History and Evolution of Golf
And Golf Technique

In the Beginning
Where and how the game of golf originated we really don't know. It probably depends on one's definition of terms. If one is talking simply about hitting a ball to a target with a stick, then there are several forerunners to golf, even from its earliest days. The Scots claim golf as "their game" but there have been challenges to that claim.

The Dutch appear to have the closest ties with golf. As early as the 13th Century their literature contained references to "golf-like" games with medieval names such as "spel mitten colve" (play with club), "den bal mitta calven te slaen" (to hit the ball with the club) or "kolven" (club) for short. The Dutch master painters have left over 450 paintings and sketches of participants with club and ball playing a game in Holland most certainly resembling golf.

Commerce between Scotland and Holland over the North Sea route flourished from the beginning of the Middle Ages. However, unfavorable winds or bad weather would frequently result in sailors and traders being "grounded" and spending a generous amount of time in each other's respective country. What better way to enjoy their leisure than participate in the favorite local sports. In a few instances, some of the players shown in the Dutch pictures wore kilts indicating they were Scottish visitors. If one com¬pares the written rather than artistic record, he'd see the first written word of golf in Scotland was James' I edict of 1457 declaring golf illegal. In Holland an earlier written record is 1297. It described a cross-country version of a game with four players to a side, playing four holes with the objective being to strike the doors of selected buildings along the way with the ball, the equivalent of "holing out." A barrel of beer went to the victors, indicating that celebrating at the "19th hole" is a long-standing tradition.

Scots and Dutch jointly attended festivals, fairs and large market gatherings, where among the items sold were leather-covered balls stuffed with feathers or cow hair, two early style golf balls, the other being of wood. It is a matter of record that the Dutch provided the Scots with feathery balls for their golf up until the middle 1600s, at which time a ballmaker was appointed by the Scottish king to better balance the trade deficit because feathery golf balls were expensive. Finally, it is also a fact that golf in Scotland was largely an East Coast game, played in the very port towns that harbored the vessels that traded with the Dutch. The connection is obvious.

One might surmise from this information that a strong case could be made for Holland being the true founder of golf. But looking beyond the Dutch border, history records Belgians played a similar stick and ball game called "chole," the French "jeu-de-mail" or "pall mall," which came from Italy. But these were one-club contests, with some of those singular implements being used to perform more than one type of shot.

The origins of all these games very probably stemmed from another stick and ball game played by occupying soldiers of the Roman legions when that empire covered most of Europe. "Paganica" was the name of the game, meaning "leather sphere containing feathers." Is it mere coincidence that the same type ball was played by the Dutch and later by golfers in Scotland up to the 1850s?

An apocryphal story suggesting that golf was invented by a shepherd who found both challenge and amusement in striking a pebble to a selected destination may not be so fanciful, although the shepherd probably wasn't a Scot. Evidence the fact that in Western Germany, "the hunting laws of 1338" stated that the grazing rights for local shepherds could be extended into the forest there as far as they could hit a pebble with one stroke. The length of these drives was marked by permanent stones, the "Hirtensteine" (shepherd's stones). Some of these can still be found today near Frankfurt Golf Club. (The long-hitter even had some advantage in the early days.) Finally, a very interesting old print has recently been published in Japan showing a game that certainly looks like golf being played in China during the Ming dynasty, 1368 to 1644. Again, though resembling golf, it, in fact, was not.

Who invented golf? Was it created by the Dutch, French, Belgians, Germans, Romans, Chinese, or some other nation? Certainly all had similar games which may have contributed to the eventual develop¬ment of the game. But golf as we know it, played with a variety of clubs, not just one, over an extended area, using a small ball and with the object being to stroke it into a hole, is a format not only developed by the Scots but propagated by them around the world. They deserve the credit for the game as it is played today.

