1993 Setup

[KShelton_pga]

1993 

Founders Club Driver thru Wedge. Those irons were some of the prettiest blades ever. Wedges were money as well. 

 

 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

On 8/15/2023 at 10:05 PM, jvincent said:

 

Golf Digest has their archives online. Go through the ads and you'll find everything you need.

 

https://archive.golfdigest.com/issues/1993

 

EDIT: If you use the following URL format you can get to the full pages without a subscription. https://archive.golfdigest.com/issue/19930401/print

Wow. That's an awesome share.

[jda]

I was thinking about this... I can hit that J's Weapon about 280 still - -20 yards for me.  Mishits are bad.  3 wood probably -15 yards from a modern one.   A set of blades, wedges and putter from 1993 would perform similar to today at similar distances with the same lofts.  I wonder if I could be within 1 or 2 strokes of my current HC with these clubs and modern ball.

[PARETO]

In 93 I was 20 and a broke College kid. Too broke to play golf after growing up playing constantly since I was 13. I did however keep my sticks from 1990 in my dorm room just in case I found some money to play(!!). 

845’s 2-p

Eye 2 S and L

Zing2 putter

TM Burner Plus 8.5

 

Good times. 

[norcon]

18 hours ago, jda said:

I was thinking about this... I can hit that J's Weapon about 280 still - -20 yards for me.  Mishits are bad.  3 wood probably -15 yards from a modern one.   A set of blades, wedges and putter from 1993 would perform similar to today at similar distances with the same lofts.  I wonder if I could be within 1 or 2 strokes of my current HC with these clubs and modern ball.

That's what I'm thinking ... I may hit it shorter off the tee, but with the smaller headed woods I'll probably put smoother and straighter swings on them so (hopefully) won't miss as many fairways. Irons, wedges and putter won't have changed so much really. My goal is to shoot level par round my home course with them

[Mitchell]

My bag from back then-

Cobra Deepface 9.0 w/ Brunswick stepped 6.0

Founders Club Freshmetal 15* w/ Apollo match flex stiff

Founders Club 200 series 2-pw s400

Cleveland 588 57* s400

Ping Zing2 BeCu 

 

[Buzzkill]

Removed my post and subsequent replies, was thread jumping too much on OPs topic, sorry.

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Buzzkill

[jda]

I just thought of this, but was 1993 too early for the GolfSmith knockoff/clone stuff?  You could get a Tommy Aaron set, Flounders Clubs, Turners or some Huge Berthas.

[mshills]

I’m remembering a Large Marge, straight up copy of the Big Bertha, in my bag in high school which would have been 1993.

 

I could be wrong though maybe that was a year or two later. 

[norcon]

On 8/27/2023 at 6:13 PM, jda said:

I just thought of this, but was 1993 too early for the GolfSmith knockoff/clone stuff?  You could get a Tommy Aaron set, Flounders Clubs, Turners or some Huge Berthas.

love these names 😂

 

[norcon]

6 minutes ago, mshills said:

I’m remembering a Large Marge, straight up copy of the Big Bertha, in my bag in high school which would have been 1993.

 

I could be wrong though maybe that was a year or two later. 

Just had to look these up .. I can see the resemblance 

[byoshio82]

On 8/14/2023 at 6:57 PM, norcon said:

I'm looking to get a second bag setup with clubs from my birth year, 1993. Just as a bit of fun and something to tinker with. I'm struggling to find what year clubs were manufactured in from that far back. I'm thinking TP-19 for the irons but outside of that I'm a bit stuck, any thoughts or ideas? TIA

 

Irons : Cleveland Vas / Original DCI's / King Cobras / Hogan's / TA 845's

Driver - Great Big Bertha 6.5* / King Cobra (96)/ DCI Starship / Ping Zing

Woods - GBB / King Cobra / DCI

Putter - Ping Anser with slot 

Wedges - Alien wedges - Especially if you go Vas Irons!

