What's next for my 70's / 80's blades collection?

[bcstones]

6 hours ago, BIG STU said:

What the bad part is these days unless the person you are talking to is an old fart like us they have no idea who Tom Watson or Jerry Pate is. Kinda like in the main threads if one refers to a JP wedge they think you are talking about one of those high dollar glitzy James Patrick wedges not an Wilson Joe Phillips wedge. I got into one of those discussions one night on one of the main threads and had to explain Joe Phillips and the fact Tiger never played Ram equipment. Then there is the debacle of people including manufacturers today calling an Anser style putter a blade. Yep I figured I was too damn old and showed myself out.

Nah, you’re not too old - just very experienced & too damn intelligent to keep talking to tree stumps.

 

Thanks for the info on JP wedges, I always wondered…now I gotta find out who Joe Phillips is 🥸😂

[BIG STU]

54 minutes ago, bcstones said:

Nah, you’re not too old - just very experienced & too damn intelligent to keep talking to tree stumps.

 

Thanks for the info on JP wedges, I always wondered…now I gotta find out who Joe Phillips is 🥸😂

He was the chief designer for Wilson back in the day. Some of the Wilson gurus can tell you more but I know he designed some of the iconic Wilson irons and even woods. He designed the series of Wilson JP wedges which IMHO are as good as anything else including the hearalded 58 Staff SW

[bcstones]

8 hours ago, BIG STU said:

Never owned a set but I liked the Palmers with the "AP" on the back I am thinking they were First Flight brand

Ahh, I believe I ran across a posting either on this site or ‘golfspy(?)’ on Palmer Golf…Got It! While I do think there is a posting on those sites - I just went to Maltby’s & read that Professional Golf Co manfactured the First Flight clubs. Palmer went to them & in the beginning First Flight manufactured Arnold Palmer clubs under control of Arnold Palmer and Tru-Matic was the club name that he designed. The Standard was produced after the Sears debacle by Pro Group (Professional Golf after “reorganization”) & well after Arnold Palmer Golf Company ended. Palmer had stock in Pro Group, was on their board until ~1990. 
Sure would be interesting to know who Sears contracted with to actually make their clubs.

Edited November 14, 2022 by bcstones

[bcstones]

30 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

He was the chief designer for Wilson back in the day. Some of the Wilson gurus can tell you more but I know he designed some of the iconic Wilson irons and even woods. He designed the series of Wilson JP wedges which IMHO are as good as anything else including the hearalded 58 Staff SW

Hmm…thanks for the info. I know I’ve seen the “JP” wedges sometime, so now gotta check my wedge barrel to see if any are in there…probably tomorrow I can head into town to check 😂

Thanks again

[Yacho]

9 minutes ago, bcstones said:

but I know he designed some of the iconic Wilson irons and even woods.

 

Yeah, I happened upon a set of Staff JP "Finest Persimmon" woods last year to top off my vintage day bag.  1W, 3W, and 4W, '83 or '84 I believe.  I'm definitely more into the vintage irons since I feel like there's no real drop-off in performance compared to todays clubs, but damn those things swing nice!  ...and when you center one off the tee and end up 30yds past your playing partners' TM Stealth or Cally Triple Diamond drives...  hard not to feel like the most smug SOB on the planet in that moment 😆

[Yacho]

On 11/12/2022 at 3:47 PM, DCCarpenter said:

I know you have some Wilson blades already ,  but I highly recommend the Wilson FG17s.

 

10 hours ago, Swingingk said:

Wilson Fg-17, any Tour Blade,

 

I actually have a '78-'80 Tour Blade 9i that I get to compare side by side to the '76ers, and I seem to hit the '76 better.  Maybe I like the wider sole and lower CG?  A buddy of mine has an set of FG-17's', so maybe I'll just let him take that spotlight 😇

 

In the spirit of complete disclosure, I have a weird 9 iron thing going as well.  Kinda fell into it real early on in my vintage club bargain bin thrift store diving, but I was actually trying to piece together my first gamer set at the time. My friend who got me into golf let me borrow an incomplete set of 90's department store Wilson cavity backs with ladies shafts to hit the course with.  I didn't know anything about flex, shaft profiles, cg, swingweight, or even proper golf swings at the time, but it didn't matter because I was having fun, and golf was the only thing going during Covid.  I think it took me like 3 rounds or so before I left the PW on a green somewhere and was never to be seen again.  Needing a PW, I decided to hit up the thrift store for a random replacement, and the rest is history.  So many cool looking clubs from the past in there!!!  I wonder how THIS one feels to hit...   and THAT one....   what are the differences?  what year did this come from?  I was hooked.   Anyone that knows these thrift stores knows how unlikely it is to find a complete set in these bins, but I figured that if I could find an orphan club I liked, it wouldn't be hard to track down a used set somewhere.  Sort of a "try before you buy" mentality, and at a buck a club it wasn't even worth thinking twice about.  Well, as luck would have it, I happened upon a bin that had somehow acquired an abnormal amount of beautiful vintage orphaned 9 irons.  In my budding desire to compare and contrast the subtleties of different iron models, I snatched them up. 

 

This is how I knew I wanted a set of vintage Wilsons for sure.  And Haigs.  And I clearly needed to explore what Ben Hogan irons were all about...

[Yacho]

On 11/12/2022 at 12:31 PM, SnowbirdTom said:

I’ve recently taken a liking to my ‘73 Haig

Ultras

 

Yup, the 9 iron feels great! 🤣

 

I like the big, thick, simple looking chrome Haigs like these and "The Haig" models.  Less so the busier looking Ultras and Contour Soles.  In fact, I'd take these over the Crenshaws given the chance, solely on looks. 

[bcstones]

43 minutes ago, Yacho said:

 

Yup, the 9 iron feels great! 🤣

 

I like the big, thick, simple looking chrome Haigs like these and "The Haig" models.  Less so the busier looking Ultras and Contour Soles.  In fact, I'd take these over the Crenshaws given the chance, solely on looks. 

I think this Haig Ultra is the best designed of all the Haig set (well perhaps, excluding the Walter Hagen Matrix LP irons)...I have a set of these Haig Ultras that I refit to me & come to think on it I may have another set and a set of heads only. 
My best ever thrift store find was a complete set of ~'88 Hogan Edge Forged irons w/Hogan Legend shafts that had never been used (judging by their condition)....at 2 bucks apiece...