The Old Clubs

As a former tour player, and Canadian Tour winner, I left the game at the end of the persimmon age. I recently have been back playing and teaching, so these are my observations on modern gear.

The new clubs are geared primarily at distance, and an enlarged sweet spot via bigger heads and perimeter weighting.

Here's the problem...

Lighter clubs mean less load into the deeper muscle tissues. The great ball strikers had pivot driven golf swings. The bigger muscles of torso, hips and legs are more reliable and easier to control as a core generating power source than that arms moving back and forth across the chest.

Bigger sweet spots come with a price tag that is too big a sacrifice in my opinion. You have to remember this fact... a bigger sweet spot means a diluted sweet spot. Our brain is so dependent upon reliable feedback to HELP us improve our golf swing. We need great feedback. This is why we need to be able to feel our sweet spot and hits that are off sweet spot.

In fact, there is still only one sweet spot on any club.... but perimeter weighting gives us the false illusion that our sweet spot is bigger. It strips us of the feel we need to keep our golf swing in top form. Precision.

My own take from my seven years on tour is that the forgiving clubs will help you when your off, but hurt you when your on. When I'm puring it, I don't need forgiveness. I don't hit it off center. What the classic forged blades offer is true feel so you can shape your shots with precision.

I speak in present tense here because I still hit classic blades. I have several sets I use, but my personal favorites are...

1969 Hogan Bounce Soles
1953 Armour Silver Scots
1965 MT Flatbacks
1959 Dynapower
1969 Bullet Back Dynas
1962 Dyna Turfrider
1962 Hogan Power Thrust

(pics here)

On the persimmon Drivers my favorites are

MacGregor Armour Super Eye o Matic
Mac Gregor Toski with a custom Gamma Fire insert
Tony Pena big block
Mac Gregor George Bayer DX

I shot a 65 course record last year at my home track in SF using all vintage gear.

It's still great stuff and very relevant and playable even today, and will teach you a proper golf swing.

www.advancedballstriking.com