What's your favorite vintage fairway finder?

[DCCarpenter]

I've posted on here about my Wilson Whale driver, been playing it steady and pretty well unfortunately the insert decided to give up the ghost. I'm definitely going to reglue/repair it..my guess is it sat around unusued for a long time before I got it and then I used it twice a week for 2 months in all manners of weather. Or perhaps I should be more mindful of using better balls with it..it did hit a lot of TopFlites.

 

It is definitely going back in the bag as my tee club once repaired but this is a good chance to get another club that can stay in the bag. I was looking for more of a fairway finder 200-220 yard club, off the tee use only probably , from the persimmon , laminated or early metals era. Just seeing what people liked for those days when driver acted up or it was a tight hole and they wanted to stay on the fairway no matter what.

 

[Bigarch]

The longest drive I ever hit in my life was with a laminated Cobra Baffler 2-wood.  The extra loft with those weighted rails on the bottom made it super forgiving and straight.  It was my go to club off the tee about 70% of the time and I could REALLY smoke that thing.

[Shallowface]

Those inserts, known as the "Epoloc Face" (which was a decal seen on so many Wilson woods of the 70s) were notorious for chipping and cracking.  Perhaps they had a stash of them they used on the Whale drivers.  They looked kind of cool new, but they just weren't all that durable.

 

    

[Shallowface]

1 minute ago, Bigarch said:

The longest drive I ever hit in my life was with a laminated Cobra Baffler 2-wood.  The extra loft with those weighted rails on the bottom made it super forgiving and straight.  It was my go to club off the tee about 70% of the time and I could REALLY smoke that thing.

I believe that design, as well as they design of the Ginty, created the original "high launch low spin" conditions.  The Ginty utility 7 wood had a loft of 29 degrees and back in the late70s/early 80s I would get freakish distances with that thing just trying to advance the ball on Par 5s.  The Ginty woods were weak lofted, even for that day (for example the 5 wood had 24 degrees), but they certainly weren't short.

 

I remember a story where Ram took a persimmon driver and built a prototype with an extremely heavy soleplate.  The story was it didn't perform well at all in testing and they never brought it to market.  Perhaps it didn't generate enough spin to be practical for the vast majority of players.

 

Callaway owns the rights to the Ginty, and now that "Carbon Woods" are the new rage, perhaps it is time to reintroduce the Ginty with the metal soleplate and a carbon head.  

 

  

[Bigarch]

I've got a Ginty that I put in my modern bag a couple years ago.  My home course has bermuda rough and it gets super thick just off the fairway in mid summer. The Ginty is the only club longer than about an 8 iron that you could get through that stuff.  175 yards and the ball comes shooting out of there every time.  That design still works! 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Mine would be these (in order):

A dirt-cheap, bog standard Honma Extra "90" 3w with a Hagane steel shaft. Great off the tee, very reliable.

A refinished blondie Mizuno 3w with a carbon shaft. Maybe MS-1 or MS-3? Quite deep-faced, and long off the tee.

Mizuno MS-1 4w with an Extar carbon shaft. Good off the tee or deck.

Honma Tour Model 4w with carbon shaft. Fairly deep faced. Better for tee shots than off the fairway. Long and solid.

[The Aspidistra in the Hall]

1 iron off the tee.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

14 minutes ago, The Aspidistra in the Hall said:

1 iron off the tee.

 

I remember fondly the days when I used to say, "I'll take a 1 iron off the tee here. For safety."

 

Now it's more, "I'll take a 1 iron off the tee here. For comedy."

[raggal62]

8 hours ago, DCCarpenter said:

I've posted on here about my Wilson Whale driver, been playing it steady and pretty well unfortunately the insert decided to give up the ghost. I'm definitely going to reglue/repair it..my guess is it sat around unusued for a long time before I got it and then I used it twice a week for 2 months in all manners of weather. Or perhaps I should be more mindful of using better balls with it..it did hit a lot of TopFlites.

 

It is definitely going back in the bag as my tee club once repaired but this is a good chance to get another club that can stay in the bag. I was looking for more of a fairway finder 200-220 yard club, off the tee use only probably , from the persimmon , laminated or early metals era. Just seeing what people liked for those days when driver acted up or it was a tight hole and they wanted to stay on the fairway no matter what.

