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Date: 02 Feb 2007 12:53:49
From:
Subject: Is it a brassie, a cleek or a mashie?
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I just love the old Scottish names for golf clubs and, apart from the
use of the words 'driver', 'puttter' and 'wedge' , I am disappointed
to see them all becoming extinct.
I would love to know the origin of all of these words and, although
'driver' and 'putter' seem to be self explanatory, perhaps some of you
out there know more. Please post here if you can add anything to my
vague research.
Let me start with the woods which would have probably had persimmon
heads and hickory shafts when these names were being used (pre-20th
century).
#1 wood - Driver, used to drive the ball as far as possible out on the
fairway.
#2 wood - Brassie, probably so named because of the brass sole plate.
#3 wood - Spoon, so named because their clubfaces were concave (shaped
like a spoon)
#4 wood- Baffy, I am open to suggestions here...
Now lets turn to the other legend golf clubs, the irons. Once again,
originally pre-20th century with hickory shafts and iron heads
#1 - Driving Iron, Cleek, This was more often an iron club head but
the wooden version could have been an ancestor of the new hybrid/
rescues.
#2 - Cleek, Mid iron, open to suggestions here...
#3 - Mid-Mashie, open to suggestions here...
#4 - Jigger, Mashie Iron, open to suggestions here...
#5 - Mashie, open to suggestions here...
#6 - Spade Mashie, open to suggestions here...
#7 - Mashie-Niblick, open to suggestions here...
#8 - Pitching Mashie, open to suggestions here...
#9 - Niblick, Baffing Spoon, open to suggestions here...
#10 - Wedge, Jigger, open to suggestions here...
#Putter or putting cleek, open to suggestions here...
I do appologise for the lack of definitions but I hope that some of
you can fill in the blanks on these.
I wish I had listened to my grandfather all those years ago when he
talked to me about the old golf words. He insisted that for most par
4's if he could put his drives within range of his favourite 'baffing
spoon', he would normally make par or better.
These days we talk about 'a drive and a wedge' but I think 'a brassie
and a baffing spoon' is much more colourful.
To finish, perhaps there is a book or website that has details on
this. Does anyone know?
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Date: 03 Feb 2007 07:44:46
From: p4o2
Subject: Re: Is it a brassie, a cleek or a mashie?
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Thor wrote:
> On Feb 2, 3:53 pm, pmch...@online.de wrote:
> > I just love the old Scottish names for golf clubs and, apart from the
> > use of the words 'driver', 'puttter' and 'wedge' , I am disappointed
> > to see them all becoming extinct.
> >
> > I would love to know the origin of all of these words and, although
> > 'driver' and 'putter' seem to be self explanatory, perhaps some of you
> > out there know more. Please post here if you can add anything to my
> > vague research.
> >
> > Let me start with the woods which would have probably had persimmon
> > heads and hickory shafts when these names were being used (pre-20th
> > century).
> >
> > #1 wood - Driver, used to drive the ball as far as possible out on the
> > fairway.
> >
> > #2 wood - Brassie, probably so named because of the brass sole plate.
> >
> > #3 wood - Spoon, so named because their clubfaces were concave (shaped
> > like a spoon)
> >
> > #4 wood- Baffy, I am open to suggestions here...
> >
> > Now lets turn to the other legend golf clubs, the irons. Once again,
> > originally pre-20th century with hickory shafts and iron heads
> >
> > #1 - Driving Iron, Cleek, This was more often an iron club head but
> > the wooden version could have been an ancestor of the new hybrid/
> > rescues.
> >
> > #2 - Cleek, Mid iron, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #3 - Mid-Mashie, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #4 - Jigger, Mashie Iron, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #5 - Mashie, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #6 - Spade Mashie, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #7 - Mashie-Niblick, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #8 - Pitching Mashie, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #9 - Niblick, Baffing Spoon, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #10 - Wedge, Jigger, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > #Putter or putting cleek, open to suggestions here...
> >
> > I do appologise for the lack of definitions but I hope that some of
> > you can fill in the blanks on these.
> >
> > I wish I had listened to my grandfather all those years ago when he
> > talked to me about the old golf words. He insisted that for most par
> > 4's if he could put his drives within range of his favourite 'baffing
> > spoon', he would normally make par or better.
> >
> > These days we talk about 'a drive and a wedge' but I think 'a brassie
> > and a baffing spoon' is much more colourful.
> >
> > To finish, perhaps there is a book or website that has details on
> > this. Does anyone know?
>
> I don't know of such a website, but from etymonline.com:
>
> "five iron," 1881, from Scot., probably from Fr. massue "club," from
> V.L. *mattiuca, from L. mateola "a tool for digging" (see mace (1)).
>
> -- Thor
The 3-wood has the brass plate not the 2-wood (but the 2 is called the
brassey ..go figure..)
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Date: 03 Feb 2007 05:49:05
From: Thor
Subject: Re: Is it a brassie, a cleek or a mashie?
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On Feb 2, 3:53 pm, pmch...@online.de wrote:
> I just love the old Scottish names for golf clubs and, apart from the
> use of the words 'driver', 'puttter' and 'wedge' , I am disappointed
> to see them all becoming extinct.
>
> I would love to know the origin of all of these words and, although
> 'driver' and 'putter' seem to be self explanatory, perhaps some of you
> out there know more. Please post here if you can add anything to my
> vague research.
>
> Let me start with the woods which would have probably had persimmon
> heads and hickory shafts when these names were being used (pre-20th
> century).
>
> #1 wood - Driver, used to drive the ball as far as possible out on the
> fairway.
>
> #2 wood - Brassie, probably so named because of the brass sole plate.
>
> #3 wood - Spoon, so named because their clubfaces were concave (shaped
> like a spoon)
>
> #4 wood- Baffy, I am open to suggestions here...
>
> Now lets turn to the other legend golf clubs, the irons. Once again,
> originally pre-20th century with hickory shafts and iron heads
>
> #1 - Driving Iron, Cleek, This was more often an iron club head but
> the wooden version could have been an ancestor of the new hybrid/
> rescues.
>
> #2 - Cleek, Mid iron, open to suggestions here...
>
> #3 - Mid-Mashie, open to suggestions here...
>
> #4 - Jigger, Mashie Iron, open to suggestions here...
>
> #5 - Mashie, open to suggestions here...
>
> #6 - Spade Mashie, open to suggestions here...
>
> #7 - Mashie-Niblick, open to suggestions here...
>
> #8 - Pitching Mashie, open to suggestions here...
>
> #9 - Niblick, Baffing Spoon, open to suggestions here...
>
> #10 - Wedge, Jigger, open to suggestions here...
>
> #Putter or putting cleek, open to suggestions here...
>
> I do appologise for the lack of definitions but I hope that some of
> you can fill in the blanks on these.
>
> I wish I had listened to my grandfather all those years ago when he
> talked to me about the old golf words. He insisted that for most par
> 4's if he could put his drives within range of his favourite 'baffing
> spoon', he would normally make par or better.
>
> These days we talk about 'a drive and a wedge' but I think 'a brassie
> and a baffing spoon' is much more colourful.
>
> To finish, perhaps there is a book or website that has details on
> this. Does anyone know?
I don't know of such a website, but from etymonline.com:
"five iron," 1881, from Scot., probably from Fr. massue "club," from
V.L. *mattiuca, from L. mateola "a tool for digging" (see mace (1)).
-- Thor
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