Blast from the past on Scottish golf course

By Oliver Farrimond

SCOTLAND played host to a PGA World Open Championship yesterday – with a twist.

Ditching their high-tech modern equipment, amateurs and pros alike donned plus-fours and wooden clubs to play the game like it was played in the 1930s.

With a £12,500 prize up for grabs, almost 150 competitors flocked to Gullane Golf Club in East Lothian for the PGA World Hickory Open Championship.

Players from all corners of the globe were represented, with Hickory champs from Germany and Sweden up against former PGA winners, including former Italian Open winner Dean Robertson.

Lionel Freedman, chairman and founder of the World Hickory Open, said that golfers were welcoming the opportunity to play the game as it was played 100 years ago.

HICKORY GOLF CLUBS SELL IN CHINA

By Karrie Gillett

A SCOTS collector has sold 7,000 antique golf clubs to a Chinese businessman for a massive £120,000.

The haul is thought to be the largest-ever collection of hickory clubs, with all the items dating back to before 1930.

John Dixon, of Edinburgh-based dealers Georgian Antiques, picked up the putters, drivers and irons over a period of 12 years from auctions and specialist shops.