 

For vintage metal a Taylormade "Original One" 12 degree driver might be the ticket. 

 

[scomac2002]

1 hour ago, raggal62 said:

For vintage metal a Taylormade "Original One" 12 degree driver might be the ticket. 

 

 

I have one in 11.5° and it works.  Not overly forgiving due to its small size, but it will pack a wallop when you catch it right.

 

I have a Spalding Executive laminate 3W that is more reliable in giving a useful shot every time out.

[The Aspidistra in the Hall]

3 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

 

I remember fondly the days when I used to say, "I'll take a 1 iron off the tee here. For safety."

 

Now it's more, "I'll take a 1 iron off the tee here. For comedy."

I surprised my 1 iron has survived. I can't remember the number of times I've been told, 'I'll wrap that bloody thing around your neck!!!'

[BIG STU]

1 hour ago, raggal62 said:

For vintage metal a Taylormade "Original One" 12 degree driver might be the ticket. 

 

Funny you mentioned that, I had been reading up on the TM mini drivers. Was looking through the shop stash yesterday and found an old KZG 300 cc metal head. I would say it was 15 years old or more. I never played one per say but remember it was supposedly hard to hit but went like stink when you hit it. WTH? I may throw a suitable take out shaft in it and try it.

Far as the Op's question I would say now days on the vintage side it would be my 57 Mac 2 wood. I have not hit the Jupiter Slugger enough to evaluate it

NOTE: Our own fellow member D.Copp turned me on to hitting a 2 wood a few years back and I thank him for that

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

4 minutes ago, The Aspidistra in the Hall said:

I surprised my 1 iron has survived. I can't remember the number of times I've been told, 'I'll wrap that bloody thing around your neck!!!'

 

I have a couple to choose from when I play persimmons, but they rarely get used on the course. To be honest, the courses around here aren't the best for long irons in that the turf on the fairways is soft so the ball doesn't run out that much. This means that distance has to be gained through carry, which means a 4 or 5 wood is better.

 

 

 

 

[Hickory4ever]

There are lots of good choices including Ping Eye 2 laminates, many nice clubs from MacGregor, Powerbilt (my personal favourite), Wilson and Ben Hogan that are made of real wood.

 

I still have several of the earliest TM Pittsburgh Persimmons that work great. My Tour Spoon is still a great club.

[Mitchell]

24 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Funny you mentioned that, I had been reading up on the TM mini drivers. Was looking through the shop stash yesterday and found an old KZG 300 cc metal head. I would say it was 15 years old or more. I never played one per say but remember it was supposedly hard to hit but went like stink when you hit it. WTH? I may throw a suitable take out shaft in it and try it.

Far as the Op's question I would say now days on the vintage side it would be my 57 Mac 2 wood. I have not hit the Jupiter Slugger enough to evaluate it

NOTE: Our own fellow member D.Copp turned me on to hitting a 2 wood a few years back and I thank him for that

Back in the day, played a KZG RBT 325 7.5* with an Apache “orange crush” 65n that I absolutely nuked, once that head gave up the ghost, was not able to recreate the same majic. I still have a playing partner that uses a 13* KZG RBT fairway off tee quite often. If the president of KZG wasn’t such a difficult individual, I might still consider playing some of their older, high quality, gear.

[Mitchell]

If you want a suitable tee option that still can hang with anything out there, look no further than the original Ping Rapture 14*- was comparatively expensive back at time of issue, yet still has a bit of cult classic cache and is very reasonable to acquire now. Doesn’t exactly fit your definition of vintage, yet “vintage” on this place certainly is open to interpretation 😂

Edited April 18, 2022 by Mitchell

[BIG STU]

2 minutes ago, Mitchell said:

Back in the day, played a KZG RBT 325 7.5* with an Apache “orange crush” 65n that I absolutely nuked, once that head gave up the ghost, was not able to recreate the same majic. I still have a playing partner that uses a 13* KZG RBT fairway off tee quite often. If the president of KZG wasn’t such a difficult individual, I might still consider playing some of their older, high quality, gear.