Golf's First Boom
In Scotland
During the last half of the 18th century golf had a great growth spurt in Scotland, despite the fact that daily life was demanding in this rugged, spartan country. But the Scottish people are tough, industrious and adventuresome. Many Scots left their country to make a living in other lands and took golf, their sport-religion, with them. Those who came to the United States were no exception.
There is considerable evidence that golf was played at several loca¬tions in the United States prior to 1888, which is traditionally given as the year golf originated here. The St. Andrew's Golf Club of Yonkers, N.Y, was founded in that year and has been in continuous existence since then. But if 1888 is the year in which golf supposedly originated in the U.SA., what were they doing in Charleston, S.C., in 1743 when a shipment of ninety-six clubs and four hundred and thirty-two balls came from Leith, Scotland? Why then was there a golf club formed there in 1786 and another in 1795 in Savannah, Georgia? And how does one explain the ad that ran in the Rivington Royal Gazette (Albany, N.Y.) April 21,1779, which offered golf clubs and balls for sale? The answer, of course, is that someone was playing golf in these locales. Old newspaper clippings, letters and magazine articles exist which describe similar activity prior to 1888 in all of the following states: Massachusetts, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, North Dakota, California, Colorado and Texas. Yes, the Scots liked their golf well enough to introduce it wherever they went.

Course Architecture
And Agronomy

God was golfs first architect, man was his assistant. The earliest courses that hugged the coastline of Scotland were known as "links" because they "linked" the arable land to the sea. Nature, using wind and water as its machinery, shaped the dunes, knolls, ridges and hollows.

This terrain was ideal for golf as it provided open expanses inhabited only by birds, rabbits and foxes. It was adorned by gorse (that unmanageable plant that will tear the club from a player's hands), heather and broom. Add sand, mixtures of wild fescue, marram, bent and meadow grass and you had the "links." links land was productive for little other than walking the dog, for laying out wash to dry, and for sports, particularly golf. For course construction there was no earth-moving equipment to create elevated greens or to place water hazards and bunkers in the direct line of carry for an approach shot to a green. Bunkers were in abundance, appearing as gaping chasms which often bordered the rough, or demonically placed in the fairways and at greenside. Yet, they did not generally block the entrance to the green. This influenced shot selection, encouraging the use of the run-up shot instead of pitches and the low hook for full shots, rather than a high trajectory style.

Agronomy was not the science it is today. At fabled St. Andrews, "Old Tom" Morris was "keeper of the greens" in addition to his duties as teacher, clubmaker, ballmaker and player. "Keeper of the greens" meant supervising or personally being available for cutting new cups, tending the greens and hoping for nature's cooperation which provided the only watering system... rain. Fairway irrigation was still a century away, so the ground was hard and the low-flying running ball was the shot to hit. Under those conditions and with greens equally hard, today's wedge would be virtually useless. A player had to leam to pitch and run the ball.

Some of the same factors that molded the techniques of our Scottish pioneer players still exert their influence today. Course design is becoming more penal. There is far more water; housing develop¬ments surround most new courses with their accompanying out-of-bounds stakes; more rough and natural grass areas are a trend; greens are elevated, undulating and heavily protected by bunkers; and modem earth-moving equipment can make uneven lies from the flattest swamp or desert. We are returning to some features that were predominant in the old style links-type courses.

Unfortunately many of the most talked about modem courses are too difficult for the average amateur player to find enjoyable on a regular basis. If the game is to continue its popularity, golfers must enjoy the experience. Shooting big numbers on courses too hard for all but the most accomplished players is not conducive to "having a good time."

Course conditioning today is vastly improved over the days of knickers and Norfolk jackets. Good lies in the fairway are the rule, not the exception. Putting surfaces are truer and the Stimpmeter is creating a desire by some to want them even faster — a trend not necessarily advisable. All of these influence playing style. Faster greens promote arm and shoulder putting; rough and out-of-bounds discourage trying for the extra distance that comes from the hooking tee shot; elevated and protected greens call for higher trajectory irons and more frequent use of the sand wedge for pitching.

Weather And Clothing
Links courses in coastal towns on the North Sea are accustomed to more than a light breeze. Evidence is the wooden club of the 1800s known as the "driving putter," used for keeping the ball knee-high off the ground on very windy days. The need for such a club is clearly appreciated if one considers the story of Maitland Dougall of St. Andrews who actually added lead to his ball on a competition day when a near gale was blowing, then came in the winner. In conditions such as these the golfer most certainly was at an advantage by keeping his shots low.

