ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN HEAD-COVERS

They’re the most visible item in the golf bag. They protect your most valuable golfing assets and behind the golf ball, they’re the thing most likely to be lost on a golf course. But even with all that, the humble golf club head-cover is still a bit of an enigma. 

There can be few things more frustrating for instance, than someone wrestling with a stuffed alligator on a fairway that you could have striped your tee-shot down ten minutes ago. But Tiger Woods won’t sign a contract with anybody either, if it means that his Driver isn’t covered by a soft toy called Frank that his mother gave to him as a cub.

For some, the head-cover is a freebie that will rot until its last thread. For others, it’s a highly personal representation of who they are and what the game of golf means to them.

A STORY A CENTURY IN THE MAKING

The earliest records of head-covers date back to the early 1900s, although you’ll be hard pressed to find a picture of any until after the war (the second one). Walter Hagen definitely didn’t use any, neither did Henry Cotton and Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam naked apparently!

But Sam Snead had some in the bag when he beat Ben Hogan in their legendary play-off for the 1954 Masters. As did Gary Player when he become the first overseas player to don that same green jacket in 1961. While Jack Nicklaus was covering his trusty MacGregors throughout the 1970s with a set that bore an uncanny resemblance to his legendary caddie, Angelo Argea (below).

But even with the Golden Bear’s endorsement; had you walked out of a Pro Shop in 1980's with a new Ping Anser or the like, it's unlikely to have come with a useable head-cover. Back then, they were still mostly sold by third-parties and without much fan-fare.

But technology was beginning to change the game. Clubs were becoming more advanced and more expensive. Manufacturers were now selling premium products and started shipping free head-covers with their clubs to reflect that.

Then Callaway launched The Big Bertha!

Such was the esteem in which their iconic driver was held, they were able to sell head-covers to people who didn’t actually own any of their clubs. That meant that cash-strapped student golfers like myself could pretend we were gaming one even though it was covering an old persimmon.  

This was in ’97 (or maybe ’98) and even though my Hawk Eye head-cover (left) was more Sesame, than Carnaby Street, that didn’t stop it going walkabout while I was lighting up another clubhouse Samba!

The head-cover was now becoming a golf accessory and by the turn of the millennium, major manufacturers seemed to be in a race to see who could emblazon the biggest logo over one. And the third-party aftermarket was booming thanks largely to that aforementioned stuffed tiger.

FROM A FREEBIE TO A FASHION ACCESSORY

My Big Bertha cover looked like a fluffy glove puppet and more than once doubled as a hand warmer in the Scottish winter. It didn’t have a sock section protruding from the head either, which was interesting (at least to me), because socks are the reason the head-cover is what it is. 

Back in the day, when shafts were made of hickory and heads cast in iron. The shorter clubs had a tendency to ding against the longer ones and weaken them. A dodgy lie or two later and you could easily finish a round with 13-and-a-half bats. So, players started protecting their clubs with their old winter woolies and the rest, as they say, is history.

That basic sock design lasted through the steal shaft era (where it had little practical use) but started serving its original purpose again with graphite clubs. While it takes a lot more to fatally damage a graphite shaft, it’s far from impossible – particularly if your clubs spend their life rattling around the trunk of a car. It is also very easy though to scratch both the head and the shaft and given how expensive these things are nowadays, that isn’t ideal either.

And so, the head-cover become a fixture of the golfing armoury, with one usually coming as part of the package when you buy most new Drivers, Fairways, Hybrids and Putters.

A GOLFING HISTORY IN HEAD-COVERS

I’ve owned almost every Titleist Driver from the 975 (released in 1996). That came with a red, black and white striped sock number (above) and a small fleece head. Which was great until it rained because then it looked like I’d found it in an ashtray!

The 983 (released in 2001) wasn’t just a great Driver, it was also the first Titleist to come with the more defined box head that used a synthetic covering to create a more rigid structure. Still with a sock, it looked great in the bag and (apparently) offered more protection for the club. But it suffered from the same care issues as the 975 with the added problem of a heavy top that had a tendency to slide off unnoticed. That, and a PU coating which disintegrated at the first sign of humidity!

For the next 10 years however, distance club head-covers from most manufacturers were increasingly elaborate versions of this. It wasn’t until the middle of the last decade that we started to see structural changes. In 2016, the 917 was the first Titleist to come with a one-piece soft cover as manufacturers started to move away from boxy designs and think more about style and practicality. The TS range (2018) took this trend even further, with Titleist adopting the classic two-piece glove design (below) that is still the preferred option of own-brand head-cover makers.

These recent evolutions are probably a good indication of a new era of head-cover design, as we move away from a marketing freebie to a much more player-friendly, style-orientated, fashion accessory.

The next generation of head-cover design is likely to come from third-parties who look to develop more personalised offerings and tap into a growing trend for accessories in the game. But as I write this, there is still a dearth of high-quality, manufacturer-agnostic options. You can buy cheap, third-party PU covers, but they’ll disintegrate with one look at water. You can get good quality leather covers that won’t, but you’ll likely have to settle for a novelty style or a retro design that harks back to a golden age when err…nobody used head-covers!

But the industry is definitely moving in a certain direction as major players start taking this market more seriously. The best examples of which are companies such as Bettinardi and Scotty Cameron who already have a range of elaborate high-end putter designs selling independently of the club at north of US$100.

These guys however, are focused on enhancing their brand. They're still not much thought gone into the player experience (like what you do with an expensive head-cover when you need to play a shot). There's also next to nothing designed specifically for female golfers. That market still seems to be based on what men think women want, which, in my experience, is a mistake that you usually only get to make once!