Rounds with a Vintage Bag

[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....

 

And today was the day!

 

Well, mostly, didn't have the putter along so I went with my 8813, which was a disaster; four consecutive threejacks on the front nine. It's just too light for me. So I switched at the turn, LOL.

 

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. An out of nowhere hook on #10, and a couple overcooked draws that hurt me, otherwise was pretty good stuff.

 

Somewhat ironic playing with steel shafted driver and 3w, and graphite shafted irons. :)

 

Favorite shots were hitting an upwind, uphill 3w on a par 5, and a bleeding cut driver off the left side fairway bunker on #18.

 

Yes, I'll have to do this again

[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)

 

 

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....

 

And today was the day!

 

Well, mostly, didn't have the putter along so I went with my 8813, which was a disaster; four consecutive threejacks on the front nine. It's just too light for me. So I switched at the turn, LOL.

 

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. An out of nowhere hook on #10, and a couple overcooked draws that hurt me, otherwise was pretty good stuff.

 

Somewhat ironic playing with steel shafted driver and 3w, and graphite shafted irons. :)

 

Favorite shots were hitting an upwind, uphill 3w on a par 5, and a bleeding cut driver off the left side fairway bunker on #18.

 

Yes, I'll have to do this again

Great game, glad you enjoyed it. Now, some details about Séamus please

[Nomad Golfer]

Have just moved into a new place with a lot more room than we've had for the last 4 or so years. Room to put up vintage and regular clubs. Opposite side of the garage on a set of shelves are more vintage clubs which don't yet have a bag (but I'm working on it). The foldup bike is not mine. Some fishing poles in the corner which have been in storage and I can't remember what I used them for

[sdandrea]

My gamers are vintage except for my putter. (Disclaimer - that's NOT me in the pic!)

 

[NRJyzr]

Now, some details about Séamus please

 

Ah yes, the important stuff....

 

Séamus is a Cavachon, born on March 3 this year. For those who've never heard of a Cavachon (as I hadn't before we got one about seven years ago), they are a cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Bichon Frise.

 

The breeder from whom we got Séamus imports many of her dogs from the UK. Séamus' male parent came from Ireland. My wife is of Irish descent, and once we'd selected him, we felt we should go with an Irish name. I admit it was more my idea than hers, but she warmed up to it. (we tend to prefer more human names for our dogs)

 

Séamus has a brown left eye and a mostly blue right eye; there's a little patch of brown at the top of the iris of his right eye. When we got him, he was 3 lbs 6 oz. My wife weighed him the other day at 14.8 lbs.

 

He's ridiculously cute, a very happy, outgoing pup. If he sees someone, regardless of whether he has ever seen that person previously, he's very eager to go see them, wagging his tail vigorously enough that his whole body wiggles. There are times I wonder if he has a segmented back, LOL. He's also fairly free with the puppy kisses. :)

 

I'll see about digging up another pic or two...

[HoldenCornfield]

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.

 

Glad to hear they were worth the expense. Except for subtle variations in hosel and cosmetics I think the Precisions/Sabers were basically the same iron from 1954-1959, at least as far as I can tell. And for good reason -- Hogan's very first design was probably his best.

 

Congrats on a great round, B-S.

[Nomad Golfer]

Now, some details about Séamus please

 

Ah yes, the important stuff....

 

Séamus is a Cavachon, born on March 3 this year. For those who've never heard of a Cavachon (as I hadn't before we got one about seven years ago), they are a cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Bichon Frise.

 

The breeder from whom we got Séamus imports many of her dogs from the UK. Séamus' male parent came from Ireland. My wife is of Irish descent, and once we'd selected him, we felt we should go with an Irish name. I admit it was more my idea than hers, but she warmed up to it. (we tend to prefer more human names for our dogs)

 

Séamus has a brown left eye and a mostly blue right eye; there's a little patch of brown at the top of the iris of his right eye. When we got him, he was 3 lbs 6 oz. My wife weighed him the other day at 14.8 lbs.

