Plus Four Podcast on Hickory Golf

Jeffery Ellis began collecting golf clubs at an early age and found that the literature that was available for up-and-coming collectors of antique golf instruments was sorely lacking. What is an ambitious and enterprising person to do, but set one's mind to creating the most definitive and authoritative publication of antique golf clubs and their history. Nothing stops Jeff Ellis—whether on an auction floor or in achieving his goals. Heck, he even created his own publishing company, Zephyr Productions, to make his dream a reality in 1997. Ellis has since published a two volume expanded edition of The Clubmaker's Art which features over 400 new images and extensive new information. Many exceedingly rare and historically important clubs have been added to every chapter in the book. The section on fakes and replicas is five times as large as that in the first edition. Mr. Ellis also recently published the history of Ping by personal invitation of the Solheim family (And The Putter Went ... PING).

Ellis runs his own golf club auction site where we accepts consignments of authentic golf collectibles. His painstaking research and lifelong obsession is a gift to all hickory golf enthusiasts, now for time everlasting.

He also published The Golf Club which features rare treasures made by Scotland's Old Tom Morris known as "The Grand Old Man of Golf" and Hugh Philp often called the Stradivarius of clubmakers. You will also find modern masterpieces by Ping, Spalding, Callaway, MacGregor, Titleist, Nike and others.

In this episode, we discuss his early years in collecting, how prices and competition has changed in the last 30 years, and a few of the special clubs featured in his nearly 800 page compendium. The Clubmaker's Art is a must-have for every hickory golf club collector!

The Carolina Hickory Golf Association is dedicated to preserving the traditions of the ancient game of golf. Conceived in 2004, and formalized in 2005, it is one of the first—if not THE first—regional hickory golf association in the United States.

The fortunate few who call the Carolinas their home know what it's like to play on sandy soil with whispering pines and a layer or two to keep the morning chill from your shoulders. I would argue—as I believe Donald Ross must have—it is one of the most ideal places in all of North America for the sport.

CHGA grew from the legendary origins of the Mid Pines Hickory Open. In fact, the pro at Mid Pines was a co-founder of the Association, and is a guest in this episode. It was a treat to spend some time with founding captain "Lang Willie" Engelson, current captain Richard Schmidt, and PGA professional, Rob Pilewski. We spoke of their evolution, their association with LPGA member and World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, Peggy Kirk Bell, the estimable contributions of Jay Harris, Frank Boumphrey, and so much more.

When a guest in the Carolinas, you're treated right. These three exemplify this culture and are a credit to the growth of hickory golf in the United States.

The Florida Hickory Golfers are a regional group of golfers dedicated to preserving the pureness and authenticity of golf by playing with hickory shafted clubs on traditional golf courses. At over 65,000 square miles, the state covers a vast territory, yet this group manages to build success upon success, now boasting a groundbreaking partnership with the Florida State Golf Association, which is exponentially elevating their presence and setting a new standard for other statewide regional playing groups in the United States.

Like so many groups, FHG started as an offshoot of Golf Collector Society events. Collectors at these events would grab their 100 year-old clubs and hit the nearby links, thrilled to discover the old clubs still had quite a bit of game left in them. They now host the Temple Terrace United States Professional Hickory Golf Championship, Winter Park Hickory Classic, and the Race to Mount Dora, among many other monthly events.

Captain Mike Stevens was joined by co-conspirators Bill Geisler and Rich Grula for a reflection on this progressive regional hickory golf organization that manages, in spite of their growing media presence and expanding annual events calendar, to keep it simple. Growing the game, enjoying one another's company, and welcoming new players is the hallmark of the Florida Hickory Golfers vibe. They give us all something to emulate as, as I note at the end of the conversation, they very well could become the fastest growing hickory association in the USA.

There aren't many people devoted to the craft of hand-making longnose clubs as they were made in the 19th century. Kelly Leonard is one of those rare exceptions. Based in Canada, Kelly is a one-man show. By day, he makes his living in construction, but in his free time, he's passionate about hand-shaping wood, horn, brass, and linen to create magical and modern instruments from start to finish that send the bearer back to the time before the modern golf ball was invented. A Leonard club is made for gutty or featherie golf, but as you'll hear in this episode, some have been using Kelly's longnose clubs for gutty and even casual rounds with a modern, low-compression golf ball with nothing but blissful feelings and that small connection one can conjure with players the likes of Robertson, Strath, Morris, Anderson, Park, Balfour-Melville and others.

