a subject begging for more research, though, especially with the ease and depth possible now with the internet. After all, the shipping info uncovered by the BGCS folks wasn’t part of the known record in the 1940s when Herbert Warren Wind wrote his book about the history of golf in America.
But yeah, I’m with you - I hope those clubs and balls from the 1790s turn up someday. Do we know if there’s a record of receipt in the U.S. or is it just a record from Leith that they were sent? From what I read, it was a substantial shipment that must have been intended to help establish an organized playing of the game in Charleston back then, which never occurred. I wonder if they ever actually made it here.
@@TheHickoryHacker Hi Christian, I believe there are Charleston newspaper adverts in the 1700s detailing forthcoming meetings of golfers. I'll see if I can find a link.
my mistake, Charleston in South Carolina...not Virginia. If you have, or can get access to Alastair Johnston's brilliant Chronicles of Golf book it gives details in p.294 about the existence of a golf club that was formed in 1786. At least two records of shipments of clubs and balls in 1739 and 1743 from Leith to Charleston have been found. I think the lead researcher is a chap called David Purdie in UK. I believe that historians in Charleston have identified an area known as Harleston's Green as where the golf was played.
@@timewarpgolf Thanks again, Gavin - I'll see if I can find that book. The book I found the shipment info in mentions Harleston's Green, too. I'll do some more digging into that. Interesting stuff!
Herbert Warren Wind does mention golf in Savannah and Charleston even in his first edition of The Story of American Golf, but he concluded that golf at that time was nothing more than a social club or, at most, a putting club. But H.B. Martin, in his wonderful book , Fifty Years of American Golf (printed earlier than Wind's book) went more in depth than Wind, and he came to the conclusion that golf was played in the Southern U.S. Wind had the info available about Caledonian golf balls right at his fingertips since it was in Martin's book.
I’ve got to catch up on your videos. The history of golf is very interesting. It has so many facets. It keeps me interested, entertained and humbled. Great content. Also, I will be trying a feathery ball this summer, hopefully.
I appreciate you watching! I’m looking forward to telling more of the history behind the clubs I find and the courses I play this season. There’s just so much to explore and learn about.
Love the history, and the clubmaking. I have 1920's hickory clubs mostly, would they make a playable feather golf set? Are there places that sell feather balls? Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, the Lane featherie ball I show in the video can be bought at the link for Hickory Lane Featherie in the video description. And you can definitely play featherie with your ‘20s hickories, but just use a nice and easy swing. The Lane featheries are surprisingly durable, but they’ll wear out quicker if you only hit them with irons.
@@TheHickoryHacker Thanks Christian, that's good to know.
Hard to believe non of the highland regiments posted to US and Canada from the 1750 to 1850 never played feathery golf in the new world.
Yeah, I think it’s a logical assumption they did considering the known history of Scottish soldiers - and Scots in general - bringing golf and their love for it with them in their travels all over the world.
If they did play featherie golf in the U.S. though, it was very brief and never noticed because with the exception of some clubs and balls being shipped over in the late 1700s as Gavin from Time Warp Golf points out in his comment, the established historical record of golf in the U.S states the game didn’t take root here until the mid 1870s, which would have been about 15 years later than the featherie era.