I’m not old fashioned, I just love golf.
Having just come back from the third World Hickory Open (WHO) run by long-standing Your Golf Holidays client Lionel Freedman, and the Scottish PGA, I am totally hooked on a new game…Hickory golf. It’s something I loved so much, that we’re putting together a special Scotland Golf holiday package to encompass it next year, so if it sounds your bag, please get in touch!
Having learnt from Lionel Platts at an early age in the 1970’s with some shortened, hand-me-down hickories from my Scottish grandfather, I knew it would be great to have another go. I also know that I am a traditionalist when it comes to clubs and was among the last to ‘upgrade’ to metal woods. I had forgotten the physical sensation that hickory golf clubs give you…You know if you’ve hit a good one just by the lovely feeling coming through your hands and likewise you know you’ve hit a bad one when it feels like a cricket ball has landed on your knuckles!
The World Hickory Golf Open was held in East Lothian in late September. The Craigielaw golf course was designed by Donald Steel and the tournament was played off the Yellow Tees, measuring approximately 6300 yards. Everyone was wondering if we’d reach the par four’s in two and what about the 560 yard par 5? Well, despite all the “improvements” in club technology, you can hit nearly as far with hickory golf clubs as you can with the latest club being promoted on the US PGA Tour. What’s more, you get run and you can play the game as it was designed to play…Playing around the bunkers, through the gaps, really thinking about the challenge of the hole. It’s a whole world away from a 300 yard drive followed by a stop-dead wedge, and I know which game I enjoy the most.
Lionel Freedman very kindly teamed me up with Zack and Lloyd Saltman – Zack is the younger of the brothers and won the tournament last year, Lloyd was straight off his Walker Cup duty and had made the World Hickory Golf Open his first tournament as a professional. These two were a delight to play with – great company and very fine golfers. As a team, we didn’t do too well in the Pro-Am but we all had our moments…Lloyd’s was the most memorable – crunching two tiny-headed woods into the wind onto the green of a 560 yard Par 5 to set up an eight foot putt for eagle. Pure golf.
There were over 100 entrants in the Pro-Am with past Italy Open winner, Dean Robertson winning the best Pro score of the day with an outstanding 73 – with just six hickory golf clubs, a cold wind and saucer-top greens, this was a classy score. In true Scottish fashion, Dean went from dinner to celebrate in the bar and was still there at 6am the following morning…Only to go and still manage to shoot 76 in the Open a couple of hours later! The winner of the Open was - you’ve guessed it - Lloyd Saltman with a 72 – no doubt not due to my putting tips of the previous day! I managed to come third in the Amateur section, no disgrace but I’m coming back for more.
The hickory golf clubs themselves deserve a special mention: The woods, small headed and long, are difficult to hit but a good one goes a long way and the bad ones are only if you’ve swung badly so all is fair. The irons (we had four) were where I really had fun…They are thin-bladed clubs so they cut through the rough like it isn’t there and you can really get some fliers, and as you’ve only got four to choose from you have to be inventive and exercise great control. The putter was difficult at first with the ball rolling smoothly with a good stroke and nowhere with a bad one. You soon got used to each hickory golf club’s idiosyncrasies and you came off the course feeling that you had really played the course’s challenge and the equipment. And you’re in Scotland: the home of golf and where everyone thinks it’s normal to play at least five times a week!
I’m very keen to team up with the East Lothian Tourist Board, Lionel and the chaps from the Scottish PGA to present a week-long Scotland golf holiday, starting September 21, 2008. A quick flight up to Edinburgh, a coach or hire cars, a choice of fine hotels, golf at Musselburgh Old, Kilspindie, Gullane No. 3, and culminating in the Pro-Am and Open at Craigielaw. Golf, fine accommodation and relaxation - what a week! Six clubs are provided by the very knowledgeable Chris at Past Masters and entrants are encouraged to wear plus-fours, caps and the like. If you’re interested in the Hickory Week or just the World Hickory Golf Pro-Am and Open, please call us on 01277 825150.
And at last I know what I want from Father Christmas – Persimmon woods with True Temper shafts, a set of matching hickory irons pre-1935, a Cleveland wedge and sand wedge and a Scotty Cameron putter…If you need my address, just call!