The weather in Scotland is not only windy, but a chill can blow in off the sea during July which makes one think it's December. Thus, heavy clothing was a part of the proper golfing costume, but certainly a disadvantage for the swing. Getting a wide extension of the arms to create "high hands" in the backswing was next to impossible with three layers of wool and tweed. It was far easier for the player to bend the left arm and turn the whole body away from the ball. One popular style was for the club to point across the target line at the top of the backswing and come to rest close to the neck before starting down, then to use a "sweeping style" swing coming forward.

Modem professional golf is a fair-weather game. The players follow the sun. Of course they experience heavy wind and occasional rain, but these conditions are the exception. One of the last events on the present PGA TOUR is played on the Island of Maui in Hawaii. Were the Tour to play there every week for two years, the players' swings would certainly change to combat the wind. The point is, conditions make a difference in the development of a player's technique or style. Playing consistently in favorable weather unencumbered with heavy clothing and free from buffeting winds promotes a freer swing, a wider arc and an aggressive style.

The business suit of the day for the modern professional is a comfortable, non-binding, short-sleeved golf shirt and slacks that can expand and contract to accommodate body movement. When a player can fully wind and extend his arms there is less need to rely on the hands for power, so the hands need only "transmit" the power rather than create it.

Equipment
The construction of the tools used to accomplish a task influences how they are handled. Golf balls and clubs are no different. In feather ball days before 1850 a set of clubs was composed primarily of woods — a play club (driver), a variety of wooden spoons, i.e., long spoon, mid spoon, short spoon and baffing spoon plus a wooden putter and two irons (a small-headed track iron for getting the ball out of wagon ruts or animal tracks, and another large-faced, less-lofted iron for scraping the ball from tight lies). The shafts of the early clubs were first made of hazel and later of ash; both tended to be very whippy. This whippiness greatly influenced how rapidly the player could accelerate the club and still control the direction of the face. With a long-nosed whippy shaft wood, the torque was difficult to manage, particularly if one tried to change direction rapidly. To minimize torque, the ball was swept from the tee with a body and arm motion more than it was hit with the hands. This is one of the reasons why backswings became so long — a very gradual forward acceleration required it to be that way. The long backswing was aided by placing the left foot closer to the target line than the right foot in what today we'd call an extremely "closed" stance.

Feathery to “Guttie”

The feather ball gave way to the gutta-percha in the 1850s, economics being one of the overriding factors. A ballmaker laboring ten hours per day could only produce 4 to 5 feather balls, causing them to be very expensive. Thus, golf basically became a game for the wealthy. The "guttie" ball, which could be mass manufactured in molds, changed that. The less expensive "guttie" was a great boon to the spread of the game, but the player found that a misshit shot with this much harder ball produced an uncomfortable shock to the hands. This ball also distressed the face of the woods creating the need for insert materials because the faces couldn't last under the beating from the harder ball. But the shock remained.

Clubmakers sought to alleviate this discomfort by padding the grips with wool underlisting, thus making the grips larger. Larger grips required larger hands or a grip style that grasped the club more in the palms than the fingers. Because the grips were too large for most people to grip in the fingers, the palm grip became widely taught.

In the 1850s, concurrent with the decline of the feather ball, hickory shafts from Tennessee U.SA. were introduced in St. Andrews by the clubmaking firm of Forgan & Sons. This was a shaft that was "steelier," had less whip, and allowed the player to hit rather than sweep the ball from the tee. The long-nosed, splice-headed clubs eventually became obsolete (shortly after 1885) because their toe-to-heel length caused too much torque when force from the hands was applied. Thus, a more compact clubhead evolved.

During the 1890s Mr. Henry Lamb proved to golf skeptics that a convex, rather than a concave or even straight face, resulted in longer, more accurate shots with a wood club. His driver, made by professional Bob Simpson, was called "the bulger."

The "guttie" ball, though then in general use, presented a problem. It was difficult to get sufficient height on the shots. Players found that if they moved closer to the ball and made a more upright swing, the ball would fly higher. The more upright swing was aided by making shorter clubs. When comparing a play club (driver) from the early 1800s with a Vardon driver of the late 1890s, the Vardon wood is three inches shorter. In addition to moving closer to the ball, players changed their stance. Many players, like the great triumvirate Harry Vardon, James Braid andJ.H. Taylor, played from an open stance on all shots, which also assisted in getting the ball "up." This trio amassed 16 of 20 British Open titles between 1894 and 1914 with Vardon garnering six. His effortless style was unquestion¬ably superior to his predecessors and was the model for the next generation of players.

