U.S. Hickory Open returns to Gearhart Golf Links
by Logan Groeneveld-Meijer
From September 11-13, 2026, Gearhart (Ore.) Golf Links’ timeless links-style layout will again be complemented by its players’ golf equipment and attire that’s just as indicative of an equally bygone and beloved era.
That’s because the U.S. Hickory Open will be held over those days, which collectively consist of a practice round and two 18-hole rounds of stroke play competition between 112 players adorning flat caps, shirts with ties tucked into the plackets, and pants that extend hardly two inches beyond their knees and are tucked into knee-length socks.
Club conformity can usually be traced to a single factor: they must have been manufactured or patented prior to 1935.
That means no titanium, tungsten, carbon fiber, slip-on grips, graphite shafts or any other convenience of the modern manufacturing era. It means, quite simply, shafts made of hickory wood, irons that (if at all) spin the golf ball very little and grips made from leather. If you’re lucky, you might be able to convince the tweed-clad committee that your rubber grips are “temporary” to circumvent the lattermost rule.
Don’t take any of that as negative – it’s a set of regulations and style of play increasingly cherished in the Northwest and elsewhere.
Hickory golf simply entails just that, using golf clubs with hickory wood shafts as opposed to a more futuristic steel or graphite. Wooded clubs, like drivers and fairway woods, are made of actual wood, rather than metal. It’s an amalgamation of gear certainly manufactured and most commonly used prior to any advancements in forgiveness, a fact players will tell you makes well-struck shots that much more rewarding.
“The score is important,” says Hickory player John Henry Williams, who is also widely regarded as one of the best antique club restorers anywhere. “But it’s more about hitting a good shot. Because when people hit that first dead-pure shot – and I’ve never seen anyone not do this – they turn around with this stupid grin on their face going, ‘Oh my god, what was that and how can I do it again?'”
Continues Williams, “It goes up the club in your hands, up your arm, and several people have said it touches your heart.”
The U.S. Hickory Open has run since 2008 and serves as a “culmination” of sorts of regional Hickory events across the country. Its geographical region changes each year from what the Society of Hickory Golfers calls the “Heartland” (Midwest), to the “Rockies” (Rocky Mountain region) and “Coast,” that simply being the West Coast. This year marks the third time it will have been held in the Pacific region; it was at Del Monte Golf Club in California in 2017 and at Gearhart once prior, in 2021.
“The Hickory players that come to Gearhart fall in love with the place,” says Rob Alschwede, Northwest Hickory Players tournament organizer. “We look forward to it.”
Alschwede is himself a hickory player, having partaken in golf through no other means of gear since 1999. The art form is largely based on what is known today as the “running game,” by which players rely on landing a ball short of the green and having it roll firmly into its intended leave spot. All made possible on a links layout.
Gearhart, founded in 1892 and which sits next to Oregon’s Pacific coastline, is an ideal destination for the old-school championship. Andrew Von Lossow of Spokane won the 2021 U.S. Hickory Open when it was held at Gearhart, and will be in the field again this year. He was named the PNGA Men’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year in 2022 and 2024.
Also in the field are Northwest golf historian Martin Pool, and trick-shot artist Wedgy Winchester, who will be competing on his home course of Gearhart. Several of the region’s PGA club professionals are also in the field, including Craig Hunter, the PGA director of golf at Sand Point Country Club in Seattle, who is originally from Scotland and finds the Hickory game to his liking.
“Gearhart kind of lends itself to lower trajectory,” said Alschwede of the intended playing style. “There’s no forced carries over water. There is a good, tough fescue, but you’ve got the wonderful roll of the sand dunes the course is built on. It gives you the challenge of reading the ground as you’re planning your shot to the green.”
Expect to see Williams at Gearhart this year, too. He’s the back-to-back champ of the super senior division but will spend his time on site in 2026 with his very own equipment table setup, where passersby can buy hickory clubs, get them worked on or just say hello. Williams had the same mobile setup in 2021.
Alschwede is originally from Nebraska but has lived in Olympia, Wash. for 19 years. In that time, he says he’s certainly seen an increased interest in Hickory golf, evidenced this year by a handful of single-digit Handicap players and five total past champions competing.
“We have more professionals in this event than we’ve ever had before,” he said, citing that an assortment of Washington and Oregon pros have “become well-aware of it and are happy to give it a shot.”
Continues Alschwede, stating the obvious, “We’re looking forward to some pretty good scoring.”
With that being said, cue the bagpipes.
