One of my fondest memories in golf goes back to the late 60s when I was finally able to afford a top “pro” line of woods. I chose Hillerich and Bradsby PowerBilt Citations.
They were gorgeous. The persimmon heads were beautifully shaped and the signature brass backweight clearly announced these were the real deal. Plus there was that “lucky” horseshoe logo engraved in the soleplate.
Sadly, as persimmon passed away, H&B joined other classic club manufacturers like MacGregor and Wilson in decline as a top brand. But now they’re making a comeback with a new line of premium clubs and have brought back long-time endorser Fuzzy Zoeller to gain presence on the Champions Tour.
The Company
Hillerich and Bradsby dates back to 1884 when John “Bud” Hillerich invented the Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The company got into golf in 1916 and introduced the PowerBilt brand in 1933. The next year, Olin Dutra used their clubs to win the U.S. Open.
One of my favorite players in the 60s and 70s, Bobby Nichols, carried the bright orange PowerBilt staff bag. Then along came Fuzzy Zoeller who won 10 of his 12 professional tournaments with the clubs. Now, after 15 years, Zoeller is back with another orange bag to promote the Louisville-based company on a professional tour.
Woods and Hybrids
As you might expect from a classic club maker, the new Citation driver driver introduced at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show isn’t square, triangular, or oval. It’s shaped like a driver. Still, it carries the kind of technology expected in today’s performance enhancing clubs.
It’s a 460cc titanium clubhead with something called an “SP-700 Beta Ti” cup face. Lighter and stronger than traditional forged titanium, H&B says the material allows them to achieve maximum moment of inertia and coefficient of restitution ratings. But maybe best of all, that lucky horseshoe Citation logo is back on the sole.
There’s also an internal bias weighting system that allows them to offer the driver in both draw- and neutral-bias versions. Neutral bias heads are offered in 9° and 10.5° versions. Draw bias is available in lofts of 9°, 10.5°, 12°, and 14°. The standard shaft is a 58-gram Aldila graphite model and the stock grip is a Winn G8 AVS. Suggested retail price is a modest (by today’s standards) $249.
The fairway woods come with a “Ni-Miraging” steel face 85% harder than titanium. The cup face technology means there’s no welding near the face so the club can provide a higher coefficient of restitution rating and more distance.
Interestingly, they are offering three different lofts in the 3 wood: 12.75°, 14.25°, and 15.75°. The 5 wood carries 19° of loft and the 7 wood 23°. They’ll come with the same stock shaft and grip as the driver and have a suggested retail price of $150.
The hybrids, with a suggested retail price of $125.99, may be the real steal. Made with the same technology as the fairways, they come in lofts of 14°, 17°, 20°, 23°, and 26° which means they cover 1- through 5-irons. The shaft is an Aldila 60 gram model… a little lighter than most graphite hybrid shafts I’ve seen.
Irons and Wedges
The new Citation irons look very interesting to me. They have an ultra-thin titanium face, a deep undercut cavity back, and twin tungsten back-weights. With the traditional length hosels and ferrules and narrow sole, they very much combine an old school look with modern forgiveness features.
Another plus from my point of view is the stock Nippon N.S. Pro 950 GH steel shaft. Available in R, S, and X flexes, it’s a shaft I’ve been using for the past couple of seasons. For me, it’s a great combination of light weight and low torque. I’m a fan. Standard grips are the Winn G8 AVS.
The irons are available in three configurations. You can get a 5-PW set for $600 and add your own hybrids. A standard 3-PW set runs $800. Or you can opt for a set with a 3 and 4 hybrids along with the 5-PW irons for $900. I hope we see more and more of that kind of set makeup options. It just makes sense the way most players are setting up their bags these days.
The wedges look just as interesting to me. They show a very classic profile and are made from soft carbon steel. But it’s the face insert made of a brass/copper alloy that really gets my attention. Very old school looking and should produce a very soft feel. I’d like to try hitting these sometime.
H&B is offering a lot of loft choices: 48°, 50°, 52°, 54°, 56°, 58°, and 60°. They all come with a True Temper Dynamic Gold steel shaft and have a suggested retail price of $150.
