2020 Classic Bag Challenge

[BIG STU]

14 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

That's excellent news, Stu.  Go kick some golf course butt. 

Yep I had went back to them when John Smalls came down a couple of weeks ago and played golf with me. Got a heck of a deal on my 2021 Course Membership yesterday so I reupped. Year long $20 for 18 and a cart and $10 for 9 and a cart. Since DST has started I will play during the week in the afternoons. It is darn near impossible to get on in the mornings due to the several leagues that play there. Right now I am still not able to walk the Stu 5 in the early mornings. I think I have Therapy and the Docs out of the way. No excuse at the money rate not to get out for 9 every afternoon as long as the weather holds out. Fall here is my favorite time to get out in the late afternoon rounds.

[NRJyzr]

5 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Yep I had went back to them when John Smalls came down a couple of weeks ago and played golf with me. Got a heck of a deal on my 2021 Course Membership yesterday so I reupped. Year long $20 for 18 and a cart and $10 for 9 and a cart. Since DST has started I will play during the week in the afternoons. It is darn near impossible to get on in the mornings due to the several leagues that play there. Right now I am still not able to walk the Stu 5 in the early mornings. I think I have Therapy and the Docs out of the way. No excuse at the money rate not to get out for 9 every afternoon as long as the weather holds out. Fall here is my favorite time to get out in the late afternoon rounds.

Excellent news, Stu. 

I've had a couple things happen at work recently that had me briefly thinking about retirement.  It's not yet realistic, but for a moment, thinking about playing golf four or more days a week sure sounded good.

It's still a pipe dream, though, so I'll have to live vicariously thru your retirement golf. 

[BIG STU]

4 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

Excellent news, Stu. 

I've had a couple things happen at work recently that had me briefly thinking about retirement.  It's not yet realistic, but for a moment, thinking about playing golf four or more days a week sure sounded good.

It's still a pipe dream, though, so I'll have to live vicariously thru your retirement golf. 

I do not wish my body on anyone right now. Played in the weekly Dog Fight yesterday hit a few good shots. Started getting stiff after 15 holes. Not hurting but stiff despite my best efforts to stay loose. We had a cold and rain front move through just now and boy did I know it man I am stiff this morning despite working out. When I start getting stiff playing golf I lose all timing and sense of swing speed

[sirchunksalot]

I was hoping to get out and kick the challenge off, and the course I play was having a tournament. The only other course in close proximity is closed for renovations. I should have gotten up earlier, but today is my only day to sleep past 4 a.m. until next Sunday. 

I did hit the driving range and hit two buckets with the clubs. I think they gave me a defective bucket the first go round, none of the balls were behaving. The second bucket was much, much better. I will say I hit the 4 wood really good today, the last time I hit it was something I don't want to talk about. Despite not playing, I think the practice today will pay off next weekend. I took off work next Monday specifically to play. That should be fun. 

[DiscipleofPenick]

Dude, in the words of the great Lee Trevino, "Even God can't hit a 1-iron..." 

I know but that's how the set came. We found them at a back country driving range in Ohio around 2000. They were my gamers till 2007. Still have them in the garage.

Take Dead Aim

[deejaid]

Ok guys. Got my first classic bag round in today. I’ve decided I will play a different set from a different era for each round starting with my oldest set working up to my circa 1994 set.

Today’s round was with my circa 1949-51 Powerbilt set. The irons are 2-9 Powerbilt 8990 DTC’s from 1949. The woods 1,3,4 are Powerbilt 500’s from 1951 or 52. The sand wedge is a Powerbilt Sand Blaster wedge and the putter is a Otey Chrisman made hickory shafted Powerbilt probably from around 1960. The woods and irons all have the original cork and rubber vulcanized grips. Ball was the Wilson Zip.


I’ve played this driver quite a bit before so I am pretty used to it. I was happy with my accuracy today but for some reason I was hitting the ball very low off the tee. I only missed one fairway today on number 4 but I was only getting about 220 yards of carry, with my longest drive only being about 245.

My short iron play was very good, nothing like sticking a 130 yard approach with a 70 year old 8-iron. Putting was great too, I’ll admit I’ve been practicing and playing with with this hickory shaft Powerbilt quite a bit, even sticking it my modern bag. It is pretty damn accurate and it feels fantastic with the hickory shaft.

