after 25 years, getting back into the sport-a few observations!

Take this with a grain of salt, FWIW! I haven't played much since junior high, and all of that was in Oregon and California.

1) changes: I grew up in a blue collar town and mostly played there. Lots of guys that could play, and play well drunk. Big hitters-loudmouths that would head to the course as soon as the sawmill whistle blew while stopping by the mini mart on the way to pick up a 24-pack. I don't see people like that here in North Texas; it is more of a wine and cheese crowd playing golf. Maybe it is a regional difference or perhaps golf has gone "upscale". I saw the same thing over time with runners; everyone used to run and now it seems limited to wealthier-healthier people.

2) lots of carts: when I was a kid, only the 80-year olds rode in carts. People were fitter then; the little course I grew up at had 8 rental carts. I hardly see anyone walking these days, which is odd. One of the best parts of playing is being out in fresh air and enjoying the environment. Maybe it is just Texas, or maybe it is a social thing.

3) more women are playing. I just don't remember many women playing when I was a kid. it is nice to see around 25-30% of the people playing are female, rather than the 5-10% I saw as a kid. I remember my granny being about the only lady on the course most of the time.

4) style-have people put more effort into dressing? Only those of us who played in tournaments actually had to wear something like a golf polo: everyone else wore T-shirts. Is this something fairly new? Maybe it was a product of growing up in a fishing and mill town with most of the players headed straight from their shift in the woods to the course.

5) gear has gotten crazy. What is all of this stuff? My 3-iron is basically a 5-iron today? Drivers are huge and putters look like a metal pancake. I had never heard of a Hybrid before last weekend. $500 putters (vs the Ping PAL I grew up with at $65). How many strokes saved over old gear?

6) the basics are still the same: a good swing is a good swing and I am not sure if technique needs to be "updated" to take advantage of new gear. This is unlike skiing, where technique changed radically between the straight and shaped ski era, and then again into the modern ski area. Skiing is so much more direct and efficient today, and people who were away from the sport for awhile found themselves having to re-learn technique

Here is my take on equipment

80s putter, 90s irons, 00's driver, 10s hybrid

I still have a 1980 putter.

I’d still be using 1990s irons, but a friend gave me a modern set with a more suitable flex for the shaft. 

I upgraded to a used 2012 driver for $60.  Post 2005 driver (460cc) is night and day compared to 1990s driver (impossible to hit for me)

PUTTERS

Those little gold putters from mini-golf. 

Then there was that cavity backed putter with the white alignment line.

Was this the Ping Anser? When did it become popular? 1970s?

After that, there has been no real innovation in putter design

Either you use a golden putt-putt putter, or you use a Anser derivative.

There is very little to gain after you have a 1970s Ping putter.

You probably don't need a new putters, better off with practice and skill and lessons.

But, the 1970s/80s putter is all you ever need to be great. The rest is actual skill and ability.

IRONS.

The big shift was cavity backed. The Ping Eye2.   

This was a paradigm shift with perimeter weighted heads as opposed to traditional blades.

This was a HUGE deal. When did this happen?  This went mainstream in the Early 1990s.

Any iron you've bought since the mid 90s has minimal improvement over this paradigm shift.

They've even resorted to changing loft angles on "modern" irons to make people think they are hitting longer.

No, you're not hitting longer, you're hitting lower, b/c that's not a 7, it's a 6.5.  

There is very little to gain after you have a 1990s cavity backed set of irons. Ping Eye2.  DCIs.

You probably don't need a new irons,, better off with practice and skill and lessons.

But, the 90s irons are all you ever need to be great. The rest is actual skill and ability.

DRIVERS

They are now freaking HUGE. Newer is bigger is better. Anything over 400cc is like hitting a cantaloupe.

But, these have been around for for 15 years. 460cc is the PGA limit and this has been around since 2003.

There is very little to gain after you have a 2003+ mammoth 460cc driver. 