 

 

[norcon]

20 minutes ago, byoshio82 said:

 

Irons : Cleveland Vas / Original DCI's / King Cobras / Hogan's / TA 845's

Driver - Great Big Bertha 6.5* / King Cobra (96)/ DCI Starship / Ping Zing

Woods - GBB / King Cobra / DCI

Putter - Ping Anser with slot 

Wedges - Alien wedges - Especially if you go Vas Irons!

 

 

A 6.5* driver?! You have too much faith in me!

[Klubster]

An easy way to find them all is to look at the Maltby MPF ratings.  They list the year for each club they tested.

https://www.golfworks.com/head-mpf-ratings/

The Cleveland VAS irons would be the obvious choice😁

Edited August 28, 2023 by Klubster

[CDLgolf]

Back then I think I had

Biggest Big Bertha or cobra ti driver

Callaway big bertha warbird 3 and 5 wood

Top flite tour  or powerbilt tps irons

Never compromise or cleveland wedges

Never compromise center shafted putter

Edited August 28, 2023 by CDLgolf

[brucedeuce]

Driver and Fairways-TaylorMade Tour Preferred Tour Gold or Titanium or J's Professional Weapon.

 

Irons- Tommy Armour 845's

 

Wedges- Ping Eye 2's

 

Putter - Anser or 8802/8813

 

 

 

 

 

[RolandofGilead]

On 8/14/2023 at 5:57 PM, norcon said:

I'm looking to get a second bag setup with clubs from my birth year, 1993. Just as a bit of fun and something to tinker with. I'm struggling to find what year clubs were manufactured in from that far back. I'm thinking TP-19 for the irons but outside of that I'm a bit stuck, any thoughts or ideas? TIA

I just rebuilt my dad’s early 90s TM Burner Plus driver and it is still great. I starting playing older clubs last year and settled on Wilson Staff FG-51 irons (released on 91 or 92) and they are as good as any. Here is my setup for this fall: (I play Titleist 975 woods during the spring/summer):

 

 

On a related note: I was born in 1987 and have a birth year set of blades - 1987 W/S Fluid Feel - that I play in the winter and for fun nines. Clubs from that era were really really good, especially irons.

Edited August 29, 2023 by RolandofGilead

[norcon]

11 hours ago, Klubster said:

An easy way to find them all is to look at the Maltby MPF ratings.  They list the year for each club they tested.

https://www.golfworks.com/head-mpf-ratings/

The Cleveland VAS irons would be the obvious choice😁

This is great, thank you. Although I'm still not convinced by the VAS irons 😂

 

[norcon]

4 hours ago, RolandofGilead said:

I just rebuilt my dad’s early 90s TM Burner Plus driver and it is still great. I starting playing older clubs last year and settled on Wilson Staff FG-51 irons (released on 91 or 92) and they are as good as any. Here is my setup for this fall: (I play Titleist 975 woods during the spring/summer):

 

 

On a related note: I was born in 1987 and have a birth year set of blades - 1987 W/S Fluid Feel - that I play in the winter and for fun nines. Clubs from that era were really really good, especially irons.

Absolutely love this! And being the same as your Dad's must make it feel very special to play with. Does it feel like you're playing a new game when using these older clubs?

[RolandofGilead]

11 hours ago, norcon said:

Does it feel like you're playing a new game when using these older clubs?

The irons actually feel great, no major changes there once you account for loft differences (3-P subs perfectly for 4-G). The woods make the biggest difference because the distance loss is significant. Overall I have found older clubs make the game much more enjoyable: more satisfying when I play well, and less frustrating when I play bad. With the 975 woods (pretty modern in terms of distance, just a bit smaller) and 90s blades, my handicap has stayed the same (4-6 range). Going to a persimmon or early metal driver would probably cost a couple strokes on typical soft courses. The modern stuff is more helpful for scratch and high handicaps, but I think the middle ground doesn’t benefit as much.

Edited August 29, 2023 by RolandofGilead

[byoshio82]

On 8/28/2023 at 1:58 PM, norcon said:

A 6.5* driver?! You have too much faith in me!

Not at all I played one back in HS and routinely hti it off the deck. You have to figure that Balata balls spun like crazy as did the drivers back then. One of the best drivers I have ever had during that era before i snapped the head off one day during a round. Was never the same after getting it warrantied.

