Nick Faldo's Equipment

[chip75]

Wow Paul what a great find, where did you finds those pictures or is it one from your collection? I think I'm in putter heaven. Did Sir Nick ever put it into play?

[Trap Junior]

Anyone know how far Faldo carried [u]all of[/u] his irons circa 1996? As an additional point Faldo had one of the lowest trajectories with his driver that ive seen. Similar to the way Immelman hits his driver today.

[chip75]

[quote name='Trap Junior' timestamp='1292331531' post='2840139']
Anyone know how far Faldo carried [u]all of[/u] his irons circa 1996? As an additional point Faldo had one of the lowest trajectories with his driver that ive seen. Similar to the way Immelman hits his driver today.


[/quote]


According to his book A Swing For Life ('95), it was 155 for a 7-iron, 165 for a 6-iron, 125 for a pitching wedge, 110 for the SW and 75 for his lob wedge. He mentions the yardage of his long irons in his earlier book A Winning Formula, his five iron was 185 and his one iron 225 or 215. I think he gained a little bit of yardage when he switched to Nike but not a huge amount.

He did have quite a low flight on his driver and I think this was partially due to his swing changes and the Leadbetter method plus been a European player.

[Trap Junior]

[quote name='chip75' timestamp='1292591083' post='2845151']
[quote name='Trap Junior' timestamp='1292331531' post='2840139']
Anyone know how far Faldo carried [u]all of[/u] his irons circa 1996? As an additional point Faldo had one of the lowest trajectories with his driver that ive seen. Similar to the way Immelman hits his driver today.


[/quote]


According to his book A Swing For Life ('95), it was 155 for a 7-iron, 165 for a 6-iron, 125 for a pitching wedge, 110 for the SW and 75 for his lob wedge. He mentions the yardage of his long irons in his earlier book A Winning Formula, his five iron was 185 and his one iron 225 or 215. I think he gained a little bit of yardage when he switched to Nike but not a huge amount.

He did have quite a low flight on his driver and I think this was partially due to his swing changes and the Leadbetter method plus been a European player.
[/quote]

Thanks!

[fiveunder]

For a big, strong fellow, Faldo didn't hit his irons very far compared to the numbers we hear on telecasts these days. Beyond the limitations of the ball, his irons had what I call a progressive loft. The long irons were set at what is still considered "standard" today but the mid and short irons were old school.

The lofts of the Mizuno TP 19 irons he used during that period were:(iron/loft) 2/18*,3/21*,4/24.5*,5/27.5*6/31.5*,7/36*,8/40*,9/44*,PW/49*.

It certainly worked for Sir Nick.

[isaacbm]

Saw ricky fowler's iron stats in this month golf digest. His 4 iron was 21 degrees. My mizuno mp 14 2 iron is 20! I think people are a little too obsessed with the number on the bottom of the club. Who cares? As you said the old way worked fine for sir nick. Possibly best precision iron player ever . That's good enough for me.

[tembolo1284]

[quote name='isaacbm' timestamp='1293225887' post='2857789']
Saw ricky fowler's iron stats in this month golf digest. His 4 iron was 21 degrees. My mizuno mp 14 2 iron is 20! I think people are a little too obsessed with the number on the bottom of the club. Who cares? As you said the old way worked fine for sir nick. Possibly best precision iron player ever . That's good enough for me.
[/quote]


Yap, do not understand why the industry is making iron lofts stronger and stronger. It's stupidity.

[isaacbm]

Last I checked, the tour keeps proximity stats from certain distances not with certain clubs. I mean it's closest to the hole from 175 not closest with a seven iron. I'd take Corey Paving from 150 with 7 iron over Dustin Johnson with a pw from the same distance.... Irons are for precision and that's all-not smashing it!

[Jack lives here]

[quote name='isaacbm' timestamp='1293225887' post='2857789']
Saw ricky fowler's iron stats in this month golf digest. His 4 iron was 21 degrees. My mizuno mp 14 2 iron is 20! I think people are a little too obsessed with the number on the bottom of the club. Who cares? As you said the old way worked fine for sir nick. Possibly best precision iron player ever . That's good enough for me.
[/quote]


In my view the best method is the Scratch method of labeling clubs by loft as opposed to number.

A touring pro does not care what number is on the bottom of the club but rather the exact distance the club will go.

