Wooden woods, wound balls, steel spikes

[NiftyNiblick]

On 8/19/2018 at 8:00 PM, revkev said:

 

 

I'm younger than Nifty but grew up with metal spikes (hated them), persimmon woods and blades (you are hurting yourself to play with them but knock yourself out if you want to).

 

 

 

I'm only calling back on this old thread because I got new feedback on it just today.

I didn't like older equipment because of the construction  materials OR the nostalgia.

What I liked were the simple fit metrics that came with old technology.

Lofts, lies, lengths, face angles--things like that.

Because modern clubs are so complex, they're simply not as easy to fit as older equipment was.

 

 

I don't care about the new shafts. That's what the launch monitor fitters obsess about.

They made shafts that I could play in the hickory shaft era and they make them that I could play right now if I could indeed play.

Shafts are the least of my worries.  I'm talking club heads.

 

 

Before I even worry about the technology or materials, the loft, lie, and face angles have to be right.

Irons can be bent if one doesn't mind the stupid club number / loft  correlation of the stampings--

and I actually do, as you know, but that's not super important--

but metalwoods cannot be put on a lathe to give me the lofts, lies angles, and face angles

that were on older clubs and, more importantly, that actually fit me.

 

I mention this every time it comes up,

but what people seem to see instead is that I want to play with wooded woods and blades.

 

That even goes for the steel spikes, by the way.

I flat out played better with them and felt safer with them.

Falling down sucks when you're 72.

 

If I were perfectly healthy and able to play,

I'd have a hard time finding drivers and fairway woods, especially,

that I could hit as well as I could hit "obsolete" clubs

because the basic fit metrics--loft, lie and face angles--

are simply not available.

 

And to actually know that they're not,

one would have to have actually looked for fit metric specs

that match original Taylor Made Pittsburgh Persimmons (the original metalwoods)

or Titleist PTs---

as I've done.     Many times.  They're simply not there to be had.

 

In the end, it just comes down to my not believing that superior technology

can overcome bad fit. 

And actually hitting the clubs illustrated it to me pretty clearly.

As an older man, I could still hit a very old TaylorMade or Titleist  #4 metalweood,

weak lofted ,  flat,  and open faced as it was,

a consistent, GPS measured 215 yards

and with a brand new one,

I could hit a low hook into the housing development adjacent to the course.

 

I'm not the only gorilla-proportioned old man walking around.

I shouldn't be that hard to fit.

I often think modern clubs are more upright, closed faced, and strong lofted,

and numbered-iron soles are bouncier,

because people SWING DIFFERENTLY today.

My flat, inside-hitting, draw-inducing swing is from a different era.

Perhaps it left the game with me, I don't know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[null]

Duuuuuuude

[NiftyNiblick]

7 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Duuuuuuude

I got new feedback on it just today, jlukes.

 

Maybe, on a subconscience level, I'm looking for investors to start a new company!

 

 

[deejaid]

Nifty, I’d love to see you and Jlukes do a podcast together!


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[tommc23]

5 minutes ago, deejaid said:

Nifty, I’d love to see you and Jlukes do a podcast together!


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That I would like to see and listen to

[NiftyNiblick]

3 minutes ago, deejaid said:

Nifty, I’d love to see you and Jlukes do a podcast together!


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It would have to be a podcast, i suppose.

Despite my having a great face for radio, It certainly couldn't be on FM.

[silver & black]

I took up the game later in life at 39. I'm 59 now. I've hit wooden woods and old blades, but never played a round of golf with them. 

 

Steel spikes.... I didn't start playing when they were still legal, so......... Anyway, last year I was shopping on the net for new spikes and I came across an outfit in Great Britain that sold steel spikes with modern quick twist tech. I ordered them and tried them out for several rounds (to the dismay of my golfing buddies...lol). I have to say that I am not a fan. They weren't comfortable to play or walk in... especially on cart paths and the paved clubhouse area. Not only that.... there is no hiding the fact you have steel spikes when walking on paved surfaces, which brings a lot of nasty looks from other golfers! I went back to soft spikes and I will never try steel again. I just had to see what they were about for myself.

[NiftyNiblick]

It has to make a big difference between trying them [steel spikes] after their day is done,

and playing many, many years with them and then having them taken away.

If I had learned to play in soft spikes or spikeless, I'm sure that I would have been fine.

Having to learn to play without real spikes late in the game was unpleasant for me. 

I'd worn them since I was fourteen.

 

 

[NiftyNiblick]

New types of clubs becoming available in the past couple of decades have clearly impacted set configurations.

The thought process behind configuring a set has become an increasingly interesting topic to me.

A new "standard set" seems to be emerging for typical recreational players...

 

1 driver

1 fairway wood

2 hybrids

5 numbered irons

4 wedges

1 putter.

 

I think that I'd go a somewhat different way.

[BIG STU]

18 hours ago, NiftyNiblick said:

New types of clubs becoming available in the past couple of decades have clearly impacted set configurations.

The thought process behind configuring a set has become an increasingly interesting topic to me.

A new "standard set" seems to be emerging for typical recreational players...

 

1 driver

1 fairway wood

2 hybrids

5 numbered irons

4 wedges

1 putter.

 

I think that I'd go a somewhat different way.

Still if I play more modern irons (ie: 2013 Callys or MP-68) I only carry one fairway metal and no hybrids because I can still hit long irons. Actually I need to update my WITB profile to show that. Mainly I only carry 12 clubs. But even my more modern clubs have somewhat a traditional loft with the PW around 47* or 48*. Even at that I do not need a gap wedge because I can dial down that PW some if needed. 

[NiftyNiblick]

5 hours ago, BIG STU said:

Still if I play more modern irons (ie: 2013 Callys or MP-68) I only carry one fairway metal and no hybrids because I can still hit long irons. Actually I need to update my WITB profile to show that. Mainly I only carry 12 clubs. But even my more modern clubs have somewhat a traditional loft with the PW around 47* or 48*. Even at that I do not need a gap wedge because I can dial down that PW some if needed. 

If I were a little younger and in better health, i could easily see myself playing a new set like this.

The fourteen club limit would take out my sand iron,  limiting my utilities to driver, driving iron, and putter

 

I really hate hitting sand shots with a straight leading edge, though.

I find an oval faced sand club very helpful.

Plus I like low bounce on turf wedges--not great in the sand.

 

I really like the looks of those AP3s because they're almost as clean-looking as the 718CBs but more forgiving.

The gap wedge is 48º though--what my first 9-iron was.

So it would be four wedges with a 14-slot bag or five (including sand iron) with a 15-slot bag.

[knightsofnii]

On 8/20/2018 at 12:13 PM, deejaid said:

I'm 42 and I don't think I even hit a cavity back iron or metal wood until I got my first new set, an 11-piece Spalding Executive set from Sears in 1991 or 92.

 

And a guy working at the local course took pity on me and allowed me to take a pair of metal spikes that had been in the lost and found for over a year. I believe by the time I finally replaced them, metal spikes were pretty much finished.

 

 

 

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Hah!  I have this exact set!  My first golf set, bought 2nd hand about 1999-2000  Complete with the persimmon 1,3,5 woods, and I believe 2-SW irons.  

The 4i shaft snapped when we used it on a Piñata for a friend's birthday.  I should get some pics.  Leather/Pleather bag too!  I got them at a friend's garage sale for 45 bucks, complete with a women's set of some unknown brand blades!!