PRE-WAR GOLFERS USED MORE THAN FOURTEEN CLUBS

E-mail from D Neal Stewart

  Reference the Kirkwoodgolf story about Stanford University's male golf team using push carts (trolleys) at the NCAA championships and the statement that carrying your clubs could be bad for your back.
"While I don't argue with Dr Wolkodoff in terms of the merits of using a cart rather than carrying clubs, I take issue with his statement that implies
that historically golfers always used fewer clubs than modern day players.
 It was only in 1939 that the rule was introduced to limit the maximum number of clubs to 14 "to prevent golfers using inordinate numbers of clubs and to promote individual skill.
"In fact, Lawson Little was reputed to have had 31 clubs in his bag when he won the British Amateur in 1935 and was known to regularly use 25 clubs during a round.
I think the major benficiaries of this change of rule would have been the caddies of the day.

  D Neal Stewart