A shot-by-shot hickory golf course vlog featuring hickory golfer Christian Williams turning back the clock to 1900 for a round of gutty golf at Roseland Golf Course in Woodstock, CT.
“Gutty golf” was the name of the game at the turn of the century when the irons were smooth-faced and the balls were made from a tree resin called gutta percha. Eventually, the more player-friendly characteristics of the rubber-cored Haskell ball made solid gutta percha balls obsolete, ushering in equipment characteristics more familiar to modern golfers like scored faces and mesh or dimple-patterned balls.
Roseland Golf Course opened in 1896 and was one of the oldest golf courses in Connecticut before closing in October, 2020. A par 34 nine-holer playing 2,337 yards, it was the ideal length for gutty golf and the shorter distance shots you get when hitting a gutty ball.
While McIntyre Golf Co. makes a synthetic, line-cut gutta percha ball that’s about as close to the real deal as you’re going to get, I opted for their less expensive but still period-correct Vardon Flyer limited flight bramble ball for this round. Check out their outstanding lineup of playable hickory golf balls at
What’s under my arm for this round:
– David Kinnell splice-neck brassie, 15 degrees, D7 (circa 1908 – not a period-correct gutty club)
– A.H. Findlay iron, 28 degrees, D6 (circa 1900)
– Dame, Stoddard Co. lofter, 40 degrees, D5 (circa 1900)
– Spalding Harry Vardon small-head niblick, 51 degrees, G+ (circa 1900)
– Tom Stewart pre-registration putting cleek (pre 1904)
