Help Identifying MacGregor ColoKrom M75’s & Toney Penna Eye O Matic 1 DFD Stamped Wood

B-Lord · April 15

Hello group! I’m new to the forum, recently getting more into golf. I just came into these Irons and the 1 wood at an estate sale. I’m looking to be educated on them, I didn’t realize how unique they may be but I’m still doing some research. Couple things that catch my interest, hoping to find out. The M75 ColoKrom irons - I’ve seen some M85’s online and most say either “REC” or “REG” on the iron before the M75/85 - what exactly does that mean? Also… the 1 wood only shows DFD stamped on the bottom below the “Oil Hardened”, if there was a model number there it’s not there anymore. Could someone help me identify the 1 wood? Also - the face does not look original, most I’ve seen have multi color faces or 6 screw faces, if this is in fact original I’d be curious to know.
thank you!

Edited April 16 by B-Lord

Foozle · April 15

The irons are 1957 M75 Colokrom's. Colokrom referring to the copper faces and M75 being the medium flex version; M85 being stiff and M65 being senior flex. Rec is simply a reference model coding used by MacGregor - the absence of "Rec" in these identifies them as 1957 as the earlier '55 & '56 models did have "Rec" stamped.

They are classic and desirable irons but not particularly rare. The M85's tend to be more sought after.

DFD refers to "Deep Face Driver". Experts here will be better informed than me on this driver but deep face models do tend to be very collectable. The sole plate appears to say eye-o-matic which refers to the multi colour insert you mention, commonly red-white-red. This would suggest the solid red insert here is a replacement but not necessarily as MacGregor did a lot of custom work so it may have been ordered with a solid red fibre insert. Shaft label suggests original shaft. It needs some work but I would suggest is a very nice find.

A fabulous intro to classic golf! Welcome on board!

B-Lord · April 15

12 minutes ago, Foozle said:

The irons are 1957 M75 Colokrom's. Colokrom referring to the copper faces and M75 being the medium flex version; M85 being stiff and M65 being senior flex. Rec is simply a reference model coding used by MacGregor - the absence of "Rec" in these identifies them as 1957 as the earlier '55 & '56 models did have "Rec" stamped.

They are classic and desirable irons but not particularly rare. The M85's tend to be more sought after.

DFD refers to "Deep Face Driver". Experts here will be better informed than me on this driver but deep face models do tend to be very collectable. The sole plate appears to say eye-o-matic which refers to the multi colour insert you mention, commonly red-white-red. This would suggest the solid red insert here is a replacement but not necessarily as MacGregor did a lot of custom work so it may have been ordered with a solid red fibre insert. Shaft label suggests original shaft. It needs some work but I would suggest is a very nice find.

A fabulous intro to classic golf! Welcome on board!

Incredible feedback - thank you! I knew these were old but didn’t realize from the 50’s. Really interesting and seem like a high quality product.

Stephen8802 · April 16

I won't add much to the irons other than not everyone prefers the M85 version. I had both, sold the M85s. The medium 50s shaft is more like a modern stiff and I like the way it plays better than the M85. I wouldn't think of the M75 irons as inferior in any way.

The driver is an interesting club. I believe that is from the 40s, by the 50s the jumbos were M09s. It is not the original insert or screw pattern and the screws are too big, so that is replacement. The heavy paint over the stamps is unfortunate, but this club needs to be refinished anyway, so the good news is that you can see the stamps and they can be saved. The Toney Penna decal isn't original and who knows what is underneath it. That really doesn't matter, any model DFD would be a great club. I also don't think the sole plate is original. So, put that together, the most likely scenario is a 70s refinish with a replaced sole plate and insert. The shaft is period though, although it would be tough to tell if that is original or a replacement, and wouldn't really matter anyway.

That driver model is a big deal, but that club would need a lot of work, which would be expensive, to bring it back to good condition. For many of us, that would be a really exciting find and would be worth the money it would take to fix it.

Edited April 16 by Stephen8802

B-Lord · April 16

17 minutes ago, Stephen8802 said:

I won't add much to the irons other than not everyone prefers the M85 version. I had both, sold the M85s. The medium 50s shaft is more like a modern stiff and I like the way it plays better than the M85. I wouldn't think of the M75 irons as inferior in any way.

The driver is an interesting club. I believe that is from the 40s, by the 50s the jumbos were M09s. It is not the original insert or screw pattern and the screws are too big, so that is replacement. The heavy paint over the stamps is unfortunate, but this club needs to be refinished anyway, so the good news is that you can see the stamps and they can be saved. The Toney Penna decal isn't original and who knows what is underneath it. That really doesn't matter, any model DFD would be a great club. I also don't think the sole plate is original. So, put that together, the most likely scenario is a 70s refinish with a replaced sole plate and insert. The shaft is period though, although it would be tough to tell if that is original or a replacement, and wouldn't really matter anyway.

That driver model is a big deal, but that club would need a lot of work, which would be expensive, to bring it back to good condition. For many of us, that would be a really exciting find and would be worth the money it would take to fix it.

Awesome Feedback! I’m happy someone with trained eyes can make sense of the 1 Wood. Curious how would look into the restoration? Are there companies who do this? Really interesting feedback.

Bigarch · April 16

Congratulations on the find. Very nice clubs!

I'm always curious what the grain of the driver looks like under all that dark stain. Back then, if they didn't consider the grain desirable, they tended to use that dark stain to hide it. But you never really know until you can see it. So if you decide to refinish it.... post some pictures of the grain so we can see what it looks like. If it's nice, you might want to go with a more natural color. All of us in here like to "oooh and ahhh" over stuff like that 🙂

Stephen8802 · April 16

8 hours ago, B-Lord said:

Awesome Feedback! I’m happy someone with trained eyes can make sense of the 1 Wood. Curious how would look into the restoration? Are there companies who do this? Really interesting feedback.

Not companies, people. There are a few people who could do a good job on that club, and a few more that could but are no longer taking on work. I would try Nim Brann, who you can reach through FaceBook, his work is really good and he has done a lot of restorations in addition to building his own clubs. David Bass also does very good work.