Top Flite iron identification

[scomac2002]

I've had many a discussion with people explaining that they DO NOT need to buy the latest and greatest to play the game. High quality clubs can be acquired and played very inexpensively. This discussion, almost exclusively, falls on deaf ears. Have manufacturers really done that good of job with their marketing spin? Apparently so.

 

That's not it IMO. People that are new to the game don't know what to buy if going the used route. Without some sort of guidance they are just as likely to buy something inappropriate that holds them back in the initial learning stages and that becomes wasted money. With new you get some guidance as to what may be appropriate and an opportunity to try it out before committing. Not to say that is an exclusive with new, but it certainly isn't obvious to the uninitiated. I remember when I started out that the whole question of equipment was overwhelming. People want simple solutions. Even with golfers in our family there were no volunteers willing to help hook us up with good, cheap, appropriate used equipment. We bought new. It was simple and easy and we were then able to go out and enjoy the game, but that was an affordable option for us.

 

Since that time, I now fill the role of enabler. I hooked up our youngest son and helped out a friend with hand-me-downs, near new used and NOS. Both my wife's bag and my modern bag were rebuilt with scrounged deals on the cheap of new, used and demo, not to mention a couple of vintage bags pieced together really cheap! But, none of that would have been possible without spending a fair bit of time being part of this community getting an education. We're in the minority here.

[BIG STU]

These were issued in 1976 as part of Spalding's 100th Anniversary. A cast version of the 1953 Top Flite irons.

 

I'm proud to have a very nice set of these (woods and irons) in my collection.

 

Wow! At $267 for the irons and $120 for the woods, that was serious money back in 1976. I bought my first "full" set in 1975, Wilsons, for $110. With all the haggling, I walked out of the store with the 11 clubs, a $20 bag, a dozen cheap balls and tax, $146.

 

If I can remember correctly, the three woods had a sticker for $49.95, and the irons, $89.95. That day, I wanted a set of Golden Bears, which sold for $99.95. I asked the store owner to order the Golden Bears, but he said he'd deal with me on the Wilsons. He kept insisting the Wilsons were a far better club, especially since I got him to $10 over the Bears.

 

I think my Wilsons were the only lefty set in his store. Don't think he had more than two or three righties. I foolishly sold the Wilsons for $25, with the above bag. Some years later, I saw my bag at the local Goodwill, but no clubs. I'd have bought my old irons back in a minute.

 

PS: Back in the late 1980's, I think, I recall seeing a (new) Spalding Legacy Gold set at a golf store in Youngstown, OH. I can't recall anything about them, just I thought they were beautiful.

 

First place I saw the Legacy clubs in person was a JC Penney Outlet store my mom used to frequent. This would have been early in 1978. They used to get various lots of closeout items that weren't necessarily merchandise they carried on a regular basis.

 

For example, my left handed dad bought some Hogan Apex laminated fairway woods (3, 4 and 5) for $9.99 each. When they dropped to $2.99 each, he bought a backup set. They didn't have any right handed ones.

 

They had stacks and stacks of those Legacy sets. You had to buy 4 woods and 9 irons, and the whole set cost $199.99. I was just about to turn 18 and had a good part time job, but every spare dime was going for college that fall. I am sure the store management wondered why the floor was wet in front of those clubs but it was just me drooling over them every time I saw them.

 

It took awhile, but 4 or 5 years ago I ran across a very nice set of these on Ebay and snatched them up. So many of the clubs I have in my collection are clubs I coveted as a younger person and couldn't afford. It's one of the biggest reasons I enjoy playing the older stuff so much. I feel like I'm making up for lost time.

 

The strange thing is, today I can afford to walk into a pro shop and buy a brand new set and there's nothing I want. Whether it's clubs, clothes or shoes, it's apparent I'm not in the target demographic.

I am basically the same way but I was more fortunante than most because my Dad was a pro and ran a golf course. But in reality I used what he got deals on and was basically sastified in what I had. I got older and had my own money and I can remember the first new set I bought with my own money. A set of Spalding Elite MV2 blades (1970) and Power Bilt Persimmon woods. I ended up keeping only the driver and 5 wood out of that set though. I did a lot of trading for stuff like the 53 Top Flites but even though I liked them I never hit them as well as the Elites.

