Why 14 Clubs?

(Prepare yourself for the crazy history of how did we get to 14 golf clubs in our golf bag)

Chances are, you have 14 clubs in your bag—though I’d bet a few of you are sneaking in a 15th. If you’re a fan of the TalkinGolf History Podcast or this newsletter, you’ve probably wondered: How the hell did we land on 14 clubs? After all, 14 isn’t exactly an obvious number. Wouldn’t 10 make more sense? Or maybe a clean dozen? Even 15 feels more intuitive. So how did we get here?

Today we dive into the origin of the 14 club rule- what was life before the 1938 rule and why did the ruling bodies think it was necessary.

In the early days of the game, technology was the limiting factor to the number of golf clubs needed to play this game. In the days of the feathery golf ball (a golf ball made of leather and stuffed with goose feathers), golfers played fewer clubs because the ball didn’t fly as far and they played with very few, if any irons.

The famed Troon Clubs, held in the possession of the R&A, are believed to be the oldest surviving set of golf clubs. Initially, they were thought to have belonged to King James I, but this theory has since been debunked. Current research suggests they were crafted in the mid-1700s. The set consists of eight clubs, though it is possible that only six were originally intended for play, with the remaining two play clubs (think driver) serving as backups.

To gain further insight into historical golf equipment, let’s examine what is arguably the earliest known portrait of a golfer with a full set of clubs. This painting, created by Lemuel Francis Abbott, R.A., circa 1778, depicts Mr. William Innes, Captain of The Royal Blackheath Golf Club. Below is a close-up of the print, which resides in the Golffice Museum.

If we count Captain Innes’ clubs from this 1778 portrait, we have a grand total of 9 wooden clubs.

Fast forward about 70 years, and we arrive at the end of the feathery ball era. In what many consider the “Mona Lisa of Golf Art”—Charles Lees’ The Golfers—we see that the number of clubs in play has remained largely unchanged.

Among the golfers and their caddies in The Golfers, it appears that players in the match are using approximately 7 to 9 clubs.

Nearly two decades later, Charles Lees captured another iconic golf scene. In 1859—well into the gutta-percha ball era—he painted what Scotland’s Herald Newspaper once called “the world’s most important painting”: A Summer’s Evening at Musselburgh Links.

Examining the golfers and their caddies in this masterpiece, completed just one year before the first Open Championship, we see no noticeable shift in club usage. One golfer appears to be playing with five clubs, while another carries six or seven.

Now, let’s fast forward roughly 35 years to the plating of the 1895 Open Championship at St Andrews. A close-up of Michael Brown’s painting captures a defining moment, depicting most, if not all, of the living Open champions, with J.H. Taylor poised to strike his approach shot.

The image appears to show J.H. Taylor, alongside his caddy, playing with a set of eight clubs. Taylor had won the previous year’s Open and would go on to successfully defend his title in 1895.

And if you have any doubts about my counting skills, we’re in luck—there exists a preserved image of the very set of clubs Taylor used to secure his five Open Championship victories.

The Golf Ball

With the move to the gutta percha (gutty) ball, in the 1850s, iron clubs came into fashion and became the dominant club in the bag. A major shift from the feathery era. That being said, the one thing these two eras had in common, both should be regarded as the “Dead Ball Era” of golf.

A mere four years later the “Live Ball Era” kicked off with the invention of the Haskell Ball.

As we’ve discussed in past newsletters, the Haskell Ball was the innovation that revolutionized golf. Early adopters gained a staggering 30 to 40 yards over their competitors, making it arguably the most influential technological advancement in the sport’s history. This leap in performance not only transformed the game, but also redefined the distance gaps between clubs.

The shift didn’t happen overnight, but as drives extended from 200 yards in the gutty era to 250+ yards in the Haskell era, the need for more specialized clubs became evident. With greater distance came larger gaps between a player’s woods and irons, leading to the introduction of new clubs in the early 20th century. Clubs like the mid-iron, mashie iron, spade mashie, and mashie niblick emerged as essential “tweener” clubs, bridging the gaps created by the long-established lofts of the gutty era.

