The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast · Shane Derby

The Ancient Arts of Golf with Iain Forrester

·1 hr 34 min·5 clips

Ian Forrester has won four German, three French, four Dutch, and two European hickory titles.

Shane Derby opens the conversation by introducing Ian Forrester as a figure closely tied to hickory golf and club restoration. Forrester’s role as head professional at Hohenshoes Golf and Country Club in Limburg in the Netherlands gives the discussion a practical grounding instead of leaving it as pure history. He describes the kind of PGA professional who stays adaptable, keeps learning, and still finds a niche that makes the work distinctive. That niche is rooted in maintaining and preserving the history of golf, especially the version played with wooden hickory clubs. Forrester repairs and restores hickory equipment for collectors. He also supplies sets for hickory events throughout Europe. Beyond that, he has written extensively about hickory golf and golf history more broadly. Derby uses the conversation to draw listeners into the logic of the old game. They discuss how players used a cut shot to help the ball stop more quickly. Forrester explains that older reports and books often refer to a "pool" shot. In that older usage, the term does not mean the thing most modern listeners would first assume. It refers to what contemporary golfers would call a draw or a hook. That shot helped the ball chase down fairways. The pair also talks about why hickory golf can make ball-shaping feel more natural than modern play. Forrester points out that modern clubs tend to push everything toward a straighter flight. He does not suggest that is easy for everyone. Even so, he treats the extra movement as part of the fun and part of the creativity. Derby broadens the frame by naming places and people that may help listeners find their way into the hickory world, from Warwickshire to Melbourne to UK auctions and the limited Irish market. The talk closes with a warm nod to golf writing and the places that stay with people who care deeply about the subject.

As heard by us

A focused hickory-golf conversation about restoration, shot-making, and the old game in use.

Shane Derby spends the episode on hickory golf, with Ian Forrester doing the practical work of keeping the older game alive. The talk stays close to restoration, old equipment, and the plain effort it takes to put those clubs back on the course.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want hickory golf explained by someone who actually restores the clubs.

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