MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear (1986?) Irons

[Joe85]

I have some of these irons and am just wondering were these forged or not?

 

 

 

 

[TimV]

Sadly Jack allowed his name to be put on a lot of... crap.

Sadly, I believe you are looking at some of it.

[BrandonDunes]

At first thought, those look kinda cool, but then they just look weird. Are those face slots?

[Joe85]

Well I have the 9 and PW filling out a set of 4-8 V-Foils that I have. They feel alright chipping around with them.

[rex235]

Joe-

 

Have attached a link..

 

http://golfweek.com/2009/12/14/macgregor-demise-american-classic/

[HoganApexBlades]

Rex,

 

Thanks for the link. Even though I have read this story many times, it still brings tears to my eyes when I read it.

 

How sad!

[dennybb]

I have a set of Golden Bears by McGregor from the late 60's early 70's. They don't look at all like the 86's. They're forged and slightly bigger than blades of the time. They're the same size as the Hogan edge midsizes I have. I have 4 sets of Hogans, I love Hogans but The old Golden Bears are just as playable. I like the blonde laminated woods so much they're in my bag right now.They even have the knot on top Jack talks about in the interview. Jack did put his name on some junk but these clubs aren't included. I don't know anything about them as late as 86. They look weird but look forged.

[rich13]

I remember Golden Bear clubs from my time spent lurking in assorted Pro-Shops as a teenager in the 1970's. They were very much a budget range, in the same bracket as Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge, and Dunlop Peter Thomson.

A set of Hogan Medallions arrived one day, and looked like exotic fine jewellery in comparison, and they weren't even Hogan's topline irons.

Joe85's irons look to be an 80's model. I would imagine they must have been cast, due to the cheap selling price, but cant be certain!

[rex235]

I have a set of Golden Bears by McGregor from the late 60's early 70's. They don't look at all like the 86's. They're forged and slightly bigger than blades of the time. They're the same size as the Hogan edge midsizes I have. I have 4 sets of Hogans, I love Hogans but The old Golden Bears are just as playable. I like the blonde laminated woods so much they're in my bag right now.They even have the knot on top Jack talks about in the interview. Jack did put his name on some junk but these clubs aren't included. I don't know anything about them as late as 86. They look weird but look forged.

 

denny-

 

In the MacGregor article..

 

It is John Cook, not Jack Nicklaus, who talks about the knot on the tip, not the top of a solid persimmon wood....

 

The Jack Nicklaus "Golden Bear" model woods are laminated, which means there are several thin pieces of wood glued together with hydraulic pressure.

[Shallowface]

I have some of these irons and am just wondering were these forged or not?

 

 

 

 

 

The 1986 catalog I have says they are forged.

 

I always thought they looked well made. Among the best of the store line clubs of their day. Not junk at all. I'm sure they play just fine.

[Shallowface]

At first thought, those look kinda cool, but then they just look weird. Are those face slots?

 

No, just vertical score lines. Some believe they help in centering the ball on the clubface at address.

[TallSouthern]

I have these clubs.... thrift store find...replaced the grips and had them bent four degrees upright...not bad! I wanted them since Jack also has a vertical swing...They are a little light in the short irons, and they make an ungodly clicking sound when hit hard.

[SnowbirdTom]

Who could figure there’d be a thread on every semi-well known set made here?  LMAO!

I snagged a set of these in a bulk purchase this morning.  They cleaned up well and look ok as a bonus to the good stuff grabbed.  MacGregor era bag too!  Grips are excellent originals and barely a speck of rust anywhere.

 

[ezgoer]

 These were my first complete set after I had gotten into golf for about a year. I got them as a gift.  All I knew about Jack then is he was a famous enough golfer to be on golf clubs. Really hard to imagine now not knowing who Jack actually was. Then he wins the first Masters I ever watched. Explains my love of MacGregor’s. I really liked my all matching clubs till I saw them being sold at K-Mart.

 

  Started buying pro line clubs then but these went on to a very special purpose just a few years later. Remember those glow in the dark light stick golf balls? My buddies and I would hop a fence at various golf courses at midnight or so, drink a beer or 3 and played golf like any 18-19 year old would do in the summer. Mostly innocent tress passing, never did any vandalism. Never got caught either. We purposed these clubs for that task in case we had to leave em behind if we ever had to scatter. To travel light every one would just carry a few clubs of the set. Never lost any but I can’t remember what eventually happened to the set. 
 

  I ended up paying for all my trespassing sins and then some after i became a golf course superintendent. Every year early summer grad parties always found their way onto the course. Came full circle on me. 

[st1800e]

2 minutes ago, ezgoer said:

till I saw them being sold at K-Mart.

 

[ezgoer]

Can still vividly see my buddy getting blasted right in the side of the head bye a fairway sprinkler popping up

[DCCarpenter]

There is a set of these on Marketplace that look practically new and Not even hit for $40 , the only label on the shaft is Tour Flight Steel and the picture of the golden Bear. 
 

Any guesses on flex ? Since they were a store brand I am guessing regular maybe ? Probably a dynamic gold clone something around 125g ? 

[raggal62]

7 hours ago, DCCarpenter said:

There is a set of these on Marketplace that look practically new and Not even hit for $40 , the only label on the shaft is Tour Flight Steel and the picture of the golden Bear. 
 

Any guesses on flex ? Since they were a store brand I am guessing regular maybe ? Probably a dynamic gold clone something around 125g ? 

Medium flex commercial grade steel shafts were generally used in storeline clubs.

[Orchardist]

Yeah, but do have one of these.....

 

 

[Swingingk]

On 1/25/2023 at 11:58 AM, SnowbirdTom said:

Who could figure there’d be a thread on every semi-well known set made here?  LMAO!

