National Hickory Championship Held at Foxburg Country Club

FOXBURG, Pa. — The Foxburg Country Club held the 2022 National Hickory Championship this past weekend.

[Pictured above: This year’s champion from Pfafftown NC, Seth Lomison (right), and runner-up Jason Kronenberger, of Dayton OH (right). Photos courtesy of Dick Leavy.]

Seth Lomison, of Pfafftown, N.C., topped the leaderboard for his third career National Hickory Championship. Jason Kronenberger, of Dayton, Ohio, took second.

The National Hickory Championship was established in 1998 to bring together golfers who enjoy playing golf in historic conditions, the way it was played before the turn of the last century. Playing according to 19th-century rules and using authentic 19th-century equipment makes the NHC the sternest test of hickory golf contested anywhere. Open to all, the NHC draws the most ardent and accomplished wood shaft golfers from across America and Canada.

The hickory competition consisted of four divisions. The International Feathery Challenge was on Thursday, June 2. Groups of three players, par 4 holes had teeing ground at the 150-yard mark. Par 3 hole at about the 90-yard mark, and on hole 5 the tee was at about the 200-yard mark. There is a three-club limit for this competition, and one club must be a wood one, and one club must be a putter. No bags. There is no lifting or touching the ball tee to green. No marking, lifting on the green.

After all feathery players teed off, the “Mike and Elmore Foursomes Competition” began. The foursomes format is the way most golf was played before 1860. Teams of two, partners, played alternate strokes with one ball. The NHC uses foursomes as a way of getting in practice on the course and with partners being drawn immediately before play participants often play alongside someone they have never played with in the past.

On Friday, rounds 1 and 2 of the National Hickory Championship were played. The rules in use are from the 1891 Royal & Ancient club in Scotland, the first uniform golf rules code. Prior to that, every club had their own rules. Equipment must be from the 19th century and is vetted before the competition. Balls are gutta-percha replicas of the type used from about 1850-to 1900. From the teeing ground, balls are teed up on the sand.

On Saturday, June 4 at 7:30 a.m. rounds 3 and 4 of the National Hickory Championship took place.

Dress during the four 9-hole rounds follow a strict dress code — long sleeve shirt and tie required. During the Feathery Challenge, the same dress code will be followed with the exception of no knickers or kilts, and long trousers only for mid-18th century historical accuracy.

Competitive, yet fun, the hickory championship is the ultimate test of hickory golf. The NHC is like no other hickory golf tournament here, in Britain, or anywhere else in the world; it is authentic, competitive, historic, unique, and above all, fun!

Gutty ball era golf has a legion of keen followers. The principal attraction of this style of golf is that it is far less forgiving than modern-day equipment allows and there is greater satisfaction when a good shot is played. It also gives a realistic appreciation of what players in the earliest days of American golf experienced.

Foxburg Country Club traces its rich history all the way back to Scotland’s St. Andrews and the world’s official Home of Golf. The Foxburg golf course was granted status by the Department of the Interior’s National Registry of Historic Places in 2007 and houses artifacts from the American Golf Museum.

In 2021, a group of dedicated members and community leaders embarked on a $2 million preservation project for the course, called The1887 Project, and retained Ron Forse of Forse Golf Design, a leading national golf course historian and architect to provide a master plan.

More information on the National Hickory Championship, can be found at HickoryChampionshionship.org

Foxburg Country Club is located on Harvey Road, Foxburg, PA 16036. For additional information about the 1887 Project, visit 1887project.org/.