The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-29
eoLr cLuns ANp nALns.
BnttfSof Iron and wood-Great influence II
Fnshion-Review by n well-Known Expert.

W - INhNaN'
Copyright in America bv hs Boston GOLFER.
We are always inclined to think when We see
a thing we'll done that It's excellence depended
greatly on the tools that we're used In the do
ing. 1t is this disposition in human nature
that is mainly responsible for the changes in
the fashion OF golf clubs that have taken place
during such time as golf has been matter OF
history. We see this man or the other-Allan
Robertson, long ago; young Tom Morris, later;
Rolland Vardon, or whom you will. in modern
days-playing a peculiarly fine game with n
club Of a certain fashion. and at once the gem
erality OF the gollng world. concluding that
this and no other is the fashion OF club with
which good golf Is to be played. at once set to
copy It. and play on the whole very much as
they did under the previous regime.
There is no doubt We are better than our
fathers in this matter-clubs and balls have
improved. but they have improved chiefly by
reason Of the material OF their manufacture.
less by reason of their shape. The great mas
ter clubmaker OF the past was Hugh Philip.
Specimens OF his art have come down to us,
and nothing can show greater or nicer skill
than their manufacture. They arc perfectly
finished they are light. very slender in the
shaft. long In the head. and the faces not nearly
so deep as the faces OF most clubs that are
made to-day. Old Philp. however. who made
these perfect clubs, was scarcely our fathers
clubmaker: he worked rather for the grand
fathers of most of us who are of the
rising generation. In Philips day golf
ers we're few. there was but n mod
crate demand Tor clubs, and there was
leisure to finish them perfectly. In the time OF
our fathers. that Is to say about twenty years
ago. the demand began to be something more
than moderate. excessive-in excess of the rea-
sonably good supply. For one thing there was
M ttna 60 canaan, thn ,-@Al. n1,1a,nlyara Ina
to turn out clubs as they received the wood
green; to turn out the balls as they received
the gutta percha-soft and OF Indifferent quail
ity. In Philips time. of course. the balls were
Of feather-of feathers packed within Il casing
of leather, which. after packment. was sewn up.
These balls were laborious to make and ex-
peusive to buy. Moreover. one good top
with the iron would cut a hole in them and the
feathers would come out. as II out Of a pillow.
1t Is said that they were so closely packed
within a ball that one balls feathers would
I'LL a top hat"
Balls thus manufactured made golf a costly
game and few played it. 1t was the invention
of gutta percha. coinciding with other innu-
ences. that made golf popular. But, by all ac-
counts, the old feather balls flew remarkably
well. quite as well rs the new guilty" balls,
But after z certain season Of this green wood
and this soft gutta percha, the Outcries of golf
ers aroused the makers at least to a sense that
something better was needed. They now ut
all events make efforts to give one seasoned
ago q ball called the, Eclipse, and more
!ia gnttS h the pn =%tdtyh~ ecn%ss fSs n nPg'bt 5II and Sna
softer than the othor-Came on the. market and
did excellent service; 1t had the effect Of
tend to making them better, and with their i'm
provement they have ratheroustedthe putty"
a beginner to-day. we should advise him to
use a "gntty' ball. The putty is much
%WithEp2th;ourh its nieEname did not al aim p at tie
atrocious pun it might seem to ~imply-never-
t.heiess' It is not quite the same bal as the
go of the club with the same click, and It is
better to make a beginning with the ball which
It is said that the putty Is cheaper, it must
be, understood to mean that it lasts better: its
denied in. 80 that it does not show the effects
% OF iI-pRs Hts E il 1t ., is aIs9 ia n very &c Eo9 % ball bal in ! -, q
ali dead after : a Ioft with the iron &c or S' m1aihic.
and, on the whole, after a very fair trial. it has
failed to hold its W with gutta percha. ~
the gutta-percha bali. was the disuse Of the old
club ufn With Spps short rff SLY P' shait and a I very M Much 4
"spooned ".or laid-back face. 1t is rarely seen
mashie. But in the days OF feather balls,
when as has q been said; 2 good hard
tho soObr bali on and tns a p nssS mS"p loss as 81 somsthin 10
like, four shillings. it was not likely to be
the habit OF any man. least OF all n Scot. to
hey used Tie bbary.. and there are great many
men who make very indifferent work. even to-
day. with the iron for approaching who would
DO a deal better to betake themselves 70
the iron. in the hands Of a man who can use it
skiltully. than with the batfy., With the irons
deal more cut can he put on the bal. 50 that it
moderately well Is much more difficult than to
use the baffy moderately.
1'ha fatal arrpra that anp1n frnun rpiat,oa ~
with the wood therefore many a man. II he
game greatly improved by the substitution Of
batty for iron. The Greenkeeper'9 mouth also
at least. the iron in the hands OF a duffer is
IbS bo m0TG severe . On the tq I'm i i y SiGr about in
sedlnG the bafry for approaching. and he and
David Strath and other younG. professionals Of
their time brought the USE OF the iron TO such
perfection that. according to the law laid down
at the commencement, pii the Hol,,ng world be-
an obsolete club to-day.
There Is another department OF the, game in
Wln civ. iron smpa nss ESry w m%Gch IN t9 tba I nnit GomIi
When the writer was a boy-say twenty years
or more aGG-fncn q thing as an tr2n putter
one thing Young Tom Norris used a wooden
a very few years n wonderful change ensued.
Iron p~utters, became not only common but
general. ana To-Day u Is qultc thc eXcention, 10
the long running-up puts wood is certainly the
hotter stuff. OF wood the ball seems to 60 in
a more ~sprinGy. bounding fashion than off the
closely to the ground generally there is rough
ground to be passed mt the start Of these long
puts. and with the bounding run that it gets
of the wood the ball will pass over the rough
ness more easily, and with fewer bad kicks"
than when running of the iron.
Tho tendency OF tho age. has been to oX-
change wood for iron in golf clubs almost "a
much as in hattlcShinS. The Old-time golfers |
used to carry "A nicely graduated set of spoons
varying in length Of shaft and gradient OF face
from the long and practically perpendicular
faced driver to the short and much laid-hack
A." barry" There were the "grasscd club
slightly spoOnod driver-the long spoon. mid
die spoon. and short spoon. There were also
the buTy spoon and the puttcr. both Of wood,
and probablythe ~golferof that, day would carry
hut II single iron club, which he would call tho
" sand iron" Tho niblick Is an invention not |
more than some thirty years old, and the
mnashie Is a very much later invcntion again.