In the End…
It’s good to see a brand name I once so admired making a comeback. These PowerBilt Citation clubs look to me to be worthy of a closer look. And the prices look a lot less than some of the stratospheric top line club prices we seem to be reaching these days.
Those wedges look pretty cool. Any idea if that face will rust over time?
Tyler,
I’m sure the brass/copper face won’t rust, but I’m guessing it will darken with age as it tarnishes.
These new PowerBilts do not seem to be in the same ballpark beauty-wise as the old Citation forged irons and persimmon woods, but it’s nice to see H&B is trying to get back in the game (so to speak). It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here. I can’t wait to see some of the new PBs “in person”.
I checked out the PowerBilt website and found something that seems to be pretty strange. The loft of the PW is 44-degrees. Didn’t that used to be an 8-iron? 😯
Q.Q.,
That would be correct and symptomatic of the way club lofts continue to be jacked up. At 44 degrees, it’s more like a modern 10 iron than a pitching wedge. In fact, the Nickent 3DX hybrid iron set we reviewed last August comes with a 44 degree 10 iron.
Of course, all this makes spacing lofts through your wedges very tricky. For many of us faced with a set like this it would probably be a good idea to jetison one of the long irons/hybrids in favor of four wedges.
I believe a gap wedge or stonger lofts on your SW and maybe your third wedge is an inevitible result of this progression. 44/51/58.
We live in a period when many good clubs are being overlooked. Partly this because with a huge variety of excellent choices it is easy to play it safe. I also believe the retail and distribution channels have difficulty making space for everyone. Perhaps an online model where you receive coupon for fitting with an independent fitter after a purchase decision, then you are fitted and the order finalized. A small shop could just carry demo and fitting clubs for a variety of smaller companies. The savings in overhead might allow for an upgraded fitting process.
I too remember using the old Powerbuilt Citation persimmon woods, I had a few drivers and a 3 wood at one time or another and besides being absolutely pure visually they had a special “mystique” about them.
I’ll certainly be interested to see how they go with their new product linup, I have very fond memories of the brand.
44-degree pitching wedge? I’m sorry, but that is just stupid. Iron-lofts are ticking me off these days. A modern three-iron is, what, a traditional one-iron? Terrible for the average player.
I still have a Citation 2 Wood that I played up until last year instead of a driver much of the time. I hit it about 225 and dead straight but I finally succumbed to my golfing buddies outdriving me all the time and bought a Titanium driver.
Jack — did you happen to see any info on the “Air Attack” line of H&B clubs? It’s sort of hidden on their web site but I saw an Air Attack driver on Ebay and it looks “interesting”. It’s a 460cc Titanium driver with adjustable weights ala TaylorMade et. al.
Since there was so little information about it and it’s new I was wondering if you had seen anything about it?
MGP:
Here’s what I think, right or wrong. At 460cc’s of titanium any driver head is going to have incredible moment of inertia. Today all the heads are made in China or wherever and as long as they meet USGA standards… square, round,or triangular, they’re basically the same thing.
What really matters in a driver is the shaft. Give me the right shaft in this H&B titanium driver and I’ll do as well as I could with a driver twice the cost. So forget the brand, forget the technology in the head. Get the shaft that works for you (and there are, fortunately or unfortunately, dozens to chose from) and you’ll have the best driver for you.
Jeff:
Welcome to the age of club hype. We’re all being snowed by iron manufacturers who are putting out iron sets with lofts all over the place. You’re right when you state lofts in some recent sets are bad for the average player.
What upsets me most is that few people are talking about the lofts in irons and how that relates to loft specs in the past and the lofts being used today on the PGA Tour. To be perfectly honest, I think sets with too strong a loft defeat the whole purpose of loft progression.
A player with a slower swing speed, (increasingly like me), doesn’t need stronger lofts as much as they need a greater difference in lofts between clubs.
I think we are on the cusp in a revolution in set makeup. Dana Quigley is on the right track with hybrids down to his 6 iron.
More and more the question is becoming whether you want to emulate the pros in branding or iron distance, or whether you want to shoot lower scores on your course next Saturday and take your buddies’ money.