 

He's ridiculously cute, a very happy, outgoing pup. If he sees someone, regardless of whether he has ever seen that person previously, he's very eager to go see them, wagging his tail vigorously enough that his whole body wiggles. There are times I wonder if he has a segmented back, LOL. He's also fairly free with the puppy kisses. :)

 

I'll see about digging up another pic or two...

Thanks for the info, I hadn't heard of the breed before but I have owned Spaniels. The attached pic is "Molly" a Bichon Frise we looked after in 2016, loved her to bits. We have looked after many breeds of dogs in our travels over the last 4 years, everything from a Neapolitan Mastiff to all the poodle crosses, Maltese etc. I've owned Spaniels and Foxies, Boxers, Bitzers, Dachsies.

[stixman]

Played Kilspindie Links on Tuesday and Wednesday last week in a westerly gale, max temperature 12 degrees C.

 

Clubs in play,all original, .. FO/RTJ Stewarts, 1,3,44,5 66,8,jigger, Nicoll Howitzer, New Ray Mills putter, James Anderson (the Champion) driver, Spalding Autograph Brassie, Forgan Maxmi Baffy.

 

Gross score: Tues 87, Weds, 82

 

To put it in context, Fraser Mann, professional, won with 71, 70..wow. Using an 8 club rental set, irons mostly Gibson originals.

Note: Fraser had a European Tour Card and a bad back, so kept a day job going at Musselburgh. More recently won the Seniors Tour event at Foxhills GC, the English Senior Masters.

[Wriggles]

Seamus and Molly are real sweethearts!

[NRJyzr]

Attempting a pic upload... This is our cocker spaniel, Oliver (14 yrs), Séamus in the middle, and my sister in law's schnoodle schools (autocorrect can be so annoying) on the right

 

 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Attempting a pic upload... This is our cocker spaniel, Oliver (14 yrs), Séamus in the middle, and my sister in law's schools on the right

 

 

 

That doesn't look like a school on the right.

 

Looks like a dog to me...

 

:taunt:

[Davewn]

I think the vintage round I played last week will the last I try for a while. In the past, I've enjoyed the occasional round with vintage gear as it's been a kind of a return to my golfing roots from decades ago but with much better equipment than I played at the time. The midseason transition from my (relatively) modern steel shafted TaylorMade 320 irons to vintage had been pretty minor and I was able to play both with pretty similar results. That's apparently out the window now that I've transitioned to graphite shafts this season due to an arthritic right wrist. While it took a bit of time initially to acclimate to the lighter weight of my Adams A7 graphite irons, my swing is now grooved to the reduced 85 gram shaft weight and the Dynamic Gold R400s I was swinging in my vintage Merit Fusions felt heavy and dead. Flippy hooks with the MacGregor W2 MT 2 and 4 woods, scruffy contact with the irons and a vintage mallet putter I grew to hate over the course of the round gave me a bit of a mournful "you can't go home again" vibe to the round. The 50 gram weight difference in shafts between my modern graphites and standard weight steel was pronounced and led to bad habits that infected the first half of my normal round the other day. Ironically, and in true WRX fashion I guess, I had been playing my best golf of the year prior to that vintage round due largely to my "new," fairway finding Callaway driver that didn't want to go left until I started flipping that day, lol

[scomac2002]