I know all about the KZG president my bud used to be a KZG dealer. In fact I suspect that head came from his shop from stuff he gave me when he retired. It is a used head and now I wonder if it went dead. Oh well will not cost me but a dab or 2 of epoxy to try. I did not see any visible cracks etc. I am thinking that RBT 325 was one hot head and had a cult like following among better players back in the day. 

[Mitchell]

7 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

I know all about the KZG president my bud used to be a KZG dealer. In fact I suspect that head came from his shop from stuff he gave me when he retired. It is a used head and now I wonder if it went dead. Oh well will not cost me but a dab or 2 of epoxy to try. I did not see any visible cracks etc. I am thinking that RBT 325 was one hot head and had a cult like following among better players back in the day. 

If it’s a KZG Gemini- the dual face one that Nicklaus golf liscensed from them- they were infamous for dying/cracking.

[BIG STU]

9 minutes ago, Mitchell said:

If it’s a KZG Gemini- the dual face one that Nicklaus golf liscensed from them- they were infamous for dying/cracking.

Thanks for jogging my memory--- That was it---- Yeah those were some hot heads. I remembered we dissected one that cracked and measured the face thickness and yes it was paper thin. A lot thinner than any other brand at the time and date. One of the reasons my bud fell out with KZG he questioned the legality of the driver among with KZG not wanting to warranty them. He could not take chances because at the time he was building and tuning clubs for some prominent college players including DJ. He also had clubs on all the local minis and at the time the Web.com tour.

The head I have is not a Gemini but just a 300 (as in 300 cc) The one box of about 5 Gemini heads I had from his stuff was all cracked heads along with some Bang O Matics. I scrapped all that stuff years ago. To defend Bang Golf all those heads were from a local Long Drive guy and he was on a deal with Bang. I have one of the heads he cracked in my shop that he autographed for me. We are friends and share another common thing-- we are both involved in the Music Ministry at a Church. He has been the music director at one of the larger churches for 25 years now.

[raggal62]

17 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Thanks for jogging my memory--- That was it---- Yeah those were some hot heads. I remembered we dissected one that cracked and measured the face thickness and yes it was paper thin. A lot thinner than any other brand at the time and date. One of the reasons my bud fell out with KZG he questioned the legality of the driver among with KZG not wanting to warranty them. He could not take chances because at the time he was building and tuning clubs for some prominent college players including DJ. He also had clubs on all the local minis and at the time the Web.com tour.

The head I have is not a Gemini but just a 300 (as in 300 cc) The one box of about 5 Gemini heads I had from his stuff was all cracked heads along with some Bang O Matics. I scrapped all that stuff years ago. To defend Bang Golf all those heads were from a local Long Drive guy and he was on a deal with Bang. I have one of the heads he cracked in my shop that he autographed for me. We are friends and share another common thing-- we are both involved in the Music Ministry at a Church. He has been the music director at one of the larger churches for 25 years now.

Big Stu is this the KZG head you have?

[BIG STU]

5 minutes ago, raggal62 said:

Big Stu is this the KZG head you have?

Yep it is the exact one--- Any info you have would be helpful Thanks

[raggal62]

54 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Yep it is the exact one--- Any info you have would be helpful Thanks

PFT stood for Progressive Face Technology. KZG's interpretation of cup face tech. 

[DCCarpenter]

A lot of great suggestions, I'll my hands full searching eBay for some of them. 

 

I think 2nd Swing may have a Ginty and I know they had a 2 wood in their paltry wood club selection so I may grab one of both if they are there.

 

I have a clone of the TaylorMade 'Original One" driver called a Precision made in 10.5 loft and a matching 3 wood in 15, it has a S300 shaft on it. The head is quite small, not sure how many fairways I'll find with that one. I haven't had it to the actual course to try yet.

 

I was playing around with the Ping Eye 2 laminated woods that I got with my Eye 2 irons , not really having any luck with the driver but I was hitting the 3 wood fairly well for 10 balls off a regular tee from the grass at the driving range. Maybe if Wednesday breaks well I'll get a chance to get out on the course with it.

[hammergolf]

Man, I had a Cleveland Classic TC-15 with an X100 that I could hit the prettiest tiny cut with when I played in college. Was practically automatic…

[Binson]

Not sure if this counts quite as classic as the clubs mentioned above.  But, I have a Titleist 905S that seems to be super forgiving side-to-side, with Distance lost being the difference in quality of strike. 

