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Help: Trying to identify a set of Wilson Woods


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Picked these up last week. No idea what they are or when they were made so any help identifying them would be appreciated. Solid persimmon blocks and obviously refurbed at some stage. Evidently Wilson used to have a decal on the crown identifying the model but these are clean. Looking through a couple of reference books the black insert with 4 screw diamond pattern was used in 1969.

 

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One...of the most helpful resources I have purchased is the [Wilson Golf Club Catalog](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Golf-Books-Wilson-History-Catalogs-by-Jim-Kaplan-Walter-Hagen-Story-/293218218237 "Wilson Golf Club Catalog") by Jim Kaplan. Indispensable.... when researching older woods or irons.

 

Blair

Canada

 

"One Day At a Time"

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LeftyMac-

 

What you have is a very rare set of Custom LH Wilson Staff Persimmon woods (1,2,3,4)from the 1940s, which have been refurbished. Drill thru hosels? Check.

The Custom order numbers are the stamps above(7429) and below (FM 313031)the Swingweighted stamps on the soleplate. Length, Swingweight, Shaft, Grip type, etc.,

With the introduction of the "Strata-Bloc" laminating process in 1948, Wilson began to discontinue making LH Persimmon woods (Walter Hagen didn't make any as well ) but-

If you were at a private club with a very connected Wilson Staff Pro, and- heres the biggie- price was no object, you could get anything. Case in point, there are LH MacGregor LFFs, and Ben Hogan 693 persimmon woods around..

Even LH Tourney Colokrom irons with the "TP" logo, made in 1955. It's really a shame, as you can tell some very serious work was done here- in the original and the refurbishing.

Wilson discontinued their Custom department in 2014, which had detailed accounts of nearly all of the custom work performed by the company contained in a series of 3 ring binders. This was right about the time Wilson made their Tour 100 FG Forged irons, which were to celebrate Wilson's 100 years in Golf. There was just one Problem- These Centennial Celebration irons from Wilson were RH ONLY. Wilson claimed both the closing of the custom department and the RH ONLY limitation of their centennial iron model as "A Corporate Decision." 5 years later, Wilson decided to make their Staff iron model used by Gary Woodland to win the 2019 US Open in a LH version, with the caveat LH.irons to be available late summer.

 

They are a find. Sadly, this kind of craftsmanship is likely not to be appreciated much longer, as there were nameless and faceless women and "other" persons who were integral parts of the custom process.

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Rex235,

 

Thank you for that! Looking through every refernce I could find, it was clear that persimmon blocks from Wilson weren't that common from the 50's on and even more so in lefhand. The hand punched numbers suggested they were custom. I pick them up in a week or so and will have a better look particuarly at the shafts. I managed to pick up a set of LH 1949 Mac 653's with the vertical Macgregor at the same time. Pretty happy camper at the moment.

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Mac-

 

You do realize the subject of 3 ring binders is verboten with Wilson..

 

No less an authority than Larry Bobka confirmed the existence of the 3 ring binders a few years ago in a replied message, as well as the person at Wilson responsible for grinding Bob Charles irons. Perhaps there was too much custom information contained there for Wilson to just throw away, because of their Centennial. Robert Mendralla (RIP) of Wilson was likely the person who started and kept the 3 ring binders. My educated? guess is they are in the possession of Robert Mendralla's son, Bob Jr. It was a woman who told me in 2014 Wilson made "a corporate decision" NOT to continue with the custom program., or access to the 3 ring binders.

 

Yes, the MacGregor TA 653s are a superior example of persimmon work done by MacGregor luthiers.

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