Club making came of age with the invention of the "feathery" ball in the early 18th century. Clubs no longer had to withstand the impact of striking a solid wooden ball and exquisite wooden clubs could be fashioned from ash, thorn, apple and pear wood. Clubs then were made of wood because iron would cause too much damage to the delicate "feathery". When the gutta percha ball appeared in 1848, iron head clubs began to surface. The irons were more suited to the gutta percha ball however and wooden club makers had begun searching for harder materials to make clubs out of.

Golf clubs with heads like those as shown above were a familiar sight at the turn of the century.

By the turn of the century, the Americans had not only produced the Haskell ball but also began to dominate the market for golf clubs. They used persimmon and dogwood in the making of these new clubs and hickory replaced ash in the new shalfs. From that time until the present day, the Americans still continue to lead in the production of top quality golf clubs, although more recently, the Japanese have started cutting into the lead.

A golf club advertisement from the earlier part of the 20th century.

A lot of controversy has also arisen as a result of improving club technology. In 1949, the Americans protested that the grooves on the British player's irons for the Ryder Cup match at Ganton were too deep. Ben Hogen, the US captain requested that the clubfaces be filed down and his wish was granted. In 1977, Tom Watson was in the center of controversy when it was reviewed that the clubs which he had won so many championships with had grooves that contravented regulations.

These clubs from the late 19th century are made out of beech wood.

Putters used to be made of wood but less so after the invention of the gutta percha ball when iron heads became the vogue. They come in all sorts of unusual shapes and styles - some with mirrors attached or even with wheels and rollers. These crazy designs were legal and some even performed impressively. The two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer has used a putter that had three plastic balls attached in line behind the head, Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters with one that resembled a vaccum cleaner.

These days, there is no longer a simple distinction between wood and iron clubs. Nowadays, both type of clubs have a wide range of shalfs, anything from steel to graphite and aluminium, each with different swingweights, flexpoints and kickpoints. Woods nowadays do not neccessaily have a wooden head. The head could be made of metal, graphite, plastic or something more exotic like the bullet-proof headed driver with a titanium shalf that John Daly used in the 1991 US PGA Championship.