Modern 'Wood' versus old (made of wood) Wood

[Grumpter]

I recently purchased a set of Wilson (made from wood) woods from the 1970's for nostalgias sake. They are the same set my father used when I started playing golf. Yesterday I played as a single and had a chance to test them out versus my current driver and 3 wood. I hit one shot with the modern clubs and 2 shots for each old wood then using the best of the 2 shots for the old wood. I used the same ball brand and model for all shots (Bridgestone E7). Here are the results. I want to give it another go sometime after I replace the grips (original grips but I didn't have any incidents where I felt my hands slipped) and maybe lengthen the clubs (the wood driver is about 1.5" shorter than the modern driver).

Hole	1 Metal	1 Wood	3 Metal	3 Wood	Notes
1	258	207
2	253	212
4	274	249
6	249	217
8			272	265	Severe downhill
9	265	241
10	259	223
11			230	194
13	242-sand	238
15	229	208			Strong breeze in face
16	285	232	234	201	530'ish Par 5
17	275	223

Averages:

Modern Driver = 259

Old Driver = 225

Modern 3W = 245 (but skewed due to downhill hole)

Old 3W = 220 (but skewed due to downhill hole)

[Psyber]

Too bad you couldn't have gotten some balls from the 70s to use with them to test but good info. Equipment has definitely come a long way.

[RayG]

Too bad you couldn't have gotten some balls from the 70s to use with them to test but good info. Equipment has definitely come a long way.

True... modern balls are (for all practical purposes) squishy blobs. The old 70',80's Pellets w/90/100 compression were meant to be smashed by those plastic inserts. I've had similar experiences using "older/classic" equipment with modern balls.

[Grumpter]

I doubt I have any leftover from the 70's/80's. It would be interesting to see how different they were.

[Archie Bunker]

The wood heads are smaller, and less forgiving, but I would think that the real difference in distance is due to the old metal shafts and the shaft length. If you were to replace those shafts with modern graphite, I would think the differences would be far less. Several tour pros use persimmon woods to focus and sharpen their games during practice rounds.

[saevel25]

The wood heads are smaller, and less forgiving, but I would think that the real difference in distance is due to the old metal shafts and the shaft length. If you were to replace those shafts with modern graphite, I would think the differences would be far less. Several tour pros use persimmon woods to focus and sharpen their games during practice rounds.

Also the lower ball speeds off the club face.

COR for a wooden club is about 0.77. It's 0.83 for modern drivers. This means that even with the same impact conditions the maximum smash factor would be about 1.40 for the wooden driver versus 1.50 for today's drivers.

This means a 100 MPH golf club is going to lose about 10 MPH in ball speed just from impact.

[SavvySwede]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archie Bunker

The wood heads are smaller, and less forgiving, but I would think that the real difference in distance is due to the old metal shafts and the shaft length. If you were to replace those shafts with modern graphite, I would think the differences would be far less. Several tour pros use persimmon woods to focus and sharpen their games during practice rounds.

Also the lower ball speeds off the club face.

COR for a wooden club is about 0.77. It's 0.83 for modern drivers. This means that even with the same impact conditions the maximum smash factor would be about 1.40 for the wooden driver versus 1.50 for today's drivers.

This means a 100 MPH golf club is going to lose about 10 MPH in ball speed just from impact.

I don't think that is right. The pros can get 1.45 smash with a 3 iron and I doubt they are all that springy.

[Archie Bunker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archie Bunker

The wood heads are smaller, and less forgiving, but I would think that the real difference in distance is due to the old metal shafts and the shaft length. If you were to replace those shafts with modern graphite, I would think the differences would be far less. Several tour pros use persimmon woods to focus and sharpen their games during practice rounds.

Also the lower ball speeds off the club face.

COR for a wooden club is about 0.77. It's 0.83 for modern drivers. This means that even with the same impact conditions the maximum smash factor would be about 1.40 for the wooden driver versus 1.50 for today's drivers.

This means a 100 MPH golf club is going to lose about 10 MPH in ball speed just from impact.

It may also depend on the kind of face insert on the wooden club. Besides the original fiber inserts, there have been a number of materials that have been tried in wooden heads. I have persimmon drivers with steel inserts, graphite inserts, and one called a glass gamma-fire insert. Both made claims of increased ball speed and distance when they were introduced. I would guess that your data is based upon a wooden head with an ordinary fiber or phenolic face insert.

[SavvySwede]

It may also depend on the kind of face insert on the wooden club. Besides the original fiber inserts, there have been a number of materials that have been tried in wooden heads. I have persimmon drivers with steel inserts, graphite inserts, and one called a glass gamma-fire insert. Both made claims of increased ball speed and distance when they were introduced. I would guess that your data is based upon a wooden head with an ordinary fiber or phenolic face insert.

I doubt the insert is going to matter much.