What Was the First Golf Club?

The journey to find the first golf club doesn't lead to a single, neatly labeled artifact in a museum but rather to the windswept coastal links of 15th-century Scotland. The earliest clubs were humble, handmade tools, slowly evolving as players figured out what worked best to navigate an untamed landscape. This article walks you through the story of these pioneering clubs, from simple wooden implements to the foundational designs that would shape the game we play today.

The Earliest Clubs: Carved from Nature

Imagine wandering the Scottish coast five centuries ago. The game was raw, and so was the equipment. There were no pro shops, no high-tech materials, just a stick and a ball. The concept of a matched "set" of clubs didn't exist, a golfer might carry only two or three clubs, each crafted to serve a very general purpose. These early clubs were made entirely of wood, painstakingly shaped by hand by the players themselves or by local woodworkers and bow-makers.

The "Play Club": The Original Driver

The star of any early golfer's rudimentary bag was the "play club," the ancestor of our modern driver. These were elegant, long-shafted clubs designed for hitting the ball off the teeing ground. They were also known as "longnoses" because of their distinct shape.

• The Shaft: The shaft was typically fashioned from a durable but flexible wood like ash or hazel. The craftsman would select a straight piece of wood and shape it by hand, often tapering it towards the head to provide a bit of whip.
• The Head: The head was made from a block of much harder wood, such as beech, apple, pear, or blackthorn. These woods were chosen for their resistance to splitting upon impact with the rock-hard "feathery" golf balls of the era. The head was long and slender, with a graceful curve that swept back from a flat hitting face.
• The Splice: Attaching the head to the shaft was a true test of craftsmanship. The most common technique was the "scare" or "spliced" joint. The head and the shaft were carved with matching angled cuts, glued together with a strong animal-hide glue, and then tightly bound - or "whipped" - with pitched twine or leather cord to reinforce the joint. A well-made splice was a thing of beauty and a mark of a superior club.

The Spoons and Putters: Early Fairway Woods and Short-Game Tools

Once the ball was in play, golfers turned to other specialized tools. They lacked the variety we have today, forcing players to be far more creative with their shot-making.

The most common companion to the play club was the "spoon." This club had a more lofted, slightly concave (or "spooned") face. This design was brilliant for scooping the ball out of tricky lies like ruts, thick patches of heather, or compacted sandy ground. Golfers might carry a few spoons with varying degrees of loft, giving them the original "fairway wood" and "hybrid" experience.

For the delicate task of rolling the ball into the hole, players used a "putting cleek." While some early putters were still wooden, with a more block-like head, this was one of the first areas where blacksmiths got involved. The earliest iron-headed clubs were rudimentary, heavy, and mainly used for gentle putting strokes, as an aggressive hit could easily damage the fragile feathery ball.

A Game-Changing Innovation: The Gutta-Percha Ball

For nearly 400 years, the basic design of a wooden club for long shots remained largely the same. The fragile nature of the feathery ball - a leather pouch tightly stuffed with boiled goose feathers - was the limiting factor. Hitting it with a hard, unyielding material like iron was a recipe for a ruined ball.

That all changed in the mid-1840s with the introduction of the gutta-percha ball, or the "guttie." Made from the rubber-like sap of a Malaysian tree, the guttie was cheap to produce, incredibly durable, and could even be remolded if it got damaged. This single innovation blew the doors wide open for club design.

Suddenly, iron was a viable material for a club head. The guttie could withstand repeated blows from a forged iron face, and golfers quickly discovered the immense control and spin they could get from this new technology. This marked the end of the longnose era and the beginning of the "iron age" in golf.

The Rise of the Cleekmaker

With wooden clubs, the clubmaker was a woodworker. With the shift to iron, the clubmaker became a blacksmith. These craftsmen, known as "cleekmakers," were masters of the forge. They would heat, hammer, and shape blocks of iron into specialized heads, each designed for a different job on the course. St. Andrews and the nearby coastal town of Musselburgh in Scotland became the epicenters of this new industry.

This is where the idea of a numbered set of irons truly began, though the names were far more descriptive than the numbers we use today.

The Language of Early Iron Sets:

• The Cleek (Driving or Long Iron): A versatile iron with relatively little loft, used for long shots from the fairway. The equivalent of a modern 1- or 2-iron.
• The Mid-Iron: Just like it sounds, a club for mid-range approach shots. Similar to a modern 3- or 4-iron.
• The Mashie: A classic approach iron, and one of the most important clubs in the set. It had a loft similar to a modern 5- or 6-iron and was a player’s go-to for most shots to the green.
• The Spade Mashie: Had a slightly larger, more rounded face than the standard Mashie, making it a bit more forgiving. Think of it as an early game-improvement iron.
• The Mashie-Niblick: A transitional club that bridged the gap between the mashie and the niblick, about the loft of today’s 8-iron.
• The Niblick: A heavy, highly-lofted iron with a small head. This was the trouble club, used for hacking out of deep bunkers (which were just natural sandy pits) and thick rough. It’s the direct ancestor of our modern wedge.

Legendary Craftsmen Who Shaped the Game

This history isn’t just about materials, it’s about the people whose hands shaped these clubs. These craftsmen were heroes of their day, famous for the quality and performance of their equipment.

• Hugh Philp (1782-1856): Working in St. Andrews, Philp is widely considered the Stradivarius of clubmaking. He didn't invent the longnose play club, but he perfected it. His clubs were known for their exquisite balance, elegance, and feel, and they are now some of the most prized collectibles in golf.
• The McEwan Family: Douglas McEwan and his family, based in Musselburgh, were dominant clubmakers for generations. They were instrumental in the transition from wood to iron and produced some of the finest sets of forged irons during the late 19th century.
• Old Tom Morris (1821-1908): While famous for his four Open Championship victories and his work as the "Keeper of the Green" at St. Andrews, Old Tom was also a renowned clubmaker. His workshop, located near the 18th hole of the Old Course, produced durable, reliable clubs深受 all levels of golfers. He was a practical man who focused on playability over fancy aesthetics.

These artisans didn't have CAD software or launch monitors. They worked from feeling, experience, and the direct feedback of the best players in the world who were walking right outside their workshops.

Final Thoughts

The first golf clubs weren't a singular invention but a gradual evolution driven by Scotland's hardy and innovative pioneers. Starting with simple, hand-carved wooden implements, the tools of the game were slowly refined until the arrival of the durable guttie ball ushered in the age of forged irons, setting the stage for the modern game we know and love.

Understanding this history shows just how much equipment has always influenced strategy. While the early masters had to make do with a handful of clubs, today’s golfer faces the opposite problem - a bag full of choices that can sometimes feel overwhelming. When you find yourself stuck between a modern-day Mashie and a Niblick on your approach shot, navigating that decision with confidence is everything. That’s why I developed Caddie AI. Our app provides instant, on-demand strategic advice and club recommendations, taking the guesswork out of the equation so you can play with the same certainty that Old Tom Morris had when he reached for his trusty cleek.