Hickory Golf – 5th August

On Saturday 5^th August Simon’s Golf hosted a fantastic hickory golf tournament in collaboration with The Danish Golf Historical Society. Angus Rollo, whom many of you know from musical events at the golf club has written below about the tournament and how he came to start playing hickory golf and Christian Juel, provides information about The Danish Golf Historical Society.

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I’ve had an interest in playing hickory golf since 2012 when I again played, for the first time since I was a youngster in Dundee Scotland where I grew up, with hickory golf clubs.

I started playing golf in 1962 with an old hickory set I was given by my good friend’s uncle. He had been given them by his father and for years they were just gathering dust in his cellar. My friend, we were ten years old, was already a reasonable junior golfer and had his own set of steel shafted clubs. We played together regularly on the local golf course only five minutes from where we lived. It didn’t take long though before I got myself a half set of steel shafted clubs and hickory became a thing of the past. That was until 2012 when I was visiting Scotland. I read an article in the local newspaper about The World Hickory Open, and it was going to be played over three days at Carnoustie Links the following week.

In the article it said that there were still places available for any interested golfers and hickory clubs would be provided. I called the organiser, and he gladly signed me up. I had a wonderful time and managed to be placed 5th ……………… last.

A year later I was again in Scotland and was playing at Scotscraig, a lovely course not too far from St. Andrews. The gentleman I was playing with mentioned he had a hobby of collecting and restoring old hickory golf clubs. I told him about my experience the previous year at Carnoustie and how much I’d enjoyed it.  After the round he invited me to his workshop where I saw hundreds of different kinds of hickory clubs.

We’ll it all ended with me buying a set, and that was the beginning. Since then, I have myself become an enthusiastic collector and golf historian.

A year later in 2014 I once again entered for the World Hickory Open and was one of 126 hickory golfers from all over the world. I was delighted and surprised to meet three fellow hickory enthusiasts from Denmark, Christian Juel our Danish Hickory Society president, Henrik Westh and Dennis Willadsen who back then was the PGA pro at Ikast Tullamore. Since then, representing Denmark in 2018 and 19, I’ve won a silver and gold medal in the tournaments Senior Stableford section.

I now play regularly with hickory clubs and very rarely play with modern clubs. I also play in many tournaments in the UK, Ireland and the USA and am a member of The Society of Hickory Golfers. I also play regularly on The Southern Swedish Hickory Tour (there is an enormous interest in playing hickory golf in Sweden) and am a member of The Swedish Society of Golf Historians.

For our Hickory Day at Simon’s Golf Club on Saturday 5^th of August to celebrate the clubs 30^th anniversary there was a fine turn out, and seven of the club’s members, new to hickory, joined us. It was a very colourful day and many heads turned on the course as we, dressed in our old-fashioned pre-Nike golfing attire, enjoyed our day, and the wonderful hospitality the club provided. Reamonn O’Neill, Simon’s Golf Course Superintendent, had transformed the C-Loop into a magnificent 18-hole hickory course. We played, from alternating red and blue tees, to appropriately placed red and blue flagged holes on each green, and experienced 18 holes of genuine hickory golf. Many thanks to all who participated and not least to the administration and everyone else at Simon’s Golf Club.

Winners:

Ladies.
1st. Angelika 2nd. Helle Bundgaard.

Men. (New to hickory).
1st. Klaus Emil Nygaard. 2nd. Ole Dybdal Nielsen. 3rd. Casper Grauballe.

Hickory (experienced)
1st. Christian Juel.

Christian also won the Hickory Challenge Cup. It’s the trophy we privately play for each time our group of hickory players get together during the season.

Kind regards,

Angus

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The Danish Golf Historical Society – which ran Denmark’s Golf Museum for almost 30 years (located at the Hotel Munkebjerg in Vejle), is an association that handles the collection of effects, pictures, etc. in relation to Danish Golf. This is done in collaboration with the Danish Golf Union. The association is non-profit and operates on a very small budget.

Our primary members are Danish Golf Clubs, but quite a few private individuals are also members. We are always looking for new members and the quota is reasonable.

Clubs DKK 350 and Private DKK 150

Every year the DGHS holds “The Open Danish Hickory Championship”, which, as the name suggests, is the open Danish championship in hickory golf – the tournament is often held in Zealand, as we have quite a few Danish players who like to see players from Sweden and it is easier for them to come to Zealand than f.ex Fanø.

Typically, there are approximately 25-35 participants for such a championship. There are few scratch players who play for the main prize, which is a walking prize (just like The Claret Jug), but we also have ranks with hcp. for both ladies and gentlemen.

In Sweden, they have also started to hold tournaments where they play with 1935-1985 equipment – that is, equipment where the shafts are steel, and the head is made of wood – what we call persimmon clubs. There is also interest in this kind of thing in Denmark, you can see via Facebook that there are forums where collectors talk about exactly this kind of old equipment.

Once again, thank you for an incredibly enjoyable tournament.

Kind regards

Christian Juel
Formand/President

The Danish Golf Historical Society

If you are interested in playing hickory golf you can find out more information at: https://www.danishhickory.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/thedanishopen/

See pictures here: https://simonsgolf.dk/en/billeder/hickory-golf-5th-august/