Founded by 22 noblemen and gentlemen in 1754 The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is the leading and most powerful authority in world golf toady. Today golf is a billion dollar industry with over 50million players of all ages and backgrounds playing worldwide at amateur, professional and hobby levels. There are many professional golfers each commanding huge advertising fees from golf and sports manufacturers and playing in tournaments with a first place prizes reaching £1million.

To play golf a single club and ball are needed although virtually every player will invest in a set. A set consists of 14 clubs which is often made up of a group of 3 similar clubs known as woods, a group of 8 clubs known as irons, a sand wedge, a pitching wedge and a putter. The woods are used to drive the ball as far as possible and have a relatively shallow angle at which the ball is hit. The clubs have varying angles of loft (typically 20° - 40°) to allow the ball to be pitched at differing distances, and often accuracy towards the target pin. A sand wedge is used to rescue a ball from a bunker and a pitching wedge is like an iron with a large pitching angle (approx 45°). To buy a typical set like this would cost anywhere between £100 - £2000 making golf an expensive pass time or sport to take up.

In the 19^th century clubs would be custom made by hand by a professional associated with a golfing venue. The professional would take into account the style and terrain of the course as well as the style of play exhibited by the golfer. The name of the professional would often be stamped into these clubs and they were each completely unique.

In the 1920’s golf became popular on a global scale and America had it’s own ideas for the production of golf clubs. Americans, based on previous custom made clubs, took a one club fits all approach and swamped the market with mass produced clubs. The golfing industry was now industrialised and the professional who could make the custom club is dieing out. Modern professionals seen playing on course the world over can no longer create custom made clubs and it is thought there are only two or three professionals left in Britain who can do this.

Today all golf clubs are mass produced and advertised with strong brand names and reassuringly expensive prices to purvey a sense of quality within the club that the player will feel when they play. The reality of golf clubs are that being a mass produced product they suit very few members of the golfing community and there is little difference between a cheap club and an expensive club apart from brand name and advertising. This can be very demoralising to the keen amateur golfer who goes out and buys the latest, reassuringly expensive club, only to find that it plays exactly the same as or worse than the cheaper club they are hoping it will replace. It is quite probable that the golfer may feel there is nothing they can do and decide to give up they game for good.

Home Of The Variable Golf Club

Send mail to [email protected] with questions or comments about this web site