15 year old irons vs. New irons

[TheBerk]

Any improvements in weight distribution, materials...etc would almost be offset by square grooves.

 

I miss them.

[TollBros]

Any improvements in weight distribution, materials...etc would almost be offset by square grooves.

 

I miss them.

 

I miss them only in wedges. I for one, love the lower iron spin rates with the less aggressive grooves.

[Stonewalled]

Played tonight at our weekly men's league 2 man best ball.

 

The course is basically taken over by the league members, and rarely does someone who is not in the league play that evening.

 

Today for the first time a young fellow was playing behind us, he was very patient and seemed to not care about the slow play in front of him.

 

We were impressed that a young fellow would continue to play even when most kids would of gotten tired of the delays and left.

 

I asked if he was local and he said yes, kinda figured by the old ping G10 bag and older model clubs he was just learning the game.

 

To my surprise he said he was shooting even par so far, after our round the young fellow sat down with us and he said he shot -2.

 

We were impressed, he mentioned that he was driving the ball very well, i asked what driver he was hitting. He said some Taylormade driver he found in the bargain bin at the course. I said what model and he did not know exactly,[said it had alot of snap like a hockey stick] so i said can i see it? Sure he said come out to my car, he pulls out his clubs and he has an older TM R7 driver and some Macgregor Jack Nicklaus Classic irons and a even older Titliest 3 wood and some old putter. He paid $50 for the irons [off his dad] and everything else was free.

 

This kid looked like he just got off work and it was his his first year playing.[Actually works days at the course] practises a lot he said.

 

Any way sorry for the novel, but it seems 15-25 year old clubs still work. Imagine that.

[pinestreetgolf]

Actually works days at the course] practises a lot he said.

 

Any way sorry for the novel, but it seems 15-25 year old clubs still work. Imagine that.

 

Id say it's more that practicing a lot works. If you gave those clubs to someone who doesn't practice a lot, they'd be a whole lot better off with a ping G400.

 

Old stuff and new stuff are (mostly) identical in the hands of decent players who hit in the middle - I hit my J40 as far as anything else. If you hit it low and in the toe with the 20 year old driver and a G400 you'd see the difference pretty quick.

[dog flog]

OP, I have a similar history to yours when it comes to the TA5 irons. I bought mine in 1999 or 2000 (not sure about the year) and went steady for around 4 seasons. I absolutely loved those irons. If I could have pinned them, I would have. Then I stopped playing altogether and started golfing again in 2012. Tried a variety of iron sets - blades, blade/cb combos, GI and SGI. I became a club ho during my first two years back, reaching an unreasonable level that exceeded anything before or since. Thank the lord. In a nutshell, nothing I tried seemed more forgiving or better in any significant way than the TA5, although I sold mine for a song to a buddy before doing any head to head testing. I can't say I'm disappointed by the newer tech because some of it has worked very well for me, it's just that the Clevelands were so good that there probably isn't much more than a little wiggle-room for improvement and I'm really not exaggerating. Seeing as you still have your set, you've got a good opportunity to test drive them against some of the newer stuff and see what you think of the new tech. The spring-faced irons are the latest, greatest refinement on an iron design that was incredibly effective even without the springy face. Very thin cup face is the latest Temptation of Cally and I'm a bit curious but not too tempted. If I could, for a moment, sound like a stereotypical blade junkie and talk to you about how the XR's have that trampoline feel, where it gets harder to tell where on the face you struck it.. Hey, the TA5 already has a crazy level of forgiveness (Maltby gives it over 900 points. Summa Cum Laude of the Ultra Game improvement class. Clubs in this class like to say, "Hit me anywhere on my face. I love it." As great as that sounds, the little blade golfer inside must feel a solid strike when hitting the middle. The reward must be there. Golf is a visceral game and no matter what class of clubs you are swinging, you need to gobble the cookie of a solid strike.) I tried the XR irons and though they were giving me a fairly tight scatter, the solid, hammer feel of the nutted shot wasn't there, or perhaps more correctly it was muted to the point where my ham-like hands , or Jack Hamm-like hands, if you like, had some trouble distinguishing great ones from merely good ones. Speak to me my blade brethren, I hear you now! I have always heard you. If you prefer the feel of a one piece casting to a cup-faced super-modern cutie, are you the SGI equivalent of Ram Tour Grind vs MP 5? Time will tell, my friends but so far, the one constant of golf is that nothing really goes really wrong in this game. Everything is just completely off the hook for every Man-Jack of them who lives without this, the greatest game.