Just for a bit of materials science that may be interesting to fellow golfers, SP700 alloy titanium is a “super plastic” titanium. This means that the metal is relatively maluable. This comes into club performance in that the more maluable nature of the special titanium gives club faces made of it unusually high springlike effect. That is additional to the already very thin required face thickness that enhances the C.O.R. also. All of that translates into a larger .830 C.O.R. zone when used with variable face thicknesses, even when compared with other beta titaniums. The beta atomic structure of the SP700 has to do with high plasticity too. That is why almost all of the highest quality drivers use special beta titanium faces. This material has three different qualities that enhance springlike effect and thus will add almost nothing (still measureable, thus sellable) to the distance of the average drive when used with variable face thicknesses in comparison with the average 6-4 alloy apha ti with that face design. This yardage increase will be more for faster swingspeed golfers. This all is what the experts say, at least.
As far as moment of inertia, discretionary (free) weight put in the right areas increases it the most second to a geometry change in 460cc clubheads. Stronger by weight materials help free weight up to be used in the right places. SP700 titanium is the second strongest titanium used in golf to 10-2-3 I can get good statistics on. 10-2-3 is out-of-its-class strong by weight. If the face on a driver is SP700 in comparison with 6-4, a little weight can be saved, which will increase the MOI by maybe as much as 100g/cm2 in a conventional 460cc driver (just a guess on that number). This will increase accuracy by almost nothing (still measureable, thus sellable) and decrease distance loss accordingly. The weight savings would be a little more if the whole club where made of higher quality materials, but that is rare. Crowns are often better now, but not the main body. What makes discretionary weight mind boggling to figure out is that variable thickness faces will decrease the available weight a little and the bonding technique of the pieces of a clubhead to each other makes a HUGE difference in the free weight also. There is no easy way to calculate bonding techniques into the strength by weight ratio. Alluminum will bond very effeciently, then steel, and lastly titanium. 7075 and 6061 alloy alluminum are very weak, but bond extremely effeciently so they yeild more discretionary weight than 6-4 titanium, but without high C.O.R. Brazing is more effecient than welding for part bonding and less parts works better. Counterweighting a heavier clubhead will increase resistence to twisting too without increasing swingweight, but that hasn’t been done yet. With the lighter shafts of today, this can be done with that free weight without increasing the total weight of the club beyond normal.
END OF HIGHLY TECHNICAL SECTION
You can now relax or actually read the rest if you skipped that.
I like that there is a draw or neutral bias choice along with good loft choices and an excellent shaft on the 2007 Citation driver. This closes the gaps that PowerBilt had before technologically with the most hyped brands. They have actually offered better materials and construction on some of their previous driver offerings, though. PowerBilt has been a good technological competitor with the current big brands previously, but not on highly marketed grounds. In my oppinion, PowerBilt’s changes in 2007 are mostly in excitement factor with more decorated heads and more of a variety of technologies, but the clubs are better. The shaft is really nice. I think shaft technology changes since about 2003 have been more important than clubhead changes. I have used modern PowerBilt and the “bang for the buck” has been great.
I also like that there are custom 3 wood lofts. I’ve been wanting that. 60 grams is excellent for a hybrid shaft. My hybrids have 80g shafts. A 5-PW set choice is very practical. I don’t use a 3 or 4 iron. I use 4 and 5 hybrids.
Those wedges are the nicest of the featured products here, in my oppinion. They are very “old school.” They look like 1950’s MacGregor Colokrom wedges. Colokrom irons and wedges are very good from what I know and have heard. The copper face will wear off eventually with use. I have some MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Champion 813 Irons that are of a slightly later date than Colokroms and they give allot more distance to me than modern irons. I can hit a “813” 2 iron best, but only a current 5 iron best. The 2007 Citation wedges are top-rate in classic beauty by me. 😀
This may be a little off topic, but I have a complete set of older Powerbilt Fuzzy Zoeller signature women’s irons and woods that I’m trying to identify and price. Where might I go to get such info? Thanks.
I play PowerBIlt TPS irons (’95) and still play Citation 3 and 5 wood. When I got these irons I immediately had to get a gap wedge.
