Toney Penna Persimmon info wanted

[astamm8]

I'm curious about the different Penna models. I see mod 1 and mod 65 a lot. What are the differences in the models. And there was that gorgeous mod JS on ebay a week ago. What about Hand Made? How does that differ from the others?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130365445909&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[Maxwell]

[size="4"]Astamm8

You ask good questions! There can be large, small,subtle or obvious differences from year to year by the persimmon wood golf club manufacturers from a few years ago and "one" of the ways that helps me(still!) to determine which clubs I'm interested in is by a book entitled, "The Golf Club Identification & Price Guide #4" by Golfworks & Ralph Maltby. This last edition was printed in November/99. It's "packed" with so much detail it will give you a headache.
There also are the Jim Kaplan publications for Wilson, MacGregor and Hillerich & Bradsby. The Kaplan publications are very good too!
I think I saw a Jim Kaplan - [url="http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-GOLF-HISTORY-OF-H-B-CO-W-CATALOGS-1922-1980_W0QQitemZ130367174894QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e5a7d38ee"]Hillerich & Bradsby History Catalogue[/url] on eBay yesterday.
Good luck![/size]

[stevehj]

Astamm8:

Way back when, I used two of the TP drivers you asked about, and still have three of the mod 65's. Basically, they are totally different versions of the drivers TP made. The mod 1 was more pear shaped head with a reasonable amount of face offset. The mod 65 was rounder with very little face offset. In fact the shaft bore on the 65 is about a far forward as I have ever seen in a wooden head, it almost gives you the feeling of addressing the ball with an iron. I really liked it because it was much easier for me to line it up.

If I remember correctly, the JS mod was a very deep faced driver and the head shape was kind of between the mod 1 and mod 65. But with the deep face, it was a fairly small head. I assume that was required to keep the weight from getting too high.

But I don't think their clubs were handmade. Penna had a factory in Jupiter Florida, and they built a ton of stuff (woods, irons, wedges, putters, etc). I can't imagine that volume could have been done by hand. But their quality control was very good. IMOP, these were the best persimmon clubs available in the 70's and 80's.

Hope this helps.

[astamm8]

stevehj,

thanks. that was exactly the response i was hoping for. some of the penna are stamped 'mod 1 hand made'. others are stamped 'mod 1 oil hardened'. so, based on what you said i'm guessing that the oil hardened ones were regular production while the hand mades were specially hand made. maybe.