Gold Club history

So Robert Forgan was 1 when he started importing hickory in 1825?

Wood golf club construction continued until the first "Gutta" golf ball was introduced in 1848 by the Rev.

The feathery ball was produced until the early 1850's and this kept the construction of golf clubs limited mostly to wood in order to protect the leather featherie golf ball from destruction.

Technology: Until about the 1870's iron clubs were made by blacksmiths making them heavy implements with large hosels to connect the shafts.

By 1900, many blacksmiths, such as Thomas Horsburgh, had been experimenting with metal-forged clubs, such as aluminum, to lower the cost and sharpen the performance.

Around 1908 designers began to realize that you could get more backspin on a ball with a grooved club, which also led to more distance.

Drop forging allowed iron clubs to be mass produced in factories and by 1910 factories were mass producing versions of the old hand made wood club heads as well.

The first steel-shafted golf clubs were made in the United States in the 1920s.

Hickory was far more durable and became the standard until steel shafts were introduced in 1925.

Hickory shafts continued to dominate until steel shafts were legalized by golf’s governing body, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, in 1929.

Billy Burke was the first to win a major tournament with steel shafted clubs when he won the US Open in 1931.

To get a handle on the numbers of clubs a player could use (and give the caddies a break), the R&A introduced it’s 14 club rule in 1939.

Additionally, introduced in 1963, the new casting method of manufacturing clubs heads made clubs affordable than ever before.

Many variations in terms of materials and surface pattern were tried but not until 1972 when Spaulding developed the first 2-piece ball was there a new design.

The graphite shaft, which is lighter and stronger than steel, was introduced in 1973.

Since the 1980's computers have been used increasingly to design clubs that are made of high tech materials with graphite shafts and titanium metal head that seem to be getting as big as a VW beetle.