What does brassie mean?
A brassie is an old-fashioned golf club — a wooden-shafted fairway club roughly equivalent to today's number two wood, used for long shots from the tee or the turf. Its name comes from the brass plate fixed to the sole of the club, added to protect the wooden head from damage as it skimmed the ground during a swing. Brassies were standard equipment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when hickory shafts and hand-crafted wooden heads dominated the game, and they feature prominently in accounts of golf's early history. As equipment technology advanced and persimmon and then metal woods replaced traditional designs, the brassie fell out of common use, and today the word survives chiefly among collectors, historians, and players of hickory golf. It carries a distinctly nostalgic, antiquarian connotation, evoking the era of gutta-percha balls and classic links courses.
nounA wooden-shafted golf club, typically equivalent to a modern number two wood, whose sole was fitted with a brass plate to protect it from wear.
- A wooden-shafted golf club, roughly equivalent to a modern number two wood, with a brass plate on the sole to protect it from wear.
"He pulled the brassie from his bag and sent the ball soaring down the middle of the fairway."
"On the long par five, he reached for his brassie and struck a clean second shot onto the green."
"The antique shop displayed a hickory-shafted brassie alongside other turn-of-the-century golf clubs."
Standard plural formation; commonly used when referring to sets of vintage clubs.
"The museum's collection included several well-preserved brassies from the 1890s."
The brassie got its name because its makers bolted a literal plate of brass onto its sole — so it wouldn't get chewed up by the turf.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of brassie
The word brassie is formed simply from 'brass', referring to the metal plate affixed to the club's sole, combined with the familiar diminutive-style suffix '-ie'. The name arose in nineteenth-century Britain as golfers distinguished their various wooden clubs — the driver, the brassie, the spoon, the niblick being iron — by their characteristics rather than numbers. It remained in everyday golfing vocabulary through the hickory-shaft era before fading as numbered woods took over in the twentieth century.
How brassie is actually used
The term is now largely historical, belonging to the era of hickory-shafted clubs; modern players would simply refer to the corresponding numbered wood. It carries a nostalgic or antiquarian flavor and appears mainly in writing about the history of golf.
Easily confused with brassie
A brasserie is a type of informal French restaurant, whereas a brassie is an old-fashioned golf club.