When the USGA okayed steel in '26, the old hickory shafts — and the handsy swing they required — were doomed. Bobby Jones said steel shafts made golf easier because they were "resistant to the twisting stresses" that made hickory sticks go snaky in midswing. Still, he endorsed Spalding's 1930 Bobby Jones Signature set, which had steel shafts painted brown to look like wood.