The 'Fore'-father of Modern Golf

The Saint went for a round of 'hickory golf' at Kingarrock

St Andrews is littered with nods to the golf of yesteryear. You may have gazed at the old clubs adorning pub walls, eaten at The Niblick, or perhaps you live on Bobby Jones Place. But it’s all looking, no touching … or so I thought.

With my ‘bubble-bursting’ comrade, Geordie Coles, I played hickory golf at the only remaining course in the UK, Kingarrock Golf Course — a short ‘drive’ from St Andrews.

‘Hickory’ refers to the wood used in the club’s shaft. These clubs became popular in the UK in the late 19th century, with Scottish club makers using imported hickory from the United States. However, by the 1930s, steel shafts had begun to replace their wooden counterparts as the standard.

We were met by our caddie and guide for the day, Oliver Nicol (a former Master’s student at St Andrews), who works at the nine-hole course.

After a brief history lesson on the course and the sport, Nicol showed us the clubs in our bags. The original 1900s sets included a spoon (five-wood), a driving iron (four-iron), a mid-mashie (six-iron), a mashie niblick (pitching wedge), and a putter.

“The key with hickory golf is to slow down your swing,” Nicol said. “The clubs are slightly heavier than modern ones, so they do a lot of the work. With good timing, the balls will still fly.”

Equipped with balls and a bag of wooden ‘Reddy Tees’, the wait was over — time to tee off, hickory style.

Our first hole had the course’s only bunker, a small stream, and thick rough behind the green. Could my hickory golf career have begun with a more hostile hole?

Mashie niblick in hand, dressed like Bobby Jones, I pictured the scene: the 1927 Open in St Andrews. “On the tee, Freddie Coughlin.”

And … I middled it. I was on the fringe of the green. This was going to be easy. Perhaps I was born in the wrong era. I was ready to phone Auchterlonie’s to see if they were stocking some of their earlier range.

How naïve I was. For my next shot, Oliver advised me to use the mid-mashie for a bump and run.

“Old-school golf was played more along the ground, with far lower shots than you see today,” Nicol explained.

Here is where I found it much more difficult.

“The club faces have very basic grooves and generate much less spin than modern clubs,” was the excuse Oliver gave on my behalf.

Kingarrock was built by Frederick Sharp, a wealthy jute magnate who moved his family to Fife in 1906, specifically because it was close to the Old Course at St Andrews. He then decided it wasn’t close enough, so he built his own course.

During the Second World War, the course was turned over to farming and lay dormant for decades — perhaps my golf technique wasn’t the most agricultural thing to happen there after all. 

Fortuitously, a map of Frederick’s course was discovered in the 1990s, leading to its restoration and reopening in 2008. It was an immaculately spent afternoon, embracing golf’s purest form.

Kingarrock is accessible by bus from St Andrews, about twenty minutes by car, and has a locals’ green fee of £35, which includes club hire. 

To watch Freddie Coughlin’s day at Kingarrock Golf Course, see ‘Bursting the Bubble’ on The Saint’s Instagram page, @thesaintsta.

Illustration by Zoe Small