Rounds with a Vintage Bag

[jonnygrouville]

Virtual high five for that.

 

Four wedges? I normally carry one. And three drivers.

 

Hickory bag, seven clubs, no woods at all with two mid irons and two putters.

 

[birly-shirly]

Holden - our thoughts run along similar lines!

 

At the weekend, I had 3 - 9 Sabers, with the 8 and 9 bent weak to 45/50* and then just a sand wedge. I have heads coming to me for an Equalizer, a Utility Wedge and a Precision Exploder. It'll be nice to have choices, but I can see the Utility and Exploder becoming the preferred set up unless the course gets totally burnt up in summer. But the U wedge will need to justify its spot if that means bending the 8 and 9 a little stronger again, as they play well as they currently are.

 

Am also thinking of a little hammer and file work on the leading edges. But I also have a mixed set of Slazenger Sabers. The odd numbers come with just the sort of blunted leading edge I'm thinking of, and the even numbers don't. So I should have the wherewithal to test out different options, and anything I do, I'll almost certainly try on the Slazengers first. The fact that they're stainless steel should make the job look a little tidier, and the set a little more uniform. The Texas Hogans are not so pristine that I couldn't bring myself to do something similar if the Slazengers are noticeably improved. Probably won't do anything irreversible now until they have a chance to prove themselves in firmer conditions next summer.

 

The big surprise with these irons is how sensitive they've been to shaft changes. They arrived with the original A flex Pro Fits, which I didn't like at all and was expecting to have to change. In went some Dynamic Golds in S300, which I hard stepped in consequence of the heavier heads and shorter lengths I thought I'd be shooting for. They were an improvement, but still nothing to get excited about. Lastly, I tried some R flex DGs, which I had fewer reservations about chopping right down to old school lengths and conventional SWs - and they've really come alive. Got some full cord grips on for now, but tempted to go all in on vintage leather wraps if I get everything else to my liking.

[oxtail]

I wouldn't be surprised if my 1 iron passed through Teevons hands at some point.

 

Agree that the equalizer can really dig, so I've relegated it to less than 70 yards in, otherwise there is a risk for some deep gouging but I really like it for chipping. A lot of the early hogan irons had inconsistent grinds even throughout a single set. I found a set with slightly more leading edge grind (still super sharp, but manageable) - it coincidentally had heads varying from 3-9 grams heavier across the board from my other sets. Also interestingly, the leading edges are pushed slightly further forward in this set than in the lighter sets, despite the additional grind.

 

I too hard stepped and played at shorter lengths but it was actually better for me than the standard setup. My long irons are just a tad shorter and the short irons are a bit longer. But then I had to add a bunch of tape to get the feel of each club right lol. I really only face issues with short irons, so I may flatten and lengthen them a little more in the future.

 

for those filing their irons, is there a way to grind the sole so they sit more square at rest? Not sure if I'd do it, but I'm curious what grind is required for an open/square/closed iron. Ex: my hogan sabers sit super open whereas all my Nike irons sit square/closed. I guess to sit open there is some back heel ground off so it sits at kind of an angle.

 

 

[GolfNutRiblick]

Regrips done and out for a Donald Ross 9 in Ionia MI today. Thunder throughout the round. Not my smartest golf decision but it didn't rain on us. Spooked more than once by lightning. Stupid. But these irons are sweet.

[oldschoolrocker]

HG,

Glad we didn't see a footnote on the morning news, "Golfer struck by lightning," then have the source add, while swinging a classic club on a Donald Ross design...just sayin', but, glad you got along well with the Haigs.

[GolfNutRiblick]

Thanks OSR. Storms stayed just south of us although we had to drive home in the rain and hail. No worse for wear. Gotta get in as much golf as possible before the s**w flies here in Michigan.

[NRJyzr]

Going to take the All Ram bag with me today:

 

Golden Ram TW282, 2-PW

Tom Watson Scoring System 55° and 60°

Golden Ram persimmons, driver and 3w

Golden Ram TW Custom putter

 

All Ram, All The Time!

