Took my ancient TM tour preferred 7° driver to league on Weds

[dcopp7]

And outdrove everyone on 3 of 9 holes (6 require driver or metal). Lol. Insane. Low bullet flight and rolls forever. I'm gonna regrip it today for next week. It's hilarious, the ball is nearly the size of the entire face!!!

[hollabachgt]

Not sure most around here would say a 15 year old club is ancient. Especially considering that many of us are lusting over persimmon from the 50's and 60's. But you found the beauty of older clubs, they still work super well.

[LeoLeo99]

You think your driver is the size of a golf ball. I had a TM Tour Cleek. That was one tiny club. Although, it didn't look tiny back in the day.

[mocokid]

Go to the 'front page' of golf wrx about 'classic' clubs, and there is a shocking article about tour pros who play clubs that are almost 10 years old, like dufner's 7 wood from like 2015. Shocking news for the golfwrx fan base. LOLOL.

[Shallowface]

Dcopp will have to let us know for sure, but I was thinking this driver was from the 1980s.

The longest drive I ever hit (339 yards) was with one of those, but that guy disappeared long ago. Now he's happy with 239.

[Shallowface]

They were small for sure, but I still think they freed us up a bit because there was no longer that fear of losing a piece of your club if you missed the insert as you had with a wooden club, especially if you used a surlyn ball.

I always thought it was the surlyn that was the issue with wood damage, not the fact whether the ball was 2-piece or 3-piece. The way they were measured, a 100 compression 2-piece ball was the same as a 100 compression wound balata ball when it came to measured firmness. It's like the old joke "what is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?" The difference was in the cover, and the surlyn of that day was hard and relatively inflexible. The worst damage I ever did to a wood was with a wound Titleist DT. Today's ionomer covers are a huge improvement.

The Tour Cleeks were the only early TM fairways I liked. I never got along at all with the Pittsburgh Persimmon, the Tour Preferred or the Raylors.

[LeoLeo99]

I only wen to metal woods because back then I was young, long, and wild. What is "off the heel" with a modern driver was off the next with a wooden driver. A few of those and the wood would crack. Think I sent my wooden driver in for repairs about twice a year. I never liked balata balls. Dunlop blue dots where my thing although I don't remember ever buying golf balls back then.

[Foozle]

I am also sure Dcopp is referring to the 1980's TM Tour Preferred. Head is probably smaller than persimmon of the same era.

I have one and struggle with loft. However, my winter "go to" whilst my persimmons hibernate is an 8* TM Tour Driver and 13* TM Tour Spoon.

My longest ever drive was with the Tour Driver but strongly suspect it was assisted by a stone or perhaps yardage marker in the fairway!

Typically I would still expect to hit further with persimmon due to the lower flight and run I get.

[NRJyzr]

 

I wonder how the J's Professional Weapon would compare?

I need to take mine on the course again....

[RobotDoctor]

How about gaming a woods like these?

 

Just a few persimmon woods I have and a few that have moved to new homes.

[hollabachgt]

Ahh, I forgot about those. You're probably right then, it would help to explain the use of "ancient" in the title.

[LeoLeo99]

Nice, RD! I played laminated drivers. Started with a Spalding box set and moved to Hogan Speed Slots that my cuz gave me. Bought a MacGregor persimmon driver at a yard sale for $5. It was all dented up from the previous owner (my junior high vice principal) missing the insert hitting it on the heel and toe. Hit one of the longest drives in my life with it.

Picked up a Ping Eye 2 driver that I want to bring out when I can get back on the course. There is a par 68 course near me that people playing wooden drivers is not uncommon. They're not part of any vintage movement. That's just what they use or found in their garage.

[dcopp7]

 

80s for sure. Probably 180cc. Like this ^^^

[Shallowface]

May not be like the persimmons pictued above, but it is still beautiful in its own way. Probably because of the memories it evokes. Those of a day when we were younger, stronger and things were a lot less complicated.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Still got mine back in the UK. It replaced a beautiful Mizuno persimmon driver that "disappeared".

[Hammer_Hands]

What shaft?

[dcopp7]

X100