By Peter Owen
It’s a little disturbing to look down as you’re addressing the ball on the tee and note the head of your driver is only a fraction wider than the ball.
But that’s part of the challenge, and the enjoyment, of playing hickory golf – or, as devotee Grathan Leatherbarrow describes it, ‘golf as it was meant to be played’.
Once, decades ago, hickory was the only form of golf played. Legends like Bobby Jones and Carnegie Clark played the game with clubs fashioned out of hickory shafts and steel heads. And early golf courses, many of which still exist, were designed to accommodate golfers wielding only hickory clubs.
These days it’s the game of preference for a small, but enthusiastic, band of traditionalists keen to keep alive the origins of golf.
Increasingly, though, it’s capturing the attention of a growing number of younger golfers, fascinated by the skill required to use this ancient equipment and challenged by the thought of mastering the technique.
Grathan Leatherbarrow, the unofficial promoter of hickory golf on the Sunshine Coast, likes nothing better than inviting newcomers to play with him at Cooroy on Thursday afternoons – as long as they’re prepared to use only hickory clubs.
That was the reason I joined Grathan, the recently crowned Cooroy club champion, on the first tee at 12.30pm last Thursday. Making up our group was Noosa club champion George Giblett and club members Jason Norris and leftie Kale Hamilton – all hickory disciples.
Five players in a group is generally frowned upon, but Cooroy on a quiet Thursday afternoon isn’t quite St Andrews or Royal Melbourne.
Grathan showed me the set of hickory clubs he’d brought for me, and apologised that George, Jason and Kale were preparing for an upcoming tournament and would be using regular clubs. He and I would use hickories.
“The clubs must have hickory shafts,” Grathan said. “The heads must have been made before 1935 or be approved replicas, and they must have leather-wrap grips. But you’re allowed to use regular balls and tees.”
Ushering me to the first tee, he pulled out an ancient wooden club and declared: “This is your driver.” It was shorter than a regular driver, with a comfortable leather grip and the aforementioned tiny head.
After the others had played, I stood on the tee, lined up the shot, concentrated fiercely on making some sort of contact with the ball, kept my head as steady as I could, and swung. Remarkably, the ball flew truly down the centre of the fairway and rolled out to about 200m.
“You’re a natural,” enthused Grathan, with just a hint of sarcasm, knowing full well what was certain to follow.
Completely bewildered by the distances I was likely to get with the clubs Grathan had selected for me, I smacked my second shot (with a ‘niblick’, I believe) over the green, left the next one short, then three-putted with the peculiar little straight faced putter he’d given me.
As we played on, I got a little more confident with the woods and long irons, but continued to struggle with the short irons and putters. I was surprised at the distances I got with the ancient clubs.
After a few holes I managed to reach a par three green and two-putt for a regulation three.
“Hickory par,” cheered George. “Well done.”
I managed a few more pars, quickly became seriously enthusiastic about the game, and was actually disappointed when I failed to par Cooroy’s tough 18th hole. I ended up breaking 90, which I considered a reasonable first-up effort.
Grathan, as you’d expect from a club champion and a man who last year won the Bobby Jones Trophy, an event contested at Cooroy by hickory players from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, went around in 75.
George Giblett, a gifted 20-year-old professional in waiting, cruised around in 64 strokes, scoring birdies on six successive holes from the 10th, while Jason and Kale provided me with valuable insight into how the course should actually be played.
But I’ll be back, perhaps armed next time with my own set of hickory clubs, and enthusiastic about introducing more of my mates to a game I know they’ll enjoy.
“I’m a lover of the history of the game,” Grathan says. “If you don’t know the history of golf, you shouldn’t be playing the game.”
Grathan has been collecting hickory clubs for decades, many of them coming to him from Sydney-based former professional Tom Morris, 92.
“I put them together into sets and give them to players keen to play golf the way it was done in the past.”
Hickory clubs are known by names rather than numbers.
A typical set might include a brassie (driver), spoon (3-wood), mid-iron (4-iron), mashie (5-iron), mashie-niblick (7-iron), niblick (9-iron) and a jigger (chipping iron). There’s no sand iron.
A set of hickory clubs – two woods and six irons – might put you back $250.
The game is played at Brisbane and Royal Queensland, and at Cooroy on the Sunshine Coast. That list might soon grow longer.
Maddie takes Headland Classic
If practice makes perfect, it won’t be long before Maddison Kelly is a fixture on tournament leader boards.
