I have a set of Ben Hogan AHS Hybrids and the SW is even a hybrid! The Spaulding Executive was just too far ahead of its timegreat club! "author": "Ned Howard", I have a left handed set that I got from a guy on the senior tour, Bob Carson, who also owned a golf course in Titusville FLA. Every iron ever made is ugly as hell when you hit it off the hosel. "mainEntityOfPage": "https://swingyard.com/spalding-irons-by-year/", In 1906 Bendelow designed the expansion of Atlantas East Lake Club, the eventual home club of one Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. Well spare you the decade-by-decade rundown of Spalding innovations (and there are many). Seu lugar para proteger o seu capital. They got so popular at the time that it scared club makers badly (Every set was pretty much custom built then), and Golfing associations banned the club from play. I cannot find any information on this club, maybe they were a golfsmith thing from early 2000s?? The Roaring 20s gave us Babe Ruth, Knute Rockne, Jack Dempsey, and Red Grange. TaylorMade, now owned by adidas, was rising, and Callaway was a major force. No, while you might be able to find Spalding golf clubs at thrift stores and via used online marketplaces, Spalding no longer manufactures golf clubs. I have a set of both the 440s and the 500s, and there is no difference in face depth. Sold millions of those over the years. Albert Spalding was a superstar. Ugly or unconventional, I felt a more confident with them and Stan Thompson fairway woods. He also was one of the best designers in the golf biz. Still, if youre looking for more information about Spalding golf clubs, youve come to the right place. By the Roaring '20s, A.G. Spalding & Brothers was using the process of "drop forging" to manufacture metal club-heads. On top line: OVERSIZE. Theres even premium urethane cover options (Pro V1 and X styles) for ~$15 a dozen. Return Policy > WORLDWIDE SHIPPING. Pat Simmons of Tiger Shark fame (and others) is the most underrated club designer of all time! So, if youre buying or selling Spalding clubs that are in reasonably good shape, you can set your expectations around $100 to begin with. The chrome But they seem to work though. The greatest golfer at the time plays Spalding? Ive got a set of graphite Samurai ironwoods years ahead of their time lying around in the basement, I think. Its impossible to overstate Albert Spaldings vision and ambition. Inventory available of individual, single, replacement or add-on golf irons and wedges for Spalding EXECUTIVE XE Irons. Not sure if the Black Knight, Gary Players endorsement sucked allot of buyers into buying.LOL. Still use them. So what did his famous Ginty patent actually mean? I still think there were others that deserved some consideration. At the 2003 PGA Show, Hogan introduced the Apex 50 blade commemorating its 50th anniversary, the game improvement CFT irons, and the Carnoustie and Riviera wedges. 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. Is my equipment holding me back? And Spaldings ace in the hole Strata was old news by the time the Pro V1 and Nike Tour Accuracy hit the scene. And although Top Flite is still in business today, its a brand that most golfers associate with cheap equipment of inferior quality. Spalding Top-Flite In 1995 Spalding Sporting Goods reorganized its golf club division by forming the Top-Flight golf company as its premium club brand. Very well researched and well done, as someone who is not super well versed in some of golfs history, it was a great, informative read! (What Exactly Happened?). Jim also marketed the first Graphite Shafts sold under the Aldila name. John, I collect odd golf items. He was a pro at having fun when he played golf! My wife says I never met a strange-looking golf club I did not want to own and play with. They actually play pretty well. "https://www.pinterest.com/Swingyard/blog/" As the 21st Century dawned, it had impressive sales and deep-pocket owners, but in reality, it was staring down the barrel of a gun. When we got out there, his Black Dot was split all the way to the liquid core I played D1 golf in college and we got three Red Dots for every match. On sole: club# + SPALDING. I bought my first set of real golf clubs around 1991 or 1992, the Spalding Executive. Both are really great. MyGolfSpy, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The VAS irons have finally been dethroned from their previous top spot as Worst Iron Ever Made! Although from a phone-in interview Mr. VAS told us, I feel robbed. I love them but Im mystified with the hex screw in the bottom of every shaft! In 1910 Spalding started making fairway clubs made of aluminum, and heavier lead face putters. Our friends[], Amazing Ryder Cup Contest! BogeyPro Golf (T-Shirt Design Contest), RYDER CUP CONTEST! (Cavity back blades???) Finally, I think a distinction needs to be made between the wackiest looking and worst irons made. Great article takes me back to nostalgia. words that have to do with clay P.O. The Top Flite name lives on, however, thanks to the purchase of its namesake via Callaway in the early 2000s. Spalding developed the first liquid center golf ball, the Kros-Flite. Men's Right Handed. Some deserve to be on the former, but definitely not the latter! 