Vintage Golf

[Voyager EMH]

Bought another job-lot today and I will be collecting in a week or so.

Another white Ping tour bag.
Containing a 3-SW set of Karsten III irons and a mystery putter.



There are some woods.



Along the bottom are a 1,3,5 set of Dunlop Persimmons and a Wilson Staff driver.
Above those are a 1,3,4,5 set of Lynx woods and the black one is a Handmade driver.

A set of Karsten III irons sold recently for this



And there is a set of the Dunlop persimmons for sale on Ebay right now



I already own a set of the Lynx woods



I will have to think about what to do with those

 

[Crow]

The putter looks like it might be an Asner.

 

[Voyager EMH]

The putter looks like it might be an Asner.

A Blade 85029 - which I believe could be 1966-1967.





after cleaning up a bit

 

[srixon 1]

I was stood behind the 1st tee at Ferndown today waiting for my putting lesson to start. A four ball arrived at the tee (old chaps) and one of them pulled out a persimmon driver with a steel shaft. His tee shot wasn’t great but the sound was so much better than the sound of the other guys hitting their metal drivers. I really need to get my old persimmons out and take them to the range.

 

[Crow]

I was stood behind the 1st tee at Ferndown today waiting for my putting lesson to start. A four ball arrived at the tee (old chaps) and one of them pulled out a persimmon driver with a steel shaft. His tee shot wasn’t great but the sound was so much better than the sound of the other guys hitting their metal drivers. I really need to get my old persimmons out and take them to the range.

It'd be even better taking them to the course!

 

[D-S]

Seems like Nelly can hit a decent bit of MacGregor persimmon. This one went 267yds.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1902771708521746515

 

[sjw]

Not sure how old something has to be to be vintage, but James has a few things that may qualify in Rick's latest video

 

[Crow]

Not sure how old something has to be to be vintage, but James has a few things that may qualify in Rick's latest video

I watched it, tempted by the interesting looking wood in the thumbnail which was a lot older than 1980s, but was then disappointed to see him playing with Ping laminates, some of the easiest woods to hit that there are.

The Wilson staffs were nice though.

 

[Oddsocks]

Me and a pal took our old sticks out the other night, until then I was undefeated 2-0 with the old stuff. Stiffed me 5&4 on the first 9, I took it bad! Played a second 9 and he beat me on the last.

The most enjoyable round I’ve had this year.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Bought a set of Craigton Thunderer woods and irons for a snip and collected today from 20 miles away near Twycross Zoo.
No pics until I clean them up.

Always interesting to see what else has been left in the bag.
No ball or tees this time. In fact not very much apart from a biro and an IKEA pencil.



I'll never be in need of a pitchmark repairer for the rest of my life!

Card is from Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield.
121 on a par 62 is very sad, but I greatly admire the perseverance.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Got two putters in the above haul.
A Ben Sayers Benny putter. I have one of these already. I do like the crinkley bottom.



And to go with the Craigton woods and irons is a Craigton Chuckles putter - I kid you not.
Aluminium shaft and long hosel.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I've cleaned up the irons 3-PW, but not done anything with the woods yet.
This weather is not conducive to doing "work" and it seems more appropriate to just lie around in speedos and crocs.



The woods are 1,3,4,5
But there was a major problem with the 3 wood.
Whipping had disappeared and a big split in the hosel. Not playable or economically repairable.
There were 17 clubs in this lot, but it is really unacceptable to be selling defective goods like this.
I've a good mind to claim a 30p refund.




I might have had them for £1.75 if it had not been for that other bidder

 

[RichA]

I've cleaned up the irons 3-PW, but not done anything with the woods yet.
This weather is not conducive to doing "work" and it seems more appropriate to just lie around in speedos and crocs.

View attachment 57854

The woods are 1,3,4,5
But there was a major problem with the 3 wood.
Whipping had disappeared and a big split in the hosel. Not playable or economically repairable.
There were 17 clubs in this lot, but it is really unacceptable to be selling defective goods like this.
I've a good mind to claim a 30p refund.