[chip75]

[quote name='isaacbm' timestamp='1293231914' post='2857896']
Last I checked, the tour keeps proximity stats from certain distances not with certain clubs. I mean it's closest to the hole from 175 not closest with a seven iron. I'd take Corey Paving from 150 with 7 iron over Dustin Johnson with a pw from the same distance.... Irons are for precision and that's all-not smashing it!
[/quote]


Hitting a pitching wedge 175 yards doesn't do anyone any favours it basically means you'll have 2 or 3 clubs to cover 174 yards and in which can't be good lol. I remember Dave Pelz did a test and found out that people were more accurate hitting less loft say around 80 yards or so than hitting hard wedges. As you stated if you're five percent away from the hole on a 200 yard shot you're still 10 yards away from the hole no matter what club you've hit.

[dalehead]

[quote name='Jack lives here' timestamp='1293276273' post='2858332']
[quote name='isaacbm' timestamp='1293225887' post='2857789']
Saw ricky fowler's iron stats in this month golf digest. His 4 iron was 21 degrees. My mizuno mp 14 2 iron is 20! I think people are a little too obsessed with the number on the bottom of the club. Who cares? As you said the old way worked fine for sir nick. Possibly best precision iron player ever . That's good enough for me.
[/quote]


In my view the best method is the Scratch method of labeling clubs by loft as opposed to number.

A touring pro does not care what number is on the bottom of the club but rather the exact distance the club will go.
[/quote]

The loft number on clubs is an interesting idea, but not a Scratch standard on their clubs. It was done on Ryan Moore's clubs when he was playing Scratch.

Perhaps Scratch would do this on a custom order.

[Trap Junior]

Faldo used the steelheaded T-Zoid driver to win the 96 masters and not the T3 Titanium as someone said here. It was gold headed because they made the T-Zoid steelhead in a gold colour for the US market while it came in a bluey green colour for the european market. Also the bar on the steelhead is a straight line on the steelhead whereas the T3 has a curved bar on the top of the clubhead.

P.S. Where would I get my hands on a set of TP 19's in good nick ?(pardon the pun!) Is it possible to get hold of an old set of Nick's?

[freshprince99]

[quote name='Trap Junior' timestamp='1293669034' post='2864909']
Faldo used the steelheaded T-Zoid driver to win the 96 masters and not the T3 Titanium as someone said here. It was gold headed because they made the T-Zoid steelhead in a gold colour for the US market while it came in a bluey green colour for the european market. Also the bar on the steelhead is a straight line on the steelhead whereas the T3 has a curved bar on the top of the clubhead.

P.S. Where would I get my hands on a set of TP 19's in good nick ?(pardon the pun!) Is it possible to get hold of an old set of Nick's?
[/quote]

show up on his doorstep in virginia water and see if he will let you poke around in his garage LOL!

seriously though, check out ebay, there are a lot of old mizunos out there but from what ive been looking at mostly mp14's and mp29's. there is also a guy on there called tigernick who refinishes irons with this sweet black finish. my friend just got a set of mp14's refinished in black that look awesome!

(sorry mods, not trying to advertise for this guy)

[Iggypop]

Thanks so much to all the posters on this. I'm a huge Faldo fan and this has been a great read today. Happy new year!

[Ballhound]

I think people just now are realizing how great Nick was. His Masters record was incredible but some of the most awesome golf I watched was the year he blew away the field at the British Open at St Andrews I believe... correct me if Im wrong on the venue on this. Precision golf at its best, as he put on a clinic for links golf. He landed his iron shots well short of the green and let the ball roll into the center of the green and went from there. Made many great putts. I still refer to his book, A Swing for Life and tried to think about his swing tempo during my rounds. He never came out of his shoes to bomb the ball, but rather had an effortless swing to keep the ball in play.. The length of this topic is testament to his genius and peoples interest in his equipment.

[chip75]

[quote name='Trap Junior' timestamp='1293669034' post='2864909']
Faldo used the steelheaded T-Zoid driver to win the 96 masters and not the T3 Titanium as someone said here. It was gold headed because they made the T-Zoid steelhead in a gold colour for the US market while it came in a bluey green colour for the european market. Also the bar on the steelhead is a straight line on the steelhead whereas the T3 has a curved bar on the top of the clubhead.

P.S. Where would I get my hands on a set of TP 19's in good nick ?(pardon the pun!) Is it possible to get hold of an old set of Nick's?
[/quote]

I think it was me in my ignorance that mistakenly read in a Mizuno brochure that Sir Nick had used a titanium driver to win the '96 Masters. I was quickly put right and will forever hold my head in shame after trying to contribute so much to this much cherished post.

On the TP-19 front they're a hard find try proshops they're quite expensive on ebay as they're sort after by fans of Sir Nick compared to the almost zero value of blades from that era. Good luck with your search.

[jebb]

Guys for the TP19s have a look on the UK Ebay.

They are on there regularly and often a few sets at any one time.

