The ArT of Golf - Society of Hickory Golfers

Of hickory shafts
and Bobby Jones
by jim davis
The erstwhile golf collector and sometime author Johnny
Fischer III of Cincinnatti, Ohio, was favored to have
as his father and namesake, John Fischer II, one of the
last great amateur hickory golfers (profiled in The Bulletin of the
GCS, December 2008, No. 177). The late Mr. Fischer II won the
1936 U.S. Amateur using hickory shafted clubs, beating competitors
who were using steel shafts.
Mr. Fischer III often contributes to the Bulletin and to the Wee
Nip with intriguing aspects of golf lore, articles, photographs
and, recently, with the letter
reproduced here, which
he thought SoHG
members might find of
interest.
The letter, addressed
to his late father, is from
T.W. Minton & Co. a
Barbourville, Ky., maker
of, among other hickory
items, golf shafts. The
letter’s author congratulates
Fischer II on his recent
U.S. Amateur victory
and notes that the victory
follows in the footsteps
of Bobby Jones, who, by
the way, preferred Minton
hickory golf shafts. The letter
writer notes that Minton
shafts are exported abroad
as far as Australia and South
Africa.
As the letter is dated
October 1936, the Minton
executives may have seen
the handwriting on the wall
regarding the golf industry’s
growing predilection for steel.
However, someone thought
it a good PR move to remain
in good graces with this latest
hickory golf champion.
Curiousity led this writer to
look into the Minton Co. and
share the findings here.
The Minton family came into
southeastern Kentucky in 1914
to start a lumber business as there was an abundance
of hickory and other hardwood trees in the area. They settled upon
the Barbourville area largely because the town had made whiskey
sales illegal. The family must have looked askance upon drinking.
It employed about 75 men and initially made wooden tire
spokes for cars and trucks and for artillery carriers used in World
War I. It would diversify to include ski blanks, mostly for the
Finland market, ladder rungs, broom and mop handles, drum
sticks, horse riding crops and hickory walking canes.
A 1939 WPA Guide to Kentucky noted that, at its peak, the
Minton company produced a yearly output of 1.5 million golf
shafts. These must have been mostly sawn shafts, as it would
have taken a serious complement of workers to hand split that
much hickory for golf clubs.
According to the company’s history, Bobby Jones used Minton
shafts during his Grand Slam season in 1930. Jones also gave an
exhibition in Barbourville in 1926 during a horse show sponsored
by the Minton family and the local Kiwanis Club. Proceeds went
to the Crippled Children’s Hospital in Louisville.
Nola Minton, known to all as “Miss Nola,” added hickory
walking canes to the
company’s line. It was
said she felt no gentleman
should be without
one. She is also credited
with the idea of white
canes for the blind.
The family became
well known for its
horse breeding operations.
In time the Minton
Hickory Stable
was recognized far
and wide for producing
American Saddle
Horse champions.
Miss Nola would
become a respected
judge at horse shows,
was the first woman
inducted into the
Kentucky State Fair
Horse Show’s Hall
of Fame; was the
second woman in
the U.S. to become
an honorary member
of Kiwanis
International;
and was recognized
for her
soil conservation
and reclamation
practices.
Thanks to
George West,
assistant director
of the Knox
County Public
Library, for his help in locating information on the Minton Co.
History and Families: Knox County, Kentucky: 1799-1994
(Vol. 1, page 270, T.W. Minton & Co., by Julie Blair)
society of hickory golfers 6
spring 2012
from the pages of golfdom.
The two ads reproduced here are from
1930 issues of Golfdom, a magazine for
golf superintendents founded in 1927. It
is still publishing today and has a website:
www.golfdom.com.
spring 2012
The following is excerpted from a
1956 Saturday Evening Post article
titled “A Visit With Bobby Jones”
written by Harry Paxton, then sports
editor of the Post, and Fred Russell,
then sports editor of the Nashville
Banner.
He stays off his feet most of the
time, but can walk with the aid of two
sturdy hickory canes which bear the
same stamp – Robert T. Jones Jr. –
that he used to put on his golf clubs.
Bob is matter-of-fact about his disability.
“Here’s a right interesting
thing,” he remarked at one point,
gesturing toward the canes. “There’s
a grand old girl up in Barbourville,
Kentucky – Miss Nola Minton, used
to have a lot of wonderful show horses.
She made hickory golf-club shafts
in the old days. Well, a few years ago
she saw me with two bamboo canes
and, not long after she shipped me
these hickory canes, and she wrote
me a little note, ‘You’ve been leaning
on hickory all your life. It’s too late to
change now.’”
Speaking of hickory, we wanted
to know whether Bob considers the
change from hickory to steel shafts
the most important advance in golf
equipment today.
“Yes, I suppose that’s the main difference,”
Jones said. “But that in itself
7
is responsible for a lot of other differences.
I mean, your balancing can be
so much more accurate when you can
control the qualities of the shaft – the
capacities of it and the distribution of
weight. The steel shaft is lighter, so
you can put more weight in the head.
And the steel shaft eliminates the torsion
factor”– meaning twisting.
“But I think the main difference in
the play of steel and hickory is that
the boys nowadays can hit more nearly
all out – more nearly full power –
without running the risk of something
going wrong. The boys seem to be
hitting more with their hands than we
used to do. I think that’s the reason
they’re hitting the ball farther. I know
that the golf ball itself hasn’t got
that much additional driving power,
but people my own age, like Dick
Garlington and Charley Black and
Watts Gunn – they’re driving the ball
a good deal farther today than they
did when they were younger.”
Then he doesn’t think the golf ball
itself is much of a factor?
Jones said, “It could be some. I suppose
the modern ball has a greater
percentage of flight to roll. The ball
we used to play in the late ‘Teens was
a soft, heavy sort of small ball. On a
dry, hard fairway you could get tremendous
distance with it because it
had a lot of run.”
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