Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Robert Forgan and Son
St Andrews

Robert Forgan, in addition to his claim to fame as the great-grandfather of our webmaster, began making clubs, as a joiner, in St Andrews in 1852 in Hugh Philp's shop. Some early clubs are marked "Philp Forgan". He succeeded Philp in 1856 and started trading under his own name. He is credited, by some at least, with the innovation of fixing the ram's horn edge guard (the "slip" or "bone") to the sole with angled hickory pegs. Both the evidence of earlier clubs and the practicality of not having an angled peg (it would go through the face in a lofted club) make this unlikely.

His youngest son, Thomas, joined the business in 1881.

He made a set of clubs for the Prince of Wales in 1863 (to commemorate HRH being made Captain of the R&A) for which the firm was later given a royal warrant and the right to display the Prince's crest of three plumed ostrich feathers on his clubs. When the Prince became Edward VII in 1901 the device changed to a crown.

If you ever went to the St Andrews Woollen Mill when visiting the town then you have been in the old Forgan factory. The photograph on our Catalogue page shows the factory in its heyday.

There are further pictures and a longer piece on Forgan in the History section.

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