The ArT of Golf - Society of Hickory Golfers

Down the
Fairway...
from the
President
With winter behind us, we are looking
forward to a great season of hickory golf.
We hope you’ll participate in as many tournaments
as your schedules allow. The first
tournament of the Championship Series, Tad
Moore’s Southern 4-Ball, has its largest field
of players ever. The winning trophy has been
named the Frank Boumphrey Cup in recognition
of Frank’s dedication to hickory golf.
As you may already know, two tournaments
have been added to the CS –
Belvedere and Arkansas. With these new
competitions, you will have the opportunity
to play on some outstanding venues. Be sure
to consider the U.S. Hickory Open, Heart of
America and Mid Pines Open, also.
The SoHG’s website is coming into its own
and we are upgrading it on a regular basis.
Tournament directors can now utilize it for
event registration and entry fee payment. If
there are areas of the website that you feel
could be expanded, please let us know.
This issue of the Wee Nip has outstanding
articles on hickory shafts and golf related
art. Interviews and profiles, along with a
commentary on the future of hickory golf by
Mungo Park, make for some great reading.
One last point I’d like to make... Be sure
to vote for your new board of directors. And
if you’d like to get involved in any committee
work, please let me know.
We’re anticipating a fun year in hickory golf
so get your clubs out and start swinging.
Bring a friend along to some of the events
and let him or her see how we are preserving
the tradition.
Chris Deinlein, President
Society of Hickory Golfers
a wee nip
Spring 2012
Editor – James Davis
Contributors
Rob Ahlschwede, Richard Bullock, Keith Cleveland,
4 Degrees, Chris Deinlein, John Fischer III, Roger Hill,
Randy Jensen, Doug Marshall, Hugh Menzies,
Mungo Park, Bill Reed, Caroline Rosen, Corey Swets
The Wee Nip is the printed newsletter of the Society of
Hickory Golfers. It is published twice yearly.
Articles, comments, correspondence are gratefully
accepted, though publication is not guaranteed.
Address all correspondence to:
Editor, Wee Nip
338 Gladstone Ave. SE
E. Grand Rapids, MI 49506 USA
or via e-mail to: jdavis2364@gmail.com
For information about
the Society of Hickory Golfers,
visit the website at: www.hickorygolfers.com
Copyright © SoHG 2012
Note to Members!!
Voting for new board members ends April
30. Candidates are Eddie Breeden, Bob Caston,
Matt Dodds, Tad Moore, Mike Stevens
and Rick Woeckener.
A link to vote was sent in the March
e-newsletter, but if you missed that, simply
log-in to the Member Dashboard of the website
– www.hickorygolfers.com – and click
on the article about new board members.
That will have a link where you can cast
your vote. This is important, so do it today!
Forgotten your log-in or password? No
problem. Just email jdavis2364@gmail.com
and we’ll set up a new one.
from the editor
Blame it on the unusual late winter
weather. Where dirty patches of
snow and ice were wont to be seen are
flowering daffodills, bluebonnets, periwinkle
and tulips. Ducks and geese are getting
an early start on lakes that normally would
yet be ice covered, albeit thinning and
cracking to test the nerves of diehard ice
fishermen. Northern golfers, awakened
from their customary diapause, have been
at it for weeks.
In keeping with the confused weather,
this issue of the Wee Nip has sprouted a
wonderful variety of items fertilized by
your editor’s seasonally-addled gray matter.
If your travels bring you anywhere near
Atlanta, a stop at the High Museum of Art
to see the Art of Golf exhibit should be at
the top of the things-to-see list. In conjunction
with their British colleagues and some
private parties, the museum has assembled
a stunning collection of artwork to rival the
most exemplary of private collections.
Inside this edition, too, are interviews
with, one, the redoubtable Bill Reed – a
man who is his own triumverate, at once
the current president of the Golf Collectors
Society, founder of the Hickory Golf
Association and passionate member of
the Society of Hickory Golfers; and with
SoHG Board of Directors
2011-2012
President – Chris Deinlein
Membership Secretary – Roger Hill
Treasurer – Mark Wehring
Secretary – Ken Holtz
Board Members
Rob Ahlschwede, Chris Deinlein, Matt Dodds,
Jay Harris, Roger Hill, Ken Holtz, Tad Moore,
Breck Speed, Mark Wehring
sohg executive committee
Chair
Chris Deinlein – cdeinlein@triad.rr.com
Long Range Planning
Breck Speed – bspeed@aol.com
Equipment
Rob Ahlschwede – swedeberger@gmail.com
Events
Hamp Munsey – hampm@atlanticpkg.com
Marketing and Communications
Matt Dodds – matt@brandthropology.com
Membership
Roger Hill – hillgolf@gmail.com
International
Lionel Freedman – info@worldhickoryopen.com
reigning U.S. Hickory Open champ Alan
Grieve.
SoHG members are favored, too, with
observations on hickory golf by Mungo
Park, a descendant of the Willie Park Sr.
family whose impact on golf is legendary.
His illuminating points are sure to stimulate
new thinking atbout the evolution of
modern hickory golf.
Hickory shafts, Arnold Haultain, member
columnists and even Shakespeare are
on the spring menu.
And, have you seen the calendar of
events on the website? So much to consider
and so little time. Make plans to attend
the tournament of your choice and send in
your registration. It’s shaping up to be an
exciting season of hickory golf.
See you on the course.
Jim Davis
on the cover
Charles Lees’ painting “The Golfers”,
1847, has become one of the most famous
of all golf paintings. It’s part of an historic
exhibit of golf art that has been mounted
at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga.
