Oldest irons you game regularly

I have a set of 1969 Wilson Staff x 31 iron set, is it too old to be played?

Due to my finicky elbows I couldn't play steel shafted irons on a regular basis. But I have a vintage bag that gets played monthly or so.

I’ve been gaming my 1955 Macgregor Tommy Armour 925 Colokrom irons regularly recently and have been playing very well with them. Decided to take my circa 1983 Palmer Deacons out today and my iron play was terrible. The 925’s are going back in the bag.

Blades did get a little more forgiving from 1950-1980 as hosels got shorter moving the COG closer to the center of the face, but generally a blade is a blade.

Sachdog,

Easy answer - no, they are not too old to be played.

If you check out other threads, Hit em good has just tried his 1969 Bullet Backs as his first vintage experience and enjoyed it. I am sure he will now be hooked as I am sure you will be with your X-31' s.

My "old" clubs are Callaway TA prototypes and I use them once in a blue moon...

My "old" clubs are Callaway TA prototypes and I use them once in a blue moon...

I've got quite a few 1950s sets in the rotation:

John Letters, “Fred Daly”

Slazenger, “Bobby Locke”

George Nicoll, “Pinsplitter”

Norrie Thomson

JB Halley, “Tournament”

Slazenger, “STM Tournament Model”

Dunlop, ”Peter Thomson”

George Nicoll, “Henry Cotton”

And there's the hickory set I use 12 or 15 times a year.

I've got a set of 1955-56 Burke Bombers with colokrom faces that I play a few rounds with every year. Love them.

Jiggered,

I am liking your collection. You have great taste in clubs and we have a few sets in common.

I have a couple of sets of the original Fred Daly Master Models and a later Fred Daly version too. The originals are very historic as I believe 75% of the British Open field played them in 1948 after Fred's win in '47 which they were produced to commemorate.

I have the same Peter Thomson's and those are actually one of my favourite sets. Just happen to be right for me and I hit them better than most of my sets from that era. Do you have an exact year for them?

I don't have the Bobby Locke's but is that not the Gradidge crown on them putting them pre Slazenger take over?

I do have a set of pre war Gradidge irons. Possibly the best looking irons I own. Pure Art Deco sculpture! They have punch dot faces but otherwise would pass as modern. I suspect they used surgical grade stainless steel and I like to think of them as "The Bentley Boys" of golf clubs at the time! I think Gradidge only started on golf around 1936 so am guessing mine are 1937 or '38? Gradidge won the British Open in 1937.

I also have the same set of Pinsplitters!

Sachdog--- The answer is naaw--- Kinda like you are never too old to rock and roll---- Now my regular front line set are 1980 Macgregors that I modified some---- Now my vintage set that I have been playing quite a bit lately are 1962 Macgregor FC-4000s , 1957 Macgregor Velocitized driver , 1956 Mac Clover Leaf 2 wood and a 62 Mac key hole 4 wood. My putter can be subjective it is a 49 Ironmaster reproduction with a green shaft but the shaft is a composite not pyratone. Of course If some one wants to get sticky I can pull out my "Billy Baroo" which is a 40s original Otey Crisman with hickory shaft and leather wrap grip

Wilson was possibly the first company to make a serious effort to move the CG away from the hosel a bit, with the upsweep in the muscle at the toe. Oldest irons you game regularlyAnswering this question... I'm fairly pedestrian compared to a great many in the Classic folders. So far, it would be my 1980 Golden Rams, which I may take on the course later today. I'm working on fixing the slightly funky lengths in my set of never played (by me) Wilson 78 Staff Tour Blades, at which point they will be the oldest set.

Compared to a lot of guys here, especially Brother Deejaid, or the HIckory group, that's basically modern. LOL Y'all are inspiring, I must say.

Great to find a fellow admirer of UK clubs, there aren't many of us around!

I think my Fred Dalys are the first model and so do date from the late 1940s but I wasn't going for total accuracy when I said sets from the 1950s! I have 2 to 9 plus the sand wedge which I believe is not so easy to find and a matching putter to go with them.