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. Spalding club-makers paid as much scrutiny to shafts as heads. lol! Still playing my cook titanics with the 1 iron. I had some Staff FG-17 and my friends dad had the Executives. I think Browning was leaving the golf business then and they were discounted last set in the store. Don Wood has the patent for the Plop Slotz Irons. remove head from shaft? KKR wanted Spalding to make money the KKR way. They are also said to be legendary Canadian player Moe Normans favorite clubs of all time. In 1938, the USGA passed an edict limiting players to 14 clubs. It is more of a you gotta be kidding me), an Integra 650 cc driver (you have to dig a ditch before you swing), etc. Spalding introduced many variations of hickory-shafted clubs to bring distance and control to the professional and duffer alike. Not quite Bryson-like, but innovative for the day. Who knows what might have happened if someone else had gained control, Im 75 and recall that my Dad was a Spalding Dot guy. Spalding was the leading manufacturer of golf clubs in America throughout the mid-twentieth century, highlighting just how popular the brand was. Regardless, both are great sets. In that year, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) took shape, and many of the fledgling tour's stars already had endorsement deals with Spalding. GolfWRX_Official Now I need some crazy Loudmouth pants and a pink ball. Its factory could only make about six million dozen a year, and it was paying patent royalties. This is the story of Spaldings Final Countdown. I have a set of Fila Solerno irons/fairway woods that I havent been able to find anything about on the internet. I will let the then Chariman of FILA Golf tell you a little bit about these 1994 released set of ironsand take you back in time like you were there for the original launch: Never before have so many game improvement features been built into one club. Today its hard to fine a wooden golf club in a bag!!!! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. I had a set of Tiger Sharks(the short irons hit the ball miles).The follow up Great Whites Made from 1989-1994 and originally sold for $680. Today, Spalding Executive clubs arent worth a great deal of money. higher loft is really your best bet for getting out of these difficult fairway lies, Top 10 Best Cheap Drivers (Updated 2021 Buying Guide), 5 Advantages of A Strong Golf Grip (Everything To Know), What Is An Overrun Golf Ball? What about Giant Irons, I remember seeing those on an infomercial a few times. In 1895, Spalding started making golf balls. The reason why Spalding clubs arent particularly valuable is that they have been widely available for so many years. The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight. - BenHogan. Well today is going to be a little bit different. * Note: These irons were designed by Duke Duclos. what is spanish colonial music? What was wacky about the Bears? [email protected] Overall, Spalding clubs arent worth a great deal of money today, but theyre a good option if youre hoping to pick up an affordable set of clubs to get started with. Model Summary Color chart indicates best . They are awesome clubs, very well-weighted, with a great center of gravity for high loft shots. And if the Nicklaus Bear irons were used to win the US Amateur, they shouldnt be on a worst irons list either. when were spalding executive golf clubs made. Press J to jump to the feed. From the 1950s to the 1990s Spalding was in the bag for many major victories, and was played on municipal courses across the country. No copy for them. These were actually a pretty good iron for the time and I think Trevino had something to do with this designbut not sure. Fascinating how these once great brands essentially disappeared altogether. The Kro-Flite in 1930 was golfs first liquid center golf ball, while the Spalding DOT was a mid-century icon. * Note: These irons were designed by Don Wood remember the Plop putterswell they are back at it againyou can check them out here. Pretty or not (thats the clubs), I have played Fila Latitude irons since they came out. KKRs $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco was chronicled in the book (and tv movie) Barbarians at the Gate. These were great clubs. Quite honestly, we werent ready for that.. I have a set of Browning 440s and a set of Browning 500s I was in the midst of restoring them but Browning would not sell me original grips! 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. Unfortunately, Spalding has fallen a long way down the pecking order in terms of their sporting equipment, and it has been a long time since they manufactured a new set of golf clubs. What a lovely trip down memory lane, nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Copyright 2023. If so send us some picsdont worry we will keep it 100% anonymous . The RB880 s by Northwestern are also knockoffs of the Browning 440 s. Oddity? The BIG BOYS missed on this one. The Top-Flite, Strata, and Hogan brands stayed alive for a while, but Callaway eventually mothballed them all. WITB Albums. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, (your email address will not be published), Acushnet 2022 Financials: $2.27 Billion and Counting, Penfold Ace Golf Balls: Whats Old Is New Again, Four Testers Wanted Inesis Spikeless Shoe. jazzbone, September 4, 2006 in Equipment. Previously, they manufactured equipment for golf, American football, and baseball, but they have downsized considerably in recent years. You find them on eBay Gary? And I remember drooling over those Tour Edition Custom blades in the pro shop. Started Thursday at 03:24 PM, Please put and questions or comments here, Please put any questions or comments here, Please put any questions of comments here. What a mess that design was! I just found a set of 10 plops slotz. Golfers may also like: PGX Offset Golf Driver Review: is it any Good? Maybe it is a good idea or maybe it is not. Any Spalding clubs that are still in circulation can be regarded as vintage, thats for sure! However as a caddy the Spaulding staff bag was a real trunk!! But under Section 363 of Chapter 11, a seller can sell assets without having to negotiate with its creditors. Went back 10 years and got the 845s used. "@type": "ImageObject", I think this is the web site for me . Love them oldies. ), Takomo Golf Clubs Review: (As Good as Expected? Does anyone know anything about them? I speak with Nat Rosassco, former owner, of NorthWestern golf at least every 7 to 10 days and he holds Pat Simmons as one of the best club designers of all time as well. They dropped the Tour Edition moniker and focused on the expansion of their touring staff on the PGA, Senior PGA and LPGA tours. I love these old clubs. The range is for form anyway. I learned the game on a set of used Spalding Execs-still have them today. Club-makers traditional method had been to shape metal heads with an anvil and forge. Swing Yard is a participant in the Amazon.com Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk and any other websites that may be affiliated with Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. ), Undersize Golf Grips Explained (8 Key Facts!). But, the #1 weird club goes to the Slingeryour #1 choice. I seem to remember them being pretty wacky. "https://www.linkedin.com/in/swingyard/", They kept slashing the pricing. When Did Spalding Stop Making Golf Clubs. Spalding led the way with such deep-grooved designs as the "waterfall" and waffle-face irons. But $1 billion is a lot of cabbage, and KKR borrowed heavily to make the deal. Bought the Slotlines new. The Executive clubs are among the finest pure forged blades ever produced and have certainly stood the test of time. Cleveland was giving them away for free if you send in some coupon from golf digest. In 1876 Spalding was the manager and ace pitcher of the Chicago White Stockings. Another great history piece. The company experimented throughout the 1920s and 1930s with lathe-turned hickory shafts that featured circular ridges spaced at standard intervals down the entire shaft. These irons actually performed quite well and had many copy cats of it down the road to prove itincluding another iron that made the list at #12 Slotline Lowpro iron and the Titleist Super Slim irons. maybe EVER. Like previously stated the Slotline Lowpro irons were for the most part an exact copy of the Browning 440 irons. In 1900, Spalding released the Vardon Flyer, the golf ball used by Harry Vardon. Spalding sold off its majority ownership in Evenflo in August of 1998. It was an interesting period to work for Spalding but sad to watch the demise of the brand it should never of happened ! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.You can also visit my Am. I see that a few from my list made it. Spalding, like its old school brethren Wilson and MacGregor, simply wasnt sexy to a new generation of golfers. Recently I bought another set (I keep an eye on E-Bay for them) so I could have extras & other club sets for friends that come into town. The Ginty was the first modern Utility club. Whats more, Spalding Molitor clubs currently retail at $280 for an entire set, which is a price point that is pretty hard to beat. Spalding sponsored Vardons 1900 tour of America, culminating in Vardon winning the U.S. Open in Chicago. 1968 Spalding developed the first 2-piece performance golf ball, the Spalding Executive. These articles are all outstanding. Those and the Ram Tour Grinds that Watson played were my bucket list irons, but never could afford them. I gave those up quickly only because they were really odd looking. I got balls, well ProV1's anyway. ***GIVEAWAY*** Cleveland CBX ZipCore Wedge! Also, consider TaylorMade sold last spring for $1.6 billion, while KKR paid nearly $1 billion for Spalding in 1996. It is called a hollow wedge, but you can putt with it as well. }, (ENTER TO WIN) Super cool contest we have for you fellow GolfSpies today! Its a great story that needs to be told. Still, the Uniques are the best irons I have ever hit! I might suggest you also include input from Tom Stites who worked for Hogan in the 1980s before heading up Nikes golf (mis)adventure. Dont be ashamed thoughsome of these designs have actually been pioneering for the industry. And Spalding predated Mizuno by at least 60 years with a copper undercoating for its forged blades in the mid-50s. I played them for years, they were solid, and they looked really good at address for their time period. As a former pro athlete, Spalding saw the value of using professionals to help promote both the game and his products. My Dad's execs from the 70's were blades that had aluminum shafts. Starting in the early 1900s, Spalding started making golf balls before manufacturing clubs. It means the Son of a Scottish brood that keeps getting into trouble only to easily find his way out of trouble! For more info on Stan Thompson click here. I have a old slotline cigar putter I still use,,no loift at all,looks like a big tootsie roll,but puts great,,friends still get amazed at how it puts,,. Spalding spent over 125 years as a sporting goods giant. Yes. Tom Farrell. He could not believe the smoothness of the Driver. $89.99. Scott Stallings - WITB - 2023 Genesis Invitational. LOL. Two years prior, they sold Spalding and Evenflo to Wall Street investment firm KKR for an estimated and unbelievable 1 billion dollars. OVERSIZED Spalding Golf Clubs Lady set Woods Driver 3 5 w New Black Widow Grips $30.00 $15.00 shipping or Best Offer Spalding Executive MV2 2-9 Iron, PW set Bird Over Ball $69.99 $31.53 shipping or Best Offer Spalding Executive XE Irons Set 7-PW Medium Steel Shafts Left Handed LH $95.00 Free shipping or Best Offer 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. 