Who plays classic clubs?

[Richard Nixon]

Tournament today, and the Wilson Staff Tour Blades are in the bag! Let's see how I hit these bad boys. I might even tuck the 1 iron in, just to make things interesting.

[Blair]

I play completely rebuilt and fitted 1970 Achusnet irons  and have  I just recently completed rebuilding and refinishing  a set of 1950 -51 MacGregor Tourney Persimmon M43 woods to be used on the golf course this year. Recently I posted pitures of these woods in  the Classic Equipment section of this web site. Hope you enjoy reminising.
Mr. Phillips
Canada

[Richard Nixon]

I play completely rebuilt and fitted 1970 Achusnet irons and  1981-84 Cleveland Classic Persimmon RC85 woods.  I also have set of 1950 MacGregor Tourney M43 woods I'm planning to rebuild and fit to my swing and  I am rebuilding a set of 1954 Spalding Top Flite Synchro-Dyned irons to a D2 swing weight tommorrow and planning to play with them and the M43's this summer. I don't know what constitutes "Classic Clubs" but my present clubs and the ones I'm going to rebuild tommorrow and in the near future are "Classic clubs" to me.
Mr. Phillips
Canada   

Everything you just described. Hell, on this board, classic clubs means anything released before August of 2008. Yours definitely qualify.

[ND fan]

I might even tuck the 1 iron in, just to make things interesting.

By interesting do you mean frustrating as Hell 

[fastlarry]

I played with the black dot Hagens when they first came out, and later the Wilson red dots. I just have 6 full sets of them laying around. They were really hard to hit, but being a scratch golfer I figured them out, you had to hit right of center, towards the hosel, if you got left, out on the toe, you were toast.  Rip, they now hang on my wall where they deserve to be. They used to seperate the ones who had talent, and the ones who did not.  Today, you buy clubs, to buy a game and a shot.

[fastlarry]

I don't know if these count as "classics," but I play Ping Eye 2+ irons, and a Ping Anser 4 putter.

Steve

So do I and I went to this brand New 3 tier computer driving range in Duluth, Ga where I live and the pro looks in my bag and says, you can't use them any more, you will hit them too high.  I said, I thought that was what Jack Nicklaus said won him all those tourneys doing. 

[coololdman]

I play a set of Golden Ram Tour Grinds. They are fantastic IMO

My putter is an old Ping Cushin, it flat out works... for me.

I have a set of iron head and plan to reshaft them.

Do you know what kind of tip it's ? I think it's parallel tip, is this correct ?

TIA, Daniel

[canadian_man_44]

i got a ping ansa 2 and a taylor made burner plus - the first one the built - head is tiny - also got a persimmon 4 wood from 1950 that has a great feel but only goes around 1 yard

kenny

I just picked up a Taylor Made Burner Plus at a yard sale on Saturday.  First thing I did was take it to the driving range and try it out as I've always been prone to using small headed drivers(the big ones don't seem to work well for me).  Anyway, I hit a couple buckets and consistently hit it in the air into the trees at the back of the range which is around 250 yards.  My next chore is to take the shaft that's been sitting in my basement for a year or so(Fujikura E360 stiff) and put that in it and see how good I hit it then.  If it's that long and straight with a regular steel shaft that's a few inches too short for me, I can hardly wait to see how it goes with this shaft in it.

[84425]

I've recently put a new driver in my bag, that I am determined to play for (at least) the rest of the year. It's a '51-'52 5-screw MacGregor M85W Eye-O-Matic. And I'm awaiting the arrival of a refinished M43 Eye-O-Matic 4-wood.

The rest of my bag is not classic, at least not to me, Daiwa DG-273 irons, Ping putter and 1-iron.

Reading this forum and other forums for the past couple of months has made me want to go out and find a nice old (50ies, 60ies or 70ies) set of irons and play those every now and then (I see no need for replacing my current irons, but think it would be fun playing with older clubs).

BTW, I prefer the term "timeless" over the term "classic".

[Henry_Picard]

Henry here,
   Hi Sam...I have a beautiful set of 1954 Spalding syncro-dyned irons I play sometimes. I installed 6.5 rifles and they feel awesome. I also just acquired a set of 1961 Hogan Power thrusts. Can't wait to get the into playing condition...

[Richard Nixon]

Henry here,
   Hi Sam...I have a beautiful set of 1954 Spalding syncro-dyned irons I play sometimes. I installed 6.5 rifles and they feel awesome. I also just acquired a set of 1961 Hogan Power thrusts. Can't wait to get the into playing condition...

I'm playing with a friend this week who hasn't played in years. Even with my deteriorated game, I think I ought to do what I can to minimize our differences, so I might play my Sam Snead Blue Ridges with persimmon Cobra Bafflers and the Hogan driver. Very excited.

