The way I see it, is we can break golf equipment into a number of eras: Hickory, from say 1875-1930's Pyratone, From 1930's to late 1940's, The shafts were new and novel but the heads looked the same as the hickory era (to me) Classic/Golden Age 1950-1979, really the 50's were the decade of the beautiful MacGregor woods and saw irons like Top Flites and Dynapowers and Precisions. This era at large also provided the VIP irons, Anser putters, X-31's, the Hogan Apex I and II, etc. 1980-1995 (Name it what you will): The Ping Eye 2's in 1982 and the beginning of the game improvement scene, as well as the first metal-woods. Persimmon had only a few years left, but some of the finest forged blades ever produced came out of this era. 88 Redlines, FG-17's, Muifield 20's, Titleist Tour Model, your favorite iron design I didn't mention, etc. 1996-Now (also, my lifetime) (Conveniently in that 25 years span): Big Bertha, Oversized drivers, Pro-V1, etc. The super GI and the Forged Player's cavity. Can be divided into a pre-/post-adjustable era.
This is of course subject to debate. What do you think of my eras? Should there be more divisions? Is 1950-79 covering too wide a range of various clubs?
Good post - interesting that you focus on shafts as being the earlier divisor of equipment.
I always thought the ball drive innovation. Moving from feathery to gutta percha to balata to surlyn, 2, 3, 4, 5 piece and more & newer innovations - just look back to when woods had no inserts, but were forced to change that design element with the introduction of the "hard" ball.
Which drove shaft innovation.
I feel sorry for those who were not around to see how golf equipment
evolved. The 70's were great for ball development, perimeter weighting for woods, and shafts - graphite! And different weighting in steel. Aluminum and fiberglass shafts came & went quickly....all in the 60's & 70's.
Good discussion for time around beer, scotch, whiskey, or whatever your choice of imbibement.
Excellent topic James. I agree with your era’s but I might even condense them a bit. The hickory era and the pyratone era I believe are the same as that 10 year or so span of Pyratone shafts the game was still the hickory game but manufacturers were experimenting with different shaft materials.
I consider the Classic Persimmon Era (for which this site was founded) to be after WWll up until the mid 1990’s. The classic blade shapes and steel shafts were ubiquitous and there wasn’t much difference in clubs from one manufacturer to another. Like the Pyratone time of the Hickory Era, the 1980’s introduced wide spread use of cavity back irons, though, those irons were still a one piece forging like their blade counterparts or Pings highly successful investment casting techniques.
As for woods of the Classic Persimmon Era, again, not much change for a 30 year span until the early 80’s with the introduction of steel head woods. Although, the selling point of the steel heads was mainly durability as they didn’t need refinished, resealed, etc.
I really consider the Modern Era to be the mid 1990’s to the present. Clubs began to be made with or exotic materials like titanium and marketing began advertising clubs more like computers. They technology is why you should buy the club and that technology is moving forward every year so your clubs will be outdated in a season. Like a computer or cell phone, manufacturers expect that the consumer will believe their marketing and continue to buy yearly.
I believe this is the biggest reason Ben Hogan, Macgregor, and Wilson golf lost their dominance in the golf club marketplace. They were companies that built solid, classic era clubs and previous generations of golfers were drawn to them. They expected golfers to buy a set of clubs and play them for 10-15 years. In our modern consumer-driven world, companies like TM, Callaway, etc have now dominated the market with technological advancements no matter how insignificant which they believe should lead to new clubs every two years for golfers, and golfers have been more than willing to pay for perceived performance gains.
Unfortunately for the big OEM’s they have almost maxed out the distance gained claims and now all seem to be launching new lines of blades. It’s funny that blades are now becoming the new ”it” club as even Ping has jumped on the blade accuracy bandwagon.
So for me I’d say
Hickory Era- 1870’s to WWll
Classic Persimmon Era- Post WWll to Mid 1990’s
Modern Era- Mid 1990’s to Present
Now that you mention it, I could have broken era up completely by shaft:
The- which wood is best?-era
Hickory
Pyratone
Steel/aluminum
Steel reigns supreme
graphite
swapable shaft (current era)
and when I wrote the post I was thinking about including a ball-centric view as well!
As for the Pyratone era, I use it also to catch the pre/post matched set eras, the creation of numbered sets instead of niblicks and mashies and so on.
But from a woods perspective I agree, 1945-1990 didn’t see much change in the basic concept of the persimmon wood (and laminates) The equipment eras really do depend on what aspect of equipment you focus on.
For me and this is strictly IMHO anything from the 50s through the early 90s. I say early 90s as in pre metal wood era. But for me say we were going out to play classic golf I have absolutely no problem say a person played Eye2s and metal woods or 845CBs and metal woods. For me playing old stuff is all about having fun and one should play the classics that gives them the most fun. I missed most off the early 300 cc metal heads because I played persimmon until 01 or so. I do know for a fact I was the last man standing on a tee with persimmon on the SE mini tours. I do have several berthas and a Founders Judge and even a Bridgestone J's weapon but I hit the persimmon better.
Dude - I now have a small window of time to get together & do some classic golf stuff.
Let's create the East Coast persimmon/blade hacker's chop 'em up day!
I would consider the classic era from the mid 70's and earlier. I definitely believe the classic persimmon era was between the early 40s through the early 60s, most notably 1949-1955 MacGregor woods pro line woods (693, 945, M43 and M85). While persimmon woods have a definite era of absolutely outstanding woods being created by several manufacturers, so do irons and putters. I suppose each of us have their preference with each of the categories of golf clubs. I suppose that is why we are all classic golf addicts. :D
Yep you basically nailed it. I am a dyed in the wool Macgregor man but prefer either Power Bilt or Toney Penna drivers. Fairway woods are either Power Bilt or Macgregor. Wedges back in the day were either Spalding or Wilson until Cleveland came out. But as far as classic clubs I will try to hit anything. I have always played a mixed bag of clubs still do