I think the vintage round I played last week will the last I try for a while. In the past, I've enjoyed the occasional round with vintage gear as it's been a kind of a return to my golfing roots from decades ago but with much better equipment than I played at the time. The midseason transition from my (relatively) modern steel shafted TaylorMade 320 irons to vintage had been pretty minor and I was able to play both with pretty similar results. That's apparently out the window now that I've transitioned to graphite shafts this season due to an arthritic right wrist. While it took a bit of time initially to acclimate to the lighter weight of my Adams A7 graphite irons, my swing is now grooved to the reduced 85 gram shaft weight and the Dynamic Gold R400s I was swinging in my vintage Merit Fusions felt heavy and dead. Flippy hooks with the MacGregor W2 MT 2 and 4 woods, scruffy contact with the irons and a vintage mallet putter I grew to hate over the course of the round gave me a bit of a mournful "you can't go home again" vibe to the round. The 50 gram weight difference in shafts between my modern graphites and standard weight steel was pronounced and led to bad habits that infected the first half of my normal round the other day. Ironically, and in true WRX fashion I guess, I had been playing my best golf of the year prior to that vintage round due largely to my "new," fairway finding Callaway driver that didn't want to go left until I started flipping that day, lol

 

I found I had the same problem when I was playing graphite shafted irons. It's really, really tough going back and forth. I think the woods are even worse especially with the current trend to ultra-light weight for increased swing speed.

 

This year has been a bit different for me going from a classic modern set to vintage blades and woods. There's less differential in static weights to contend with as you have pointed out above. But, I do think that you make a valid point that you can never really go back once you make that switch of ultra-light. That's why I still use an 11 year old driver. I just can't get onto the new stuff. It's too light no matter what the swing weight says.

[NRJyzr]

Attempting a pic upload... This is our cocker spaniel, Oliver (14 yrs), Séamus in the middle, and my sister in law's schools on the right

 

 

 

That doesn't look like a school on the right.

 

Looks like a dog to me...

 

:taunt:

 

Autocorrect once again for the loss.

 

"Schnoodle"

[GolfNutRiblick]

Quick round with some lumber, Muirfields and a sleeve of balatas (courtesy of Goodwill today). A few flushed shots to keep me coming back.

[HoganApexBlades]

Quick round with some lumber, Muirfields and a sleeve of balatas (courtesy of Goodwill today). A few flushed shots to keep me coming back.

 

Humble,

 

Nice irons! Nice balls! Nice bag!

[Jiggered]

Probably my last evening session of the year tonight, got out with the Dunlop Maxfli Australian Blades for the first time (together with an imposter in the shape of a Peter Thomson SW as there wasn't a SW in the set).

 

Also had the Spalding Cash-In putter in the bag but no woods, I wanted to focus on the Dunlops because I couldn't wait until Sunday!

 

I have to say they are beautiful, hit some lovely shots and the feel was delicious.

I'm becoming less and less inclined to play my modern gear in any shape or form.

 

 

[GolfNutRiblick]

Those Australian blades are gorgeous!!!

[Jiggered]

Those Australian blades are gorgeous!!!

 

Thanks, and I can't believe how well they played, I was using the three iron off most of the tees and getting good yardage, a couple of downwind ones over 210 yards and another downwind from the fairway that was pin high right fringe from 225 yards out. I'd never expect to get close to that with my Mizuno JPX 825 Pros, partly because they only go up to a 4 iron... but even so.

[birly-shirly]

Probably my last evening session of the year tonight, got out with the Dunlop Maxfli Australian Blades for the first time (together with an imposter in the shape of a Peter Thomson SW as there wasn't a SW in the set).

 

Also had the Spalding Cash-In putter in the bag but no woods, I wanted to focus on the Dunlops because I couldn't wait until Sunday!

 

I have to say they are beautiful, hit some lovely shots and the feel was delicious.

I'm becoming less and less inclined to play my modern gear in any shape or form.

 

 

Those are nice. I've got a composite set of 2 - 7 black dot, and 9, W red dot. Black dots like you have are much nicer, IMO.

[GolfNutRiblick]

Gave my Mac DX2s a range workout and then a quick 9 with my son today. While I never seem to be able to score given a lousy short game I find the DX2s to be very playable. Flushed a couple of 4 iron tee balls that made me think "Ohhh, this must be the Mac feel!" Was a modern woods day (SLDR mini and SLDR HL 3) but am planning on some persimmons as tomorrow's bag companions for the DX2s.