 

[norcon]

22 hours ago, RolandofGilead said:

The irons actually feel great, no major changes there once you account for loft differences (3-P subs perfectly for 4-G). The woods make the biggest difference because the distance loss is significant. Overall I have found older clubs make the game much more enjoyable: more satisfying when I play well, and less frustrating when I play bad. With the 975 woods (pretty modern in terms of distance, just a bit smaller) and 90s blades, my handicap has stayed the same (4-6 range). Going to a persimmon or early metal driver would probably cost a couple strokes on typical soft courses. The modern stuff is more helpful for scratch and high handicaps, but I think the middle ground doesn’t benefit as much.

Very interesting, and all makes sense really. I can see that there wouldn't be much difference in ball flight apart, technology can't do that much on a bladed iron, and like-for-like lofts shouldn't be too much shorter. Would be an interesting test.
 

Had a go of an old friends persimmon the other day, great sound of the face but wow do you have to swing it good to hit it straight!

[norcon]

53 minutes ago, byoshio82 said:

Not at all I played one back in HS and routinely hti it off the deck. You have to figure that Balata balls spun like crazy as did the drivers back then. One of the best drivers I have ever had during that era before i snapped the head off one day during a round. Was never the same after getting it warrantied.

 

Forgot about the balatas, found one last week and I'm genuinely excited to try it out! Shame about snapping your driver though 

[jda]

Get a tee with sharp point on the end.  You will need it to get all of the balata out of the grooves in your irons.  🙂  Seems like 3-4 holes was max on one of those before it was so scuffed that you could not stand it.  There were more square grooves back then, so who knows how that impacted things.

[norcon]

Just now, jda said:

Get a tee with sharp point on the end.  You will need it to get all of the balata out of the grooves in your irons.  🙂  Seems like 3-4 holes was max on one of those before it was so scuffed that you could not stand it.  There were more square grooves back then, so who knows how that impacted things.

Blimey everyone must have spent a fortune on balls back then, I've heard people say they've put a smile on their ball

[jda]

Am I not spending a fortune now?  Nobody knew any better.  🙂  I wanna say that a dozen of the Strata Balatas were like $15, or so.  I cannot remember what the Titleist were.  Not many could hit them well enough to shred them too bad.   You saved the beat up ones for water shots.  Most S and L wedges were not Vokeys with sharp grooves, so it was a bit better.  I played some kind of Maxfli a lot since it held up better and went farther and spun well enough.

[norcon]

51 minutes ago, jda said:

Am I not spending a fortune now?  Nobody knew any better.  🙂  I wanna say that a dozen of the Strata Balatas were like $15, or so.  I cannot remember what the Titleist were.  Not many could hit them well enough to shred them too bad.   You saved the beat up ones for water shots.  Most S and L wedges were not Vokeys with sharp grooves, so it was a bit better.  I played some kind of Maxfli a lot since it held up better and went farther and spun well enough.

Haha great point, golfs probably more expensive than ever. I suppose you find a few like nowadays too. A friend of mine said his old Pro used to lay a sleeve of balatas on his window sill to warm them up before he played, not sure what the reason was but must have been something behind it 

[mshills]

The balata ball was fine for regular impact.
 

What would tear them up: a bladed wedge would cut the ball and give it the big smile, and impacting the cart path would scuff it badly enough that you would not want to keep it in play.

[byoshio82]

20 hours ago, mshills said:

The balata ball was fine for regular impact.
 

What would tear them up: a bladed wedge would cut the ball and give it the big smile, and impacting the cart path would scuff it badly enough that you would not want to keep it in play.

While we’re on the topic of the good ol days can we please bring back metal spikes?! My game has never been the same since they went away. You could just absolutely anchor yourself in the ground and there was no foot slippage. Be interesting to see Scottie Scheffler in a pair of metal spikes!

[NRJyzr]

15 minutes ago, byoshio82 said:

can we please bring back metal spikes?

 

Please God, no.

 

The scuffing on the greens is bad enough now, I can only imagine what modern idiots would do with steel.