(Story, page 8.) All images relating to the
exhibit are used with the kind permission
of the High Museum of Art.
society of hickory golfers 2
spring 2012
Annual Championship Series
makes strong case as hickory
golf’s seasonal ‘majors’
They’re rapidly turning into hickory
golf’s “majors.” The SoHG’s Championship
Series, sponosored by Mountain
Valley Spring Water, features the best of
hickory golf tournament experience on
challenging traditional courses.
Breck Speed, owner of Mountain Valley
Spring Water is eagerly looking forward to
the season.
“We’ve increased the CS from four
events to six and added some geographic
diversity,” he says. “So, I’m looking
forward to some increased interest and
competition.”
Beginning with the Southern 4-Ball
Hickory Championship in Birmingham,
Ala. and winding up with the Mid Pines
Hickory Open in Pinehurst, the six events
have the country covered from the deep
south to the far north. All that’s missing
is a far West swing and perhaps a Florida
tournament for late winter.
The team-event that is the Southern
4-Ball anually attracts a core of dedicated
players to its friendly mix of golf and socializing
courtesy of Messeurs. Tad Moore
and Keith Cleveland. This event, scheduled
for April 19-21, may be in full swing by the
time you read this. It’s held on Birmingham’s
Highland Park Course, ca. 1903.
The CS moves to the far north for the
Belvedere Hickory Open, June 21-23, at
the Belvedere Golf Club in Charlevoix,
Mich. Designed in 1925, it was a course
familiar to young Tom Watson whose father
was a member. Participants here revel not
only in the golf, but in the surroundings
which just happen to include Lake Michigan
and the sparking Lake Charlevoix.
Parties and socializing aplenty, plus a tour
of area homes and the shops and restaurants
of Charlevoix or nearby Petoskey.
From here, the CS turns to one of the
country’s oldest hickory events, the Heart
of America Hickory Championship, July
13-15, at the Otter Creek Golf Course of
Ankeny, Iowa, just north of Des Moines.
The event includes a trade show complete
spring 2012
with Scottish culinary delights. Plenty
to see, do and enjoy here in America’s
heartland.
By now, with your hickory game tuned
up and your swing tournament-tested,
you’re ready for the U.S. Hickory Open,
July 23-25, on the Donald Ross Course
at the French Lick Resort in French Lick,
Ind. It’s a challenging course as PGA
contestants learned during the PGA held
here in 1926. Walter Hagen prevailed
then, but Austrailian Alan Grieve holds the
trophy and plans to defend in 2012. Participants
and guests stay at the incredible
West Baden Springs Resort, a wonder of
architecture. With exciting dinners, a trade
show and other features, this event may be
the pinnacle of the hickory golf season.
Still, the season is not complete without
a stop in Arkansas for the Mountain
Valley Hickory Open, home of Mountain
Valley Spring Water, which sponsors the
Championship Series. Set for Sept. 28-30,
the event is to be played at the Hardscrabble
Country Club, a 1926 Perry Maxwell
design, in Western Arkansas. It’s been the
site of numerous Nationwide Tour events
as well as women’s professional events
in the 1950’s and earlier. The tournament
follows the proven recipie of great golf
followed by even better food, drink and
socializing and, of course, a hickory club
swap meet where you might find just the
club to fill that gap in your bag.
Mountain Valley Spring Water donates
$100 for every participant to the First Tee
of Arkansas.
The wrap-up comes in Southern Pines,
N.C. for the Mid Pines Hickory Open,
Nov. 2-4. It’s the perfect farewell for the
hickory golf season at one of Donald Ross’
finest courses. The event includes an optional
foursomes competition, the opportunity
for lots of extra golf on the area’s
premier courses, and one of the best event
banquets at the Mid Pines Lodge where
the season’s CS winners are announced
as well as the annual honors of the Mike
3
photos/top, courtesy tad moore; bottom, caroline rosen
sharing good times at the Southern 4-Ball, top, are
Hamp Munsey, left, David Ellis and Chris Deinlein.
A U.S. Hickory Open foursome, bottom, includes
Keith Cleveland, left, Josh Fisher, Joe Hollerbach,
and Breck Speed.
Brown Award.Could somebody new come
away with honors this year? Mountain
Valley’s Speed thinks it might happen.
“Will someone unexpected come out of
Michigan or Texas to challenge the known
upper echelon hickory players?” he asks.
“Who will have found that one needed
club and contend in the Reserve Championship?
It’s going to be fun!”
A check of the calendar shows the six
CS events are but a few of dozens of possibilities
for hickory outings.
Regional events from Michigan to Virginia,
New York, Wisconsin and California
offer plenty to tempt the hickory golfer.
For example, there’s the Gutty Slam for
gutty golf adherents. These include the
All American Hickory Open at Downers
Grove in Chicago, May 18-19; the National
Hickory Championship at Oakhurst Links,
June 7-9; the Foxburg Hickory Championship
in Foxburg, Pa., Aug. 8-11; and the
CB Macdonald Challenge, Sept. 7-9.
In other regions, the Vermont Hickory
Open, the Kummel Cup and the Interstate
Championship beckon golfers with
great golf and good cheer. Regional groups
are gaining strength, offering local hickory
golfers plenty of outings to test their skills
with their wood shafted favorites. Check
the SoHG website under “Upcoming Tournaments”
to plan your season. As they say
at Oakhurst – “Far and Sure.”
www.hickorygolfers.com