I too love the Peter Thomsons, I have 2 to 9 plus "Retriever" in those plus a similar style putter and persimmon driver but would like to add the sand wedge. I have original leather grips on those. They date from 1957. (Later models went up to the Mk 6)

Similar in style are the JB Halley and Norrie Thomson, two more sets I really like, these two have the same head if you look closely. (I'm unsure on the date for these.)

The Crown was used by Gradidge and Slazenger. Gradidge were taken over by Slazenger in 1931 and prior to that I don't think they made golf clubs at all. Here's the sole of the club showing the Slazenger name, but you're right, Gradidge Bobby Lockes are often seen too.

And in another coincidence! - I also have a set of dot faced Gradidge irons that are, to borrow your term, Art Deco sculpture, especially the putter! (The 2 iron has seem some mistreatment at some time during its life!)

30 years old. Carried for the last two years, they are currently sidelined due to epoxy failure. Great clubs.

Jiggered,

We do seem to share a common interest. Great to know I am not alone on this side of the pond!

Those are my Gradidge irons! Just beautiful. I have 2-8 in remarkable original condition for clubs nearly 85 years old. I have the woods too although are not is such good shape. However I don't have the putter.

I do have the Fred Daly and Peter Thomson putters. Easily to hand so here is a picture.

The Fred Daly is almost too shallow in the face to use with 1.68 balls! Like the irons, I do like the Peter Thomson- one of those that just sits right and falls exactly where my hands want to be. I mentioned it in my thread about how to celebrate once this is all over.

I also have the Peter Thomson SW. I have 2-10, SW but with modern golf pride grips which does help. Playing tip on the SW is to close your left nostril as it does get the ball up very quickly! Interested to get the '57 date as I had them pegged as early '60's.

I also dated both my Master Model sets to the late '40's. One set has European Circuit history having belonged to an ex Pro friend and is one of my most prized sets. I have the Double Duty wedge with that set. The other set has "Open Champion" and (I think) "Matchplay Champion" stamped on the heads.

Thanks for the history on Gradidge, I had that wrong. I thought the Slazenger take over was early '50's.

I look forward to hearing and seeing more of your collection.

WOW you guys from the UK keep on posting those clubs made there. I have learned so much about those since coming on here. BTW I do own one set of clubs made in the UK a set of Crown Sterlings courtesy of Old School Rocker

Those Crown Sterlings are a lovely club, I'm not sure if they're made by UK Slazenger or US Slazenger, I've only seen them once for sale in the UK.

The putter for the Gradidge set comes up now and again on ebay, though it often has the Bobby Locke signature on it.

You're Peter Thomson putter is the same as mine, although yours is in much better condition!

I have a similar putter to your Fred Daly but it's brass and says Special rather than Fred Daly, here it is together with my Fred Daly putter, a lovely long hosel and ferrule on this one!

As you've no doubt found out, there's very little information about UK clubs so I've been building up a database for iron sets, if you have any date or other queries I'll try and help where I can.

Do you play your clubs very often? There's the beginnings of a vintage/classic group forming in the UK so if you're interested let me know. Coronavirus has laid waste to a couple of the planned games so far but we did get one in at Thorpeness in February.

Man I am green with envy--- You guys are actually forming a classic group--- I can not get anyone to even attempt to play classic around here------ Some of the folks here think I am touched in the head because I play my classic stuff in 8 club walking rounds. I would love the overall experience of playing vintage on UK courses.

From what I was seeing on here I was of the thought that they were UK Slazenger. I had never seen or heard of them until I got on here and had never seen a set in person until Randy gave me those I have now. Of course I had never heard of John Letters until my days on here. I do remember back in the day the British Sized or " English Sized" Slazenger balata balls would move on down the sun baked hard Carolina fairways in the summer. My old man had a fellow pro friend in the UK and he used to buy the small balls from him and get them shipped over.

I played in a Retro Day at Kingston Heath pre lockdown and there were about 40 people who played. We have a couple of days a year where we'll get anything from 12 to 25 people for a game with either hickories or the retro gear and invariably you see some magnificent old golf clubs and a lot of smiles.

Jiggered,

I play only vintage. Through the season I have a notional gaming set based on winter experimentation; this in an attempt to achieve some kind of consistency - consistent what is another matter! However, anticipating my next round other sets often creep into my mind and so I do end up swapping sets in and out very regularly. That is all part of the fun.

