Woods Vrs Metal Woods

[tonecapone]

Played today using wooden woods,Driver 3&4 all persimmon woods which i have not used for years,so no comp no pressure decided to have a knock with them.I was hitting them really well most times hitting them as far as my playing partners metal woods on one hole par5 13th i drove it nearly 300yards with a proper wood,click on my course link to see hole.
The flight of the ball from the wooden driver was better than my 983,really good, so for the club golfer are metal woods really as good as wooden woods.After today i think theres not much in them,i have a 983 driver,Callaway steel head 3wood and a Ping Rapture 5 wood,Do any other players play with wooden clubs still?,I am thinking of keeping them in my bag.For a while anyway They are harder to hit,face not as big but the result was rewarding,Didnt slice one off the tee.

 

[Ethan]

There is something nice about using Persimmon, but they really don't play as easily as modern metal woods. I can hit my current 909D3 much further than I could ever hit my old MacGregor Muirfield. The ball has a lot to do with it too, to be fair, but there is a reason that not one Tour pro uses a wooden wood of any sort any more.

 

[Wildrover]

The problem comes when you don't middle it, you'll get away with a lot more with a modern metal wood. The old persimmons do look the dogs though don't they.

 

[USER1999]

I wouldn't want a persimmon driver, but a 5w, now we are talking. Not for out and out distance, but for the feel of a sweet strike, a nice compact head for coming out of the rough, hmm, gets you thinking.

Back in the day a mate of mine had a Ping 5w, persimmon, but with a pale finish that showed off the grain, with a lurid pink spangly graphite shaft. What a club. He could hit it out there too.

 

[ADB]

I had some of those old Ping woods with the natural wood finish and steel shafts - they were awesome! Wish I still had them as jumped ship when the metal revolution started....might start trawling Ebay for a 3/5 wood

 

[Molly]

A mate of mine was given an old persimmon 5-wood by one of his family that had given up golf. He brought it along to a Society day a few years ago. I was in his fourball when he pulled it out of the bag and proceeded to knock it close to 200 yards to land within 6 feet of the hole. He was a happy bunny....until the young fella we were playing with, who had genuinely never seen a wooden wood before, asked if he’d nicked it off a pub wall! Made us all laugh and now we all refer to it as the ‘Pub Wood’

 

[ADB]

Check this beauty out!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/rare-MINT-PING-ZIN...93%3A1|294%3A50

 

[Ethan]

I wouldn't want a persimmon driver, but a 5w, now we are talking. Not for out and out distance, but for the feel of a sweet strike, a nice compact head for coming out of the rough, hmm, gets you thinking.

Back in the day a mate of mine had a Ping 5w, persimmon, but with a pale finish that showed off the grain, with a lurid pink spangly graphite shaft. What a club. He could hit it out there too.

At the risk of being a pedant, Ping never made a Persimmon. They had several series of laminated woods, all of which were slightly unusually shaped compared to other makes and had curved sole plates, iirc.

 

[freddielong]

Check this beauty out!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/rare-MINT-PING-ZIN...93%3A1|294%3A50

Thats not persimmion that a laminated wood

I love the feeling of Persimmion and would love the world of golf to go back to them

 

[Imurg]

I love the feeling of Persimmion and would love the world of golf to go back to them

Had a feeling you would..................

 

[Tommo21]

My last real wooden club was a persimmon driver and I loved it. The crack you get from the old style is amazing.

Just as a comparison, I can remember a guy at my old golf club hitting a 5 wood, the old 5 wood that is, onto a the green at a short par 4. That was using the old ball, old style club and steel shaft and he easily carried the ball about 260.

I’m surprised that some of the research and development engineers at the big manufacturers don’t have a look into using some form of plastic inserts in the club face. The reason I say that, I’m sure that the righ plastic would compress a little, springing the ball off the clubface. I’m sure that’s what happened with the old technology but the shaft, ball and wooden head was the major drawback at that time without knowing it.

With today’s knowhow and the right polymer insert, we could have the club of the future.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I still have my old persimmon 3 wood my parents had made for my 18th and I do hit it every now and then. Sadly the shaft is old in todays terms so it is a bit of a beast to hit but I can still send the odd one out there.

For my game, I have to say modern clubs are more forgiving but for the joy and the feedback when you flush one the old clubs take some beating

 

[krokodil]

I only have one thing to say on the matter: Joe Powell.

 

[Espada]

My last real wooden club was a persimmon driver and I loved it. The crack you get from the old style is amazing.

Just as a comparison, I can remember a guy at my old golf club hitting a 5 wood, the old 5 wood that is, onto a the green at a short par 4. That was using the old ball, old style club and steel shaft and he easily carried the ball about 260.

I’m surprised that some of the research and development engineers at the big manufacturers don’t have a look into using some form of plastic inserts in the club face. The reason I say that, I’m sure that the righ plastic would compress a little, springing the ball off the clubface. I’m sure that’s what happened with the old technology but the shaft, ball and wooden head was the major drawback at that time without knowing it.

With today’s knowhow and the right polymer insert, we could have the club of the future.

I am not so surprised:

c. Spring Effect and Dynamic Properties
The design, material and/or construction of, or any treatment to, the
clubhead (which includes the club face) must not:
(i) have the effect of a spring which exceeds the limit set forth in the
Pendulum Test Protocol on file with the R&A;or
(ii) incorporate features or technology including, but not limited to,
separate springs or spring features, that have the intent of, or the
effect of, unduly influencing the clubhead’s spring effect; or
(iii) unduly influence the movement of the ball.
Note: (i) above does not apply to putters.

5. Club Face
a. General
The face of the club must be hard and rigid and must not impart
significantly more or less spin to the ball than a standard steel face
(some exceptions may be made for putters). Except for such markings
listed below, the club face must be smooth and must not have any
degree of concavity.

Which comes from p159 of the rules, such a plastic would fall foul of this rule.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

They use to have plastic inserts particularly in laminated clubs so there must be something in the rules to allow them. I'm sure there was neve a rule passed to outlaw wooden clubs as non-conforming. SUrely these plastic inserts must have acted to give some sort of spring launch

 

[USER1999]

Ok, so the Ping ones weren't persimon, but they were blimmen nice, and made of proper wood.