A set to represent the funky little town I live in.
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
has truly risen from the ashes.
Phoenixville, like many steel and iron towns, fell on hard times when it’s namesake iron works closed in 1987. Over the past two decades it has reinvented it self as a destination for breweries, festivals, and a big red human eating blob. Recently it was voted one of the best small towns in American, and is again a vibrant, welcoming community.
To commemorate this special place where I live, I made a house set of clubs in bright orange/red leather to represent the molten iron and steel of Phoenixville’s roots, and the flames of renewal of the Phoenix bird. The whipping on each club acknowledges a different element of our local color.
BRASSIE
“The White Horse” - Named after Phoenixville’s local rugby club White Horse Rugby.
Maker: Wright and Ditson (Likely 1920’s)
Loft: 18 degrees Length: 42.5” Swing Weight: B7
Grip Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Blue, purple and white thread in the colors of White Horse Rugby’s logo and kit.
MID IRON
“Phoenix Column” - Named for the most famous product of the Phoenix Iron Works, a bolt together structural column made from rolled iron.
Maker: Anderson of Anstruther (Possibly 1914)
Loft: 25 degrees Length: 38.5” Swing Weight: C8
Grip/Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Iron grey and rust colored thread representing brand new iron and rusted aged iron for the legacy of iron and steel manufacturing in Phoenixville.
MASHIE
“The Blob” - Named for the titular main entity in the 1958 movie “The Blob”. A campy sci-fi romp about a bright red alien ball of goo that lands in Pennsylvania and eats people. The climatic scene of the blob oozing into a movie theatre and all the people running out into the street was filmed at Phoenixville’s Colonial Theater and reenacted every year as part of “Blobfest”.
Maker: Anderson of Anstruther (Possibly 1914)
Loft: 40 degrees Length: 35” Swing Weight B2
Grip/Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Red thread in a haphazard pattern to represent the oozing amorphous Blob.
MASHIE NIBLICK
“The Phantom” - Named after Phoenixville Area High School Phantoms.
Maker: J.P. Cochrane (Likely 1920’s)
Loft: 48 degrees Length: 35” Swing Weight: B7
Grip Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Purple and black thread in the colors of Phoenixville Area High School
NIBLICK
“Black Bear” - Named for the Phoenixville Black Bears a semi-professional baseball team in the Bux-Mont League.
Maker: Unknown
Loft: 50 degrees Length: 36.75” Swing Weight: C4
Grip/Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Black and Gold thread in the colors of the Phoenixville Black Bears.
PUTTER
“Firebird” - Named for not only the Phoenix bird, but the annual Firebird Festival. It’s a little wintry southeast Pennsylvania Burning Man. A local committee of volunteers builds a big ol bird out of pallets and scrap wood, and then burn it in the middle of the night around mid-December. Wholesome psychedelic pagan-adjacent fun for the whole family.
Maker: William Gibson, sold by Army & Navy Holdfast, London
Loft: 11 degrees Length: 34.25” Swing Weight A3 (Brass Head)
Grip/Whipping: Orange/red pebble grain leather. Yellow and pale green thread in the colors of the 2025 Firebird Festival.
