Jerry Barber 1961 Ryder Cup

[Brian1862]

I hope no one would chrome stainless irons. They’ll shine with a little work. Perhaps someone’s made the effort on these? / edit: springingk beat me to it. /

Edited June 30, 2022 by Brian1862

[cold_war_era_golfer]

19 minutes ago, Swingingk said:

Being stainless steel I doubt that they were chrome plated.  There is little or no difference in the look of the worn/modified soles as compared the the rest of the club, which would be noticeable if they were plated.  There does appear to be some kind of coating on the faces but I have no idea what it could be.  It may just be what a frosted face looks like on that grade of stainless.  Whatever it is it certainly is durable as there is little wear to it even on the most used clubs in the set.  Even the ceramic coating used on MacGregor irons is often noticeabley worn on everyday Joe's clubs let alone those of a tour pro.  Lots of interesting mysteries in these irons!

Ok that would make sense if they are stainless.   How can you tell they are stainless?  Is there a different look to stainless than chrome?  

 

 

[Swingingk]

47 minutes ago, cold_war_era_golfer said:

Ok that would make sense if they are stainless.   How can you tell they are stainless?  Is there a different look to stainless than chrome?  

 

 

Well yes the look of polished stainless is a little different than chrome, perhaps a bit less lustre or maybe a little more "silvery" if that makes any sense.  The words "Stainless Steel" stamped into the hosel is what really convinced me though.  😁  

[Swingingk]

15 hours ago, golfunderpar18 said:

Various prototype irons plus one of his golden touch laminate woods. 

So do you have any idea when these prototype irons may have been developed?  That milled cavity iron second down in the first picture looks very modern indeed compared to today's players cavity-backs - from the back at least.  The milling marks in the cavity is so "now" it's freaky...

If these were done in the 50's that'd put Mr. Barber's cavity-back development several years before Karsten did it...  

[raggal62]

4 hours ago, Swingingk said:

So do you have any idea when these prototype irons may have been developed?  That milled cavity iron second down in the first picture looks very modern indeed compared to today's players cavity-backs - from the back at least.  The milling marks in the cavity is so "now" it's freaky...

If these were done in the 50's that'd put Mr. Barber's cavity-back development several years before Karsten did it...  

Those prototypes look very much like his various "Golden Touch" production models from the '70s.

Curious if Barber himself had some shanking issues, or if he was just trying to fulfill a niche market.

[cold_war_era_golfer]

5 hours ago, Swingingk said:

Well yes the look of polished stainless is a little different than chrome, perhaps a bit less lustre or maybe a little more "silvery" if that makes any sense.  The words "Stainless Steel" stamped into the hosel is what really convinced me though.  😁  

Hahaha I didn’t even see that!

[golfunderpar18]

16 hours ago, cold_war_era_golfer said:

The faces are most likely customized.  Spalding wasn’t putting faces like those on those clubs in the 50s.  Those ferrules are on the ‘53 models.  Google search that and you won’t find anything like those faces.  
 

 
These may not be the same

clubs but they look awfully close.   Zoom in on the faces.  They look different.   Also, saying the long irons look mint would be a pro for a rechrome in my opinion. I’m going to guess Jerry used those clubs some.
 

Here are the 5, 8 and 9.   This looks more accurate to this photo re iron finish .  Not sure where this photo was taken but based on thr palm tree likely in CA .  The back of the heads of all of the irons are the same.  He also had leather wraps except the 5 iron which broke in the grip.    Hard to know the true history - it may remain a mystery.   I’ll try to connect with his family to see if they might be able to shed some light.   Won’t be now but I have texted with the grandson and hope to meet and how what I have 

[golfunderpar18]

10 hours ago, raggal62 said:

Those prototypes look very much like his various "Golden Touch" production models from the '70s.

Curious if Barber himself had some shanking issues, or if he was just trying to fulfill a niche market.

Yep!    There was 40-50 sets of these various shankless irons at the sellers house - maybe more.  

[golfunderpar18]

15 hours ago, Swingingk said:

So do you have any idea when these prototype irons may have been developed?  That milled cavity iron second down in the first picture looks very modern indeed compared to today's players cavity-backs - from the back at least.  The milling marks in the cavity is so "now" it's freaky...

If these were done in the 50's that'd put Mr. Barber's cavity-back development several years before Karsten did it...  

no but I’d suspect they were much newer. I don’t  know when the shank proof irons hit the retail market .  My dad uses his still to this day.  He passed away in 1994.  I’d guess these protos are from the late 70’s.  Just a guess.