 

(lol)

[dcopp7]

Thanks OSR. Storms stayed just south of us although we had to drive home in the rain and hail. No worse for wear. Gotta get in as much golf as possible before the s**w flies here in Michigan.

USPS just picked up your new clubs from me... :taunt:

[GolfNutRiblick]

Thx dcopp7. Will be on the lookout!

[NRJyzr]

Going to take the All Ram bag with me today:

 

Golden Ram TW282, 2-PW

Tom Watson Scoring System 55° and 60°

Golden Ram persimmons, driver and 3w

Golden Ram TW Custom putter

 

All Ram, All The Time!

 

(lol)

 

 

Sadly, this turned into a bust. I forgot to grab the persimmons on my way out the door. Wound up playing with everything else, including the putter, but with the usual metal woods.

 

I'll have to do this the next go around....

[oldschoolrocker]

Perhaps this was a Freudian Slip. Wood he have had a time with the bunch of us on his couch. A group therapy session with us and he wood have changed professions.

[birly-shirly]

 

I too hard stepped and played at shorter lengths but it was actually better for me than the standard setup. My long irons are just a tad shorter and the short irons are a bit longer. But then I had to add a bunch of tape to get the feel of each club right lol. I really only face issues with short irons, so I may flatten and lengthen them a little more in the future.

 

for those filing their irons, is there a way to grind the sole so they sit more square at rest? Not sure if I'd do it, but I'm curious what grind is required for an open/square/closed iron. Ex: my hogan sabers sit super open whereas all my Nike irons sit square/closed. I guess to sit open there is some back heel ground off so it sits at kind of an angle.

 

Once I weighed the heads of my sabers, I decided to build them with only 1/4" gaps in length from the 7 iron down, which seemed to provide a more consistent swing weight with less adjustment of head weight. I would need to check whether that's how the original shafts were cut.

 

Re sole grinds and face angles, yes as you say, positive bounce will tend to make an iron sit closed, and vice versa. However, it may be worth checking your lofts before starting grinding. If the irons have been bent strong, either deliberately or through use, then that could be the cause of the negative bounce. Mine sit pretty square at their current lofts.

 

If adjusting loft is not the solution, then I suppose you need to look at reshaping the sole, but that kind of work is not something I've done. Just thinking aloud here, but would it be better to have additional metal welded to the sole and then reshape that? I'd be wary of what it does to the appearance of the club face and leading edge if you start removing material from the front part of the sole to add bounce.

[dcopp7]

 

 

All Ram, All The Time!

 

 

If you are seriously a RAM fan, I have a set of Accubar's you can have for $10+sh. It is missing the 9i. Let me know via PM. I am gonna toss em on eBay today if you don't want them.

[scomac2002]

Well I played my almost all RAM or more correctly partially RAM kit today in the fun mixed league at my club. I don't go all that often, perhaps twice a month, but today I got to play with Bill and Isabelle whom I played with a bit last fall. A very nice couple. They seemed genuinely happy to be playing with someone who isn't either new or continually giving unsolicited swing advice. They play with a certain fellow a couple times a week who thinks he's the second coming of David Leadbetter!

 

It was a nice quiet morning on the course where it seemed as though we had the place to ourselves. The group in front were playing speed golf and we had no trouble staying ahead of the single behind us. We were a leisurely hour twenty for nine which is probably the fastest nine I've played since April!

 

Nothing to write home about with my play either on the good side or the bad which I suppose is a bit of a triumph in its mundaneness. I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with the set. I don't even think about them being blades anymore. I just hit them. It's that way with the woods too off the tee. I just need to develop a bit more confidence hitting them off the deck. The short game was okay and I putted a bit better than I have been lately by simply picking a line and stroking the putt at the anticipated pace. I really wasn't left with any terrible comebackers as a result even though I missed a couple of short ones.