View attachment 57855

I might have had them for £1.75 if it had not been for that other bidder

The Thunderer irons look pretty cool.

 

[craigstardis1976]

That's brilliant!

My first set of vintage irons were Harold Bird & Son Max Faulkner Avengers, still have them.

View attachment 39205

Way late to the party on this one but I love the look of those irons and in the back of my mind the theme title to the first series of The Avengers (when it was Patrick Macnee and Ian Hendry) comes to mind. Great piece of theme music by Johnny Dankworth, too! something to hum next time you take them out. BTW Nick, this is Britishracecaller from YT where you an I sometimes exchange comments!

 

[Crow]

Way late to the party on this one but I love the look of those irons and in the back of my mind the theme title to the first series of The Avengers (when it was Patrick Macnee and Ian Hendry) comes to mind. Great piece of theme music by Johnny Dankworth, too! something to hum next time you take them out. BTW Nick, this is Britishracecaller from YT where you an I sometimes exchange comments!

That's great, we exchanged comments just recently if I'm not mistaken!

 

[craigstardis1976]

I do wonder sometimes where the Wilson persimmons were made, they seem to be more common here than in America. Wilson had a very large factory at Irvine so they might have come from there.

What shafts are in them?

Again incredibly late to the party here. But by the mid 1980's, Louisville Golf were making most Wilson Persimmon Heads. As they also made woods for a number of different manufacturers, it is not surprising they may have had sufficient stock to go to the UK. While appreciating persimmon is not native to the UK, was there ever a top UK golfer who used a Laminated Maple Driver for any length of time? I am guessing like more than a few US pro's laminated maple was seen in some fairway woods. Wilson Strata-Bloc laminated maples being widely played as a fairway wood by both pro's and amateurs here in yankeeland!

 

[Crow]

Again incredibly late to the party here. But by the mid 1980's, Louisville Golf were making most Wilson Persimmon Heads. As they also made woods for a number of different manufacturers, it is not surprising they may have had sufficient stock to go to the UK. While appreciating persimmon is not native to the UK, was there ever a top UK golfer who used a Laminated Maple Driver for any length of time? I am guessing like more than a few US pro's laminated maple was seen in some fairway woods. Wilson Strata-Bloc laminated maples being widely played as a fairway wood by both pro's and amateurs here in yankeeland!

You can't be too late to the party when the clubs are already very old.

It's very hard to find out exactly what clubs pros used back then so I'm afraid I can't help you on that one, but I'd guess that they generally had the choice of the best clubs around so would've tended to go with persimmon.

 

[rulie]

You can't be too late to the party when the clubs are already very old.

It's very hard to find out exactly what clubs pros used back then so I'm afraid I can't help you on that one, but I'd guess that they generally had the choice of the best clubs around so would've tended to go with persimmon.

In 1969, I purchased a laminated maple driver (Golfcraft) and used it for about 15 years. Never a problem and never saw an advantage or disadvantage over persimmon, even though I tried several persimmon. Still have it and am tempted to take it out for a test (but might miss the ball completely as the head is very small!).

 

[Crow]

In 1969, I purchased a laminated maple driver (Golfcraft) and used it for about 15 years. Never a problem and never saw an advantage or disadvantage over persimmon, even though I tried several persimmon. Still have it and am tempted to take it out for a test (but might miss the ball completely as the head is very small!).

I can't tell the difference when playing between laminated and persimmon and both can be weight adjusted with lead weighting, although the best old growth persimmon didn't need weighting. There's no doubt though that a well finished persimmon looks nicer than an equivalent laminate.

Golfcraft were a Scottish company with designs by Tom Letters, one of the John Letters family, they specialised in custom made clubs.
Below is one of their off-the-shelf clubs from the mid 1970s, in the John Letters, Master Model style.

 

[RichA]

Old woods cropped up in conversation yesterday as pals and I were returning from our Notts trip.
One of them is a greenkeeper and mentioned that there's a set of old woods gathering dust at the back of the workshop. Did I want them?

He's just dropped them off. Ping Eye 2 fairways 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.
Can't wait to bash a couple of them around on Sunday.