I snagged a set of these in a bulk purchase this morning.  They cleaned up well and look ok as a bonus to the good stuff grabbed.  MacGregor era bag too!  Grips are excellent originals and barely a speck of rust anywhere.

 

Back when I first started gathering vintage equipment I acquired this exact same set.  To this day they I say they were the worst set of clubs I've ever owned.  I remember reading an article about Jack's involvement with MacGregor and how he became disgusted with the quality of the equipment bearing his name and sold out.  I guessed then and now that these are the clubs that did it for him.  In my humble opinion they were a bad design badly made with bad materials.  Even though the set I had was basically brand new I threw them out.  Sorry if I'm being harsh and I'm certainly not trying to hurt anyone's feelings but this was my observation on the subject such as it is.  

[DCCarpenter]

@Swingingk what specifically did you not like about them ? Turf interaction ? Feel? Just bad results hitting them overall? 
 

I’ve been tempted by a near new set nearby for $40. 

[Swingingk]

1 hour ago, DCCarpenter said:

@Swingingk what specifically did you not like about them ? Turf interaction ? Feel? Just bad results hitting them overall? 
 

I’ve been tempted by a near new set nearby for $40. 

The overall construction was really bad - poor chrome, very badly pressed grooves were deep and shallow on the same club, ill-fitting ferrules, and the lengths, weights, and flex were all over the place.  The r-flex shafts were super whippy especially in the woods.  Strangely the grips were pretty nice though. 

 

I tried to play them but just couldn't make it work for me.  With so many other pro-line options to choose from in the same price range I couldn't be bothered having them take up valuable collection space.  

 

Maybe my set was made on a Friday...  😁

Edited September 15, 2023 by Swingingk

[mocokid]

If Jack was upset with quality he was not referring to Golden bear irons.  In his lifetime he would never have picked a sporting goods store club like Golden bear period.  That stuff as noted above was just sold with his name.  

[Swingingk]

2 hours ago, mocokid said:

If Jack was upset with quality he was not referring to Golden bear irons.  In his lifetime he would never have picked a sporting goods store club like Golden bear period.  That stuff as noted above was just sold with his name.  

I wasn't suggesting that he actually played that model, just that as a businessman and partner with MacGregor he didn't want his name associated with that kind of low level of quality.  At least that's how I remember reading about it in an article I can't present and at a time in the past I can't recall.  Not much value in that I suppose...  haha

[mocokid]

His concern would be about the top tier  model.   All golf club cos issued low level equipment that pros would careless about or not even know about.   I doubt jack ever picked up a golden bear model, probably never saw that club. 

[Shallowface]

On 9/15/2023 at 5:18 PM, Swingingk said:

I wasn't suggesting that he actually played that model, just that as a businessman and partner with MacGregor he didn't want his name associated with that kind of low level of quality.  At least that's how I remember reading about it in an article I can't present and at a time in the past I can't recall.  Not much value in that I suppose...  haha

I don't have it in front of me, but I remember that article.  It was set in the mid 1970s and that was when they brought David Graham in to handle the design work.

 

But as far as the 1986 Golden Bear was concerned, by that point Jack was the owner of the company, so I have to believe he had final say on everything they were selling, including the store line products.  I never thought the Golden Bear stuff looked that bad, but that was probably based on the fact that when it came to store line products MacGregor produced things that were far worse than the Golden Bear, both prior to and after the mid 1980s.    

[mocokid]

Sure he was owner, but I doubt he had a say about "everything ...

including store line products".  I think the 1986 masters champion probably delegated a helluva lot of work, don't think he was testing Dorado, heritage and golden bear irons destined for Kmart and sears.   

[Swingingk]

3 hours ago, Shallowface said:

I don't have it in front of me, but I remember that article.  It was set in the mid 1970s and that was when they brought David Graham in to handle the design work.

 

But as far as the 1986 Golden Bear was concerned, by that point Jack was the owner of the company, so I have to believe he had final say on everything they were selling, including the store line products.  I never thought the Golden Bear stuff looked that bad, but that was probably based on the fact that when it came to store line products MacGregor produced things that were far worse than the Golden Bear, both prior to and after the mid 1980s.    

You may very well be right about Jack having a lot to say about the product line.  It does stand to reason that he would.  I always kind of figured that he bought into the company chiefly because of his deep sentimental feelings towards it and didn't like seeing it failing, and was more of a semi-silent investor than a director.  I will freely admit though that my thoughts on the matter are basically pure conjecture gleaned from reading about it "here and there" rather than any kind of real study.  He is and was somewhat of a stern and matter-of-fact kind of man so it makes sense that he wouldn't have just thrown money at the wall to see if it sticks - he would have had some degree of input at the least.

[Swingingk]

3 hours ago, mocokid said:

Sure he was owner, but I doubt he had a say about "everything ...

including store line products".  I think the 1986 masters champion probably delegated a helluva lot of work, don't think he was testing Dorado, heritage and golden bear irons destined for Kmart and sears.   

This is sort of where I was coming from although like Shallowface says, he had to have some degree of input I would think but how much I don't know.  Jack is no dummy - maybe he viewed the huge "introductory line" market and saw opportunity.  Being an muscle-back guy from way back perhaps he told the R&D department to build a cool blade kit for the masses and the lowly Golden Bear set was the result.  I do find it hard to believe that the set I had was designed in any way by Mr. Nicklaus himself.  It was just bad.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Swingingk

[raggal62]

Agree with Shallowface. During the eighties, many other MacGregor clubs with the Nicklaus moniker were inferior to the Golden Bear line.