Looking for info on a set of Macgregor’s

DoughBack18 · March 17

Stumbled across a cool looking older set of irons today, but they are from far before my time and I know little about them. Hoping that some of the gents on here can shed some light on these and if they were decent clubs in their day. I’m a lefty and these are RH so doubt i’ll snag them unless that have some great value. But more interested in the age/history of these. Thanks and all the best!!

Foozle · March 18

5 hours ago, DoughBack18 said:

Stumbled across a cool looking older set of irons today, but they are from far before my time and I know little about them. Hoping that some of the gents on here can shed some light on these and if they were decent clubs in their day. I’m a lefty and these are RH so doubt i’ll snag them unless that have some great value. But more interested in the age/history of these. Thanks and all the best!!

These look to date from the mid 1950's and are classic MacGregor "wing back" irons. The precise date can be determined by the switching of "Tourney Colokrom" and "Colokrom Tourney" and presence or otherwise of "Rec" in the number. The "75" would designate medium flex shafts; 85 were stiff and 65 senior flex.

They were very good, top end irons in the day.

My experience is that MacGregor chroming of that era was quite thin. These look almost too good! Either incredible survivors or refinished.

Colokrom also indicated an exposed copper face. These look to be steel grey which might sway me towards heads that have been stripped and refinished. The pictures below are more typical of what I might expect in terms of chrome and faces.

They are collectable, M85 more so, but don't have great value.

DoughBack18 · March 18

5 hours ago, Foozle said:

These look to date from the mid 1950's and are classic MacGregor "wing back" irons. The precise date can be determined by the switching of "Tourney Colokrom" and "Colokrom Tourney" and presence or otherwise of "Rec" in the number. The "75" would designate medium flex shafts; 85 were stiff and 65 senior flex.

They were very good, top end irons in the day.

My experience is that MacGregor chroming of that era was quite thin. These look almost too good! Either incredible survivors or refinished.

Colokrom also indicated an exposed copper face. These look to be steel grey which might sway me towards heads that have been stripped and refinished. The pictures below are more typical of what I might expect in terms of chrome and faces.

They are collectable, M85 more so, but don't have great value.

Thanks for the info! 70 year old irons, thats pretty darn cool if you ask me! They did appear to be nearly unhit, and I didn’t notice many marks from bag chatter. These may have just been sitting around for all these years. I’ll have to stop back and take a look in more detail.

Foozle · March 18

44 minutes ago, DoughBack18 said:

Thanks for the info! 70 year old irons, thats pretty darn cool if you ask me! They did appear to be nearly unhit, and I didn’t notice many marks from bag chatter. These may have just been sitting around for all these years. I’ll have to stop back and take a look in more detail.

I will try and get an exact date for you later based on the "Tourney Colokrom" script and inclusion of "Rec". From memory they ran from 1954 - 58 give or take a year.

MacGregor did re-issue these irons in the 1980's but to my near certain knowledge only in M85 form and with distinctive 3 gold hoop ferrules hence my confidence in 1950's dating.

If not refinished, they are remarkable survivors and worth picking up despite playing the wrong way round for you! Subject also to price. I am assuming you are in the USA where they remain fairly abundant. A bit scarcer on my side of the pond.

DoughBack18 · March 18

2 hours ago, Foozle said:

I will try and get an exact date for you later based on the "Tourney Colokrom" script and inclusion of "Rec". From memory they ran from 1954 - 58 give or take a year.

MacGregor did re-issue these irons in the 1980's but to my near certain knowledge only in M85 form and with distinctive 3 gold hoop ferrules hence my confidence in 1950's dating.

If not refinished, they are remarkable survivors and worth picking up despite playing the wrong way round for you! Subject also to price. I am assuming you are in the USA where they remain fairly abundant. A bit scarcer on my side of the pond.

Thank you as well for the details! Is there anything to look for that would be a telltale sign of re-chroming? I’ll have to check what they are going for, but may have to pick them up!

Foozle · March 18

3 hours ago, DoughBack18 said:

Thank you as well for the details! Is there anything to look for that would be a telltale sign of re-chroming? I’ll have to check what they are going for, but may have to pick them up!

I would say 1955 or 1956. By 1957 they had flipped to "Colokrom Tourney" and "Rec" had disappeared.

By '58/'59 they moved onto flame ceramic finish.

The biggest give away for me on refinishing is the colour of the faces. Colokrom irons had copper faces which, although they darkened with age and patina if not used, would not look steel grey as the set you are looking at appears to. The copper does wear but not uniformly (unless like me you use "all the face" when striking!🤣) and to have worn all the copper away would take a lot of play which belies the condition of the chrome on yours.

Better pictures of the faces might help as maybe it is a lighting effect but, as I say, I would expect coppery tones to show.

Sorry about the upside down image above. Hope you can still read it!

ezgoer · March 18

These would have been valuable clubs back when everyone wanted vintage. Could be a great time to get em now for a decent price. One of my personal grail clubs. I have a set of 57 M85’s non Colokrom but nowhere near that condition. These look awfully polished so would lean to Foozle’s advice. Don’t let the regular shafts scare you off either if you normally play stiff. The stiff shafts were STIFFF in the 50’s Mac stuff.

bcstones · March 18

1 hour ago, Foozle said:

I would say 1955 or 1956. By 1957 they had flipped to "Colokrom Tourney" and "Rec" had disappeared.

By '58/'59 they moved onto flame ceramic finish.

There was a year between the '57 ColorKrom & '59 CF4000, where MacGregor offered "Copper Faced"....I have a set of the "diamond back" MacGregor recesed weight PT-1 irons. Iin the 1958 catalog w/the simple description in the picture...and in 1959, the CF4000 were presented...

Edited March 18 by bcstones