Where I really struggled was long irons. My worst hole was 170 yard #5 par 3 where I put it way right. Chipped out from under the trees but ended up short of the green. A two putt stopped the bleeding with a double bogey.

Wasn’t much better hitting fairway woods today either. Everything low and right. I admit I haven’t played my classics much lately and it showed.

A par on #6, that 245 yard drive I spoke of, and a Par on #7 were my only two of the day. I followed them up with just an awful tee shot that missed well right.

A bogey on 8 and 9 left me with a 44. If I do the math right the classic bag challenge scoring would be 37.32301


Anyway, a fun round with a set I rarely play, but a good time. I expect the scores to come down as I move forward in the equipment timeline with my next round.








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[HardcoreLooper]

Got a wonderful surprise today as the rain that was supposed to soak us all day tapered off around 1pm, so I headed out to a completely empty course.  The weapons of choice today were the Titleist driver and 5 wood, the blonde Hogan 3 wood, Hogan Grinds 3-E, a Tom Watson Scoring System 55* (Troon Grind) and the Zebra putter.

Needless to say, it was a wet and sloppy mess out there today, and I am not much of a mudder.  The Grinds sliced out several beaver pelt divots, but unfortunately if you catch it even slightly behind the ball, it's not going anywhere.  Same for when you catch it off the toe.

I had a great time and hit a few really nice shots, but when you play a course with a rating of 62.4 and a slope of 105 in this game, you have to shoot nothing to have a chance.

43.62=37-((105/113)*(6.4/2))+(72-62.4).

I'm gonna have to play real golf courses to have a chance at this.  But I had a blast, and I can't wait to get back out there.

[deejaid]

Got a wonderful surprise today as the rain that was supposed to soak us all day tapered off around 1pm, so I headed out to a completely empty course.  The weapons of choice today were the Titleist driver and 5 wood, the blonde Hogan 3 wood, Hogan Grinds 3-E, a Tom Watson Scoring System 55* (Troon Grind) and the Zebra putter.
Needless to say, it was a wet and sloppy mess out there today, and I am not much of a mudder.  The Grinds sliced out several beaver pelt divots, but unfortunately if you catch it even slightly behind the ball, it's not going anywhere.  Same for when you catch it off the toe.
I had a great time and hit a few really nice shots, but when you play a course with a rating of 62.4 and a slope of 105 in this game, you have to shoot nothing to have a chance.
43.62=37-((105/113)*(6.4/2))+(72-62.4).
I'm gonna have to play real golf courses to have a chance at this.  But I had a blast, and I can't wait to get back out there.

Nice round in adverse conditions. Vintage irons in soggy fairways can be frightening!

I took the new to me Hogan Grinds to the range the other day and I had the same problem hit them fat. I need to adjust the lie more upright for me but I couldn’t believe how every swing felt fat. Now that’s me as much as the clubs but it was surprising as I play plenty of irons with no bounce or even negative bounce and have not had that poor of a range session in a long time.

Took the the 4 and 8 irons of the Medallions to the range this morning and it was a night and day difference to the Grinds. I prefer the looks of the Medallions too so those might be the set of vintage Hogan’s for my bag.


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[sirchunksalot]

@HardcoreLooper @deejaid, great rounds guys and a good way to start the challenge off. @deejaid I love the bag you choose to start with and your strategy going forward of changing up the bag as you go along. That putter is beautiful! 

@HardcoreLooper I couldn't imagine playing in those wet conditions with these clubs, I'd be digging ditches with them. Like you said, at least you were able to get a day good enough to play. I've had to do some thinking about my strategy compared to the Hard Rock Challenge and will probably move up a set of tees from the White to the silver.  Rating stays almost the same, but lose about 10 on the slope. 

[fixyurdivot]

On 10/30/2020 at 3:46 PM, Silverhorn43 said:

Man, I think I might join in this challenge.  I have my grandfathers set of MacGregor Jack Nicholas Muirfield's (3-PW, D and 4w) that I "re-discovered" in my garage a couple months ago.  I've been wanting to play them just for the h*ll of it just to see.  This will give me a great excuse.   I just need to reset the hosel's back into place on a few of them 

I "think" they are early to mid-70's era, and I don't think they are 20th Anniv editions that came out mid-eighties, so these will definitely make the cut.  

