Your first "good" driver

PA-PLAYA · 2017-03-10T23:04:30+00:00

Started playing in the late 80's, then around 1991 I picked up my first named-brand driver, secondhand of course. It was a Yonex ADX 200, which at the time s...

Spuzz

"For me, it was the Titleist 975D"

This was my second "good driver" and was replaced by the SMT 370 Nemesis.
First good driver was my Taylor Made Burner Plus, bought as a set with the 3+5 woods when they first came out.
I broke all the cheap persimmon heads (Jerry Pate Autograph) that I had previous to that.

darpar

Probably the Black Box from GS back in the day....still have it!

FauxAmish

Probably around 1975 or 76, a Powerbilt Citation. First time I could afford a decent set of woods.

Release

I guess it was sometime in the early 70's, I bought a set of Powerbuilt metal woods and irons from a bargain bin.
Before that I was borrowing my fathers spare set.
Can't remember the model name but it was one of the earlier metal woods they had had. They were new but strangely did not packaged as a set of golf club. Had to find the individual club with the same flex of shaft in them.

The reason why this set is probably because of the ease of maintenance. My father's set had to be refinished each year in the post seasons ( persimmon woods ). It was costly and none of us knew how to do the striping, refinishing and the whipping. Back in those days the smith always asked us to leave the golf clubs and never do any work in front of us. I played it for several years.

FauxAmish

Release

Not even close ... The first Metal woods were not produced to the public until the earliest in 1978... and I believe they were from Taylormade.

Early 70's ... Bull!

d5n03

Maltby CT250FC on a Limey.

PA-PLAYA

braveheart

Loved the 975D, until the 975J came out. Played both of those drivers very well. Felt great, and were fairly forgiving (unlike the modern day Titleist drivers).

They were the only two Titleist drivers I ever owned.

Titleist maintains the traditional look, for sure, from wedges all the way to their driver. And a lot of people appreciate the traditional appearance, as do I. But not more than the forgiveness factor. 😉

LBlack14

Here she is compared to my F6. Almost be afraid to whiff it. It's smaller than my fwys. I LOVED this thing! My boss, at the time (1st golf course job), played one and he was a top local Amatuer at the time (still is, in his late 50's), found a new one for my Dad to surprise me with because they both saw me hit my bosses'. Talk about a surprise. I was heavy into softball and basketball then and rarely played golf except for hitting balls on our range and our 9 hole executive course and $80 was a YUUUGE chunk of change for 1 golf club back then and even bigger because of our families' financial situation at the time. I was the only one working and helping Mom and Pop out even though they never asked for a dime. Damn.....old memories flooding back in. Times were "tough" by some/today's standards, but we didn't know any better. It didn't take much to make me/us happy. I had a younger Bro and Sis still at their house at the time too.

Sorry for the ramble.

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Typhoon

LBlack14
The Muirfield face us the size of the F6 sweet spot.

LB, my pro at Big Sticks just picked up the F6 with a Red Tie...no better than his Fly z+...what are your thoughts?

PA-PLAYA

I had this conversation with a club pro the other day, as we were discussing the USGA's past reluctance/but sudden openness about a reduced-distance competition ball.

I know most of those guys on tour can find the sweet spot of just about every club, but (imo) you'd see the distance factor reeled back automatically if they'd simply regulate a competition driver head to be no bigger than 200-250 cc.

I'm obviously not nowhere near that level of proficiency, but comparatively speaking - my swing speed would be considerably slower if I had to put the ball somewhere in the middle of a club face about 1/3 the size as it is now. Landon's picture comparing driver head sizes hammers that point home in a hurry.

Release

FauxAmish

Bull is right.
early 1980's Grand Slam with grey finishing. I think my brother might still has it in the back of his garage somewhere. I hope he still has the "green killer" putter also from the bargain bin .

Quote "TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon Metal woods existed long before 1978, but they were barely used novelties. Then came Gary Adams, a brilliant club designer. In the late 1970s Adams created his first metal wood, a 12-degree cast stainless-steel driver, and he called it "Taylor Made." Adams also founded a company with the same name. He convinced a few Tour players to use the driver, also known as the Pittsburgh Persimmon, in 1979, and the first pro to win with it was Ron Streck in 1981 in Houston. It wasn't long before persimmon woods were gone and metal woods were ubiquitous. "

LBlack14

Typhoon
Haven't hit it yet.

Typhoon

LBlack14

Maybe I'll give them a go next week on the SIM. I never liked his Fly z+ with the white tie, felt like craps and sounded hollow. I'll hit it up against the F6 if it's not too busy.

LBlack14

Typhoon

I like the VLCT ST 65s shaft better than any Tie shaft I ever hit.

professor

My Cobra SZ 440! I played nothing but second-hand up till that point. Actually, used to hit the shit out of a Dunlop 3 wood before I even gamed a driver. Would set up and consistently hit a nice draw with carry to 230 yards. That's when I started to get greedy. Well, that and I busted my matching Dunlop 5 wood on a submerged rock on the third hole at Locust Valley Country Club. So, being a budding ho back in the late 90's I had to 'upgrade'. And, I did for a few years with hand me downs until I wanted that Cobra driver. If I remember correct, a golfing buddy of mine; name was Lefty9155 had a Cobra SZ. I wanted that club as bad as that kid in "A Christmas Story" wanted a Daisy BB gun. I even hung a full page ad from Golf Magazine on the fridge, with a note that basically said 'go to see Glen at the golf store and get this for me for Christmas or I won't love you anymore'.
Well, I gamed and put that driver back in my back this past season and have never been better off the tee! LMAO! That old 440SZ has put 2 Ping G5 drivers and 2 Taylormade drivers into hibernation.

LBlack14

professor 😁

PA-PLAYA

professor

Yes. Remember that stick. Had one. We both played the same model that season. And you hit it very, very well after that notorious lesson at Wedgewood's range that morning, if memory serves.

Glad your "retro" approach is yielding positive results!

letthebigdogshunt

The driver that made me finally love my driver was a Bang BOM and of course I sold it one of the drivers that I did not keep.

Sparky

I can't remember the model #, but it was a puke green Bridgestone.

professor

PA-PLAYA Good memory! That was a good lesson that's taken a long while to learn. (Not to hold onto an inside story. Me and Lefty we've played some golf together... Hah! Lots! He got tired of my for shit tee game and after a round we went to the range. Long story short, he taught be to be satisfied with the results of a good turn and 3/4 turn. It's golden if you can do it!

lambo

No driver stayed in my bag for a longer period of time than the TM Tour Burner 7* which was the first TM Burner series - late 70's. I did try a few others on demo days etc, but it stay in the bag until approx 1993-94. It was replace by my second favorite driver which was a titanium head (about 270 cc) made for Peerless by Ruger.

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