Today's equipment for the price they want for it I just can not justify it for the cost. Now I do a lot of horse trading so to speak and get some modern stuff. that is how I acquired a new Titleist 915 driver a few weeks ago. Some of the new equipment I like such as the new T-Mag muscle back blades and of course anything Miura. I also like some of the new Mizuno "pure blades" as I call them (MP-4s). A few weeks ago my wife and I were out running around because it was too wet to play golf. I stopped at one of the big box stores looking around. Now she likes to look too and she was looking at new irons and saw the prices. She remarked that she was glad that I went about getting equipment like I do from the scrap pile at work,the thrifts and horse trading and that I am well sastified with how I do it. Heck my saying on the old Macs is "If they were good enough for a man named Jack to win 18 majors with then they are good enough for me" They were good enough for my other hero Seve so they are good enough for me too. Besides I have 3 or 4 sets of Macs and I can darn sure reshaft and regrip cheaper than $1000 to $1200 for a new set of blades and have just as good if not better hitting set. It is also my "anti establishment" persona that goes along with my lifestyle of Rat Rod old pick up trucks and Rat Harley- Davidson motorcycles. That is why I call my little shop in back of the house "Rat Rod Golf". Yep I love my rusty lead taped Cameron I found in the scrap pile at work it actually horrifys people but I can putt with it

[rex235]

These were issued in 1976 as part of Spalding's 100th Anniversary. A cast version of the 1953 Top Flite irons.

 

 

 

I'm proud to have a very nice set of these (woods and irons) in my collection.

 

Shallow-

 

Yes. Like most celebratory clubs, never saw a remade LH model of these. (but they may exist.)

 

Know of the existence of actual LH '50s models, but Spalding, like Wilson and MacGregor, chose to leave their remakes RH Only.

[jonnygrouville]

What global financial crisis?! Look at the clubs people are playing, the cars they are driving and (especially over here) the houses they live in. Nobody can afford these; they're all leveraged up to the eyeballs. The previous generation would never have considered borrowing this heavily, partially because we have only relatively recently created this market.

 

Even when I was younger, a new driver came out and only a few people in the club could afford them. Yes, we have cheap overseas labour and stuff more now, but everyone has the most recent brand new Taylor Made. Everyone has an iPhone. These are not cheap things. I am not saying golf hasn't suffered, just that there are still a lot of people on these forums chatting about four hundred dollar putters.

 

Shortly before the credit crash, I was walking home thinking about buying a new MP3 player. Had narrowed it down to two models, one about USD100 more than the other. Leaving the tube station there was a guy handing out free newspapers and I noticed he had the more expensive one. Troubled me as I assumed I was earning multiples of what he was getting for handing out free newspapers unless he was an eccentric millionaire and I was struggling with the cost of the fancier model. Put it down to me being a d!ck and did not extrapolate out to realise the whole world was hooked on cheap debt like hopeless crack addicts.

 

This worse thing is that it drags everyone along with it. Nobody is going to be stupid enough not to borrow and watch everyone else driving new cars to nice houses, kids going to the beat schools, just out of principle.

 

All goes wrong and rates go up? Our respective governments will have to handle a population with the biggest hangover ever.

 

[Blade Junkie]

Plenty of nice cheap properties over here in Florida Jonny. Two friends we've seen over here ... One paid $105k for 3-bed bungalow on a plot 95ft by 800ft, and the other bought 2600 sq ft house in a nice area for $180K. Just imagine what either of those would cost down south in UK! I sold my 500 sq ft flat last year for $260K lol.

 

The housing market is so screwed up in the UK and everything else stems from that.

 

Prices in London/ SE are 3x higher than they should be if they were a straight inflation increase from 1970s prices, and the huge mortgage debt you have to take on for a house that is nice to live in, as opposed to being a nasty shoebox, just cripples your capability to be a good consumer of high end goods :)

[NRJyzr]

JB have you checked out ironfinder.com or clubsofdistinction.com. Both good resources

 

Thanks,

I just did...these appear to be the 1950-52 models

Now I need to figure out what to do after the 9 iron...I'll need maybe two wedges ?

I really like the Wilson offerings from the 50's in wedges but I'm so impressed with the stainless steel I may want to stay with that material.

 

 

Sorry for being way late to the party, and interrupting the economics discussion :)

 

Use 4° loft gaps, start the 2 iron at 21° (maybe 20°), According to the research of a friend I met on what the biggest golf forum about 16 years ago,, around 1950 a Pitching Wedge would have been 52° or 53°, and the Sand Iron from 58° to 60°.

 

Such is my take.

 

Commenting on Wriggles' post about relative value... Wriggles, I wonder if relative cost of living in various parts of the country is part of the equation? There's also the politically tinged (understatement alert!) aspect of the wealth redistribution in the USA over the last 35 years, but perhaps we should leave that one alone for this thread. ;)

 

I am a Senior Accountant working for county level government in Minnesota, I don't make $90k per year, FWIW. But, I wonder if someone at my level in a county in NY or CA would possibly make that much? The relative cost of living difference between Minnesota and either New York or California is rather on the large end, thanks to relative housing costs.

 

Just a random thought as I work on journal entries :)