 

WE stayed for an early lunch which allowed me to get caught up with the Saturday starter and Marshal. A pretty good way to spend a Saturday morning.

[Nomad Golfer]

These are the pics of current playing set of Honma woods, I replaced the 4 with the 5 for the next game. The total set was 1 2 3 4 5 7

with duplicates of 3 4 & 5. They play well.

[Nomad Golfer]

Going to take the All Ram bag with me today:

 

Golden Ram TW282, 2-PW

Tom Watson Scoring System 55° and 60°

Golden Ram persimmons, driver and 3w

Golden Ram TW Custom putter

 

All Ram, All The Time!

 

(lol)

Love the puppy avatar

[Nomad Golfer]

Thanks for that info BJ, I have snipped the charts and put in golf folder. I now know specs of my R-1 LB-708 irons

 

Just noticed that you are on Bribie Island ... I spent Xmas there in 1993, including playing cricket on the beach while wearing reindeer antlers :)

 

Looking at a map, I think we were renting the house on the corner of Fourth Ave and Rickman Parade ... on the right as you face the sea ... small world huh !

Haven't been down to Woorim for a while as we are in the middle of changing addess over to Sandstone Point. I think the google earth shot is pretty recent. Cheers

[scomac2002]

Another week, another fun mixed league round with vintage kit. This time I chose to bring out my Precision II BeCu Eye 2 clones out of the closet along with some old BB War bird woods.

 

I played with Bill and Isabelle again, but this time we were joined by a forth, a lovely woman named Monica; a statuesque, well built blonde with an absolutely marvelous self-deprecating sense of humour. She is a regular at our course in the ladies league and usually played with her son on Saturdays. We all got along famously and were having so much fun that our round stretched out to 2 1/2 hours in duration without any of us realizing it!

 

My play was a bit of a moving target varying somewhere between OK and miserable. I did not get along with those old metal woods at all. They were just dismal! At least I had the good sense to avoid them on all but three holes. The three iron was a much more satisfactory tee club. When I got home I had to check to see if it was me or the clubs and grabbed my PowerBilt 4W and was striping that out into the field so I think the old metals are going to be liquidated as I look to reduce inventory.

 

My iron play was pretty good, but I think these clubs need to have their lie angles adjusted as the ball was consistently tailing off to the right. Not a lot, but enough to put me in the rough rather than on the green. I made some nice pitches and chips with a 53° Tom Watson BeCu wedge, but I wasn't allowing quite enough for the run-out leaving me some pretty darn long putts. I made a few putts and had a few three jacks so that part of the game was inconsistent too. Looking at the hole a la Jordan Speith does tend to give me a fairly good sense for weight, but it is very much dependent upon having selected the right line and being set-up nice and square to target. I think I'm going to work with that some more going forward.

 

All in all the calibre of golf wasn't important. It was a perfect fall day for golf with not a cloud in the sky and a nip in the air. Top that off with a delightful group of companions and you get to experience all that golf can and should be.

[oldschoolrocker]

We opened Yeamans Hall, after a six month renovation, and we were invited to play with the membership yesterday, and stay after for a nice lunch after the round.

Great all around day of golf. The Lowcountry autumn weather was in full cooperation for the events at hand, and the course, well, was the best conditioned I have ever played. (A bit of back slapping there,) but I know first hand the amount of work that everyone involved has put in.

I was teetering back and forth on what clubs to play, but in the end I went persimmon and blades, with a flanged and fluted Bullseye.

I wasn't worried about the iron play, but, thought I might not be up to speed with the wood and the brass. Turns out, both were in fine form, and both got a lot of looks from the members, with a buzz of "someone's playing Oldschool" clubs today echoing around the course. "If they only knew, lol."

Just reinforces my justification and fuels the desire to continue playing an uncomplicated and uncompromising bag that in the end adds to the enjoyment of the game.

