Harvey Penick Masters Irons

I inherited a set of Harvey Penick Master irons when my grandpa passed away some years ago and brought them out of storage the other day to play a round with. The set goes 3-11 + "Sand Wedge" which cracks me up because all the clubs today are labeled by loft degree after Attack Wedge or Gap Wedge, so I have no idea what the lofts are for these clubs. Could anyone give me some sort of an idea on what the lofts might be for this set and when they were manufactured?

Circa 1995. Designed by Tom Wishon (while at Golfsmith) with input from Harvey Penick. Sold as components by Golfsmith. Others will chime in.

Not sure exact year but somewhere in the mid-late 1990's I think. Not sure about loft either but suspect 27* 5-iron and 47-48* 10-iron.

Probably 10=48, 11= 52 Sw=56.

Just guessing though. Mr. Wishon posts here quite often maybe you should PM him.

[quote name='larzpdot' timestamp='1439758309' post='12149262']
I inherited a set of Harvey Penick Master irons when my grandpa passed away some years ago and brought them out of storage the other day to play a round with. The set goes 3-11 + "Sand Wedge" which cracks me up because all the clubs today are labeled by loft degree after Attack Wedge or Gap Wedge, so I have no idea what the lofts are for these clubs. Could anyone give me some sort of an idea on what the lofts might be for this set and when they were manufactured?
[/quote]

JCAG is right. I designed these in 1993-94 in conjunction with Harvey when I was CTO at Golfsmith and they were first released to the clubmakers as components for custom clubmaking in the fall of 1994. There were two different iron models created - the Classic Player was a very shallow cavity back intended for use by the better player, and the Master which was the deep cavity back created as the more game improvement higher MOI design.

The reason the irons were numbered 10 and 11 for the PW and gap wedge was because this was what Harvey wanted. He came from the era when there were some sets of irons with a true 10 iron. A true 10 iron was made with 4* higher loft than the #9 but with the very same sole angle as the #9. PW's on the other hand tended to be designed with more bounce on the sole than the #9. Harvey liked the idea of having same bounce on the iron to follow the #9, so that was the reason for the #10 in these iron sets. The 11 came because even by the 90s, lofts on irons had been reduced so much that there was a need for a wedge in between the #10 and the sand wedge. So to keep with what we did with the #10, we created the #11 to just be +4* higher in loft than the 10 but again with the same sole angle as the 9 and 10.

Lofts I do not remember clearly but again, from best I can remember, JCAG is right - 27* for the 5 irons leading into 47* for the #10, 51* for the #11.

These for their time were very nice models, made by an extremely good clubhead production factory that still exists as a major player in head production today. Nice to read your post to have the chance to think about that project again. It really was one of the highlights in my career because it put me into almost a daily interaction with Harvey from which we became very good friends up until his passing in 1995. He was more than a remarkable man, and I was so honored to not just do this design project for him but to be a good friend and have as much time with him as I did in 93, 94 and early 95.

Mr. Wishon, thank you for your reply. The history of these clubs adds a great deal to the sentimental value.

I inherited a set of Harvey Penick Master irons when my grandpa passed away some years ago and brought them out of storage the other day to play a round with. The set goes 3-11 + "Sand Wedge" which cracks me up because all the clubs today are labeled by loft degree after Attack Wedge or Gap Wedge, so I have no idea what the lofts are for these clubs. Could anyone give me some sort of an idea on what the lofts might be for this set and when they were manufactured?

 

JCAG is right. I designed these in 1993-94 in conjunction with Harvey when I was CTO at Golfsmith and they were first released to the clubmakers as components for custom clubmaking in the fall of 1994. There were two different iron models created - the Classic Player was a very shallow cavity back intended for use by the better player, and the Master which was the deep cavity back created as the more game improvement higher MOI design.

 

The reason the irons were numbered 10 and 11 for the PW and gap wedge was because this was what Harvey wanted. He came from the era when there were some sets of irons with a true 10 iron. A true 10 iron was made with 4* higher loft than the #9 but with the very same sole angle as the #9. PW's on the other hand tended to be designed with more bounce on the sole than the #9. Harvey liked the idea of having same bounce on the iron to follow the #9, so that was the reason for the #10 in these iron sets. The 11 came because even by the 90s, lofts on irons had been reduced so much that there was a need for a wedge in between the #10 and the sand wedge. So to keep with what we did with the #10, we created the #11 to just be +4* higher in loft than the 10 but again with the same sole angle as the 9 and 10.

 

Lofts I do not remember clearly but again, from best I can remember, JCAG is right - 27* for the 5 irons leading into 47* for the #10, 51* for the #11.

 

These for their time were very nice models, made by an extremely good clubhead production factory that still exists as a major player in head production today. Nice to read your post to have the chance to think about that project again. It really was one of the highlights in my career because it put me into almost a daily interaction with Harvey from which we became very good friends up until his passing in 1995. He was more than a remarkable man, and I was so honored to not just do this design project for him but to be a good friend and have as much time with him as I did in 93, 94 and early 95.

 

I was presented with a left handed set of the Penick Master irons by Mrs Penick herself in Sept 1995 about six months after Harvey passed away, to this day I still use them, I play off a 5 hcp age 60 and have over the years tried almost every new club on the market and I can honestly say I still hit these Penicks the best. I am an advanced accredited professional clubmaker and I can honestly say that these irons are truely amazing, thank you Tom for such a great design.

WOW, that's great that you got the irons from Mrs Penick herself. If you have a moment I would be interested to hear how that came about that she gave you the irons, how you knew her, and all that. In a very long career in golf equipment, my time with Harvey and the times with Helen were up at the top of the top in terms of best experiences and memories I have in my time in golf. They were absolutely salt of the earth, tremendously good people. It was a true honor to be able to have the chance to get to know them and to be friends with them and their family.

I made a full set of the Harvey Penick Professional clubs (driver, woods and irons) when the components were first available through Golfsmith in the 1990s and still play them on occasion (they are now my back-up set).  I've really enjoyed them over the years and I've played some of my best golf with them.