Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Willie Ogg
Dedham, MA/Albany, NY

William Robertson Ogg was the fourth of eleven children of William Ogg, a tenter in the linen industry, and his wife Margaret Bisset, and born on 10 May 1888 in Kinloch Street, Carnoustie.

He served a cleekmaking apprenticeship with James Gourlay in his home town and left the town as a scratch golfer with a fine reputation. He moved to Hendry & Bishop in Edinburgh where he progressed to become a manager in the company. According to later newspaper accounts it was the company which sent him to America for reasons which are unclear to me. In any event, Canada was his stated destination when he sailed from Glasgow to Boston on the Sardinian on 30 October 1914. Whatever the original purpose of the journey he was soon hired as an instructor by another famous son of Carnoustie, Stuart Maiden, whom he joined at East Lake, Atlanta.

By 1917, when he was playing in an indoor putting competition, he was professional at the Dedham Country and Polo Club. His reputation as a teacher grew with Francis Ouimet referring to him in a syndicated column in 1919 as ‘one of the greatest instructors of the game’.

He moved to Worcester Country Club, also in Massachusetts, as professional in 1920. He qualified for, and played in, the US Opens of 1922 and 1923 finishing 19th and 18th respectively and won the Shawnee Open in 1921, the Maine Open in 1923 and both the New England PGA and the Massachusetts Open in 1924. His proudest achievement was that the New England PGA placed a cap on his winnings as he finished first in so many of its tournaments.

Despite the tournament success he is probably better know for his invention of the “Ogg-mented” irons. He worked with a Worcester member and local dentist, Dr Leon Stortz, drilling holes in the iron clubhead and adding a pivot weight. After each swing the pivot weight came to rest parallel to the balance line. They discovered that perfect balance was achieved by adding the weight to the outside top edge of the clubhead allowing, they claimed, the golfer to make use of the entire surface of the clubhead as a hitting surface rather than the three quarters of an inch when the weight is concentrated beside the neck. Wilson of Chicago, for whom Ogg was an advisory staff member, were the first to produce them commercially and so the perimeter-weighted iron was born.

He organised the Worcester course for the first official Ryder Cup in 1927 and, during his time in New England, also designed the Green Hill course in Worcester and the course at Wilbraham Country Club. In 1944 he became the professional at the Albany Country Club in New York state where he remained until his retirement in 1958. He was also on the staff of the PGA National at Dunedin in Florida and gave lessons to other pros on how to teach the game to beginners.

He was lured out of retirement in Florida to become professional at the new Silver Lakes Club in Tampa but died on Christmas Day 1959.

In addition to the clubs he invented, he patented a golf glove to improve left-hand grip. His instructional book, Golf As I Know It was published posthumously in 1961. He was a founder member of the USPGA and served as vice-president in 1921.

Two of his brothers were also professionals in the United States and his cousin, Harry, was a professional in Carnoustie.

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