I have no idea what I'm getting myself into , but it'll be fun! 

 

Picture are after giving them a bath, that was very therapeutic. 

Great looking set and history on those!  The traditional 1w/4w combo... if clubs could only talk .

[Shapotomous]

You guys have set the scoring bar pretty high for me to reach!  I hoped to play 9 yesterday afternoon but got rained out.  Its really windy today so it may dry out enough for 9 tomorrow afternoon if the morning service call goes well enough that I can get back early.

[fixyurdivot]

On 10/29/2020 at 10:15 AM, Shapotomous said:

I have a set of Wilson K28 Woods & irons

I had a set of these in high school.  If memory serves me, my Dad bought them on clearance at Oshman's Sporting Goods on Watt Ave in Sacramento, CA. I knew absolutely nothing about players, players CB, GI, etc. back then - not sure my Dad did either. No fittings, just open the box and pop em in the bag .

 

[Chip Strokes]

7 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

I had a set of these in high school.  If memory serves me, my Dad bought them on clearance at Oshman's Sporting Goods on Watt Ave in Sacramento, CA. I knew absolutely nothing about players, players CB, GI, etc. back then - not sure my Dad did either. No fittings, just open the box and pop em in the bag .

 

i have a set of irons ready to go for the next round of this challenge, i’ll probably shop around for some woods this winter.  i came across these K28s this morning. 

$65 negotiable and free shipping...

[Kenny B]

12 hours ago, deejaid said:

Ok guys. Got my first classic bag round in today. I’ve decided I will play a different set from a different era for each round starting with my oldest set working up to my circa 1994 set.

Today’s round was with my circa 1949-51 Powerbilt set. The irons are 2-9 Powerbilt 8990 DTC’s from 1949. The woods 1,3,4 are Powerbilt 500’s from 1951 or 52. The sand wedge is a Powerbilt Sand Blaster wedge and the putter is a Otey Chrisman made hickory shafted Powerbilt probably from around 1960. The woods and irons all have the original cork and rubber vulcanized grips. Ball was the Wilson Zip.


I’ve played this driver quite a bit before so I am pretty used to it. I was happy with my accuracy today but for some reason I was hitting the ball very low off the tee. I only missed one fairway today on number 4 but I was only getting about 220 yards of carry, with my longest drive only being about 245.

My short iron play was very good, nothing like sticking a 130 yard approach with a 70 year old 8-iron. Putting was great too, I’ll admit I’ve been practicing and playing with with this hickory shaft Powerbilt quite a bit, even sticking it my modern bag. It is pretty damn accurate and it feels fantastic with the hickory shaft.

Where I really struggled was long irons. My worst hole was 170 yard #5 par 3 where I put it way right. Chipped out from under the trees but ended up short of the green. A two putt stopped the bleeding with a double bogey.

Wasn’t much better hitting fairway woods today either. Everything low and right. I admit I haven’t played my classics much lately and it showed.

A par on #6, that 245 yard drive I spoke of, and a Par on #7 were my only two of the day. I followed them up with just an awful tee shot that missed well right.

A bogey on 8 and 9 left me with a 44. If I do the math right the classic bag challenge scoring would be 37.32301


Anyway, a fun round with a set I rarely play, but a good time. I expect the scores to come down as I move forward in the equipment timeline with my next round.








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My wife asks how you got her clubs from her old bag (bright yellow leather)?  This is what she played with in high school, right down to the Otey Christman putter.

[fixyurdivot]

21 minutes ago, Chip Strokes said:

i have a set of irons ready to go for the next round of this challenge, i’ll probably shop around for some woods this winter.  i came across these K28s this morning. 

$65 negotiable and free shipping...

Hey, I think those were mine .

[fixyurdivot]

In the spirit of "classic bags", I think contestants need to learn and use the proper lingo of the era .

[JohnSmalls]

Found these guys this weekend.  I can see why you guys that have been around a while speak volumes about the balata days.  That ball is pure butter off the face.  Here’s to hoping the bottom one holds up for more than one swing

 

@BIG STU you know a thing or two about these old pearls? 

