The ArT of Golf - Society of Hickory Golfers

Member Profile
Keith Cleveland
Jackson, Miss.
Born in Augusta, Ga., Keith Cleveland says he was destined to
come to golf. His family moved to Jackson, Miss., where he
grew up and went to school.
“My father was a fine golfer and our lives centered around
Colonial Country Club where I swam and played golf all summer as
a child,” he says. “By junior high school I had given up golf completely
for the major sports. Still, because of my father’s involvement,
I loved to watch golf and religiously kept up with the PGA
tour.” (Palmer, Dave Marr, Julios Boros and Millar Barber were
favorites. He follows Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar these days.)
Keith attended the University of Mississippi but moved to West
Texas before graduating to “work in the oilfields for a few years.”
He returned to Mississippi to work with his father in the oil business
until his father retired and Keith sold the business in 2000. He eventually
completed his degree at Ole Miss in 2009-10.
As a young man, Keith enjoyed running and triathlons. He picked
up golf again in his early 30s and “has been absolutely enthralled
with the sport since.” Keith, who is now 60, says he came across
hickory golf while searching the Internet for a replacement for one
of his father’s Callaway Hickory Stick wedges that he had inherited.
“I had no idea that anyone played with original or replica hickory
clubs, or even collected for that matter. When I saw that a group
called the Society of Hickory Golfers was holding its inaugural U.S.
Hickory Open at Mimosa Hills, I had to go.”
Keith, who was familiar with Tad Moore’s name, purchased a set
of his clubs and set out for North Carolina. “I haven’t cared a bit for
modern golf since,” he says.
“I am married to the lovely Dawn,” he says, “and together we
have three grown children and a beautiful grandson.”
How often do you play hickories?
I play all my casual golf with hickories, late afternoon 9 holers
and the like, only using modern clubs in weekend dogfights at
my club. I only play one modern club tourney a year now. My
local hickory group holds three events a year and I will play in
at least four SoHG events in 2012.
What’s in your play set?
My clubs are mostly the Tad Moore set I bought on a whim
for the 2008 U.S. Hickory Open. Putter is a TM Dunn wooden
mallet. TM Tom Morris brassie and cleek woods. My irons are
the TM OA mid iron-mashie niblick, and a TM Victor Niblick.
However, I am slowly building an almost exact matching set of
original MacGregor OA’s and B’s irons that Tad replicated his
OA’s after. With a little bending and lead tape, the originals and
the replicas are interchangeable in the set.
Favorite club?
My long nosed driver by Heritage Golf that I just received from
my kids for my 60th birthday!
Keith Cleveland at the U.S. Hickory Open in 2011.
What ball do you play?
I play Chris MacIntyre’s Victor balls exclusively now.
Favorite course for hickories?
Pinehurst No. 2.
Favorite hickory tournament?
My favorite tourney is the Southern Hickory 4-Ball, of course! I
don’t have to post my own score! (It’s a team event.)
Any player or aspect of golf history you especially enjoy?
I loved reading about the hickory era before I ever heard of
modern hickory golf or the SoHG. The Francis Quimet story is
irresistible, but Walter Travis’ is equally compelling to me.
Best thing about hickory golf?
Everything! The people, the clubs, the clothes. One has to have a
pretty healthy sense of humor to participate in this nonsense, so
conversations at tourneys are very entertaining.
Ideas to promote SoHG, hickory golf?
The best way to promote hickory golf is to make sure our SoHG
events are pleasant for first timers and potential converts (i.e.
Leave our petty squabbles at the house!)
Most recent book on golf that you read?
Walter Travis-The Old Man is the latest but I keep reading a
dozen or so over and over. I love Herbert Wind Warren and
Bernard Darwin but my favorite all time book is “The Spirit of
St. Andrews” by Alister MacKenzie.
Note: Keith has been a key organizer for the
Southern 4-Ball Hickory Championship.
society of hickory golfers 12
spring 2012
Hacking and Hughing
among the pines
by hugh menzies
spring 2012
news, notes,
correspondence
ang Willie” Engelson’s Febru-
“Lary hickory event scheduled
for the delightful Donald Ross course
at Mid Pines appeared in dire danger.
Thunderstorms with lightning and
heavy rain were forecast albeit
with temperatures in the balmy
70s. I handed over my $45 to
the folk in the Mid Pines golf
shop with the sense that this might
be an expensive bar lunch and a
comment about their turning on
appropriate Scottish weather
for hickories.
“Never mind,” replied one
with the insouciance of someone who has
your money for good, “it would be in the
40s in Scotland. What’s a little rain when
it is in the 70s.”
