niblick

Without the commitment of golf to saving archaic and banal objects, the “niblick” and “mashie” would be truly endangered.

“The ancient Moundbuilders unwittingly left behind the setting for as strange and sporty a golf course as ever felt the blow of a niblick,” an article about the course in the January 1930 issue of Golf Illustrated proclaimed.

It became clear to me recently that Mr. George Bush of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., is the best thing that's happened to golf since Teddy Roosevelt ran up San Juan Hill with a mashie niblick in his fist; since Dwight Eisenhower whistled a spoon onto Omaha Beach, a tough par 4 over water; in fact, since Gerald Ford ate the all-weather grip on a putter, believing it to be a tamale husk.

He then had the humiliation of exchanging his putter for his niblick, and, we may assume without being unkind, that was the last seriously competitive round he ever played.

Fleming knew golf well, and although he was writing 60 years ago, when players would pull a spoon or a niblick out of their bag rather than a fairway wood or a nine-iron, there is nothing dated about Bond’s cleverly planned revenge.