[chip75]

[quote name='jebb' timestamp='1293976835' post='2870586']
Guys for the TP19s have a look on the UK Ebay.

They are on there regularly and often a few sets at any one time.
[/quote]

[url="http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=tp19+mizuno&_sacat=0&_odkw=tp-19&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313"]Mizuno Tp-19 ebay.co.uk search.[/url]

[homerdog]

Here's a few pics I snapped of Nick (and his bag) at the Senior Open in 2009, was surprised to see that he had a graphite shaft in his 3 iron.

 

 

 

 

[chip75]

Wow those are some sharp pictures, have you altered them in photoshop or is your camera that [i]good[/i]?

Whoops where are my manners? Thank you for sharing.

[tembolo1284]

Fantastic pics! My goodness has Nick gotten wrinkly!

[lead]

[quote name='mat562' timestamp='1283105096' post='2667065']
[quote name='The Gachet' timestamp='1283094332' post='2666823']
Also found this relating to Faldo in the 1992 British Open:

...Nick Faldo employed the chicken swing to win the 1992 British Open at Muirfield, where he hit the final 18 greens in regulation
[/quote]
As good as it was though, his 2 iron approach into the 36th hole of the '89 World Matchplay final against Ian Woosnam still ranks as the best shot I've ever seen in person. I can sit and watch it again and again and never tire of seeing the flight of that ball. It still looks brilliant even when you're only seeing it on the telly.[i]
[/i]
[/quote]

Ypu dont happen to have the final 36 holes vs. Woosnam on tape? I would be very interested to see as it was my first golfing event I saw on televsion and I still remember
that last shot and Nick walking after it.

[jaskanski]

[quote name='homerdog' timestamp='1293987998' post='2870809']
.....was surprised to see that he had a graphite shaft in his 3 iron.

[/quote]


Me too. Here's the proof though:
[attachment=709176:faldo.jpg]

[Mitchell]

Actually, Sir Nick has been know to use the DVS prototype iron shafts quite frequently in recent years, also used by Ken Duke.

[Iggypop]

I think he may use graphite shafts due to painful wrists, I may be wrong but it's come up a few times that his wrists are possibly damaged with sheer volume of play, hence the grip wraps at the 90' masters and the grip tape layers in general. Talking of great golf from Sir Nick, ask Jeff Sluman about the 92' world match play final. How's that brunch workin out?

[bobilishious2]

[quote name='SGHGOLF' timestamp='1285033600' post='2706325']
Been reading this thread with great interest certainly brings back some memories! Couple of things I think I can add...

Wilson brought the TPA putter brand off Taylor Made after Nick won with the putter, they made up several "identical" putters for him but he was never happy with them and refused to change over, from all accounts this was the beginning of the end of the Wilson relationship.

As large as the Mizuno contract may have seemed at the time Nick was not the highest paid Mizuno Staff Player, Tommy Nakajima was on a much larger contract, this was a cause of friction.

Nick had a reputation for being difficult at best! I remember he was contracted to a British based shoe company but decided to wear FJ Classics at the British Open causing that relationship to be terminated.

For my money this was all part of the Faldo Mystique during this period the win at all costs mentality may have pissed off his sponsors but it certainly illustrated a singular focus.

I still find it incongruent to hear him commentate as I always will remember him as the great player 87 through 96... winning Majors with ruthless perfection.
[/quote]

People may disagree but I found Faldo's relationship with his sponsors and the press very refreshing. If his sponsors didn't deliver the goods, despite paying him a lot of money i'm sure, he'd use someone elses equipment and forego the money from his sponsors in an effort to play the best equipment he could. He wasn't all about the money. Likewise with the press, he spoke his mind and didn't play the PR game which may have hurt his image (especially his 1992 Open winning speech, "i'd like to thank the press from the heart of my bottom") but it's a single mindedness which I have great respect for even if there are a lot of haters out there.

I've met him 3 or 4 times (my Dad was a director for Pringle of Scotland in the 90's and I also played in his "Faldo Junior Series" in the mid 90's) and he couldn't have been nicer, very pleasant and very normal.

I used Wilson irons for years as a Faldo fan and also still have 2 Wilson TPA putters in the garage and the Odyssey Dual Force Rossie II. I'd completely forgotten what a massive fan I was until I read through this thread!

[tembolo1284]

Great thread. Guy is def a trooper.

[The Gachet]

The Open Championship 1992

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy Lyle

[tembolo1284]

The Open Championship 1992Nick FaldoSandy Lyle

 

 

The Gachet is alive! Welcome back sir!

[The Gachet]

Why thank you kind Sir..............maybe gone but never forgotten I hope !?!