James Heddons Sons v. American Fork & Hoe Co‪.‬

Some 30 or 35 years ago golf club manufacturers began substituting tubular steel shafts for the conventional hickory shafts in golf clubs. It was thought as disclosed by Knight in his patent No. 976,267, that hickory offered but small resistance to tortional strain, causing the club head to twist upon impact, and so to make the flight of the driven ball uncertain and irregular. Knight, among others, observed, the need of suppleness in a golf shaft to suit the taste of the individual player, some preferring it to be near the head and others near the middle of the shaft, the "feel" of the club dominating these preferences. He asserted that in a steel shaft the metal may be so distributed that suppleness can be achieved at any desired point.