Hickory Lane Featherie Golf Balls

07/22/2024

We are busy making balls for the 2024 Michiana Featherie Challenge on Saturday, August 17 at the Studebaker Golf Club in South Bend, Indiana. This event precedes the 2024 Michiana Hickory Open Championship on Sunday, August 18 on Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame.

If you've never tried featherie golf, this is a great opportunity: just $35 for 18 holes or $25 for 9 holes. A featherie ball is included in the registration cost.

Registrations will be limited, so please sign up soon. See https://bit.ly/4d9gm29 for more information and the registration form.

09/27/2023

We're off to Scotland again in October, so production of featheries will pause for a bit. But to thank you for your patience, we'd like to extend a special offer to you:

Place your feather ball order in October 2023 through hickorylanefeatherie.com, and we'll take care of the shipping costs. Balls ordered during October will be delivered in November, in plenty of time for holiday gifts.

09/08/2023

It can be tough to find a golf course that has the right combination of length, topography, and design for featherie golf.

So we've started a list of courses that are already vetted as featherie-friendly by knowledgable golfers. See the growing list at https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/post/where-to-play-featherie-golf?referral=business-feed

You can help this resource grow! If you enjoy a featherie-friendly course, please email answers to the six questions below to [email protected]. Your information will be added to the list.

1. Name and city/state/country of golf course
2. Relevant course history
3. Total yardage of course (An ideal feather course should be approximately 1,500 yards in length, with holes that are under 200 yards. But you can tailor lengths by moving tees forward.)
4. 9 or 18 holes?
5. Positive or negative design/play factors? (For example, any forced carries? Can you bounce and run the ball to the green?)
6. How likely would it be to lose a featherie ball here? Use a rating of 1 through 5, 1 being very unlikely and 5 being very likely.

Thank you in advance for spreading the historic game! And thank you to , , , , and for getting the list started.

05/31/2023

Father's Day is Sunday, June 18. If you'd like a unique and already wrapped gift for any of the great dads in your life, please place your featherie order asap to allow enough time for production and shipping.

04/24/2023

We're often asked if we ship overseas, and indeed, we do!

We just shipped to a UK customer and are working on another order destined for Germany. Another customer has ordered feather balls that he will surprise his golf buddies with on their upcoming trip to Scotland.

We're happy to provide shipping costs and schedules. Inquire here or go to our website and scroll to the bottom of the home page to send a message: https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/.

04/19/2023

The 2023 Spring Oddball was our largest outing ever, with the most rounds of featherie golf, and even our first female player. The weather was great, and the company was even better. Thank you to all!

04/10/2023

We're just a few days away from The Oddball, which this year promises to be something extra special: featherie and gutty golfers from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, and Canada, all gathering in fellowship and fun, with many meeting in person for the first time. Safe travels to everyone!

03/12/2023

Now available on the Hickory Lane Featherie blog:
Golf Fashion for Male Golfers and Spectators, 1800–1899.

If you play featherie or gutty golf, or would like to get involved, this is a great way to get up-to-speed on your clothing options. We've included plenty of illustrations, too, as well as historical context.

Jackets, waistcoats, shirts, neckwear, leg coverings, socks, shoes, head coverings, accessories, and outerwear are examined.

Please read and share with hickory friends:

The following article and its sister,” "Golf Fashion for Female Golfers and Spectators, 1800–1899," were inspired by a vlog created by Christian Williams, aka The Hickory Hacker, on what to wear when playing hickory golf. The lessons Christian has learned in his extensive historic golf experienc...

03/01/2023

Neckwear is a simple and inexpensive way to dial in your featherie or gutty golf outfit. Learn what to wear for 1800–1899 golf at our latest blog at https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/post/mens-neckwear-1800-to-1899.

This project was inspired by a “what to wear when playing historic golf” vlog created by Christian Williams, aka, The Hickory Hacker. Certainly no one in the world plays more historic golf than Christian, and his recommendations are practical, affordable, and well-informed. You can view this specific vlog at https://youtu.be/VBZz91ySQ_Y.

For the neckwear article, please see https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQg4slPRJ5/

02/22/2023

The flat cap is not just a familiar part of the featherie and gutty golf outfit: it has been part of the working man's uniform in the UK since the late 1500s.

Learn the history and varieties of this unique headgear in our latest blog entry, "The Ancient and Ubiquitous Flat Cap," at
https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/post/the-ancient-and-ubiquitous-flat-cap

This article offers a taste of two larger Hickory Lane projects: "Golf Fashion for Female Golfers and Spectators, 1800–1899," (which has already been published on our website) and "Golf Fashion for Male Golfers and Spectators, 1800–1899" (still in development). These are in-depth, illustrated articles created to help featherie and gutty golfers pull together era-appropriate clothing.

This project was inspired by a “what to wear when playing historic golf” vlog created by Christian Williams, aka, The Hickory Hacker. Certainly no one in the world plays more historic golf than Christian, and his recommendations are practical, affordable, and well-informed. You can view this specific vlog at https://youtu.be/VBZz91ySQ_Y.

02/22/2023

This is a very curious artifact: a gutty ball from the 1840s incised with seam lines so that it resembles a featherie ball. It’s thought to have been created by the Rev. Robert Paterson and/or his half-brother John, the inventors of the homogeneous golf ball. This rare ball sold for £6,000 at auction in 1994. (Photo from the book Golf Implements and Memorabilia, used with permission of co-author Kevin McGimpsey.)

02/22/2023

One of the first questions we get from people new to featherie or gutty golf is, "What do I wear?" To answer those questions, we've created a new blog entry, "Golf Fashion for Golfers and Spectators, 1800–1899." There will eventually be two articles—one for women and one for men—each with plenty of illustrations, photos, and research.

Because there are so few women involved in historic golf, we are releasing the ladies article first. Please share it with your significant other and friends to help get them started. (The men's article is still in development and will be released as soon as possible.)

You can read the new article at https://www.hickorylanefeatherie.com/post/golf-fashion-for-female-golfers-and-spectators-1800-1899.

(Photo credit: The Met.)