You can split hairs over materials, but unless you're a pro, it doesn't matter for a hack like for you, as you hit 50% of your drivers into the woods anyway.

But, the 2000's drivers are all you ever need to be great. The rest is actual skill and ability.

HYBRIDS

These are much more forgiving for average golfers with low swing speeds.

Even pros use them, and rec golfers no longer have 2i 3i or 4i in the bag.

This advance came about in the mid 2000’s….2005 or so….

I am now in the market for hybrid clubs. 

I think class/cultural/regional differences account for a large part of the non-equipment changes you have noted. I imagine that there are a lot more walkers in tshirts at a muni in Austin in the spring/fall compared to north Texas in mid-summer.

The wedges in the set I played with growing up only had an P, S & L on the club. When I got old enough to buy my own clubs and went to order some new wedges I was so lost. Trying to figure out all the different lofts/bounces/grinds was like trying to learn a different language.

My former local muni in So Florida made it a point that anyone on the driving range or course needed a golf shirt with a collar. I wear T-shirts all the time but not on the golf course. People need to show some respect. I also thought drinking with golf carts is a bad idea.

All of your points are valid across most of the country at most decent courses IMO.

Like skiing, golf is now adequately expensive that the vast majority of players are affluent and Caucasian. The result is lots of well dressed people in golf carts.

Point 5 is more complicated than it appears. Iron lofts are indeed stronger, but they also launch higher and (typically) spin less, and the effect isn’t simple. The New Thing that you might want to look into is club fitting. Unlike in prior years, buying the standard configuration off the rack is normally an exercise in frustration and wasted funds.

Yeah, that is what I understand. Once I am sufficiently rust-free, I will sign up for a fitting (which wasn't really an option, at least not anything beyond the eyeball test back in the early 90s). Hopefully that helps me make adjustments and know my swing speed and whatnot. I can guesstimate based on my distances but with older clubs an easy comparison isn't possible. Who knows: there may be some low hanging fruit available.

Wait until a cart comes down the fairway blaring their favorite music...that’s new in the past 25 years.

Heck, I saw that mountain biking the other day with several bikes. In 20 years of riding on the West Coast, I had never seen that!

I am sure hearing Van Halen blaring from 2 holes away will be different!

1. it's a where you live type of deal. Lived in suburban, honestly rural to me NC for a while, blue collar area and it was a lot of leagues and beers after work. Now in an area of Florida that is tech oriented and of course them damn snowbirds so it seems more professional workers are golfing

2 for sure more carts, I don't see it as a bad thing. I walk in the winter down here, but I woke up for work today and it was 84 already. Playing 18 when its mid 90s and humid is no fun for me.

3 I agree, I think the advent of lighter and female specific clubs has helped with this, as well as the LPGA getting more air time.

4 Again goes back to being regional, and what type of course you are playing. muni vs semi private

5 New equipment is just better optimized than old equipment. Sweet spots are bigger, but the big difference I'd say is forgiveness. A toed iron used to cost you 20+ yards, nowadays is probably around 10 with all the weighting and computer driven designs.

6 Only thing I'd say to check out in the new laws of ball flight. It won't change technique per se, but might change your thinking on how to move the ball

Thanks for the input! yeah, I can see a regional difference for sure. Some good golfers though! Big strong dudes who worked in the woods (back before everything was mechanized)-think "Sometimes A Great Notion". That book was fictionally set 20 miles inland from my home town. The course I grew up at was private only in that they weren't funded by the city. A family of 4 could play unlimited for $1,000 a year (Juniors $75) and visitors were always welcome. There wasn't really a white-collar world in that town: most anyone you could call a "professional" was either a teacher, one of the 3 doctors in town, the lawyer, or the accountant. There were perhaps 50 people with graduate degrees in a town of 4,000, at most. People didn't take themselves too seriously!

I would guess that balls are traveling further, as it seems that I have gained 10 yards while barely taking a swing in the past 25 years! Those were with cheapo Top Flite balls that I bought for my son to put with back when he was 6.