Yes, The Times They Are A' Changin (Part 2)

     I don't mean to repeat myself, but what do you think about Rickie Fowler's high top golf shoes? Yep, things are changing in the world of golf. When you stop to think about it, many of those who play the game today don't like change but change is inevitable. The game has changed since it's beginning and will continue to change.
     The golf club itself has come a long way since the first golfers used their shepherds's staff to hit a rock.  I guess one of the shepherds found that it was too difficult to swing such a large stick to hit the rock so he cut the staff down in order to sing it more efficiently and easier. The stick would break at the end where it would contact the rock because the wood was too soft so some player got the idea to tie a metal plate at the end of the stick in order for the rock to go further and the stick last longer. The modern club was born.
      Rocks seemed to destroy clubs and no two rock were the same. Something had to be done so a change was made. The first ball, made out of wood by the way, was born. I'm not going to focus on the ball today and will write about it in my next post.  I want to stick with the changes in clubs for today.  At any rate, the ball became a bit softer and less destructive when it was hit by the club. Soon the wooden stick, now called the shaft, became thinner and instead of tying the metal plate to the end of the stick it attached to the end and the stick with the head became one "club".
     Cloth was wrapped around the end of the now club so that the club was easier to grip--hence the name grip.  The game at some point required different clubs for differed uses on the course so the golf club set was born with each club having a different purpose.  Some clubs in the set remained wood and some got the metal part at the end of it, with the metal plate angle being adjusted so the ball would fly off it differently depending on the shot.   That's golf shot, not shot of Scotch.
      For the longest of time clubs remained pretty much the same. The longer clubs were still made out of wood, hence the name that remains today, wood as in 3 wood.  Clubs with the iron heads got the name "iron" because of the iron head. Club design was basically a wooden shaft, which eventually was made from hickory, an iron head and cloth grips.  There were changes and innovations with the iron heads, but not much else in the general design of the club.
      There was a problem with shafts made out of hickory.  The wood was inconsistent which made for having to have a different swing with each club given the inconsistencies of the wood. An alternative to the hickory shaft had to be found so that clubs hit more consistently through the set. This is where stainless steel enters the golf world in the late 1920's and early 30's. Serious changes came to the game of golf, those changes improved the game and brought a consistency to play.  Stainless steel was here to stay, looked to be the shaft of the future and are still payed even today.
      Life was good.  I guess not good enough, because along came graphite shafts in the 1970's.  Graphite was lighter and had about the same strength as stainless steel. They did have their problems though in the beginning in that the club face would torque to the left causing a hook for the right handed golfer.  As
graphite shaft technology progressed, the problem was solved.  Now, most amateur golfers play with graphite shafts, although most professionals still play with steel shafted irons and graphite shafted "woods", which are not wood any more but made of exotic metals--go figure but that's another story.
      So that is my completely slightly abridged and probably not totally accurate version of the history of the golf club.  Golfers are very slow to change as our's is a game of tradition.  However, things do change--especially in golf and those changes come slowly. Change, although reluctant, is good especially if it is within reason.

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