The Noosa Springs’ 16-year-old devotes at least 36 hours a week to practice, filling notebooks with statistics about the development of her game. And that doesn’t include the time taken up actually playing golf.
The hard work is paying off.
On Sunday, Maddie shot five-over-par 77 to win the girls’ division of the Headland Junior Classic and qualify for the 2022 Invincibles Sunshine Coast Junior Masters Championship.
Last week Maddie, a five-handicapper, contested this year’s Junior Masters, shooting rounds of 76, 83, 80 and 78 to finish in the middle of an elite field of teenage golfers.
Deb is Cooroy’s club champ
Deb Macaulay is this year’s Cooroy women’s club champion after 72 holes of golf spread over two weeks. Division 2 champion is Tina Thomas, while Mary Miller is the Division 3 champion. Net champions are Margie Lucas (Division 1), Chris Michael (Division 2) and Elaine Henman (Division 3).
Gil makes Sunday Series final
Noosa Springs’ stalwart Gil Hopkins made doubly sure he’d qualified for the resort’s Sunday Series in September. He won two of the three qualifying events during the month – tallying 38 points each time.
The Sunday Series, sponsored by Joe Langley Real Estate, offers weekly prizes to the male and female with the best stableford score each weekend. But the golfer with the best score each month qualifies for the final in December, where the prize is a holiday at Noosa Springs with unlimited golf.
Gil won the competitions on September 5 and 19 to go through to the final.
Visitor Taylor Moffat set an early benchmark for October when he won Sunday’s event with 40 points.
Club competitions
NOOSA
Monday, 27 September
Women’s stableford: Tracey Skeppstrom 35, Judy Meager 33c/b; 9-hole stableford: Lynne Hancock 21.
Tuesday, 28 September
Men’s stableford: A grade – Rick Coneybeare 40, Greg Collins 39c/b, Alan Coey 39, Shaun Taylor 38; B grade – Mark Ostwald 37c/b, Ross Cunningham 37c/b, Mike Dehnert 37c/b, Bruce Osborne 37c/b; C grade – Rod McLaurin 40, Shaun O’Brien 39, Robert Tulley 38, Bill Gardner 37.
Wednesday, 29 September
Vets Irish 4-ball, best two stableford: Ray Egge, Doug Rogers, Jim Crawford and Ken Robinson 86, Brian Jackson, Alan Meredith, Trevor Payne and Shane Rayner 85c/b.
Thursday, 30 September
Women’s 4-ball, best two stableford: Lynne Hancock, Maddy Neilsen, Dorothy Charlesworth and Jenny Gower 91; Marion O’Brien, Colleen Riley, Gail Stokes and Elaine Lyon 88; Barb Allen, Kathy Jones, Dianne Hincher and Trisha Dunn 84c/b.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Tuesday, 28 September
Men’s stableford: Robert Dutton 42, David Wrigley 39, Alex Hackett 38; women’s: Rosemary Scarborough 29, Beryl Rowan 28, Kerry McFarland 26.
Wednesday, 29 September
Men’s stableford: Jeff Forbes 44, Kevin Perkins 40, John Betar 39; women’s: Helen Ringrose 39, Shard Lorenzo 36, Kerry McFarland 34.
Thursday, 30 September
Men’s stableford: William Coman 38, David Wrigley 34c/b, Simon Cotton 34c/b.
Saturday, 2 October
Men’s stroke: Peter Foulsham 66, Timothy Grimson 69, James Hordern 70; women’s: Tracey Carter 69c/b, Sunday Moore 69, Judy Gosper 71c/b.
Sunday, 3 October
Men’s Sunday Series, stableford: Taylor Moffat 40, Craig Willian 36, Con Heliotis 34c/b.
COOROY
Tuesday, 28 September
Women’s stroke: M. Lucas 69, K. Sawrey 70c/b.
Wednesday, 29 September
Vets stroke: A grade – Terry Magill 68, Peter Crosby 70, Grathan Leatherbarrow 71; B grade – Paul Williams 66, Dave Lyon 67c/b, Michael Loe 67; C grade – Graeme Osborne 68, Matt Saunders 70, Bob Read 71.
Thursday, 30 September
Women’s stroke: Div 1 – Wendy O’Hare 70; Div 2 – Fay Wiggins 72; Div 3 – Mary Miller 69.
Saturday, 2 October
Men’s stroke: A grade – A. Stewart 69c/b, M. Kelly 69; B grade – R. Rashoi 67, G. Menyweather; C grade – J. Matheson 70, T. Williams; women’s stroke: Carmel Clark 72, Sarah Brogden 73.
