Interesting article from 1922 - a young Gene Sarazen taking the golf world by storm

[inthehole]

Just googling around this morning - found this really interesting article from 1922.    Gene Sarazen was just coming up & was regarded similar to Spieth today - the young gun rising to the top.    A couple things that I didn't know ... seems like they sometimes played 2 rounds a day.   And the last part of the article was the scandalous use of steel shafted clubs for the first time and how the officials couldn't find a rule to outlaw them  ... amazing to me they were able to score as low as they did with the old hickory shafted clubs...

[SavvySwede]

And the last part of the article was the scandalous use of steel shafted clubs for the first time and how the officials couldn't find a rule to outlaw them  ... amazing to me they were able to score as low as they did with the old hickory shafted clubs...

Weird because from what I've read the USGA didn't legalize steel shafts until 1924 and the R&A; didn't allow them until 1929. Seems the situation was quite a bit murkier than that.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inthehole

And the last part of the article was the scandalous use of steel shafted clubs for the first time and how the officials couldn't find a rule to outlaw them  ... amazing to me they were able to score as low as they did with the old hickory shafted clubs...

Weird because from what I've read the USGA didn't legalize steel shafts until 1924 and the R&A; didn't allow them until 1929. Seems the situation was quite a bit murkier than that.

The general trend of the rules has always been in the direction of "If it isn't prohibited, then it is allowed."  The exceptions are the conforming ball and driver lists, but I believe that they were developed much later than the event this article covers.   The club descriptions simply didn't contemplate that steel shafts might be used yet at the that time.