Did you know that Edward VIII as the Prince of Wales changed the game of golf forever?
Let me explain...
In the very early days Ash and Hazel was the wood for shafts used by club makers in their day, then in the 1860's a new material become popular, Hickory from the southern states of the USA, a wood that was easier to shape provided a great deal of flex, strong and longer lasting and did not break as easily as Ash and Hazelwood.
Club head manufacturers such as Tom Morris, Robert Forgan and Tom Stewart forged the heads from steel and sent them off to the various pro shops around England and Scotland. The golf pro would buy in shafts and leather for the grips and would fit them and shape the shaft to the golfers requirements, so every golf club was different and fitted to each individual at the time. The only place to buy your golf clubs was at your local golf course pro shop and as you would imagine very costly.
In 1910 Arthur F Knight patented a round steel shaft for the use in golf club,s but the R & A and the USGA were reluctant to allow them for play, mainly because they wanted the making of golf clubs to be in the domain of the club professional, this after all was usually their only income and the powers that be wanted to preserve this and wasn't going let any big company come along and mass produce golf clubs and jeopardise the golf pro's livelihood, and so hickory remained.
Enter our man Edward VIII (yes the one who abdicated for his love for Wallis Simpson) or Prince of Wales as he was at the time, now for quite a long time any member of the Royal family who was interested in golf was always invited to join the R&A and he did so in 1913 and of course as you would expect elected to be Captain in 1922, quite a good golfer in fact managed to get down to a handicap of 4 I believe. However, later on in 1929 and before he met Ms Simpson and all the fun started he went on a visit to the United States and there he was asked to tour a factory by the name of "The American Fork and Hoe Company" a company making forks and hoes with steel handles (later golfers would know them as True Temper) and they presented him with a set of golf clubs with steel shafts.
Later in the year our Prince back home took part in the September medal on the Old Course in the Auld Grey Town (St Andrews) played well and won his division. A few days later a member who played with him on the day and to use a latter day term "bubbled" him to the committee 'were they aware that our Prince had used illegal golf clubs to win the comp' well you can imagine the furore?
The R&A were put in an impossible position, here was a past Captain of the club, future heir to the throne using illegal clubs what were they to do? they certainly could not dare to suspend his membership so they let the result stand. As the word spread over the golfing world the R&A had unwillingly set a precedent and so from 1929 steel shafts were allowed to be used in the manufacturer of golf clubs and were mass produced, opening the door and help made the game more popular for everyone as it is today.
Sadly for the black sheep of the family it all went pear shaped for the King in 1934, and so for a sneaky use of illegal clubs we can all thank the Prince for changing the game of golf forever, true story ………………………….
and I bet you didn't know that?
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