I just saw the new woods in the pro shop and was thinking I’d finally move up to metal, even though the persimmon woods still hit beautifully.
I have been trying for the past several years to find one of the old PowerBilt Staff bags, the ones that were in use in the 70’s, It was a mixture of Orange, Black, and Sivler.Would love to find one of these!
Look on eBay right now!
Do you know anything about the 1984 “century” anniversary forged blades of which 1000 sets were produced? I have been trying to find info on them and can find nothing.
chris
Posted 10 Jan 2009 at 10:42pm #
Do you know anything about the 1984 “century” anniversary forged blades of which 1000 sets were produced?
I to have tried finding info on these !!
I have been trying to find info on them and can find nothing.
i have 1984 “century” anniversary (4)woods set and iron set 600/1000 i inherited… would love to find out the value of these they are in original display cases and never been hit.
any help would be appreciated .
I play a set of Powerbilt Citation Blades from the 60’s. The sweet spot is small and they are old. However, when I connect with a clean shot, they really produce. I am going to purchase a new set of clubs soon. Guess what? I am going to buy the new forged set of citations and a new set of wedges. I have heard from people over the last forty years, comment on my clubs. Cutting realy, because I use these old clubs. I dont care, I have gripped them around thirty times and though my handy cap is moving up there I am still carrying a 9. And when the round is over, they still usually say something like. You could do so much better with some new clubs. Well, they may be right. For me , there is no other club than the Hillerich and Bradsbry period!
Kevin Baledge
Antioch,Ca.
I am lefthanded and started playing 45 yrs ago with powerbilt clubs. I hope I will see the Citation line in lefthand.
I grew up playing H & B irons given to me from my Grandfather. when I graduated from High School in 1968, he said he would buy me some new irons as a graduation present. I could have a full set of Ram irons or a 1/2 set of Powerbilts. I chose the Powerbilts and used them for 20 years. Later added the Persimmon Citation woods (how sweet they were).
I eventually replaced them and gave them to my nephew for his first set of clubs.
Now, 40 years later, I recently purchased the new nitrogen charged Powerbilt Air Foil driver. WOW! It took a few weeks to dial it in as the shaft is 1″ longer than my Cobra. I was hitting my Cobra L5V driver about 205 yds and in the middle of the fairway. Now, the Powerbilt is consistently giving me 228, 232, 241 and 251 yds in the fairway. I am simply amazed at the quality, feel and sound when I hit the ball.
I also hit the new nitrogen charged Air Foil irons at the PGA show in Orlando. I could have hit them all day long. I am now anxiously waiting delivery of my new irons today.
The quality is still in the product. I just wish they would stop the “infomercial” and market the clubs correctly. Put them in the hands of some Pro’s and let them win on the Nationwide and PGA tours.
After 6 rounds with the new Air Force One Hollow irons with Nitrogen, I can strongly say that they work….I am now hitting the greens. My scores have begun to plummett…..from the mid 90’s with my Callaway Fusions to the upper 80’s.
Thanks PowerBilt
From a 21 Handicap to a 14 Handicap in just 8 weeks…..simply amazing!
Thanks Powerbilt!
I have a complete set of citation light clubs with the persimmon woods , forged blade irons and the bright orange bag. the grips are blue rubber from england and are still very soft. I absolutely love these irons can you tell me more about them , their value and so forth. Everyone who has hit these clubs are amazed at how well they play.
I have seen the citation clubs around but never any of the “light” forged blades.
Whatever information you could pass onto me would be greatly appreciated.
David King
Georgia
hello, does anyone have any info on h & b power bilt century genuine persimmon 4 woods set driver/brassie/spoon/cleek and century irons( 2 thru 10) look to be blade irons i have both sets they have never been hit …. that are in wood boxes with doors…. stamped on the inside h & b 100 years 1884 thru 1984 hillerich & bradsby co. on the clubs they say 0613/1000 they are a stunning set i believe the irons are forged from chris in bag drop in this posting and that 1000 where only made ., , my wife wants me to sell them before we move to smaller home i have no idea of there worth, can anyone help me or who to contact about these sets thank you don