Original Ping equipment

I love this site! It keeps me up to date on what's new, what's coming up, and how people of different ages & abilities feel about the game, their equipment, the different courses, etc everywhere in the world!

And, I've found many a new "friend" here, those that love the classic equipment.

What I'm interested in is this: Whether you're a collector, or a vintage club player, who has "original" equipment, what is it, how did you acquire it, what do you do with it?

I ask, because I have so much stuff, and as I try to figure out what to do with it, my problem is that I have no kids to leave anything to.

I've already begun my process of thinning the herd, and while I will continue to do so, I'm interested in knowing what else it out there that golfers of all ages and genders have that has a great story behind it.

I started out with old wooden shafted clubs that I found in our old barn, and pretty soon, realized that I would break one because it was so fragile. Wish I knew what happened to those old brassie, cleeks, mid-irons, etc....but, I know that they are long gone.

As soon as I could afford a set, I headed to K-mart, and got myself a new set of Chi Chi Rodriguez Northwestern woods & irons, which I was proud of, and allowed me to have a "full" set.

But after I got a job working at a course, parking carts, picking up the range, etc...I was blown away by the pro's Ping irons! WOW!!!! They were just so cool looking and different from anything I had seen, and I just needed to have a set.

Well.....it didn't take long for me to work out a deal where a portion of each paycheck went to paying for that first set of Karsten 1's, which I played all through high school, and well into college. But, I sold them to get the money to buy a custom set of Hogan '73 Apex satin back irons which I still have today.....

Over time, I started trying to find my old clubs, and actually got a few sets of Karsten 1's - marked "Patent Pending"....pretty old, and pretty cool. What is neat about these old Pings i that they will never rust, and the heads look as good today as they did when they were made over 40 years ago!

I've also gotten lots of old putters that I've actually played, and loved. An original Tommy Armour Ironmaster Silver Scot with the original grip and green painted shaft. What a great feeling putter, and still one of the absolute for very fast bent grass greens.

Shamrock Golf came about in the early/mid 70's with a revolutionary design in irons, and a great putter that looked and felt just like an 8802. Unfortunately, Shamrock didn't last too long, but the irons are still some of the easiest to hit that I have ever found.

Wedges...well, BITD, we didn't have lots of options of loft, bounce, etc....we learned to make up what we needed through trial and error of banging and bending the heads to the angles that we felt necessary. I've found some of the old wedges I played (and let go) online, and they are very limited....

Please, take the time to tell me....and, everyone else here....if you have some of the original stuff you started out with....I know that there are "vintage" tournaments, and I hope to be able to take the time to play in some of them.

Looking forward to some interesting stories and pictures

thanks, all!!!

Thanks for all the great comments...please keep 'em coming

 

 

Thanks for all the great comments...please keep 'em coming

 

 

 

Just spend the better part of 2 afternoons trying to pull the shaft out of an 020 anser. That ball bearing tightening method is effective but quite the headache. Always had something ping in the bag. Learned playing the old ping zings. Great stuff

I use a 20 year old Ping Eye 2 SW and a 46 year old Zing putter. I love old Ping stuff.

This thread went basically nowhere so I'm trying to resuscitate it

I have a late 60’s dalehead anser . It has the tour issue mark on it that they used back in the day. It’s in perfect shape. I vasilate between it and my Bettinardi.

I think materialism is a sin so I try to be a good steward by minimizing my set or eliminate duplicates. I don’t believe in worshipping golf equipment.

Every club in my bag, and even my back up set has a purpose.

With that being said, the only club that has survived the test of my lifetime is the Ping Redwood Anser putter.

Everything else is fairly modern and I am happy with it. A lot has happened in golf equipment technology in the last 20+ years.