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Just like new
Frank Rutledge is restoring life to some very old golf clubs
By Paul Barker
Steve Hawkins and Martin Mattes are avid persimmon club collectors and it is all because of a 76-year-old retired RCAF aircraft technician named Frank Rutledge, who can turn a ratty old fairway wood or driver into a glistening gem.
Forget oversized heads and graphite shafts for these two golf history buffs. Thanks to the work Rutledge has done for them over the last three years, it is now all about such vintage brands as Tony Pena, MacGregor, Ben Hogan, Ping Eye 2 and the reddish-tinged Wilson Strata-Bloc.
“My dad literally fished the Strata-Bloc out of a dumpster about 10 years ago and I had it lying around in the basement since then,” recalls Mattes. “I’d toyed with the idea of getting it refinished, but never really did anything about it. I thought it would cost a small fortune to have it properly restored.”
It ended up costing him only $18, a steal compared to the $50 US plus shipping and handling that club refinishers such as Louisville Golf and GolfWorks charge south of the border. Mattes has since made several trips from his Toronto townhouse to Trenton where Rutledge is based.
“Every few weeks, Steve calls me up and crows about his new favourite club, which is usually the club which Frank has most recently fixed up for him,” says Mattes. “Now that I have some of my clubs back, I have to confess to doing the same thing.”
Rutledge got into the refurbishing business strictly by chance in 1967 when he was posted to Uplands Air Base in Ottawa. In need of some extra pocket money (ostensibly to pay for his golf), he got a part-time job at the Ottawa Hunt Club fetching, storing and washing clubs for members.
Soon after signing on, an assistant golf pro introduced him to the basics of golf club repair and refinishing.
He was transferred to CFB Trenton in June 1971, and over the next 16 years, with stops in Summerside, P.E.I. and Cold Lake, Alta., kept up what he describes as his little hobby of golf club repairs and refinishing.
“On my retirement from the air force, I took out a City of Trenton Home Occupancy business permit in addition to an Ontario PST permit and Frank’s Golf’s Services was born,” he says. “I must say it has served me well for almost 20 years. I continue to enjoy meeting and visiting with my new and previous customers.”
Key among them is Hawkins, who heard about Rutledge through a friend he knew in the golf business and whose fondness for persimmon clubs began in the 1970s when he cleaned clubs and picked up balls on the range as a teenager at Amherstview Golf Club in Kingston.
Rutledge’s refinishing technique involves stripping the club down to the “bare bones” and then sanding it. If any repairs are necessary—and there always are—he uses a chisel or a very fine detail knife to cut away any material that may have become corroded over the years. He then builds it back up with epoxy, allowing the material to sit for several days.
“With wooden woods, the bulk of the damage will either be at the toe or the heel,” says Rutledge, a member of Barcovan GC near Brighton, who, despite his age, is still a respectable 14-handicapper.
Once the epoxy hardens, a final sanding occurs, at which point the club is ready to be painted or stained.
“Frank has been an inspiration to me to try and find more clubs,” says Hawkins, a scratch golfer, who at last count had two tour golf bags filled with refinished clubs. “This is a collection I will cherish forever. To some people it means nothing. But to me, working in the Amherstview pro shop and seeing people hit these clubs, every one has a story to it. I can recall members who had them or ones I always liked that I could not afford as a kid. Now I’m picking them up for next to nothing.”
Mattes, meanwhile, is currently waiting to get his hands on the oldest club Rutledge has ever worked on, a refurbished MacGregor Go-Sum that dates back to 1930.
“I have absolutely no idea what the Go-Sum would be worth once repaired,” says Mattes. “I just think it will make a nice conversation piece.”
Of the three, Mattes is the only one who uses persimmon clubs on a regular basis. Rutledge has a fondness for the classic look and sound of persimmon, but uses metal woods, clank and all, because of the forgiveness factor, while Hawkins’ growing collection never goes near a tee-box. But Mattes regularly alternates between a MacGregor Eye-O-Matic and MacGregor Tourney driver.
“Most of my friends have used metal-headed drivers over the years with decent success, but I’ve never been able to get the hang of playing with them,” he says. “Maybe it’s just a mental block about trying to swing a club that looks like a melon on the end of a stick.
“Towards the end of last season, I decided to dust off the Eye-O-Matic and hit a few shots with it at a driving range. To my surprise, I was able, consistently, to hit the ball a fair distance with a slight draw. I hadn’t been able to get that shot shape for almost 10 years. Also, the wooden driver got a lot of bemused looks from others on the driving range, and I got a kick out of that, too. I decided to put ‘old faithful’ back in the bag and consigned my metal-headed driver to the trunk of the car.”
Frank Rutledge can be reached via email at franksgolf@sympatico.ca.
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