My First Round in Scotland: Featherie Golf at Tarbat G.C. - Hickory Golf Course Vlog #47

Описание: A shot-by-shot hickory golf course vlog featuring Long Island, NY-based hickory golfer Christian Williams and fellow golf historian and hickory golfer Andy Grow playing pre-1850 featherie golf at Portmahomack (Tarbat) Golf Club in Easter Ross in the Highlands of Scotland.

Williams is a golf historian with a high handicap, sharing his passion for the game through this channel where he shows how to collect, repair, and play with antique, wood-shafted golf clubs. In this round, Williams, is using his pre-1850 long-nose replica golf clubs handmade by Brad Korando and a replica featherie ball made by Hickory Lane Featherie (details below). Welcome to the channel!

This round was the first played by Williams and Grow during their hickory golf trip to the Highlands and Moray regions of Scotland in May 2023. Follow Andy and his hickory golf travel writings on Instagram:   / hickories_and_links  

Portmahomack (Tarbat) Golf Club is situated in a rich area for links golf north of Inverness on the Dornoch Firth. Often bypassed in favor of more well-known links such as Tain, Golspie and Royal Dornoch, Tarbat is a beautiful and extremely affordable links-land course that features ten distinct holes and multiple tee boxes to satisfy and challenge golfers of every ability over 9 or 18 holes. The current course was officially established in 1909 with a design advised by Royal Dornach secretary John Sutherland, but golf has been documented on the site as early as 1894.

This round showcases the style of golf played prior to 1850 called featherie (or feathery) golf. Named after the ball used, featherie golf was played with a leather ball filled with a top-hat's worth of boiled goose feathers. When the feathers dried in the leather casing, the ball would become hard and playable for golf. An experienced ballmaker could only make several balls per day, hence golf was an expensive game in the featherie era played mostly by the wealthy. It's said that the cost of a ball often exceeded the cost of a club. The featherie era lasted for at least 150 years before the advent of the gutta percha ball in 1848. The low cost of the gutta percha ball made golf accessible to a much larger group of players and quickly made the featherie obsolete.

The clubs used for featherie were primarily wooden-head clubs ranging in lofts from 13 degrees to 30 degrees. Williams usually plays featherie golf with a four-club replica set made for him by recreational woodworker and clubmaker Brad Korando; in the rounds he played in Scotland, Williams only used two clubs. The templates for each of the four clubs are featured in Elmer Nahum's essential book on 19th century clubmaking called Practical Clubmaking. All of Brad's clubs were handmade to the specifications and traditions used to make circa 1840s featherie golf clubs.

The featherie ball used for this round was provided by Hickory Lane Featherie, which sponsors the featherie golf content on this channel. Denny and Cathy Lane have done extensive research into the process of making authentic, playable, and durable featherie golf balls and their featheries are about as close as you can get to the real deal. Learn more about the Lane featherie and buy one to try here: https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/

"What's in the Clutch?" sponsored by Hickory Lane Featherie:
Circa 1840s Hugh Philp Short Spoon Replica, 22 degrees, D6, 39 inches
Circa 1870s Tom Morris Putter, 9 degrees, D6, 36-1/2 inches
Hickory Lane Featherie Ball

Williams is also a brand ambassador for Steurer & Jacoby and proudly uses their fine line of handcrafted golf bags, head covers, and valuables pouches. Use promo code HICKORYHACKER24 to save 10% on any purchase at https://steurerjacoby.com/

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