I met Gary Kruplin during the 2024 US Hickory Open on September 9 at the Kenosha Country Club in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At the award dinner, I spoke about the inaugural China Hickory Open to be held at the Hidden Grace Golf Club later in November. Gary, who called me brother, told me he was interested in playing the China Hickory Open.
2024 US Hickory Open
For Brother Gary, making a decision within two months traveling to the other side of the world was difficult. He wanted to come play in Haikou in 2025, but his colossal duties as the chair of the 2025 US Hickory Open again prevented him from realizing his trip to China.
2025 US Hickory Open
Brother Gary now is the first registrant who will play at the 3rd China Hickory Open on November 16-18, 2026 in Hong Kong. Moreover, he will come with a hickory friend and make up the first Team USA during this year’s inaugural National Team Competition to be played on November 16 at the challenging walk-only North Course of the Jockey KSC Public Golf Course.
Gary, a noted Texas attorney, is a “chief ringleader” of the Hickory Golf Association of Texas. He first played with hickory clubs way back in the 1970's. As an avid collector of golf memorabilia, particularly original paintings, drawings, and other ephemera, some of the artwork he bought came with a few hickory clubs as an inducement for purchase. He hit them in his leisure time, but wasn't quite fascinated enough to trade his persimmon MacGregor woods, forged Wilson irons, and Sansabelt britches for hickory clubs and plus-four knickers.
Fast forward to 2018, Gary met Scott Pilgrim, the "hickory guru" of Texas, who got him interested in this new and unique style of play, hidden away in a niche not frequented by many but joyously embraced by "those who know." He joined the SoHG shortly after his first foray with Scott and his merry band of players, especially Bill Reed and Michael Sloan. Gary also joined the Golf Heritage Society. It has both amazing and amusing, he said, to learn about the clubs, players, courses, and history shared vividly by members in both of those organizations.
Gary Krupkin
Gary says Texas has a very active hickory contingent, with nearly 300 players mostly in Dallas/Fort Worth and the Houston/Austin area. The clan gathers regularly for play days at some wonderful courses especially receptive to the "ground game" favored by hickory players. “I enjoy playing with my hickory compatriots at every opportunity and am an enthusiastic participant in all of the Texas hickory tournaments,” Gary said. “I play in the U.S. Hickory Open annually as well as some of the other ‘major’ events on the U.S. hickory schedule. I've played in the Canadian Hickory Open and the World Hickory Open in Scotland and intend to return to both tournaments annually. The Irish Hickory Open and French Hickory Open are also on my schedule.”
Brother Gary sums up nicely the secret of hickory golf enjoyed by so many players: “I came to play the hickory game just like all of us were drawn to its hidden mystery and joy: I picked up a hickory club, struck a shot, and felt the thrill of ball pinched between metal and grass, rising up into the clouds, settling dramatically on the green. When we wake in the middle of the night, when honesty reaches into our hearts, can any of us say anything different about how we came to this game and the reason it grips our hearts?”
Gary Chipping Out of the Sand Box
He continues: “I'm no different than each of my hickory brothers and sisters . . . finding the perfect driver, standing on the first tee with friends both new and old, shaking hands on the 18th green, turning to the setting sun with a wee dram and toasting the glorious day bestowed on us by our Maker, knowing we have the privilege to do this again.”
Gary Putting
Brother Gary says he was fortunate enough to be part of the amazingly creative team that organized and ran the 2025 U.S. Hickory Open at Hot Springs Country Club in Hot Springs, Arkansas. “We nicknamed the event ‘The Grand Occasion,’ and it certainly lived up to its name,” he said. “I don't think I'm understating it when I say it was colossal. We missed having our Chinese hickory brothers and sisters at the event, but know you'll visit our shores again very soon.” In 2024 Gary Krupkin and Blair Philip won the 5th Annual Pioneer Classic Hickory Golf Tournament at the Mill Creek Golf Course, Salado, Texas.
Gary told me that it is a “humbling honor” to be part of the China Hickory Open Championship, “proving that our game is worldly yet true to satori in its sudden, intuitive experience of enlightenment and awakening, transcending logic and intellectual thought.”
“I'm coming to your 2026 China Hickory Open and bringing a little something for everybody that is there,” he says. “By the time I leave, all of my new friends will be ‘Honorary Texans’ and I hope this hickory brotherhood will continue for many years in the future.”
