What has changed since the beginning of golf? Everything has changed, from the courses to the players, but most of all, it's the equipment used. Every player wants to improve his or her game so the industry makes better equipment for players to use. Golf equipment has changed a great deal since the start of the game. .
Golf is known to have started sometime in the 14th century in Britain. The only people who played where kings and queens. 1729, inventor William Burnet made ten golf clubs, one iron, and seven dozen balls. A golfer played with a group of clubs, mostly woods, and perhaps an iron or two. The shape and style of clubs has changed very little from earliest times until the mid-nineteenth century. (Early Golf Clubs and Balls, 2) .
Specialist joiners who also made other sporting equipment made the original woods, or clubs used for long distances in the present game. (Early Golf, 4) As stated from the document "Early Golf Clubs and Balls" by Robert Gowland, one historian has calculated that wooden clubs lasted only about twelve rounds of golf. Wooden clubs required two properties: a head sufficiently hard to withstand successive hits on the ball and a spring or whippy shaft. (5) As one can tell, golf clubs did not last long. They where very expensive, thus royalty were the only people who took part in golf. .
Irons were regarded as trouble clubs. They where used playing out of the rough or off sand, where graceful long-necked woods would simply have broken if used. Irons cost several times more than woods, but lasted much longer. The difference between woods and irons was the head of irons where hammered out of iron, not wood. The face had a curved, dished face, which promoted easy lofting of the ball. Because iron heads were so heavy, they required shafts that where thicker and stiffer than those on woods. (Early Gold Clubs and Balls, 10) .
Written by Robert Gowland in "Earliest Golf Clubs and Balls", the earliest golf balls were made of solid boxwood, but feather-stuffed balls of rawhide superseded these.
