Whether you need an old name for a type ofgolf club for your morning crossword or you’re just a golf enthusiastwanting to learn as much as possible about the sport, this post will go throughall of the known old names for golf clubs. From putters to irons to drivers, these are all the old golf club names ever used.
Perhaps the following names shouldn’t come as a surprise in a sport withsuch unusual nomenclature. After all, hitting a Miss Piggy or pulling a SaddamHussain aren’t things you can do while playing any other sport. By the way, aMiss Piggy is a shot during which the clubhead hits the turf behind the ball,leading to poor contact, but because of either outside conditions or just pureluck the ball lands on the green. As for the Saddam Hussein, it refers to ashot that takes you from bunker to bunker.
Before we jump straight into the list, it’s interesting to note that thegame of golf, previously known by such diverse names as goiff, gowfe or golve, originated in Scotland during the High Medieval Period,with King James IV of Scotland becoming the first monarch to partake in thepastime in the 1400s.
Old Golf ClubNames:
1. Grass Club, Long Club,Play Club, Hickory Shafted Driver - these are all obsolete names for adriver,the biggest club in a golfer’s bag.
2. Brassie, Scraper - this is the old namefor a type of golf club which most resembles the modern 2-wood, a typeof club which rarely finds a place in golfers’ bags nowadays.
3. Long Spoon - the outdated name for 3-wood clubs.
4. Baffie, Baffing Spoon - both oldfashioned golf club names for woods with higher lofts than the 3-wood.
5. Middle Spoon, Wooden Cleek - this is what 4-woods were knownas before the 19th century.
6. Short Spoon - the modern equivalent of the short spoon wouldbe the 5-wood. The earliest short spoons had clubfaces shaped like, wait forit, spoons. Short spoon clubfaces varied in their degree of concavity mainlydue to the fact that golf clubs only started being mass produced during theearly 20thcentury.
7. Wooden Head - this was the name given to a type ofold-fashioned golf club which achieved much the same function as modern 7, 8,and 9-woods.
8. Heavy Iron – the archaic name forgolf clubs which featured iron clubheads.
9. Cleek - this is probably the most ancient name for a golf club, which mostresembles today’s 1 and 2-irons. The first mention of a cleek was used in themid-15th century.
10. Driving Iron - the 1-iron, now rendered practically obsoleteby more forgiving modern clubs, was known by this name until the 19thcentury.
11. Mid-mashie–this is the previous name for a golf clubwhich corresponds to the modern 3-iron. Interestingly, the word ‘mashie’ comesfrom the French ‘massue’, meaning club.
12. Mashie Iron – the mashie iron, sometimes shortened to just ‘mashie’,was the name used until the 19th century for a club which mostresembled the modern 4-iron in loft.
13. Mashie - this is an old namefor a golf club used for approach shots. The modern equivalent of thiswould be the 5-iron club.
14. Spade Mashie - this is what the6-iron club used to be called back in the day.
15. MashieNiblick - this fun moniker was used for a club which was equivalent in use to the modern7-iron.
16. Pitching Niblick – this is the old way to refer to a golf club which achieved the same function as the modern 8-iron, orshort iron.
17. Niblick – the old name for a sortof golf club which corresponds to the 9-irons golfers around the worlduse nowadays.
18. Sand Iron – as the name suggests, this was the name for a type of club used to hit those trickybunker shots where the ball is lodged in sand; this is usually the heaviestclub in a modern golfer’s bag.
19. Track Iron, Rut Iron, Rutter–All old name for a golf club which wasused in much the same way that modern small headedwedges are used by today’sgolfers.
20. Jigger – this old golf clubname refers to a short-shafted club with low loft which was used in thesame way the modern chipper is.
21. Putting Cleek – we’re finally on the green and it’s time to holethis thing. In the olden days golfers would use a putting cleek for shots fromthe green, however, nowadays we call this club aputter.
We hope you enjoyed reading the most comprehensive list of old names for golf clubs on the internet; nowyou’ll be able to wow everyone else on the golf course with your newly gainedesoteric golf knowledge. If your interest in obsolete golf nomenclature wassparked by a pesky crossword, you’ll no doubt find the above list of namesuseful. Finally, be sure to use modern club names when searching for new golf clubs to add to yourcollection. And if you’re interested in learning things like how long golf clubs last or how to clean your golf clubs, go ahead and check outour other blog posts.