 

Loving mid-October golf in Michigan.

[GolfNutRiblick]

Full P&B bag today. Fun round. DX2s are solid. Even able to execute some real golf shots with the woods. Maybe, just maybe, I can play this game.

[dcopp7]

played 9 today with the father-in-law around lunch time. Used the old (I mean OLD) Northwestern Byron Nelson Personal 3-5-7-9-PW set and a TP mills putter. I am blown away how awesome these irons are. I was striping them. No mis-hits, great carry despite gusty winds. I love them. Not bad for a couple bucks at GW.

Putter not pictured*

[Nomad Golfer]

Probably my last evening session of the year tonight, got out with the Dunlop Maxfli Australian Blades for the first time (together with an imposter in the shape of a Peter Thomson SW as there wasn't a SW in the set).

 

Also had the Spalding Cash-In putter in the bag but no woods, I wanted to focus on the Dunlops because I couldn't wait until Sunday!

 

I have to say they are beautiful, hit some lovely shots and the feel was delicious.

I'm becoming less and less inclined to play my modern gear in any shape or form.

 

 

Funny that. For half of my games I now replace my modern CB's with forged vintage Japanese irons and hit them better. Also in the bag are vintage 5 and 7 persimmon woods which have replaced hybrids and long irons. The modern (ish) stuff is disappearing because I hit the old stuff so much better. Your comment about feel is spot on, they do feel so much better and I wonder if it's because the vintage stuff is heavier. Cheers

[GolfNutRiblick]

Stunningly beautiful October day in northern MI. Played 45 holes at Emerald Vale GC in Manton, MI. Fall colors are close if not at peak. Temps in low 70s. A perfect Friday for golf. Haig Ultra irons and woods were the tools of choice today. Right around bogey golf. Could've been a bit better but for a couple of spectacular crash & burn holes. Getting more comfortable with the woods. The sound they make is delicious.

 

Weather not looking good after tomorrow so this may be it for awhile. Here's hoping that's not the case.

[northplatteriver]

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.

These old Hogans have quite an effect on people. Since picking up my first set of Precisions a couple months ago I have liquidated all my 70's, 80's and 90's Hogan sets and purchased two additional sets of Hogan irons from the 50's and a set of Hogan Precisions woods. Will soon have two complete sets of '57 Precisions and a complete set of 58/59 Sabers. No desire to look back at this point. The way they setup behind a ball is perfect in my eyes. You are correct about the divots... the edges on these babies put the "P" in precision. I will post a picture of my paintfills on my Sabers to see what you think. I found a great metallic gold form Hobby Lobby that looks excellent in the starburst, but I am not quite sure about it on the gold bar.

[northplatteriver]

Have just moved into a new place with a lot more room than we've had for the last 4 or so years. Room to put up vintage and regular clubs. Opposite side of the garage on a set of shelves are more vintage clubs which don't yet have a bag (but I'm working on it). The foldup bike is not mine. Some fishing poles in the corner which have been in storage and I can't remember what I used them for

Love those old Mac bags. The color of green they used is fantastic.

[dcopp7]

Yeah that ^^^

 

I have a Powerbilt with the brass firing pin face and an aluminum shaft that I really want to take out for a round and see how it does compared to my Penna Mod 59 and Armour 2 wood

[Nomad Golfer]

Have just moved into a new place with a lot more room than we've had for the last 4 or so years. Room to put up vintage and regular clubs. Opposite side of the garage on a set of shelves are more vintage clubs which don't yet have a bag (but I'm working on it). The foldup bike is not mine. Some fishing poles in the corner which have been in storage and I can't remember what I used them for

Love those old Mac bags. The color of green they used is fantastic.

Yes they are distinctive - it draws a bit of attention out at the course. Got my eye on a Hogan retro bag for the rest of my vintage clubs.

[dcopp7]

I have that bag too ^^^