Backswings became shorter with some players not even reaching parallel with a driver, a position that would have been most unorthodox fifty years earlier. The shorter swing also contributed to the tendency to use the hands and forearms for power, a style that would have been most improbable had the firmer hickory not replaced the whippy ash and hazel shafts. Tight, bulky jackets still made it difficult to fully extend the arms, so a bent left arm at the top of the swing continued to be common among most of the leading players.

The Haskell’s Effect

Another evolution in equipment that further influenced playing styles was Cobum Haskell's ball patented in 1899. It was a three-piece ball with a center core around which was wound rubber thread, then covered with a molded gutta-percha material. It took a few years of experimenting to develop the appropriate core, the best method of winding the rubber thread and the most effective cover material. The cores started small in si2e, the covers thick. Eventually the cores became larger and the covers thinner as that combination provided a truer flight. Everything imaginable was tried in the ball's center: mercury, human hair, soap, blood, loose steel balls, compressed air, wood, treacle, glycerine, castor oil, honey, pulverized metal, earth, rubber, cork, celluloid and what turned out best, water. Eventually water or glycerine was injected into a rubber circular sac, then frozen so the winding process would not distort the core's shape. The original idea was tested on baby bottle nipples. Once the major imperfections were eliminated, the new Haskell ball proved considerably more forgiving than the "guttie," it flew higher, it shocked less when misshit, but most important was the fact that it went 25-30 yards farther. The "guttie" was obsolete by 1904.

With the Haskell, it was soon discovered that balata for a cover material created a softer feel off the clubface, which permitted the padding under grips to be reduced, allowing a corresponding reduction in the size of the grip. During this transition period the modern method of gripping the club evolved, more in the fingers than palms. The Vardon overlapping grip, which is universally accepted today, was not really originated by Vardon. Initially, it was used by Mr. F.A. Fairlie of North Berwick, then copied by the first British PGA president, J.H. Taylor, who was Harry Vardon's fiercest competitor. Vardon took notice, tried it and liked it. Being the most famous golfer of his day, he was accorded the honor of the grip's invention.

With the grip more in the fingers, the hands were rotated inward toward the thumbs which favored a stronger left-hand position, showing three knuckles. This caused most of the leading players to cup the left wrist more at address and at the top of the swing than professionals do today. Because the grip now ran diagonally across the left hand, the player tended to be less firm at the top, even to the point of slightly opening up the last three fingers of the left hand. Some noted professionals, including Vardon, taught that the gripping emphasis should be between the thumb and finger of each hand, claiming that these were the control centers. Keep in mind that what is being described here represents trends. There were a few players in the early 1900s who had elements of a much more modem swing, but they were a decided minority.

One more interesting sidelight to the Haskell ball was that it compressed more than its predecessors when struck and therefore stayed on the clubface longer. This created more backspin and consequently more height. At the turn of the century the average depth of a wood clubface was about 1-3/16 inches. This new response from the ball, coupled with the shallow-faced clubs then in use, produced skied shots. Accordingly, wood clubs and irons soon began to feature deeper faces. Today's "Bomber" face driver can be a staggering 2'A inches deep compared to Allan Robertson's 15/16 of an inch in his "play club" of the 1840s.

A Shift Back
With a higher-flying ball, the pendulum swung back to a closed stance for long shots, but not as exaggerated as that used by the early feathery player. The new, slightly closed set-up allowed players to again have a longer backswing so that the club frequently passed parallel at the top on a driver shot. This was true primarily of players in this country from the 1920s through the 1950s. Not all of the top players adopted the closed stance and long backswing but those who did, like the great Bobby Jones, had an influence on millions of others.

