The little nine-hole course built in 1884 by Russell Montague, the original owner, was created as a treat for himself and friends. They played the first competition over their links in 1888. The medal still exists. It was the first golf competition in the country, we are told. Montague and his golf buds enjoyed the course for years, but as […]

   It has been noted that the earliest golf clubs did not have grips. Gentlemen golfers would simply wear gloves to protect their hands from the exposed wood and to ensure an element of friction to protect their investment from “flying off the handle” so to speak. To conjure up the notion of what these early golfers looked like we […]

As many of you know, the SoHG has been working on a new Ryder Cup format tournament for the past few years. The inaugural tournament, tentatively titled “The SoHG International Hickory Cup”, is scheduled for October 2014, immediately after the World Hickory Open. It will pit a North American Team against a World Hickory select team. North American SoHG players […]

 Editor’s note: Although Rick wrote this piece in late October, it has been saved to coincide with the article about the same event in the recent Wee Nip. Thanks for your contribution, Rick!    In February of this year, what started out as simply a trip to play the World Hickory Open and experience Scotland for six SOHG members, turned […]

While at the early November hickory outing in Southern Pines at the Mid Pines resort, Mitch Laurance took the time to record four radio shows. Many of the guests were SoHG members, as well as the Golf Collectors Society. You can catch the shows and the interviews at the following link: Hooked on Hickories from Mid Pines. Thanks Mitch! Great […]

Our wills and fates do so contrary runThat our devices still are overthrown;Our thoughts are ours, our ends none of our    own.Shakespeare: Hamlet, III, c. 1601    Golfers, as a tribe, are a hopeful lot, the eternal well of which springs anew on every tee. Regardless of the triumphs or disasters of any previous hole, there is a new beginning […]

   Immediately following the Mid Pines Hickory Open, several members of your Board were at work in an adjacent meeting room to determine the overall Championship Series winners. They were hard put to do so in a timely manner, knowing as they did that the banquet was ongoing nearby. In addition, final CS results were held up until the Mid […]

Follow the link below to see the YouTube video, including a few words from Lionel Freedman.   GW Inside The Game: World Hickory Open

Fine Golf is a website that was created to promote the “running game,” that style of golf that approaches greens along the ground. It espouses a natural approach to greenkeeing, and a style of play that promotes creativity on courses that are not preeminently fair, rather that follow the natural lay of the land and mostly dry, bumpy and running. […]

  Your Society has been planning an international match with an European team for nearly a year. The inaugural event is to take place in conjunction with the World Hickory Open in 2014. David Brown of Omaha, Neb. has been selected to Captain the North American team. David Kirkwood, current Captain of the British Golf Collectors Society, and five-time Captain […]