With that encouragement, we ventured
out to play. The gods smiled and we were
merely sprinkled upon while folks only
miles to our south were pounded with
wind and rain. Ah, life in the North Carolina
Sandhills. Perhaps it was this fortune
that prompted one of my teammates, Gary
McNutt, to inquire about the virtues of
living in the Pinehurst area. I was encouraging.
Thirty eight hickory nuts embarked
upon the event. All appeared to have a
good time. There were a few beginners to
hickories and some of them did very well.
Tony Smarelli shot low gross for the day
with a 75. Stan Herman, a fine broth of a
lad who made the Dallas Cowboys squad
some moons ago until a knee injury turned
his attention to making money in less
physical environments, contributed to the
winning team.
The competition is stiffening, fellow
hickoryites.
My personal foursome comprised the
aforesaid McNutt, Tom Hunter – he of the
elegant swing, cocked left foot and bow
tie – and Tom DeLoach IV (a youthful
neophyte who appears hooked by the
charm of the game). We came in at 24 under
par in the low net two-ball event and
liked our chances. Dream on. We didn’t
even place.
And how did yours truly do? I thought
you’d never ask. Well, it was one of my
better days. A gross 86 for a net 63. I collected
my winnings with cries of “sandbagger”
and “make sure you post that
score” ringing in my ears. Good natured,
but I know if this keeps up such remarks
will acquire a keener edge. Of course, it if
keeps up my index will drop sharply and I
will be a much less useful partner.
This brings me back to the conversation
that raged recently on the NCHA website
about originals versus replicas. The
general conclusion of that discussion
was that if you acquire a well matched,
quality set of originals you have
nothing to fear from folk employing
replicas.
Those who read the Wee Nip
know I wrote of my personal
embarkation down the slippery
slope towards replicas. For what it is
worth to anyone, here are some observations
drawn from my last few rounds with
replicas in my bag. I preface this by saying
that the head pro at my home course of
Pinehurst No. 7 has tinkered with my game
and it seems to be paying off.
That said, thank you Mike Just! I employ
several of your replica irons more often
than my originals. I trust them more. This
is not overwhelmingly true. Mike made me
a 44-degree mashie niblick. I already possessed
an H. Logan of the same loft with a
thinner blade that performs slightly better
for me than Mike’s replica. But, by and
large, I hit Mike’s irons more solidly and
consistently than I do my originals; which,
admittedly, are a polyglot group.
The big difference is in woods. Jay
Harris provided me with a Jack White
brassie and a MacGregor spoon. They
are both fine clubs and, when I swing
correctly, do what they should. But only
infrequently do I swing them correctly.
Mike provided me a driver and a cleek.
These two clubs are making a remarkable
difference in my game.
On the first hole at Mid Pines I hit driver,
cleek, and two putts with a Jay Harrissupplied
original for a par. Both woods
continued to perform solidly. On the 18th I
13
hit driver and a Louisville mid iron to nine
inches and tapped in for a birdie. Anyone
who has played with me knows this is not
normal Hugh Menzies golf.
Since this game is about never-ending
experimentation, the next casual round
I play with hickories will be with originals
only to see if my tweaked game can
handle them better than before. My heart
is with the traditionalists. My competitive
side likes it that current SOHG rules
permit me to employ replicas.
My over-arching point here is that I
suspect the conclusion of the NCHA
website discussion re originals/replicas is
correct. If you can find a set of matched
and well-balanced originals you can play
with anyone using replicas. But that is a
good-sized “if.” With the growing popularity
of the hickory game, as evidenced
above, putting together such a set and at a
price affordable to most is getting harder
and harder. The eminent Dr. Harris, for
example, possesses a fine set of mint
Nicoll Zenith irons. He might sell them to
you but it will set you back $2,400. It is
my impression this is a very fair price in
today’s market.
You can buy a set of Mike Just or Tad
Moore irons for considerably less than that.
While they will be faithful copies of different
originals they are balanced and feel
similar in their swing attributes. The same
cannot be said for the originals I own. They
vary enormously in look, feel and swing attributes.
It is fun trying to master them but
they are not a recipe for consistent golf; at
least not for someone of my abilities.
There are those who argue that the
hickory used to make shafts in days of
yore was superior. But, sadly, shafts wear
out and break sooner or later. They have to
be replaced with contemporary hickory.
Some among us love searching out
clubs, tinkering with them, restoring
them lovingly and either playing with
them or selling them. Others, and this includes
the likes of me, thoroughly enjoy
the game and company but have neither
the interest nor the skills to assemble a
matching set and fine tune them for play.
We just want to toss the clubs in the car
and go play.
OK, now I’m off to the putting green.
That 86 at Mid Pines included 40 putts.
Neither replica nor original flat sticks
seems to help me much on those greens.
But it has to be the equipment. Right?
www.hickorygolfers.com