 

[TimV]

Between Mid-August and Mid-September I logged 3 visits to the ER and 2 Hospital admittances plus 1 emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer and massive stomach infection. Other admittance was for blood clots in both legs and I followed that up with cellulitis in my right foot.

I have now logged 2 outing back on the course with my Mizzies and although it's slow going I believe I'm starting to get my feel back. Played yesterday with my wife and although the first 5 holes can only be described as ugly I then came on fairly strong. Going back out today by myself and hope to get my act together before peak season and the "snowflakes" descend on SoFlo.

[birly-shirly]

Geez. Tough shift there, Tim. Look after yourself.

[HoganApexBlades]

Between Mid-August and Mid-September I logged 3 visits to the ER and 2 Hospital admittances plus 1 emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer and massive stomach infection. Other admittance was for blood clots in both legs and I followed that up with cellulitis in my right foot.

I have now logged 2 outing back on the course with my Mizzies and although it's slow going I believe I'm starting to get my feel back. Played yesterday with my wife and although the first 5 holes can only be described as ugly I then came on fairly strong. Going back out today by myself and hope to get my act together before peak season and the "snowflakes" descend on SoFlo.

 

Tim, get better soon buddy.

[DM70]

We opened Yeamans Hall, after a six month renovation, and we were invited to play with the membership yesterday, and stay after for a nice lunch after the round.

Great all around day of golf. The Lowcountry autumn weather was in full cooperation for the events at hand, and the course, well, was the best conditioned I have ever played. (A bit of back slapping there,) but I know first hand the amount of work that everyone involved has put in.

I was teetering back and forth on what clubs to play, but in the end I went persimmon and blades, with a flanged and fluted Bullseye.

I wasn't worried about the iron play, but, thought I might not be up to speed with the wood and the brass. Turns out, both were in fine form, and both got a lot of looks from the members, with a buzz of "someone's playing Oldschool" clubs today echoing around the course. "If they only knew, lol."

Just reinforces my justification and fuels the desire to continue playing an uncomplicated and uncompromising bag that in the end adds to the enjoyment of the game.

 

Sounds like a wonderful time playing Yeamans! It's definitely been on my list of "once in a lifetime courses" ever since I first read about it on John Sabino's blog quite a few years ago.

 

What were the renovations done?

[birly-shirly]

Have not played much pure vintage golf this year. Have never strayed far from classic blades, but have tended to take the benefit of more modern woods - so more of a Bag for All Seasons, than straight up vintage bag.

 

Circumstances conspired to put that right today. I finally got my Hogan Sabers into a set up where I'm happy with them, happy enough to invest in rounding out the gaps at either end of the set. So this week, the 2 iron arrived and so too did a parcel from Teevons with a selection of wedge heads. Everything got built up and out to play this afternoon.

 

 

 

Could not be happier with the irons. Nevermind that the heads are practically 60 years old, these things are flat out stunning. The sharp leading edge does take some getting used to, but really you're recalibrating what sort of divot you associate with a good strike. There's no question that these take more turf than more modern, rounded soles - but mostly they just tear through the turf like it's hardly there. The head weight must help in that regard. Time after time I took hefty divots and expected to see the ball pulling up short of the green and was pleasantly surprised. Conditions today were soft, but even so I would not exactly describe these as digging - just carving much longer divots than I'm used to. Though playing into an uphill slope requires care.

 

The 2 iron still has the original Pro Fit shaft - which may have won a stay of execution after today. Sterling service on a few shots from tee and fairway. The other club that I was a bit apprehensive about was the Equalizer - which really does look like a scalpel. In the end, I only hit 2 shots with it and avoided trying anything too delicate - but even it behaved itself. Although the 9 iron is set at 49* and serves very well on any sort of pitch shot where there's room to run the ball out.

 

77 today, in 20 mph wind, is at worst a stroke or 2 worse than my best rounds of this year, and I probably hit more irons close to the hole than I can remember in longer than that.

