Early 50's Mens R/H MacGregor Tourney

[Maxwell]

MO5W #5 wood

I read some time ago that the early 50's MacGregor Tourney #5 woods were good clubs to use during their day and collectable today. I saw one on eBay and made a bid. This one has had some work done to it(sigh). It looks like a refinish to the club head "only" but I'm not sure. I think the original finish is a solid black colour with a shellac finish. I'll check with Mr. Kaplans book.
The sole plate is solid brass and the club head has a "back weight" as well. The club head is heavy but the swingweight is just short of D2. Total weight is 13 7/8 oz. Length is 40 1/2 inches.
One of the other interesting features of the club is the hosel. At the front of the hosel it has been sanded to form "crease". It's not rounded as I have seen on every other persimmon wood hosel I have seen.
Max

[persimmonpal]

Maxwell.. Nice club. What makes you think it has had some work done to it? It looks nice and all original to me.
The neck feature you are referring to is totally original.. MacGregor called it a "Swan Neck", and claimed it gave the neck increased strength.
The swan neck was done on some woods, but not many. As with MacGregor, you never know what you will find, as they did alot of custom stuff for club pros, but its a safe bet that any M05 or M06 you find will have the swan neck. Also, the Oil Hardened stamp model (The last of three varieties) of the M65 woods have them more often than other models. I once had a 653 Eye O Matic driver with the swan neck.. wish I still had that one.
Again, to my eye your club looks definitely all original.. with the possible exception being a possible overspray at some point.. Nothing taken away though. Nice patina on the plate.. If you take the plate off you will see the bore through shaft underneath.. pretty cool.
I love the M05 and M06 woods.. Good pickup

[freddiec]

Nice example of old dark persimmon. I agree with persimmonpal, looks to be original finish to me. Sweet club and in great shape!

[rgk5]

I've got an M75W 4-wood you can have for nothing. It is in better shape than the one you got. Contact me through TGN and you will have to drive to Hamilton to get it.

[Maxwell]

[size="4"]I checked the Kaplan/MacGregor book last night regarding the colour and the 1953 year/model for this club was a dark mahogany. The following year year/model was a charcol black. Perhaps it is the correct year/model colour.

[size="2"]PersimmonPal wrote - As with MacGregor, you never know what you will find.

[/size][size="4"]When I read the above comment I wondered to myself, perhaps others have found some interesting features "planned or not" with MacGregor persimmon woods too!

I have only been doing this for three years but on two occassions found "planned or not" features on MacGregor persimmon woods. I hope I don't give the wrong impression when I write about these "planned or not" findings. I play with MacGregors and I think they made great persimmon wood golf clubs. I just thought that maybe I was the only person to be making these observations.

1) On a driver from a 3 club set of Mens R/H MacGregor Tourney M85's that I play with, I found a extra face insert screw[u] hole[/u] that had been "replugged" using the same colour face insert material and

2) on a driver from a set of mens R/H MacGregor Ben Hogan Parmaster persimmon woods, the brassie and spoon were a D4 swing weight but the driver was C8. When I rebuilt the clubs I found the driver was missing a club head weight under the sole plate .

Max[/size][/size]

[persimmonpal]

Yep Max, you do run across some oddball combinations every once in a while.
A Toney Penna TP Special with a Super Eye O Matic head and plate from 1957 just sold on ebay last week. As you may know the TP Special was only offered in 54 and 55, several years before the SEOMs came out. I once had a 945 stamped fairway wood with a butterfly soleplate.
One time I had a set of all original Jimmy Demaret Master woods, which were interesting in that they were painted black, including the faces (like the early 1930s Macs). Anyway, I wanted to refinish them, so I stripped them all down.. I KNOW they were all original, and al had matching neck numbers.
Anyway, imagine my surprise upon stripping them, when I found the fairways were persimmon but the driver was laminated maple.. That explains why they were painted all black, which was generally not done with the Master woods!