Hickory Champ Denied Opportunity To Play His Old, Technologically Inferior Clubs

Peter Stone with the story of Perry Somers, acclaimed Australian hickory golfer, who wanted to use his decrepit ancient sticks in the Australian PGA this year, but was told they were non-conforming and therefore he won't be playing.

Tommy Moore, the octogenarian curator of the Australian Golf Heritage Museum at Granville, has inquired of the PGA whether Somers might get an invite to play using hickory-shafted clubs. The answer is ''no''.

Graeme Scott, PGA tournament manager, has told Moore that Somers would be disqualified under The Rules of Golf that state the grooves of the clubface of irons must be parallel. As Moore points out, a craftsman using his eyes and a metal stamp and an anvil most probably did the grooves on hickory irons manually. Getting the lines parallel would be more luck than skill.

It would be fascinating to see the difference, either large or small, between the new technology and the clubs with which the game was created. Somers wouldn't win the PGA Championship. If he did, it would be surely a story for the century - and isn't that what this year is all about?

Shouldn't playing hickories in competitive events be a little like modern copyright law? Any golf club made or designed before, oh, let's say 1930, is fair use?

Here's a nice story on Somers planning to play his hickories in last year's Australian Senior Open.