Clubs from the 80s - A Good Article from a Few Years Ago

So I remember reading this article in the USA Today and of course at the time I was like Who the heck is this tour rookie lol...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2007-07-12-oldclubs_N.htm

it would be fun to see the pro's all use old school equipment for 1 tournament.....

Interesting article. That would be really entertaining to watch!

Funny how professional baseball won't allow technology to change the game, but professional golf does. The wooden bat and cowhide-covered ball hasn't changed much since the days of Babe Ruth. If they rolled back the ball and equipment back to 1960-70-80 specs, some of the pros winning today wouldn't stand a chance.

Not really 'funny,' they're trying to keep pitchers alive.

Every now and then I think that it would be fun to pull the persimmons and the Hogan blades out of the attic, dig out a balata 100 and give it a try.  Then I read something like this and think, maybe not!

Reminds me of this:

...My fiance loves this movie and consequently I have seen it several times.

Guess they don't care in Little League or College baseball.

Actually they do care. They've been dialing back metal and composite bat performance substantially for over a decade.

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/bats/NCAA-stats.html

I was in Goodwill today. They had Persimmon woods and and iron set. Like some of you I haven't hit those things since...the 80's. I think I will buy them and have some good giggles and fun. I always wanted to play a golf outing/challenge that was a throwback to years ago. In the challenge if your clubs could be dated from say 1964(avg)..you'd get a 49 hole handicap...etc and just go for it, have fun and enjoy the day. You know I want to have that perfect score some day.,but in life you have to mix things up or they become a chore. So getting some old school clubs and finding some old spaldings or balatas sounds pretty kick ass to me!

Hit a persimmon driver "on the screws" and you will get a sound and feeling that cannot be duplicated with the metal and plastic sticks used today. Nothing beats the feeling of a well-struck ball with a solid clubhead, transmitted through a steel shaft. You probably won't want to use these in serious matches, but they a really fun once in awhile.

And the really nice thing is that you won't have to walk nearly as far to that next shot!

I will be playing blades and persimmon tomorrow afternoon. It is a blast, I have been playing vintage about 75% of the time this year I would also like to see the pros have a vintage tournament.

I read the article and saw that Sneds used a ball from 1985. That is appropriate for what he was trying to do, but it is likely the ball was not the same as it was in 1985; I think the old wound balls deteriorate some with age. If he had used, say a 330 RX or a DT SoLo, the results would have been better, I think. They still don't feel like the old Titleist 100's or Maxfli HT's, but they work pretty well with the old stuff. I think the ball is at least as much a contributor as the equipment. The article talked about the difference in the irons. Most of that is because of the hotter lofts paired with the new ball. The pros hit near the sweet spot most of the time, so using a comparable loft and shaft, I don't think that would be much different. Around the late 70's/early 80's, you started seeing some of the blades with a more turf friendly grind. As for Tiger, in his prime he would have adapted to persimmon, as he often used to practice with one. Back in the day, Seve played with a style not unlike some today; bash the crap out of the ball off the tee, hit a crazy shot to get out of trouble, then finesse the ball around the green. I started playing in the persimmon days, and so it is nostalgic for me as well as challenging-sort of like some people like to hunt with archery equipment or muzzleloaders. I am probably doomed to be a slightly better than bogey golfer for the rest of my life, and I can do that with lumber and blades. I still play newer stuff sometimes though, and when I switch back and forth, I can see how folks who have never played the old stuff have less interest. As Archie said though, if you ever hit one "on the screws" with persimmon, it is something you will want to do again.

Slammin'SammySnead said he found little difference between hickory shafted irons and steel. Except uniformity. He hit the hickory as far as the steel but each hickory took a bit of learning as no two pieces of wood are identical.

Have a buddy whose son bought some vintage, hickory shafted clubs and plays with them some of his rounds. Wears plus 4's and carrys a canvas Sunday bag. Says that he likes how the clubs play but has to use a lower compression ball (uses "senior" balls) which of course costs him distance. I still have my persimmon 2 and 3 woods as well as some laminated maple drivers. Tempted sometimes to pull them out and hit them but they need new grips and I haven't been inspired enough to do that. But used to love the feel of a persimmon wood on a three piece ball. Used to use "Hogan 392" (I think) balls and loved how they felt. But most of all I miss being 30.....

It would be interesting to have more data on current tour pros playing old equipment. For instance, if they played something like 5 rounds using modern equipment and alternated with 5 rounds using old equipment. The results of the modern would be subtracted from the old and give you some stroke count N. Next, take all the scores of the pros like Jack, Arnold and Ben and subtract the value N from all their scores from their old scores. Not perfectly scientific, but it might give some indication as to how well one of the old players would do on the current courses. To make it more accurate, maybe the current tour players can play with the old equipment with close to the old course conditions. Would be a cool comparison. A bonus would be how would the players rank under the old playing conditions.

I still use a set of irons from the early 80s.  Golden Ram Tour Grind 2i - pw.  I wouldn't trade them for anything.

This is sure the truth.  The good old days were just not that good in some ways.