Even a decade into the Haskell Ball Era there was no consensus of how many clubs were ideal. Francis Ouimet won the 1913 US Open with 11 clubs and Chick Evans famously won the 1916 US Amateur and U.S. Open with only seven clubs, prompting my favorite quote regarding the use of fewer clubs over many. When Bobby Jones was asked what he thought of Chuck Evans winning in 1916 with seven clubs he remarked, “I suppose it’s better to be a master of seven clubs, than vaguely familiar with fourteen.”

In the 1920s, Bobby Jones typically carried around 14 clubs in his bag . However, during the first half of his historic Grand Slam in 1930, he briefly added a 15th club—a Walter Hagen Concave Sand Wedge, a gift from Horton Smith earlier that year.

As the decade came to a close and the 1930s began, golf bags started to swell with an increasing number of clubs. No golfer embodied this trend more than Lawson Little. Though his name is less recognized today, Little was one of the most famous golfers of the mid-1930s, taking up the mantle of amateur excellence from Bobby Jones.

In 1934, Little won both the British Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, then remarkably repeated the feat in 1935, securing back-to-back victories in both championships. This extraordinary achievement became known as The Little Slam. However, despite his name, there was nothing “little” about his golf bag—his collection of clubs was as expansive as his dominance on the course.

Lawson Little’s oversized bag often contained more than 30 clubs. He frequently carried multiple drivers, a 3-wood, 4-wood, and 5-wood—sometimes even a specialty wood—along with a full set of irons, additional specialty irons, and nearly an entire left-handed set in case he needed to hit a shot from the opposite side.

While Little is often blamed for prompting the 14-club rule, he was far from the only offender. Another notorious club-hoarder was Harry “Lighthorse” Cooper, who was well known for lugging around 25 to 30 clubs, giving caddies everywhere a reason to groan.

So who is to blame for the 14 club rule?

Most golf historians will tell you that Lawson Little is to blame and while he certainly wasn’t innocent, we know for a fact that he wasn’t the the straw that broke the camel’s back.

How do we know- we are lucky enough to actually have a quote from the USGA President, Harold Pierce who made the final decision.

“…it was not until I saw Walter Hagen emerge from the locker building at Baltusrol with an array of equipment numbering six wooden clubs and a proportionate supply of irons that I personally was convinced that something had to be done about it promptly.

I don't mean to say that Hagen was the greatest offender or the only offender, for he was closely rivaled in this respect by most of the leading professionals and a number of leading amateurs. But, I believe, he was the first to increase his wood club supply to six.”

USGA President, Harold Pierce

In 1938 the USGA enacted the 14 club rule, limiting the number of clubs a golfer can carry to 14 clubs.

But why 14 clubs?

There’s a unsubstantiated story that the USGA and R&A drew inspiration from a gentlemen’s agreement struck prior to the playing of the 1936 Walker Cup at Pine Valley. The story goes that Bobby Jones struck an agreement with the UK’s Tony Torrance, that the golfers competing in the 1936 Walker Cup would be limited to 14 clubs.

At the time of the writing of this newsletter, I haven’t found any concrete proof of this gentlemen’s agreement. In the process of researching this story I did a historical database check, asked the grandson of Bob Jones & two of the sons of players in that 1936 Walker Cup and came up with nothing. Until further notice I will be chalking this story up to folklore rather than fact. If I stumble across real proof I will give an update.

More likely, the USGA relied on simple math. At the time, most golfers carried three to four woods, leaving room for about eight to nine irons plus a putter. With the added distance provided by the wound ball, this setup naturally created consistent 10-yard gaps between clubs, making 14 a logical and practical limit.

So that is the history of the clubs in your golf bag.

We Need Your Help

We are working to formalize the Society of Golf Historians and with it we plan to design and build a repository for golf history.

To do this we will need to raise funds.

We will be offering an annual membership category and a lifetime membership category to the Society of Golf Historians, but first we will be holding a golf auction to help us raise funds.

If you belong to a historic golf club please consider donating a foursome or threesome to our auction. I may also auction off a couple of wildcard golf rounds with me at some of my favorite golf courses.

If you are interested you can shoot me an email at [email protected].

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. If you enjoyed it, please share with your friends and family. If you have ideas for future newsletters or podcasts please let me know. Until then…

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T. Lewis