Hole 3 Making a Living at Golf Early golf professionals made their living making clubs and balls, designing and caring for courses and caddying. This exhibit features famous club and ball making families and examples of their work, as well as the tools used to craft their wares. Hole 4 The Putting Green A hundred years ago, golf was a different game, as visitors will discover here. A putting surface constructed similar to an 1880s green allows visitors to try a few putts using a wood-shafted putter and a gutta percha ball from the era. The British Isles and Beyond An explosion of golf enthusiasm occurred in the latter decades of the 19th century, beginning in the British Isles and making its way throughout the world.
Postcards give visitors a sense of the geographical diversity of the new courses and clubs.
This was also a time of great innovation in equipment design, as seen in an array of unusual shapes and sizes of club heads and the appearance of the first aluminum-headed clubs. The early pioneers of golf in America included not only players but architects and businessmen alike. Also featured are clubs, balls and tees made by the first American companies and some of the ceramics, glassware and silver pieces created as a result of the game s enormous popularity. The 1920s and 30s saw the rise of the great champions Sarazen, Jones, Hagen, Wethered and Vare and innovations such as steel-shafted clubs. Their stories are illustrated here with artifacts and photographs.