[Blair]

I just put a set of '86 Spalding Tour Editions back into play. IMO these are the best blades made to date by an American company.

Whoa! Thats quite a statement.

My Acushnet iron blades were forged by Continental Forgings of which I was told, were made in Boston,Mass. in the mid 60's. They are a "medium size" head, stainless steel, muscle back and horizontal sole. Rumour has it that Titleist purchased Acushnet for Continental Forgings in the early 80's and a few years later, Titleist did start making some very good iron blades called,"Tour Model" irons which many USGA - PGA/LPGA players used and for quite a while.  
 
IMHO - There have been many iron forging and manufacturing companies in the United States that have made great irons BUT sad to say, most really great iron forging and manufacturing companies today have closed down American Operations and moved Operations "offshore" were labour is inexpensive, unorganized and there are few or no environmental regulations at all.

Whats the reason and the answer? I have my own opinions and this is not the time nor venue for me to share them BUT I play with 1950 MacGregor Tourney Tommy Armour M43 woods and 1965 Acushnet irons. Both have been rebuilt, refinished and fitted(by myself and my teacher Jack Baird)  to my swing. Both woods and irons were American made and I'm going to continue to play golf with them and then pass them along to my son.

[drewspin]

Henry here,
   Hi Sam...I have a beautiful set of 1954 Spalding syncro-dyned irons I play sometimes. I installed 6.5 rifles and they feel awesome. I also just acquired a set of 1961 Hogan Power thrusts. Can't wait to get the into playing condition...

1961 Power Thrusts. Yes!  The last clubs Hogan used in competition.

 I have an old set of those too that I also need to get into playing shape.  Very unique sole design.

[wenoG]

I just put a set of '86 Spalding Tour Editions back into play. IMO these are the best blades made to date by an American company.

Whoa! Thats quite a statement.

My Acushnet iron blades were forged by Continental Forgings of which I was told, were made in Boston,Mass. in the mid 60's. They are a "medium size" head, stainless steel, muscle back and horizontal sole. Rumour has it that Titleist purchased Acushnet for Continental Forgings in the early 80's and a few years later, Titleist did start making some very good iron blades called,"Tour Model" irons which many USGA - PGA/LPGA players used and for quite a while.  
 
IMHO - There have been many iron forging and manufacturing companies in the United States that have made great irons BUT sad to say, most really great iron forging and manufacturing companies today have closed down American Operations and moved Operations "offshore" were labour is inexpensive, unorganized and there are few or no environmental regulations at all.

Whats the reason and the answer? I have my own opinions and this is not the time nor venue for me to share them BUT I play with 1950 MacGregor Tourney Tommy Armour M43 woods and 1965 Acushnet irons. Both have been rebuilt, refinished and fitted(by myself and my teacher Jack Baird)  to my swing. Both woods and irons were American made and I'm going to continue to play golf with them and then pass them along to my son.

Blair,

Can you post some pics of those Acushnet Blades?  I would love to see them! 

Thanks,

w

[bl8d]

Blair, my opinion on the Spalding Tour Edition stands, and I did preface by saying IMO. I'm not just saying this at random since I compared them to a host of other very reputable blades that I had.
I've played '57Hogan Precisions,'79 Golden Ram Tour Grinds,'81Titleist Tour Model,'84 and '87 Muirfields and the '89 Spalding Custom, amongst others. I've left out a bunch of Wilsons and MacGregors. I can't remember them all.

[bma725]

My Acushnet iron blades were forged by Continental Forgings of which I was told, were made in Boston,Mass. in the mid 60's. They are a "medium size" head, stainless steel, muscle back and horizontal sole. Rumour has it that Titleist purchased Acushnet for Continental Forgings in the early 80's and a few years later, Titleist did start making some very good iron blades called,"Tour Model" irons which many USGA - PGA/LPGA players used and for quite a while.  

Pretty much all of that information is incorrect. 

First, Titleist didn't purchase anything.  Titleist is and always has been owned by Acushnet, which was started out as a rubber company around the turn of the last century.  They introduced the Titleist golf ball in the 1930s. 

Second, Acushnet didn't start selling sets of clubs until 1969.  That coincided with their purchase of GolfCraft an already existing equipment company that also had their own forging house.  At that time they began putting out clubs under the Acushnet, Titleist, Titlette, Finalist and Finalette names.

Third, the clubs were manufactured by GolfCraft, there was no Continental Forging.  The Continental was a line of clubs made by GolfCraft before they went under and Acushnet stamped the Titleist name on them to get them out the door, thus making the "Continental by Titleist" their first iron set.

