[MCirba]

My first two full sets of clubs, received from my parents at Christmas around 1972 and 1975, respectively if memory serves; the Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear and the Walter Hagen Ultradyne II.   Man I could hit those things, also if memory serves. 



Some balls from that era;



Oh, and that's me circa 1975.   Say no more.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mike,

so you missed the "PO-DO" Walgreens ball era by a few years?  You just haven't lived, man!  I have some pictures of a much skinnier self in similar plaid pants......they were the rage in the 1970's.

[Peter Pallotta]

Come on, that's not really YOU, Mike - that is clearly a young Johnny Miller!! Look at that: perfect forearm action through to the release, and the stylish reverse-C finish!

(Don't be offended, but from what I can tell you and Bogey have never dressed as well as you did in 1975!)

 

PS - over the last couple of years, just from old second hand stores, I have put together two sets of clubs and bags -- one from "the 60s-70s" and "one from the 80s-early 90s". The persimmon and the Haigs and the Hogan blades and the simple leather-vinyl carry bags, they all look so lovely. But also: I didn't play golf in the 60s or 70s, and played only about 3 times throughout the 80s, and then found the game in the mid 90s, so for me it is the joy of the memories I WISH I had...   

[Thomas Dai]

Type something like 'persimmon golf clubs' into the Ebay search function and all sorts of rather nice wooden headed drivers and fairways woods from a prior period arise before your eyes. Inexpensive too. Plenty of irons etc from the same period around as well.


Atb

[MCirba]

Forgive my indulgence, but Michael H and Dan Kelly might salivate along with me at the sight of these epicurean delights which were a 1970s clubhouse staple and nostalgic icon! 

[Peter Pratt]

Born in 1957, I fell in love with the game in the early 70s. Worked at Carl's Golfland for 8 years back then. While we waited for the driving range to close at 11 pm on summer nights, we'd take a phone book out into the parking lot, set a ball on the cover of the book, and hit wedges to the 1st green of the little par 3 that used to be there. (I used to be a good wedge player.)


Grew up playing at Forest Lake CC (private) and Pontiac Municipal (very public). FLCC had some of the most difficult greens I'd ever putted and there was OB on almost every hole. (I used to putt well and hit the ball straight.) Pontiac Municipal (aka "The City Course") was 5,689 yards from the tips, with fairways that were always brown and hard as a parking lot. The greens were just as hard, but they were green. My high school golf team never lost a home match, as our unknowing opponents would fly wedges into the first green and watch helplessly as their balls would bounce 10 feet in the air on their way into the woods behind and below the green. After that, they need had a chance. (I used to be able to hit tasty, low pitches into hard greens.)

[Mike Hendren]

Is the stylish lady noshing on a Chuckwagon?

Peter, you would have loved my standard frat party pants - while polyester with par, birdie and bogey written all over them in different primary colors. 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the billboard style Amana baseball cap.  Dad bought me one from Mason Rudolf's brother.

[Peter Pratt]

My first bona fide golf trip was to play the Olympic Club, Spyglass Hill, and Pebble Beach in August 1976. To play the first, we had our friend pretend he was my club's head pro (the former immortal Bob Gajda, who led the 1963 US Open after a first round 68 and then shot three rounds in the 80s) and call the club. We were welcomed with open arms, though we had to take a trolley car to the entrance and walk a mile (or so it seemed) to the clubhouse. Paid $15. We walked Spyglass ($15), but had to take carts at Pebble ($25 and in terrible shape).

[Peter Pratt]

Mike,


In 1976 I wore Sansabelt red, white, and blue patterned polyester slacks. I couldn't fit into them now, but I so wish I still had them. I wore pastel green pants at Pebble Beach. i didn't stand out.

[JMEvensky]

Peter, I miss polyester.
 

Unless you're a Dupont chemist,that's not a sentence you want to say out loud.

[Peter Pallotta]

 

Good one.

But of course, you're showing your age as well - are there even any "Dupont chemists" left? I'm guessing that type of person goes into IT infrastructure instead

[JMEvensky]

Good one.

But of course, you're showing your age as well - are there even any "Dupont chemists" left? I'm guessing that type of person goes into IT infrastructure instead

Or crystal meth production.


We should probably tread lightly--Joe Bausch is a chemistry professor.

[James Bennett]

Mike Cirba

I had nearly forgotten about Golden Ram golf balls.  Nearly!

James B

ps I remember that if disease affected the greens, it was not uncommon for the greens to be poor for the whole season. Today, when disease affects greens, somehow the staff find a way (and the money) to restore the playing surface quite quickly.  We used to complain of sorts, but golf went on, happily, despite the appalling surfaces.

[Jon Wiggett]

Got a half set of Dunlop Junior Blueflash. 2 & 4 wood, 5,7,9,SW, Wilson 8802 putter. Double Dot reject, recovered Spitfires, Princes and of course the trusty Commando.