 

These aren't thrift store bargains. I've probably spent more on these than just about any other irons since I bought some Ping i3s. In fact, I've probably spent more on shipping the various consignments to the UK than I've spent on most other sets of irons. And much more of my time and effort. And the chrome is pretty tatty. But until the grooves are gone, I'll probably not refinish them. The shafts are softer than I've been mostly playing the last few years, but once I'm comfortable that the shafts are staying put, I'll look at treating these to leather grips. I suppose I could look at refreshing the paint fill...

 

But mostly, these are the irons to show the first shop assistant who starts chirping about clean lines and minimal offset. And the irons that might put the rest of my inventory into boxes. These are my pre-CBS era Telecaster.

[oldschoolrocker]

DM,

All the greens, greenside bunkers, a couple of fairway bunkers, and all the fairways, except #11.

The last time the course had a major redo was around the mid-nineties. At that time the emphasis was focused on restoring the green complexes that had fallen on hard times as a result of gas rationing during WWII. This time around was to improve the quality of grass and to shape it back to close to it's 1925 Raynor design.

I think the two biggest, from a playing standpoint, charges are the greenside bunkers being "flat-bottomed" now, and some shaved areas around a few of the greens.

Also, the removal of a significant number of trees that really open the view up towards the river and savanna, especially on #8.

[golfnut1964]

 

 

 

Put this powerbilt 5 wood in the old kit today and just loved it.

Had 218 left on closing hole, a 485 yd par 5 got it to 15 ft for eagle

with this lil guy ! ( no I missed)

 

Had it for some time the face was in rough shape so I finally

got around to getting a clear coat on it after some work on the face.

 

Great feeling stick that will close out the season in the vintage 10 stick bag !

[DM70]

DM,

All the greens, greenside bunkers, a couple of fairway bunkers, and all the fairways, except #11.

The last time the course had a major redo was around the mid-nineties. At that time the emphasis was focused on restoring the green complexes that had fallen on hard times as a result of gas rationing during WWII. This time around was to improve the quality of grass and to shape it back to close to it's 1925 Raynor design.

I think the two biggest, from a playing standpoint, charges are the greenside bunkers being "flat-bottomed" now, and some shaved areas around a few of the greens.

Also, the removal of a significant number of trees that really open the view up towards the river and savanna, especially on #8.

 

Great to know, thanks.

 

I do like reading about the many restorations of courses back to their original design, especially when it comes to tree removal. As Donald Ross wrote, "as beautiful as trees are, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is a limited place for them in golf.".

[TimV]

Still trying to work my way back from my 2 months off due to health issues.

I am very frustrated as it now seems to take 4 to 6 holes for me to find my swing.

I have been playing the same vintage set-up as I hope to find my groove and consistency so it's been Ping Zing laminate Driver, Ping Karsten II laminate 3 Wood, my Mizuno Blades with the RSF wedge and my Chico's Tomahawk Putter. I am very comfortable with this set-up overall. The best thing that happened today was that I was able to consistently hit good fairway shots with the Karsten 3 Wood. I had been struggling with it off the deck and was normally just hitting it off the tee on shorter holes and going to the 2 iron instead of it on the fairway. Pulled it early today when needing the distance and was rewarded. I think I really only hit one poor shot with it today. Hoping that continues and that as I get stronger I will also regain my feel and be able to start my rounds stronger,

Keep Swinging,

Tim

[oxtail]

I’m absolutely in love with my Hogan Sunbursts but after playing just two rounds with a dusty set of Macgregor PT1 I may have to reconsider...

 

Or maybe somehow transfer what made those macs feel so good into my Hogan’s...

[jonnygrouville]

There is something special about this era of Macs. Feedback from the strike is phenomenal. You can keep all the la-di-da Miura forgings and whatever, fairydust baby powder strikes; give me 1960s Macs any day