Honorable Company Celebrates Hickory Traditions

March 15, 2019
Metamora, Ill.
By Cathy Lane

Among the many U.S. regional and world hickory golf groups celebrating World Hickory Golf Day, the Honorable Company of Hickory Golfers, Illinois’ only hickory golf association, had a memorable start.

On Nov. 16, 2013, a beautiful day in late fall, friends Jeff Browning and Denny Lane played nine holes at Hillcrest Golf Center in Washington, Ill. Lane, who had won the club championship the previous year using hickory clubs, asked Browning if he might be interested in starting an Illinois hickory group, with Hillcrest as the home course. Browning had collected his own hickory set by that time, and he was all in. Starting at Hillcrest, however, would have to wait.

By noon the next day, Hillcrest’s course and clubhouse was destroyed by an F4 tornado. The clubhouse was in the direct path: four golfers who were enjoying Sunday coffee inside survived with minor injuries. The property took almost seven months to rebuild. 

In October 2014, the newly named Honorable Company held its first event at nearby Metamora Fields, a links-style course that sets up perfectly for the pre-1900 gutta percha game that the group plays. In 2015, play returned to a restored Hillcrest, which is an older, family-owned golf course that has yardage perfect for the gutta percha ball. Ever since, the Honorable Company has held two events each year: the Last Bash in the fall, and the Spring Gathering in the spring. They try to tuck in three days of play at area courses for each event.

Co-founder Browning has developed a real talent for collecting and repairing hickory clubs. After he caught the bug for playing with gutta percha, he assembled a smooth-faced set for the pre-1900 game. Browning, as well as other Honorable Company members, has had a chance to play at Whistling Straits, Lawsonia, and Tuscumbia.  

Browning has played golf for about 50 years, but the hickory game has deepened his appreciation of the sport. 

“I have enjoyed and studied the game more and begun to work and prepare hickory shaft clubs to play and trade,” he says. “I believe hickory golf changes the way you play the game. It makes you think more about each shot instead of just hitting the ball as far as you can. I enjoy the game, but even more I appreciate the company of golfers who share the love of hickory golf. We share a certain unique fraternity with the likes of Old and Young Tom Morris, Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, and Walter Hagen in the history of the game, the specific attire of the day, and especially the equipment of the times.”

For his part, Lane has played exclusively with hickory clubs for over eight years and is also accomplished in hunting down and repairing clubs. His first round of golf was on his 10th birthday with his dad (an excellent golfer with 10 holes-in-one to his credit) at Hillcrest. His most recent adventure is making authentic featheries, using what scant historical “recipes” as are available, and expanding his knowledge by studying the historical period, available resources, and tools that would have been at hand for such famous ball-makers as Allan Robertson and Old Tom Morris. Lane prepares the feathers and is the ball stuffer, while his wife, Cathy, develops the patterns and sews each ball by hand. As in days gone by, it is a slow and painstaking process.

“The specific challenge is trying to find authentic ingredients for something that was made hundreds of years ago. Our fellow Honorable Company members are our test ‘drivers,’” Lane says. On Friday of each Honorable event, all comers play 12 holes with the featherie ball at Hillcrest on a course that Lane lays out with a meager Stimp meter reading of 4. They report on how each ball performed. That feedback helps to improve future models. “We have come a long way and are dedicated to making authentic featheries with only leather, feathers, and thread,” he says. 

Tom Kerckhove has joined Lane and Browning in recent years as an organizer and recruiter for the group. A golfer of 40 years, with experience in the sales and design of golf equipment, Kerckhove had casually collected a few old hickories when he saw notice of an Honorable Company event. Curious, he entered and after his first match says his perspective of the game has changed. 

“I now find that I play golf with hickory shafted clubs almost exclusively,” he says. “This style of play aligns more closely with the golf I first learned when starting out.”

The history of the game, particularly its earliest origins, has always interested Kerckhove, but his experience with hickories has deepened that appreciation. He has begun to apply his background in golf equipment design and woodworking skills toward crafting early golf club replicas. 

“I’ve spent the last couple of years acquiring the correct tools, knowledge, and materials to build golf equipment as it was done during that time period,” he says. “My focus is on producing fully playable, authentically made clubs for use with the featherie golf ball. I am particularly interested in the long nose woods made by James McEwan between 1770 and 1800 and Simon Cossar between 1785 and 1816. My goal is to build replica versions of these in what would have been a ‘full set’ at that time.”

A full set of that day would have included a play club (driver); a grassed driver (slightly more lofted play club); long spoon; middle spoon; short spoon; wooden niblick; and putter. “All will eventually be available for use in our featherie events and for purchase,” Browning says.

The Honorable Company takes pride in the old Scottish golfing maxim of “Nae wind, nae rain, nae gowf.” Despite driving cold rain and wind at its spring event in 2017,  16 golfers signed up, 12 showed up, eight started, and four finished. A run was made to a local shop to purchase dry socks for everyone. “We played as they would have played the Open Championship in the early years, through driving rain, standing water, and high winds,” Lane says.

These are dedicated hickory golfers, folks, and as hospitable as they are enthusiastic.

The Illinois group welcomes all comers. Club sets are provided for newcomers, as is plenty of good-natured advice. Park or Braid replica gutta balls from McIntyre Golf Ball Co. are available at cost.

“The goal is to have fun,” Lane says. “These are not formal tournaments: we want people to appreciate the beauty of the game. We play an old-time game by old-time rules.”

Browning, Kerckhove, Lane and the entire Honorable Company invite anyone to join them on May 3, 4, and 5 for the 2019 Spring Gathering. They will play Hillcrest with featheries on Friday, Metamora Fields with the Park or Braid ball on Saturday, and Sunday’s World Hickory Day at a location to be determined. 

Also traditional with the Honorable Company is a toast on the first tee – leaded or unleaded as they say. The group provides refreshments when the course allows, including ginger beer and wee-nip-able additions, as well as traditional Scottish lunch favorites that, in the past, have included such Scottish delicacies as Cullan skink soup, cock-a-leekie soup, shortbreads, macaroni pies, and cranachan, a traditional Scottish dessert often made with cream, raspberries, oats, and whisky.

Copper Cup Clan members, a related group of Wisconsin and Illinois hickory golfers, will honor World Hickory Day during the play on Sunday, May 5.

Contact Denny Lane – 309-264-1098 or dennyelane@gmail.com – for information about the group, its events, or authentic featherie golf balls. The Honorable Company of Hickory Golfers also has a Facebook page, which, like the Honorable Company itself, welcomes all visitors.