I remember getting given a Ram Tour Bag which was real leather when I was 8 which I insisted on using for a month. Thing weighed a ton and my clubs disappeared down inside it. Got too hot to lug it about in the summer though.

Happy days

[Tommy Williamsen]

As a kid I played mostly on military courses. Conditions were very fast and firm. In fact, fairways were pretty thin and tight lies was the norm. Greens were relatively slow and the rough was patchy. Clubs were tiny, but a hit the center of the club more then than I do now with with bigger faces.  I had "half woods." I had a 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 woods. I played with balls that had little "smiles" in them.  I never knew how many clubs I carried. I just played with what I had. At Fort Meade in MD it cost $60 a year for family membership on their two courses. I would play with my Dad after work until it got dark and we had to hit 7 irons so we could here the ball land.

[MCirba]

James,

Golden Ram balls were my favorite for the simple reason that I really, really loved the cool Ram Horns logo.

All,

Certainly, equipment has changed from my 1975 Haig Ultradyne II Driver to my 2014 TaylorMade.  I'm not sure how we played pretty well with those little clubheads compared to the "Ham on a Stick" clubheads we have today.

[Bill_McBride]

Is the stylish lady noshing on a Chuckwagon?

Peter, you would have loved my standard frat party pants - while polyester with par, birdie and bogey written all over them in different primary colors. 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the billboard style Amana baseball cap.  Dad bought me one from Mason Rudolf's brother.

Was the Amana hat the first advertising on golf clothing?   The guys today make me feel slightly bilious in their getup.  Lee Westwood must wear six logos, with the big UPS the most egregious.   Saw some photos of Hogan recently.  White shirt and cap, cardigan, gray slacks, wow. 

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - I'm an average golfer at best, and I probably know only a tenth of what I think I know about the golf swing. But this I know: that when I hit the ball on the centre of the club face (on my persimmon woods or Haig musclebacks) I get all the distance I need, no matter what tee I'm playing from. Did I get more distance with the titanium monstrosities and frying panned game improvement irons? Yes, sometimes; and certainly on mishits I did. But I figure that if I don't hit the centre of the club face I deserve whatever results I get.


Bill - re Mr Hogan's attire: perhaps this makes me old fashioned and old before my time, but I honestly believe that popular culture started going downhiil at precisely the time when the clarinet disappeared from jazz, men stopped wearing fedoras, they found out the smoking was bad for you, mixed-drinks became popular, and grey cotton/linen/wool stopped being the dominant colour in golf attire!

[Bill_McBride]

Bill - re Mr Hogan's attire: perhaps this makes me old fashioned and old before my time, but I honestly believe that popular culture started going downhiil at precisely the time when the clarinet disappeared from jazz, men stopped wearing fedoras, they found out the smoking was bad for you, mixed-drinks became popular, and grey cotton/linen/wool stopped being the dominant colour in golf attire!

My favorite clothing outfit I ever wore was in 1959-60 when I was attending classes at the City College of San Francisco.   Grey slacks, white button down collar shirt, black cardigan, black penny loafers.  Then I transferred to UC Santa Barbara and wore nothing but tee shirts and chinos or shorts, with the occasional Madras plaid shirt thrown in.  My sartorial index was in the tank. 

[Thomas Dai]

Got a half set of Dunlop Junior Blueflash. 2 & 4 wood, 5,7,9,SW

Me too! And later a pair of metal spiked rubber golf shoes with flaps over the laces and later still some thin plastic waterproofs that weren't really waterproof at all and at some stage headcovers knitted by my Grandmother. Happy days indeed.


Atb

[Peter Pallotta]

See, when you describe that first outfit, I would have no idea (if I didn't know you) whether you were hip or square -- those clothes would've worked equally well on a young straight-laced accountant as on a west-coast jazz man just getting off heroin; on either John Kenneth Galbraith or Art Pepper (or Ben Hogan, or Bill McBirde!).

[JMEvensky]

Was the Amana hat the first advertising on golf clothing?   
 

I think so.I remember reading somewhere they paid $50/week and Lou Graham was an early wearer,if not the first.

[Dan Kelly]

Forgive my indulgence, but Michael H and Dan Kelly might salivate along with me at the sight of these epicurean delights which were a 1970s clubhouse staple and nostalgic icon! 

Mike --


You made me so hungry, I went out to Caribou Coffee for lunch and got a sausage/egg biscuit -- heated in an oven quite reminiscent of Stewart's In-Fra-Red contraption. (They don't have a Chuckwagon, or I'd have ordered one.)


BTW: What's he lookin' at?


Also BTW: Do you think they were called "Stewart" because Stewart, a Scottish name, connoted ... so inexpensive that even a Scot would order one?


[size=78%]Happy Thanksgiving.[/size]


Dan

[John McCarthy]

I have read Amana used to take the player on as an employee, at minimal to no salary.  However the player got benefit from the employee health insurance.

[MCirba]

I think he's eyeing her Chuckwagon Dan.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()