Guided courses
Know what you’re looking at
Learn to recognize important clubs, makers, players, courses, and eras. Each lesson turns scattered facts into a story you can understand and share.
Education · Preservation · Play
Step into golf history—and bring the old game back to life.
Go from “Where do I even start?” to knowing the clubs, people, and moments that shaped golf. Begin with your first guided lesson.
Start with your first lessonNo equipment or experience needed
Your first stepLearn the story. Then play it.
You know there is more to the story
Golf’s best stories shouldn’t be so hard to find.
You discover an old club and want to know who made it, when it was played, and why it mattered.
Then one search becomes ten—and Google still isn’t really helping. Maybe you inherited a set and have no idea what it is worth or what to do with it.
Maybe you want to try hickory golf but do not know which clubs, rules, or events are right for you. Finding trusted answers should feel exciting, not frustrating.
Where do I even start?Who built it—and why?Can I actually play with it?
Your clear path into the old game
Learn the history. Understand the equipment. Experience the traditions.
Hickory Players Foundation helps you explore golf history through guided courses built for curious people at every level.
Begin with the Learning Room and event guide, which are available now. Future membership concepts are shown only as a planning preview; no tiers, benefits, pricing, or enrollment are currently offered.
Enter the learning room →A fuller way to enjoy the game
History becomes real when you can learn it, question it, and play it.
Tournament calendar & event coverage
Find the old game in play
Discover reenactment and hickory tournaments hosted by golf societies, regional groups, clubs, and other organizers—then follow their listings for registration and final details.
Codex AI + quarterly magazine · Coming soon
Keep discovering between rounds
Ask better questions, explore rare stories, and keep the history of each club within reach with the planned Hickory Players Foundation Codex AI and quarterly magazine.
Find a hickory golf event
Find the gathering—and get the details right here.
Hickory Players Foundation keeps its own guide to hickory events hosted by regional groups, golf clubs, and independent organizers, so you can explore the important details without leaving the site.
Schedules can change. Always confirm times, eligibility, equipment rules, fees, and registration with the named organizer before making plans.
The Hickory Players Foundation event guide
Keep every event detail in one place
Browse our complete listings for schedules, playing formats, entry fees, equipment rules, organizer contacts, and registration steps.
Browse all event listingsHickory Players Foundation publishes this guide for convenience and is not the event organizer unless a listing expressly says otherwise.
Future course experiences
Help shape a future centennial event or hickory-equipment experience.
Hickory Players Foundation is exploring historically grounded events, educational programs, and access to hickory equipment with interested courses.
These are planning concepts, not currently bookable services. Course representatives are welcome to share their goals and help HPF understand what a responsible future program would require.
Hosted experience
Centennial hickory events
A future program could pair a hickory format with a player welcome, period context, and on-site guidance shaped around your course.
A collection brought to play
Historic hickory rentals
HPF is assessing how suitable sets from an extensive hickory collection could support group experiences, subject to inventory, transport, staffing, and availability.
Historical programming
Stories that fit the day
A future experience could include a talk, equipment display, playing demonstration, or historical guide connecting the day to golf’s wider story.
A planning conversation
Your course shares the occasion. HPF learns what the future experience would need.
- 01Tell us about the milestone
Share your course, anniversary, audience, preferred date, and expected group size.
- 02Describe the possibilities
Tell us whether event hosting, equipment access, historical programming, or a mix would be most useful.
- 03Inform future planning
Your inquiry helps HPF assess demand, staffing, equipment, travel, and responsible next steps.
Course experiences are in development
These concepts are in development and are not currently offered as bookable services. A planning inquiry is non-binding and helps HPF understand course interest and practical needs.
Tell us about your course
Start the conversation
Share a few details and Sam Griffith, HPF's inquiry owner, will review them as the program develops. Sending this note is not an enrollment, booking, quote, or commitment—just a planning introduction.
Guided by a lifetime in hickory golf
William W. “Bill” Reed
Founder · Historian · Player · Ambassador
Bill has spent decades learning, playing, collecting, repairing clubs, leading tournaments, and bringing hickory golfers together.
He has always wanted to know “who built it and why.” Now he can help you uncover those answers for yourself.
01Golf Heritage Society Hall of Fame · Class of 2021
02Past president of the Golf Collectors Society
03Co-founder of the Hickory Golf Association
042018 Society of Hickory Golfers Mike Brown Award
05Longtime tournament director and hickory-golf ambassador
Membership planning
HPF membership is being developed.
Future paths for students, players, collectors, and supporters are being planned. Public enrollment and pricing are not currently offered.
Questions before your first lesson
Come as you are. Curiosity is enough.
Do I need to know much about golf history?+
No. The courses begin with the basics and guide you one step at a time. All you need is curiosity.
Do I need hickory clubs to take the first lesson?+
No. You can begin learning without special equipment. The courses help you understand what to look for before you buy or play.
What is available now?+
The first educational courses are available to explore. Hickory Players Foundation also shares events hosted by independent organizers. The Codex AI and quarterly magazine are works in progress.
Can the Foundation bring a hickory event to our course?+
Hickory Players Foundation is exploring future centennial experiences, historical programs, and access to hickory equipment. These concepts are not currently bookable services, but course representatives may send a non-binding planning inquiry.