In 1993 Payne Stewart signed a multi-million-dollar deal to go full Top-Flite, a move that sidetracked Stewarts career. There are so many different sets of irons available nowadays, Im happy with my Execs. GolfWRX_Spotted posted a topic in Tour and Pre-Release Equipment, February 13. Whats fun is to find one of those old sets, regrip them and beat your friends with them! Brilliant idea? Oh I didnt forget about thosethey almost made the list. The market was changing rapidly, as well. Shallow faces (not as shallow as the 440 of course) and less offset than many of the long irons they replace. I played a lot of Spaulding equipment as a kid in all kinds of sports. Another great history piece. What are the Most Forgiving Forged Irons? One of my buddies gave me a Tiger Shark wedge the one with 3 different alignment lines, concave dimples on the face instead of grooves, and a funky dual bounce sole configuration. If you are a beginner and are looking for a . How about Hogan Magnums and Magnum Plus irons big cavity backs from the 1970s. By this time, Spalding was making everything from barbells, dumbells, punching bags, and rowing machines to fencing blades, whistles, shot puts, javelins, and golf clubs. Who Makes Dunlop Golf Clubs? Like its sporting goods brother-in-arms MacGregor, Spalding ownership changed hands in 1958. The Pyramid Rubber Company, a maker of baby bottles, strollers, and other infant products, bought a controlling interest. Any Spalding clubs that are still in circulation can be regarded as vintage, thats for sure! The products soon disappeared from shelves. Spalding developed the first liquid center golf ball, the Kros-Flite. You can check it out at http://www.adjustablegolfclub.com. Im not sure how rare they are, but youd think there would be a trace of them somewhere. However my 6 iron had twice as much offset as any other iron in the set. Golf bags bulged with 20 to 25 clubs, and the USGA, fearing too many specialty clubs had watered down the skill required in golf, took action. Hope you find this one interesting!!!! Under Chapter 363, it bid $125 million for Top-Flite. Brilliant writing! With the help of computers, we designed a unique shape we call the `Bull Nose which extends the toe weight out far enough to balance the head without creating an elongated appearance. ], Men's Right Handed. We are here to help educate and empower golfers. All are memory refreshing .. have been in golf clubhead design , manufacturing 25 years , familiar with the designs ! !but they had a very proprietary, strange-sized grip. Spalding is a big name in American sports, having manufactured equipment for basketball, American football, and golf over the years. Itd take a week to prepare for.. One of the most famous Spalding clubs was the Cran Cleek (club with a narrow face and little loft) for poor fairway lies and even putts. With KKR, it was a 180-degree turnaround. The company also announced an alliance with Bob Bettinardi to create a line of high-end Hogan putters. What was wacky about the Bears? Shank no more, draw, fade, straight, you name it, my Filas do it. Anybody know anything about them? Yes, it did. It is the Super Stick. Was a fan of the TopFlite XL. General Albums. Some crazy lookin clubs, Why didnt you include the 1st set of Ping Irons? I really enjoy reading your articles, John. I got balls, well ProV1's anyway. ***GIVEAWAY*** Cleveland CBX ZipCore Wedge! As a designer, the design is perfect and although they look funny, they were a great club, ask Cory Pavin. From 1932 until 1973 two years after Jones death Spalding sold over 15 different models and two million sets of Bobby Jones clubs. I had never seen the Fila irons before now. Seu lugar para proteger o seu capital. You can buy a set in good condition on eBay for around $100. My only wacky set now are some Macgregor MT Splitsoles in very gd cond which were bought at a Thrift store. Fila Golf has developed this new iron using a patented design feature. However as a caddy the Spaulding staff bag was a real trunk!! I have a set of Fila Solerno irons/fairway woods that I havent been able to find anything about on the internet. I seem to remember them being pretty wacky. For more than 25 years, he has contributed to a wide array of publications including "American Heritage," "American History," "Yankee," "VFW," "Golf," and "Golf News." In 1962, Pyramid merged with Dunhill International and the AP Parts Corporation. Played dots a bit but later played a lot of Top Flites because I was a teenager, and the balls did not cut (this was back in the days of balata balls that cut if you looked at them hard). marrano patio homes lancaster, ny 9, Juin, 2022. horse property for sale pocatello, idaho; I became a +2 handicap using those irons, and a lot of people scoffed at them early ontill they saw me hit them. They also specialized in unique clubs like the Cran Creek. They also made a set made entirely of woods. Their original design was a smaller headed Tony Penna model Innovator, they became the n1 and then the Bears came out when oversize irons hit the market. Irons made during that time are distinguished by an anvil cleek mark. Like many of his other unconventional looking but super functional designs for the time this one flew off the shelves. My woods are Taylormade Burners 1 & 3, and I have two Mizuno hybrids. Hope you all enjoyed a look back at some of the craziest irons ever made. You can post now and register later. #15 - Stan Thompson Ginty Irons You might remember the popular Stan Thompson woods with the unique sole design. The Zing2s were the first set I bought when I started playing golf. Incidentally, Vulcan (Chicago suburb club makers who made some of the earliest hybrids) made a full set of hybrids 3-SW. You have not lived until you hit good hybrid wedges! "https://twitter.com/_swingyard_", I still have them and as a matter of fact I still use a copper Zing2 sand wedge 54. Norman credited the extra spin of the Tour Edition for winning the 1986 