The Introduction of Steel

It was during the end of Jones' competitive career that the next great equipment advance occurred, and what a change it made! Steel shafts were legalized by the USGA for competition in 1925 and by the Royal & Ancient in 1931. The performance of steel may have been no better at the time but the need for change was critical because the hickory forests were being depleted. Functional steel shafts had been around for longer than most people realize. A patent had been taken out for a solid steel shaft in 1894 and a usable set made then still exists. The Lard patent steel shaft with holes punched in it to lighten its weight and give it some degree of flex was patented in 1914. The drawn tubular version in use today was to come later. Steel reduced torque — less torque meant one could swing harder at the ball and still maintain clubface control. The USGA's fear that the steel shaft would make the ball go farther, thus forcing courses to be lengthened, was not unfounded. That's exactly what happened!

There have been many innovations in golf equipment over the past half century: different materials for shafts, metal woods and graphite heads for irons and woods, frequency matching of shafts, redistribu¬tion of weight in irons and putters to provide perimeter weighting, improvements in aerodynamics and materials for balls, and production of continuous sets of iron woods or wood irons. All have contributed to making the game easier, but none has had the significant influence on the swing styles of leading players as did the change in shafts from hickory to steel.

Learning A New Swing

The new shaft caused players of that era, the Hogans, Sneads, Nelsons and others, to modify the hickory swing that they grew up with as caddies. Snead's more accurately was not a "hickory swing" but a "swamp maple swing." The legendary story of Sam carving out his own first wood club from a swamp maple is fact, not fiction. Snead's swing, which has some resemblance to that of Jones with its impeccable rhythm and slightly inside-to-out loop, could work with a rubber hose or a sledge hammer. Hogan and Nelson both fought a hook with the steel shaft. After a recommendation from Henry Picard to learn to "slice the ball," Hogan adjusted his left wrist to a cupped position at the top of the swing, thereby opening the clubface, and closing the door to inconsistency in his game. The low hot hook that he'd grown up with was gone and the controlled Hogan fades became legend. Although naturally right-handed, Hogan began his golf as a "left-hander," because the original club given to him was left-handed. According to Jimmy Demaret, Ted Longworth, the pro at Glen Garden Country Club in Fort Worth where Hogan caddied as a youngster, convinced Ben to switch over to the right side. An equally reliable source says that the real story is that a tough caddie, older and bigger than Ben, didn't like the fact Hogan was swinging left-handed and told him if he ever caught him doing it again he'd "kick the hell out of him." It was apparently a convincing argument.

Nelson, also a product of the same caddy yard at Glen Garden with Hogan, worked the hook out in a different way. Early in his career he was employed as an assistant in Galveston, Texas, where it is traditionally very windy. During practice sessions he tried keeping the ball low to control it, while at the same time not hooking. By sitting deeper in his knees during the weight shift toward the target, and making the back of his left hand face the target longer, he solved both problems. His style was completely unorthodox at the time, upright, flat wrist throughout the swing and overly bent knees at impact. But his style helped lead the transition of the golf swing from the classical era into the modem era.

The Star Players
Historically, golf has presented its brightest stars in clusters of three. The first triumvirate of greats, Vardon, Braid and Taylor, dominated the game on both sides of 1900; from the 1920s it was Hagen, Sarazen and Jones. Beginning in the 1940s, Nelson, Snead and Hogan;
finally, the most recent, from the 1960s, Palmer, Nicklaus and Player. There were certainly other names with impressive playing records, in particular foreign players like Henry Cotton, Peter Thompson, Bobby Locke, Roberto DeVicenzo, and Americans Gary Middlecoff, Lloyd Mangrum, Jimmy Demaret, Tom Watson and Billy Casper. Nevertheless, the groups of three seem to stand out. In each era there has been a lull or regrouping between the formation of such trios. If history repeats itself, the next triumvirate would be forming in the early 1990s to dominate until the beginning of the 21st century. If current trends continue it would be a very international group.
Conclusion

Palmer, Nicklaus and Player were certainly different from one another in many ways, while very much the same in one — they were champions. And so it has been with the top golfers of every era, a variety in swing style has been the rule rather than the exception. There have been changing trends in technique that the best players followed. Today for example, when observing a broad spectrum of the current generation of top players, there is a decided de-emphasis of active hand action ivifh less forearm rotation. This has been supplanted by increased upper body release ivith a slightly/latter sunng and more lateral motion of the upper body in the long game. Yet, each is an individual. Many players, past and present exhibit non-conforming fundamentals in play which are actually breakthroughs that became trends in the next generation. It's called evolution. It has definitely happened to the golf swing