The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-18

The newest thing in golf is the stee' -saafted club. Naturally. 1t has attracted the attention of the whole goiiinN fraternity and this club de- reippr ont has, understand, been selling "to beat the band" at the dlf- ferent stores and among professionals who have stocked it.
 The Western Golf association was quick to look into the merits and de- merits of the steel-shafted club, in the interest of players everywhere. To that end Allan Cow, Jock Hutch inson, Laurie Ayton and I were in- vited by President Gates of the w. c. A. to try out the steel club in his presence. The day proved to be too windy for a true test and we plan to make another trial of 1t in more suitable weather.
 Tension Didn't Count
 Allan Cow said:
 "The question of tension did not mean anything. apparently. I found I could slice or pull in the same old way with the steel shaft as with hickory. I was surprised at the agreeable feel of the club. but there was no difference in the distances obtained"
 Hutchinson and did not feel that the test was complete because of the character of the day. I do feel, how ever, that if the club, being less costly, means cheaper golf for the multitude. and that if 1t gives no mechanical advantages to the player, it would be wrong to throw obstacles in the way of Its use. Games are for all the people and every sacrifice short of fundamental changes should be made to bring health giving sports into tho lives of more and more peo- pie.
 Golf conservatives do not like changes. They always feel that some mechanical contrivance will give its user an unfair advantage. With the exception of the Schenectady butter. I think such fears are too often un- founded. Generally speaking, we can not buy good golf shots in a shop, We do buy them there, of course, but the price is not alone the price of some particular club that per haps is more to our liking. The real price is hours of diligent practice.
 Can Be Made Cheaply
 One of the claims for the steel shafted club is that, made in large quantities, it can be made more cheap ly- than the wooden-s -shafted club, and that 1t will become increasingly cheaper as the years go by and its popularity spreads. It Is known that only one kind of wood makes a good club shaft. That kind is good hick- ory, and the demand Is fast depicting it. so that now good many clubs which claim to have hickory shafts do not have them at all. but some substitute for the genuine. It is merely matter of time. statisticians tell us, when good hickory will be hard to find.
 The making of shafts is . waste full procedure. Only small portion of good sized tree is available for club shafts. the rest is waste. It stands to reason that the great in- crease in golfers will make hickory shafts thing of the past.
 Hickory Will Warp
 long ago learned to watch every one of my shafts with an eagle eye for warped ones. Hickory will warp. I replace nearly every one of my shafts each year. No one would cham pion golf more insistently than I, but I am willing to concede that hickory has other uses which will do the country at large as much good. per- haps, as the wood could serve in golf shafts.
 While swinging the club with the steel shaft I confess I couldn't r.d my mind of the question as to what might happen if it broke. Would flying bits of steel constitute a dan ger? I was assured that the shafts hardly ever broke; that they would stand a harder direct blow, with de- liberate intention of breaking them, than a genuine hickory shaft would sustain.
 Golfers have been, and will con- tinue to be. interested In this new development. In net results, the steel shafted club apparently has an ad- vantage in original cost to.the golfer it does not, in my opinion. give any mechanical advantage to the player using it, and it presumably would go through the years without warping It is not an automatic. shortcut to golf perfection-and the makers do not make any such claim for. it.