Kelly suspects every handmade longnose club has six solid hours of shaving, sanding, rasping, gluing, and finishing in them...and he's made more than 400 so far. This is serious stuff. Of late, he's been producing clubs on templates of some of the Greats, from McEwan, Forgan, Philp, Cossar, Park, and Dunn.

What are you waiting for? If you love hickory golf, and you play with clubs from 1900-1935, and/or replicas, there's only a few centuries of other authentic versions of the period golf experience at your disposal! Kelly recommends using the McIntyre Park ball with his clubs, but whatever you do, look around, consider our forebears, and if you're curious, feel part of history in your hands and ears, and all of your senses, by swinging a longnose golf club.

Find Kelly on Instagram

Images from Winnipeg Free Press

Author, inventor, craftsman, and bon vivant—Tim Alpaugh has an unassuming manner about him, but don't let that fool you. He possesses a keen eye for detail, and a passion for history. In this episode, we'll hear about Tim's journey from the fast-paced corporate world to a life-changing decision in the 1980s to give it all up and become a carpenter. Some of the same skills that propelled him in business, translate to the creation of bespoke cabinetry or to his growing popularity as a craftsman of hand-made divot tools, tees, trestle sticks, bag stands, and so much more. Tim's work is featured in the January 2021 issue of Golf Digest and he is completing a long-anticipated sequel to his first book, Claret Dreams: Historic Hickories in the Modern British Open. He's a founding member of the NY-area Metropolitan Hickory Society and has a loyal social media fan base to boot. I hope you'll gain inspiration from Tim's ingenuity and creativity, as I do. He's an original.

You can contact Tim at [email protected] and find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/claretdreamer/

Images of Tim's work can also be found on the Plus Four podcast website.

As member number three in the Golf Collectors Society (Now the Golf Heritage Society), John Capers III knows a lot about the value of preserving golf heritage and has established himself as one of the world's authorities on Club archives. His personal devotion and example have set the bar for Clubs worldwide to emulate, and he's an advocate for sharing this work.

Any club can, nee should, commit to conserve their history--as John puts it--it is never too soon to start on this journey, regardless of the age of your course or club.

In this episode, we explore the essential steps for clubs to consider when starting an archive, how John's years of work have changed his own relationship with the members at his club and with the club's role in its community, and just a little bit about how the chase works to secure often rare and singular artifacts that are iconic emblems of one's club's legacy and past.

Links to references in the pod:

The Golf Heritage Society

British Golf Collectors' Society

USGA Museum

Dr. Andrew Mutch

Golf Illustrated online sample

Hagley Museum and Library

Society of Golf Historians: Connor Lewis

Wood-shafted golf club repair and restoration isn’t always for the faint-at-heart, but those who are willing to learn, can certainly deal with a large majority of maintenance issues with our clubs.  In fact, these clubs are more forgiving than we first imagine. For bigger challenges, however, there are a few “go to” craftspeople who bring a career of experience and skill to any restoration project—from a complete rebuild to custom work of any kind.  One of those people is John Henry Williams.

In this episode, we cover a broad range of topics related to club care and restoration and John shares some of the unique processes that he has fine-tuned to restore years of practical life to even the most battered and abused hickory golf clubs. Even if you think you know everything about club repair, you’ll want to hear about his vacuum technique to infuse low viscosity epoxy into every nook and cranny of a cracked golf club head.  It’s possible that no one else does what John can do.

We refer to several products and services throughout the episode.  Links to some of those are below.  Thanks for listening and subscribing to the Plus Four podcast.

Brookside Golf Club Restoration Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/Brookside-Golf-Club-Restoration-456802941490072

Persimmon Golf Society

https://www.facebook.com/groups/189830219415

David Bass Golf Club Restoration

http://www.davidbassgolf.com/DBG-Restorations

Wood Brothers Club Restoration

http://www.davewoodarts.com/WoodRestoreProcess.html

Skidmore’s Restoration Cream

https://skidmores.com/product/restoration-cream/

#1 Upholstery Tacks

https://www.dbgurney.com/