I agree 100% on the lack of information. I try to catalogue all my clubs and learn their history but that can be challenging. I once wrote to John Letters looking for help. To their credit they did reply but the answer they gave was twaddle which was quite disheartening! I would welcome the opportunity to pick your brains.

I would love to join a UK Classic Group although perched on the north of Scotland it may not be easy to take part in events. Great to just have contact with other like minded golfers who enjoy the game in its purest form!

LeftyMac,

Sounds like fun.

Other than the first ramshackle assortment of clubs I started with as a kid, I haven't dipped my toe into the hickory world. Got very curious about cleek marks at one point but then realised I was at the start of a very slippery road and managed to pull back from the abyss!

Foozle,

I have a couple of sets of hickories. A nice collection of Stewart irons (a couple with Stewart's inspection mark) and then another set of various irons. Hardest thing is finding woods that work as each shaft and head is it's own journey. Oldest club I have is a smooth face Forgan cleek from 1896, still with it's original shaft. Not to many of those in left hand floating around. Lately I've been back buying things from about 1950 thru to 1990. Just depends a bit on what's out there, lefty stuff is pretty rare in comparison to the amount of right handed stuff around.

LeftyMac,

I can imagine that left handed adds significantly to the collecting challenge!

My collection is basically 1930 - 1990 which loosely translates to steel shaft to game improvement. Within that I do have a set of Tom Stewart's but from the St Andrew's golf days so never touched by the master himself. Also a set of Forgan Empire which I guess are '30's and interesting in having both the name and iron number on each club eg.Spade Mashie 6.

I feel I should assemble a hickory set but as I say, I can see that leading to another (long and winding) avenue of collecting when what I should probably be doing is rationalising what I already have!

Another consideration is that having watched hickory shafts in slow motion, their action is quite different. I like it to driving veteran cars where as well as steering, braking and changing gear, you also have to manually advance the ignition, regulate the mixture etc. Alot going on! Not sure my skills are up to it! With steel shafts at least the clutch, brake and accelerator are in the right order if you follow my meaning!? To extend the analogy further, I compare post '90 clubs to modern cars with lots of computer controlled driving aids, ABS, Sat Nav etc which flatter your skills but frankly remove the fun of pure seat of the pants driving.

I think I might have been self isolating too long.......

I regularly practice with my custom Wilson Staff fluid feel blades from 1989, and they belonged to a club pro who died a 1-handicapper. They teach me how to find the middle of the face. Before I acquired that set, for the first seventeen years of my golfing life I played with 1982 Golden Ram Vibration matched irons, 1-SW. I sold them, had sellers remorse, then bought the identical set back so now I'm a happy camper. I have sixteen sets of golf clubs and I rotate them, so I do not have a regular set of gamers, but I do practice regularly with the Staffs.

Hi Foozle,

Good to read you play vintage only!

I'd be happy to help with any questions where I can.

The Classic Group is a Facebook Group called The Persimmon Golf Society, it's been in existence for 10 years but recently it's grown in size dramatically with a big uptake from our American friends. The UK side has started meeting for games and the calendar was looking promising for 2020. Any planned games are usually posted up there, currently there's only one which is at Morecambe GC, Lancashire in August, Coronavirus permitting. Not sure if that's within your range from the North of Scotland. A lot of the posts on there tend to repeat but some interesting stuff crops up, the page can be found as below, you'll need to request to join but that usually gets approved very quickly, I'm Nick Gould on there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/189830219415/

I saw in your reply to LeftyMac that you have a set of Tom Stewart irons, what model are these please?

(Love your analogy with driving classic cars.)

My "old" clubs are Callaway TA prototypes and I use them once in a blue moon...

Jiggered,

Thanks for the info on the Persimmon Golf Society; I will check that out. Lancashire is at least at the right end of England for me so maybe....

My Tom Stewart's are the Argyle model.

Sorry about the picture! They are wedged in the middle of my rack! I am a little behind in my cataloguing otherwise I would have better pictures and they would also be cleaner!

These are from the St Andrew's Golf Company era after the merging of the various historic names under that banner. As I said, not touched by the master himself! Any thoughts / information welcome?

The car anology is a bit eccentric but actually works chronologically too!

I love my '60s era Wilson X31'S. So sweet. I have 2-SW.