[NRJyzr]

1 hour ago, JohnSmalls said:

Found these guys this weekend.  I can see why you guys that have been around a while speak volumes about the balata days.  That ball is pure butter off the face.  Here’s to hoping the bottom one holds up for more than one swing

 

@BIG STU you know a thing or two about these old pearls? 

I'm not Stu, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I'm posting anyway....

The Tour Balata is likely from the 90s, part of the wound ball lineup for Titleist at the time.  By this time, the ball manufacturers had largely moved away from real balata, and were using a symthetic form of balata for the cover.

The Professional was something of a "new tech" wound ball in the 90s.  The cover is urethane, I believe.

Both have a small core with a liquid center, with a substantial wound layer between that and the cover.  The liquid center core was actually quite small, probably not even as large as the smallest core piece in a modern 4 piece ball.

In spite of the generally accepted wisdom about the ball change to solid cores, the wound balls could be made quite hot.  Per Dean Snell, they could even be made to fail ODS.  Dean has a video on YouTube where he mentions how the the cores would be hot because the softer covers would be enough to bring the ball into compliance.  I found that interesting.

These will spin a bit, too. 

Edited to add:  they start to lose a lot of distance performance after just a few years.  Maybe as few as three, but certainly five.  

And...  They sometimes can get knocked out of round, from normal play.  The newer balls of the 90s lasted a bit longer, but I managed to deform a Maxfli HT-100 after a few rounds...

Edited November 2, 2020 by NRJyzr

[toehold57]

On 10/31/2020 at 7:01 AM, Shapotomous said:

Those Muirfields look amazing.   The asst pro at the course I worked at got a set of those back in 77 or 78... I only remember that because I got his used Wilson Staff Dynapower's !  

Those woods are beautiful & that driver has an excellent grain pattern.

Speaking of Dynapowers...

Our local First Tee opened the indoor practice facility yesterday and also has used clubs for sale.  A set of Dynapower irons, 2-9 are sitting there.  $12 bucks!

If anyone is interested, let me know.  They may not last long.  I think I am going to pass.

[Shapotomous]

4 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

I had a set of these in high school.  If memory serves me, my Dad bought them on clearance at Oshman's Sporting Goods on Watt Ave in Sacramento, CA. I knew absolutely nothing about players, players CB, GI, etc. back then - not sure my Dad did either. No fittings, just open the box and pop em in the bag .

 

He probably did get them at a sporting goods store.  They were Wilson's dept store line as compared to the Wilson Staff line sold in pro shops.   

There wasn't much club fitting going on in those days.  There was a local pro in the Phila section that was into it, I can't remember his name though.  He would sell the clubs through the other club pro's.  They would get the fitting info he needed and work with the member to get the right clubhead picked and he would build and ship the clubs to them.  We had a few members use them.  It was the first time I heard and learned about lie angle and custom lengths.

[BIG STU]

6 hours ago, JohnSmalls said:

Found these guys this weekend.  I can see why you guys that have been around a while speak volumes about the balata days.  That ball is pure butter off the face.  Here’s to hoping the bottom one holds up for more than one swing

 

@BIG STU you know a thing or two about these old pearls? 

Absolutely-- Hope I caught you in time. Take a non insert putter if you have one and putt those first. Don't worry about them going in the hole or not> I want you to concentrate on the feel. Next bump and run some chips with your blade Staffs. Just focus on the feel and you will see whare I am coming from

[BIG STU]

5 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

I'm not Stu, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I'm posting anyway....

The Tour Balata is likely from the 90s, part of the wound ball lineup for Titleist at the time.  By this time, the ball manufacturers had largely moved away from real balata, and were using a symthetic form of balata for the cover.

The Professional was something of a "new tech" wound ball in the 90s.  The cover is urethane, I believe.

Both have a small core with a liquid center, with a substantial wound layer between that and the cover.  The liquid center core was actually quite small, probably not even as large as the smallest core piece in a modern 4 piece ball.

In spite of the generally accepted wisdom about the ball change to solid cores, the wound balls could be made quite hot.  Per Dean Snell, they could even be made to fail ODS.  Dean has a video on YouTube where he mentions how the the cores would be hot because the softer covers would be enough to bring the ball into compliance.  I found that interesting.

