"Who was that mashie I saw you with last night?""Who was that mashie I saw you with last night?"After the advent of steel shafts in the 1920's, matched sets of golf clubs were possible. As a result of this, and to stop the confusion of trying to remember if a niblick hit a ball higher or shorter than a cleek, the manufacturers began numbering the clubs. Today, our clubs have few names; only the driver, wedges and putter still exist in popular lexicon.
So when today's golfer is faced with a term such as "spoon," he probably knows only that it was an old club. But which one, and how did they fit into a set of clubs?
Actually, there were two periods of clubs: the clubs used for feathery balls, and those used for the gutta percha ball, which was introduced in the late 1840's.
The feathery was made out of strips of leather which were stitched together, and then stuffed with boiled goose feathers. After the feathers dried, the ball became as hard as the one we use today. But it took a great amount of skilled labor to make, and was therefore quite expensive. In addition, the stitches soon gave out in wet weather, and the ball was apt to split when topped. The clubs that were used were mainly wooden, and irons were used only to get a ball out of trouble.
A golfer in the 1700's might have carried some of these clubs:
| Name of Club | Approximate Modern Equivalent | Material | |
| play club | driver | wood | |
| long spoon | 3 wood | wood | |
| middle spoon | 4 wood | wood | |
| short spoon | 5 wood | wood | |
| driving putter | wood | very little loft; used for playing low shots against the wind | |
| baffing spoon | wedge | wood | |
| baffy spoon | see baffing spoon | ||
| baff | see baffing spoon | ||
| putter | putter | wood | |
| toe iron | 2 iron | iron | |
| niblick | 9 iron | wood | used to get out of a rut |
| heavy iron | 9 iron | iron | used for trouble shots |
| scraper | 7 wood | wood | used for trouble shots |
About 1847, a substance imported from the east Indies known as Gutta Percha began to be used in the manufacture of the golf ball. At normal temperatures, it was very hard, but when heated it became very pliable and could be molded into a round shape. It had the advantage of being much less expensive than the feathery, and if you topped it with an iron, you could simply heat it up that evening and remold it; as a result, iron clubs became more prevalent, because they struck the ball more accurately and the head lasted longer than a wooden club.
These clubs remained suitable for the Haskell ball, invented around the turn of the century, and which we still use today.
A golfer in the last half of the nineteenth century or the first half of this one would carry some of these clubs.
| Name of Club | Approximate Modern Equivalent | Material | |
| play club | driver | wood | |
| grass club | driver | wood | |
| brassie | 2 Wood | wood | |
| spoon | 3 wood | wood | |
| wooden cleek | 4 wood | wood | |
| cleek | 1 iron | iron | |
| driving cleek | see cleek | ||
| driving iron | see cleek | ||
| driving mashie | 3 iron | iron | |
| mid iron | 3 iron | iron | |
| mid mashie | 3 iron | iron | |
| mashie iron | 4 iron | iron | |
| mashie | 5 iron | iron | |
| spade | 6 iron | iron | |
| mashie niblick | 7 iron | iron | |
| niblick | 9 iron | iron | |
| lofting iron | wedge | iron | |
| lofter | see lofting iron | ||
| putting cleek | putter | iron | |
| sand iron | iron | scooped face | |
| track iron | 9 iron | iron | iron used to get out of poor lies, such as a rut, sand or heavy rough |
| rut iron | see track iron | ||
| rake | 9 iron | iron | iron with vertical slots used to get out of water or sand |
| president | 9 iron | iron | iron with a hole in it to get out of watery lies |
| water club | 9 iron | iron | iron with a hole in it to get out of watery lies |
| jigger | 4 iron | iron | used for chip shots |