Edited June 30, 2022 by golfunderpar18

[golfunderpar18]

17 hours ago, cold_war_era_golfer said:

The faces are most likely customized.  Spalding wasn’t putting faces like those on those clubs in the 50s.  Those ferrules are on the ‘53 models.  Google search that and you won’t find anything like those faces.  
 

 
These may not be the same

clubs but they look awfully close.   Zoom in on the faces.  They look different.   Also, saying the long irons look mint would be a pro for a rechrome in my opinion. I’m going to guess Jerry used those clubs some.
 

Wish we could get a closer look at the backs.  There is a reg #.   Just can’t see it in this photo when you zoom in.   I don’t think the set of irons in this photo are the ones I have.  Other photos I’ve seen look like a Match though.   

[golfunderpar18]

I picked up some great putters from this collection too.  50 +/- odd putters.  Some his own brand (some finished , some not finished - proto or early designs I guess), some pings, a bunch of bullseyes including one branded with the 1984 Olympics and others  Some gamers caked with lead tape.   Supposedly he was a wizard putter. Before my time.  He had the first televised ace ever recorded on TV,

[cold_war_era_golfer]

31 minutes ago, golfunderpar18 said:

Here are the 5, 8 and 9.   This looks more accurate to this photo re iron finish .  Not sure where this photo was taken but based on thr palm tree likely in CA .  The back of the heads of all of the irons are the same.  He also had leather wraps except the 5 iron which broke in the grip.    Hard to know the true history - it may remain a mystery.   I’ll try to connect with his family to see if they might be able to shed some light.   Won’t be now but I have texted with the grandson and hope to meet and how what I have 

It looks like he's got the hosels bent a bit for loft purposes?   

Great pictures!

[golfunderpar18]

19 hours ago, cold_war_era_golfer said:

It looks like he's got the hosels bent a bit for loft purposes?   

Great pictures!

Understand he worked on his own equipment extensively.   I did take one iron out to the range last year - felt great!

 

[DoughBack18]

On 6/27/2022 at 7:24 PM, cold_war_era_golfer said:

At the age of 45 in 1961 Jerry Barber was the captain of the American team.  Just thought I'd share these pictures here which I found cool.  It looks like he's playing early 50s Spaldings.

 

My favorite part of these pictures is that during the Ryder Cup the player in the background is rolling putts into a hole with one of the flag/cup ball returners. Today you’d have a caddy, a putting coach and some other entourage member out there retrieving balls and looking over everything. Amazing how much times have changed since that era. Great pictures as well!

[DoughBack18]

Think Jerry Barber is somewhere saying “I was playing the Rickie Fowlers before the Rickie Fowlers were cool!” 

[Shilgy]

For some reason I look at the irons with the ports drilled out to add weight and think now we know who to blame for Parsons/PXG design.

 

Cool irons, bit of golf history there…..thanks for sharing.

[cold_war_era_golfer]

Came back to this and noticed something about Jerry’s ‘53s.  They aren’t stamped “synchro dyned”.  But are stamped “tournament model”’ I wonder if they might be earlier than ‘53s now?

[cold_war_era_golfer]

I'm not sure what the ferrules looked like in '51 and '52 but this add was used for both years.  

I think this would make Jerry's irons even older than I first assumed.  

[Jiggered]

It's funny how A, B & D have gone in the opposite direction over the last few decades.

[Shallowface]

On 6/29/2022 at 11:53 PM, Brian1862 said:

I hope no one would chrome stainless irons. They’ll shine with a little work. Perhaps someone’s made the effort on these? / edit: springingk beat me to it. /

I don't believe the early 50s Top Flites were chromed, but it's not unheard of for companies to chrome stainless irons.  Spalding did it with their Elite and Top Flite Legacy models in the 70s.  Those were cast stainless, not forged.  I believe Ping plated their recent Glide 3.0 431 stainless wedges.

 

My dad went through a hosel rocket problem in the early 80s.  When he hit one, he would scream "I SHANKED IT!" at the top of his lungs for the entire course to hear.  It took a ton of impassioned pleading on my part for him to stop doing that.

 

He bought a set of the Barber irons  After receiving them he decided he wanted them a a bit more upright and asked me to contact the company to start that process.  When I called them I was shocked when Jerry Barber himself answered the phone!

 

Barber sold a very head heavy training driver which he said he swung 250 times each and every day, five sets of 50.  He credited it with allowing him to play on the Senior Tour well into his 70s.  I still use mine.

 

He was a very interesting character and I always enjoy reading about him.