These early clubs had hickory shafts and wrapped leather grips.
From 1924 golf clubs started to be manufactured with shafts of steel, pyratone, aluminum, and fiberglass or resin; many of them were given a wood-look coating.
Wooden clubs generally had a metal base-plate and were made heavier with a lead insert into the back of the head; often the face of the club had an insert of bone or ivory to reduce the wear from impact on the wood.
They were: "Mashie" is derived from French massue, "club", while "niblick" is diminutive of neb/nib, "little nose.
Clubs were disguised as walking sticks, the club head comfortably fitting into the palm of the golfer's hand, until when the golfer was unobserved, the stick was reversed and a few strokes were played.