 

I've literally skied it and toed it with half the ball off of the face and somehow it's 200-ish yards in the fairway.  Quite a bit short, but as a Fairway finder, that's kind of what it's about and what I would've hit with a shorter club anyway.

 

Of course, having said this, I'll be sure to hit everything OB with it going forward...

[DCCarpenter]

So I played a group event for the first time today and my tee shots were beyond horrific.

 

I've rounded up a few of the suggestions from the thread, a Ping Eye 2 3 wood laminated, a laminated 3 and 5 woods with regular flex steel shaft Wilson Staff clubs, a Callaway 7 wood Heavenwood (the original not the newer ones). I found a Ping Rapture I ordered for $10 bucks which is en route.

 

I've got one grass range nearby that I can setup a regular tee on, they have nothing for targets between 115 and 200 so I'll just have to deal as far as that goes.  Would you all suggest I just pick one of the clubs and give it a good 30 or so shots everyday for a week or two and see where I'm at? I usually just play, I'm not a big range guy so I don't have a range routine as it is as hitting of the mats just aggravates my bum shoulder usually and the grass range is essentially 3 holes of hardpan/dirt. It does let you use a real tee though. I know pounding tee shots hits diminishing returns after a certain number so I figure I better cap it at some amount.

[scomac2002]

My theory with tee clubs is that you will know the right one when it comes along after just 3 shots.  The important thing is that you get a decent result without having to manipulate the club or your swing in some way.  Then you need to play it for a while to confirm your initial impressions.

 

With multiple clubs to audition, I would hit each about 5 shots in a row.  Compare one to another and note your favourite.  Then compare a couple more and repeat the process.  Hit the favourites against each other in a subsequent session and eventually you will get a couple to play.  This takes a bit of time, but once you narrow the field down by half you can come back another day and see of you feel the same about your choices.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

I use a similar method to @scomac2002. Give them all a go, hitting certain number of shots with each one and see what you like. Take a short break (eg hit chips and pitch for 5 minutes), then repeat the process but in reverse order. 

Gradually weed out the ones you don't like.

 

If you like shotmaking, take the ones you like and try hitting different shots with them, and see which one is the most versatile.

 

Finally, take the one (or two) you like to the course to check whether it really performs.

 

I have found clubs that don't perform on the range sometimes perform beautifully on the course, and vice-versa.

[Hickory4ever]

8 hours ago, scomac2002 said:

My theory with tee clubs is that you will know the right one when it comes along after just 3 shots.  The important thing is that you get a decent result without having to manipulate the club or your swing in some way.  Then you need to play it for a while to confirm your initial impressions.

 

With multiple clubs to audition, I would hit each about 5 shots in a row.  Compare one to another and note your favourite.  Then compare a couple more and repeat the process.  Hit the favourites against each other in a subsequent session and eventually you will get a couple to play.  This takes a bit of time, but once you narrow the field down by half you can come back another day and see of you feel the same about your choices.

I can usually tell if a club is well suited for me fairly quickly. I first check that the shaft is the right flex, in my case regular. The next step is to take a few swings to determine if the swing weight is sufficient to let me feel where the club head is. Last part of the audition is to see how it sets up, if it looks good address.

 

I then take a couple out for play with my vintage set of the day and alternate them. I do this a lot with classic or hickory and note the subtleties for future loaning possibilities.

 

Even though I have a range 100 meters from my door, I rarely use it for evaluating classics and never for hickory. Range balls are not worthy.

[scomac2002]

45 minutes ago, Hickory4ever said:

Even though I have a range 100 meters from my door, I rarely use it for evaluating classics and never for hickory. Range balls are not worthy.

 

When I lived on the farm I would hit balls out into the field all the time.  I had two big buckets of balls, mostly found balls on course and used those.  Hit a bucket and then go out and fetch them.  The walk was a good warm down after hitting a bunch.

 

The place across the street was a sod farm and that was the best place to practice, but you had to wait for no one being around or at least that's how I felt.

 

I guess you could say that I did most of my club "evaluation" in that setting.  Most were useful, but a few were special and you knew it almost immediately.  That didn't always translate perfectly to the course, but I never really ran across a club that I didn't care for in the evaluation stage that earned a spot in the bag due to performance on course.