British Open. jazzbone, September 4, 2006 in Equipment. Wed have monthly meetings at their West 57th Street offices in New York. I take them out every couple of years and play a round with them just for fun. Upgraded my driver from R7 to Razr Hawk, but will never surrender my Slingshots. Still have the clubs in my basement. Well then so did everyone else. Learn how your comment data is processed. By the early 1920s, Spalding began using a mechanical hammer to drop-forge heads in an assembly line, making the process faster, more consistent, and considerably less expensive. On top line: OVERSIZE. It was if I walked into the store from a time machine. It was a popular cavity back iron and Spalding decided to sell it through general sporting goods stores, eschewing the golf pro. Great insight! They also specialized in unique clubs like the Cran Creek. Spalding spent over 125 years as a sporting goods giant. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.You can also visit my Am. I want to say they were called Ironwoods but I cant find them on the internet maybe they were just in one of my wild dreams!! Wish the 5 iron would have been there. Of course, it is the Indian not the arrow to some extent, but he does well. By 1970, the ownership group morphed into the Questor Corporation, and Pyramid Rubber was rechristened Evenflo. Known for launching the ball from a nice crisp fairway lie but it jumped the shark when it came to hitting it from any kind of fluff. Fantastic article John! Spalding did have high hopes for the Hogan brand. "@type": "Article", Tommy Armours ownership circus eventually turned it into the Sports Authority (and now DICKS) house brand. The legendary Spalding bird logo appeared on their clubs in the 1960s, with the Top-Flite Elite Professional irons proving popular on Tour. The Ping Zings were the worst! Nice article John! The likes of Callaway, TaylorMade, and PING all enjoyed good commercial success in the late nineties, and Spalding couldnt match the same feats achieved by the biggest brands. Every iron ever made is ugly as hell when you hit it off the hosel. In 1892 Spalding went into acquisition mode, buying up two key competitors: the A.J. Mismanagement and a growing golf market led Spalding to cease manufacturing golf products, selling off popular brands like Top Flite to Callaway in the early 2000s. 2 iron sw. Let me know if anyone is interested. He traded a set of classic Burke PunchIrons to get the Lynx. It was the mold makers attempt to make at a hollow head, wooden shape club. These were actually a pretty good iron for the time and I think Trevino had something to do with this designbut not sure. Went to graphite (Vulcan Backfire hollow irons). Non-Tapered Golf Grips: 8 Facts to Know Before You Buy! I accidentally broke it in the late 1970s the shaft was installed over a milled section of the hosel! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. "@type": "ImageObject", Starting in 1900, Spalding opened club-making factories in London and in Fife, Scotland, producing forged iron heads for Spalding clubs sold both in the UK and U.S. By 1910, the company was selling aluminum fairway clubs and its Gold Medal series (1910 to 1919) featured aluminum bronze. Anyone ever hear of anything like that? More on the tr600!!!! FIND A SET! I think Browning was leaving the golf business then and they were discounted last set in the store. Cleveland VAS was really great Iron. I think you are talking about the Spaulding Executive XE irons,ahead of their time,I played a set for a couple of years then sold them, looking back I wish I hadnt. Whats troubling to us is the extent to which a reputable company that has its own trademarks and has invested a lot of money and time feels it needs to become a predator on somebody elses goodwill to sell its products, said Callaway chief Don Dye at the time. when were spalding executive golf clubs made. Do You have any idea? I actually have a set of 440s I bring them out every year or two when I am hitting the ball poorly. "https://www.pinterest.com/Swingyard/blog/" I learned the game on a set of used Spalding Execs-still have them today. I love it but was told it is no a legal putter. Unfortunately, the remaining companys sales still couldnt support the debt. He changed from forged blades and balata balls to cavity back, investment cast irons and sold core balls, White tells MyGolfSpy. I just had a guy show me a wedge that is a small diamond shaped club with about a 3/4 hollow core in the back that goes up to the inside of the face of the club. "@type": "ImageObject", If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. The Cobra set left handed golf club set is made of premium products. Really solid clubs. Cliffy2020 Any of you still have a set of these beauties laying around? I finally gave it to a friend of mine who is a beginner and he says it is the only club he can hit reliably. He also was one of the best designers in the golf biz. That means providing you with equipment reviews you can trust, The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight. - BenHogan. The early Top-Flites were juast the opposite; you couldnt cut one of them with an axe. Happily, I can say that I have seen these over the years, but none of them ever made it into my golf bag. "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjT3UiJflw60ZD31-6yC4mA", Therefore, the Top Flite clubs produced in the nineties and early naughts are technically Spalding golf clubs. Perhaps they were a little ahead of their time (3-PW). Nabbed them just for the pure ugliness. as well as honest reporting on the latest issues affecting the game KKRs $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco was chronicled in the book (and tv movie) Barbarians at the Gate. Spalding lost $27 million in 2000 and another $20 million in 2001. The brand was popular until the late 1990s, but Spalding opted for a new direction at the turn of the century and focused on other sports instead of golf.