PLAYING in your local comp you can sometimes see golfers with some pretty vintage looking clubs, especially if it is some sort of veterans day, but Brisbane golfer Alan Grieve has certainly taken it up a notch.
The 45 year old Grieve has become the first member of the Brisbane Golf Club since World War ll to win a monthly medal playing with a full set of hickory–shafted golf clubs.
Grieve has a number of wins in hickory only events but remarkably his monthly medal win was his first competition victory at the Brisbane club since joining in February 2014.
Decked out appropriately in plus fours, Grieve who plays off a 6 handicap, shot a two over par 74 in last Saturday’s Monthly Mug to win A Grade by one stroke.
His 12-metre birdie putt on his final hole was his third of the round and netted him the winning score of a nett 67.
An exited Grieve put the win alongside his victories at the
US Hickory Open championship in 2011 and the Australian Hickory championships in 2012 and 2014.
“It may only have been the club Monthly Mug, but to me it is certainly a huge golfing highlight,” he told local sports writer Tony Durkin.
“I just love playing with hickory clubs,” he said.
“When I hit a good shot I really know it. The feel is so pure, unlike modern-day clubs.”
His love affair with the hickory clubs began when his parents gave him a Calamity Jane hickory putter by his 21st birthday.
He now has a full set all manufactured before 1935 and carries them in a genuine small leather bag.
Alan says on average he hits them about 20 per cent less in distance than a modern golf club.
Participation in specific competitions for players using hickory-shafted clubs is becoming increasingly popular in Australia with state and national championships played annually under the auspices of the Australian Golf Heritage Society.
The Australian championships are staged at Sydney’s Carnarvon Golf Club each November and the Queensland event at Royal Queensland, also in November.
We originally saw the Tony Durkin story on Grieve on the Golf Australia website but it was also published previously on the Brisbane Golf Club website with the photo above.