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! Duke gave me an original solid brass/bronze Greenirons Slotline putter (heel shafted with slot in top line and white dot on lower rear section).. All are memory refreshing .. have been in golf clubhead design , manufacturing 25 years , familiar with the designs ! Decent? Irons made during that time are distinguished by an anvil cleek mark. "dateModified": "2022-05-12", I love it but was told it is no a legal putter. It overpaid for Spalding and borrowed heavily to do it. Well then so did everyone else. Might need to get a full set of Tiger Shark irons to match the wedge!! Don't let scams get away with fraud. They owed more to its creditors than Spalding was worth. Though he is a footnote in the PGA history he was briefly on tour in the 50s. "@type": "Article", Of course, it is the Indian not the arrow to some extent, but he does well. Spalding no longer makes golf clubs, and hasnt for some time now. A very easy to hit blade. Peter F. Stevens is an award-winning author and journalist whose 10 books include "The Voyage of the Catalpa." In the early days, golf clubs were hand-forged using a hammer and anvil. Acushnet has been sold twice since the 1970s, and each time the buyer took the same approach: be profitable, and well leave you alone. Those were first made around the end of the 19th century during the hickory era. 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. Titleist has been the Ball King for so long, its hard to remember a time when it wasnt. I have a Simmons Great White Shark putter with a 7 blade. Taylor Made Golf was my Distributor for the U.S. and Canadian market. He struggled quite a bit with the change.. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Please put any questions or comments here. These skids are tapered from the leading edge toward the rear of the club head, raising the sole above the ground without raising the leading edge off the ground. }. They also specialized in unique clubs like the Cran Creek. He traded a set of classic Burke PunchIrons to get the Lynx. 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. Im not sure how rare they are, but youd think there would be a trace of them somewhere. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. Shallow faces (not as shallow as the 440 of course) and less offset than many of the long irons they replace. I tried to restore them by getting some original Browning grips (brown rubber with the Browning deer logo in gold) and exchanged several e-mails with Browning in Belgium would not sell me any. MyGolfSpy, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Colgate-Palmolive bought RAM and Penfold in the mid-70s to sell more toothpaste but gave up after only five years. Original? Goldwin was a San Diego company, years ahead of its time. and they wonder why they went out of business. This new construction was a major technological advancement in golf balls. I cant remember who made them, but I remember reading about an iron that was adjustable so its loft could be wildly altered. Knowledgable folk say its all in the mind. These gentlemen used them to win large amounts of money on the course from unsuspecting victims. My woods are Taylormade Burners 1 & 3, and I have two Mizuno hybrids. 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. I still have the irons to this day! Terrific article as usual Mr. Barra. Reach and the Wright and Ditson sporting goods companies. I remembered them from this article. What you supposed to do, cut your head off!!! Those Slinger Irons were the brain child of Jim Flood. 1 Iron Spalding Executive MV2 bird over ball . Irons made during that time are distinguished by an anvil cleek mark. I know that this is a very late reply but I actually knew the designer of these irons and spent time speaking with him. At the turn of the 20th Century, golf had stirred mild interest in the United States, and A.G. Spalding & Brothers sporting goods saw an opportunity. Spalding released multiple iterations of its Executive clubs throughout the sixties and seventies, and they became popular with professional golfers and recreational players alike. Why are Spalding golf balls called Top Flite? The original Strata ball was amazing when it came out spin for days! I have not 1 but 2 sets of Browning 440 irons. Cliffy2020 Can you help me find the history of the club? . I have a set of Spalding exec XE love them- I dont play more than 5-6 rounds a year now, but they are so consistant , I could go a year between swings and still play the same- got them back in 1980- ish. You had to turn those over to see the ugly, but the cone in the bottom was down right wacky! 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. #15 - Stan Thompson Ginty Irons You might remember the popular Stan Thompson woods with the unique sole design.

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