These will spin a bit, too. 

Edited to add:  they start to lose a lot of distance performance after just a few years.  Maybe as few as three, but certainly five.  

And...  They sometimes can get knocked out of round, from normal play.  The newer balls of the 90s lasted a bit longer, but I managed to deform a Maxfli HT-100 after a few rounds...

Post on Brother and as SOP for you--- Ya nailed it

[JohnSmalls]

44 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Absolutely-- Hope I caught you in time. Take a non insert putter if you have one and putt those first. Don't worry about them going in the hole or not> I want you to concentrate on the feel. Next bump and run some chips with your blade Staffs. Just focus on the feel and you will see whare I am coming from

You made it in plenty of time.  I am not starting until this coming weekend, we've got an work round going Wednesday and I need all the tech/forgiveness I can get to try to post a score.  I did putt them around a little bit earlier and man oh man those things are soft.  But I'll save them for some putting and light wedge work.  I'll report back in with my findings.

[sirchunksalot]

Saturday after work, I went looking for a wedge to go in to the bag. I was in my way to a shop in town that sells used clubs when I happened upon a thrift store and pulled in. I stumbled on to a set of these beauties and it took all I had to not buy them, but the temptation to go back for them is real. 

It's a storage issue, my wife has been meaning to clean out the upstairs room for a while but has been dealing with an ear infection that had knocked her out of doing it. 

[GolfSpy BOS]

@sirchunksalot will you be renting sets for the 2021 classic bag challenge?

 

then it can be a business decision to keep extra sets

and searching for clubs is your job... just sayin'

[HardcoreLooper]

Oops, I did it again

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324332248609

The shaft on my Titleist 5 wood is bent and the face is really closed.  So I needed a new 5 wood.  And since this entire set was a good price, it just made sense.  Right?  Right?

I played again yesterday and shot another gross 37/net 43.  I need something I can hit from the fairway, especially since I can't hit an Apex 3 iron.

[Shapotomous]

20 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

Saturday after work, I went looking for a wedge to go in to the bag. I was in my way to a shop in town that sells used clubs when I happened upon a thrift store and pulled in. I stumbled on to a set of these beauties and it took all I had to not buy them, but the temptation to go back for them is real. 

It's a storage issue, my wife has been meaning to clean out the upstairs room for a while but has been dealing with an ear infection that had knocked her out of doing it. 

I was conflicted over which emoji to select for that post....

love it for the looks of those beauties ....

or   sad because you didn't pick them up!!!  .....  (yet)  !!  

[Shapotomous]

28 minutes ago, HardcoreLooper said:

Oops, I did it again

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324332248609

The shaft on my Titleist 5 wood is bent and the face is really closed.  So I needed a new 5 wood.  And since this entire set was a good price, it just made sense.  Right?  Right?

I played again yesterday and shot another gross 37/net 43.  I need something I can hit from the fairway, especially since I can't hit an Apex 3 iron.

I like your rationalization process!!!   

[BIG STU]

22 hours ago, JohnSmalls said:

You made it in plenty of time.  I am not starting until this coming weekend, we've got an work round going Wednesday and I need all the tech/forgiveness I can get to try to post a score.  I did putt them around a little bit earlier and man oh man those things are soft.  But I'll save them for some putting and light wedge work.  I'll report back in with my findings.

This is not the classic club challenge but--- I was messing around in the shop yesterday morning and found a wedge I forgot I had. It was a Cally X forged 52* wedge. Rusty as heck so it had to come off the pile. Played a 9 hole practice round with the metals mostly working on fairway shots. Ditched the hybrids and put my Adams 5 wood and old TM V-Steel 7 wood in. the surprise was the Wedge. The grooves are in great shape and it spun the crap out of the Super Soft Cally balls and to boot it has the little CC stamp so it is conforming. In fact that wedge scuffed both of the balls I was playing

[BIG STU]

20 hours ago, B.Boston said:

@sirchunksalot will you be renting sets for the 2021 classic bag challenge?

 

then it can be a business decision to keep extra sets

and searching for clubs is your job... just sayin'

Well if we were down here I could loan or give some away that is if you like Macgregor irons and a hodgepodge of woods.