Fourth, the Titleist Tour Model line first came out in the 1970s, not the 1980s....and fwiw they were not exactly popular with the better players because of their perceived lack of feel compared to the Hogans, Rams, Powerbilts and MacGregors of the day.  They didn't really achieve popularity until after production had final been stopped in 1997 and Tiger started using Titleist blades. 

[drewspin]

Pretty much all of that information is incorrect. 

First, Titleist didn't purchase anything.  Titleist is and always has been owned by Acushnet, which was started out as a rubber company around the turn of the last century.  They introduced the Titleist golf ball in the 1930s. 

Second, Acushnet didn't start selling sets of clubs until 1969.  That coincided with their purchase of GolfCraft an already existing equipment company that also had their own forging house.  At that time they began putting out clubs under the Acushnet, Titleist, Titlette, Finalist and Finalette names.

Third, the clubs were manufactured by GolfCraft, there was no Continental Forging.  The Continental was a line of clubs made by GolfCraft before they went under and Acushnet stamped the Titleist name on them to get them out the door, thus making the "Continental by Titleist" their first iron set.

Fourth, the Titleist Tour Model line first came out in the 1970s, not the 1980s....and fwiw they were not exactly popular with the better players because of their perceived lack of feel compared to the Hogans, Rams, Powerbilts and MacGregors of the day.  They didn't really achieve popularity until after production had final been stopped in 1997 and Tiger started using Titleist blades. 

Mojo!

[Ciotog99]

I have a set of iron head and plan to reshaft them.

Do you know what kind of tip it's ? I think it's parallel tip, is this correct ?

TIA, Daniel

.355 Taper I was told. I still use the original Dynamics though...   

[str8line]

This is an old thread, but I'm new here so I'll play along if you all don't mind.

I love playing with classic clubs. Played some of the best golf of my life with em. I've always had to do my golfing on a shoe string budget, so the bargain bins full of wonderful old sticks has always worked out well for me.

[NRJyzr]

This is an old thread, but I'm new here so I'll play along if you all don't mind.

I love playing with classic clubs. Played some of the best golf of my life with em. I've always had to do my golfing on a shoe string budget, so the bargain bins full of wonderful old sticks has always worked out well for me.

Welcome!

It's an old thread, but we still keep adding to it.  Glad to have you along.

So now you have to spill it, what are your preferences in the world of auld clubs? 

[str8line]

Thanks for the welcome.

I pretty much like them all, but mostly I lean towards Wilson staff blades(as if you hadn't already figured as much from my avatar ). The FG-17's I have now are the ones I used to drool over back when I first started.

 I cut my golfing teeth on an old mix-matched set of MB's (arnold palmers iirc) with a ram 8 iron that was longer than the 7 iron. Put a "smile" on the face of a few golf balls with those.

[S Bragg 39]

My regular playing set 1970 MacGregor VIP blades my backup set 1971 Power Bilt Scotch Blades. I also have a real antique set Pre WW2 Tommy Armour Irons 1950 Mac Gregor Driver 1955 Mac 3 wood and 56 model ironmaster putter. I may honestly put my blades back for a while i just built me a new set of Infiniti 322 Irons today will hit them tomorrow and see.

[drewspin]

Thanks for the welcome.

I pretty much like them all, but mostly I lean towards Wilson staff blades(as if you hadn't already figured as much from my avatar ). The FG-17's I have now are the ones I used to drool over back when I first started.

 I cut my golfing teeth on an old mix-matched set of MB's (arnold palmers iirc) with a ram 8 iron that was longer than the 7 iron. Put a "smile" on the face of a few golf balls with those.

My first set of new irons, which I paid for myself were 1982/83 Wilson Staff FG-17s.  It took me a good long while to earn that cash and I loved those clubs.  They let you know when you hit one perfect, and I made plenty a balata ball smile with those bad boys.  Learned to scramble and how to bend the ball left, right, straight, high, low.  I played with various sets of FG-17s from 1982-1993 (junior high through college golf).  Great sticks and even greater memories.

[drewspin]

My regular playing set 1970 MacGregor VIP blades my backup set 1971 Power Bilt Scotch Blades. I also have a real antique set Pre WW2 Tommy Armour Irons 1950 Mac Gregor Driver 1955 Mac 3 wood and 56 model ironmaster putter. I may honestly put my blades back for a while i just built me a new set of Infiniti 322 Irons today will hit them tomorrow and see.

Welcome to Golf Discussions.

I'd love to see a picture of your classics!

[RobotDoctor]

I put this driver and 3 wood in play yesterday.  They performed very well, distance was as expected so no surprises there.  This driver is very solid!  The 3 wood was my gamer between 1991 and 1998 and still works great.