I'm kind of curious if those who play a significant portion of their rounds with hickories/"middle school" equipment and the rest with the newer stuff have two separate handicaps! And, I'm curious as to the handicap difference between those levels.
My New School set actually has a real old, old school look because the only irons in the bag are two wedges, sort of like a set of long-nose clubs. (I am resigned to the inevitability of my 35-year case of the shanks)
With them my handicap has ranged from 9-12 in recent years. My average score, according to GHIN, is ~85.
Last week I played two rounds with a nine-club set of hickories, and moved up from ~6,400 yards to just under 6,000 because My drives drop from 200-210 to about 180 or so.
With the hickories I shot 89 and 91 and figure that if I played them exclusively, I could probably get my handicap in the 14-15 range without too much trouble.
I also have a sort of middle-school set I play with. It's my Dad's original 1958 Haig Ultra irons, an original 1930s R-20, the Bulllseye my Dad gave me for my birthday in 1959, and a set of Honma persimmon woods. The Honmas are my "cheat" because I just can't play with steel-shafted woods anymore and they have L-flex graphites. On a firm course, I hit that driver VERY close to the same distance as my modern one, although it doesn't carry as far so a soggy course really hurts me.
As long as the shanks stay away, I shoot scores within a couple of shots of my modern set. In fact, a couple of years ago, I had my low round of the summer, a 75, with the Haigs. But then a couple of days later I got the shanks and shot 103
One reason I shoot higher scores with the old clubs, especially the hickories is that I can't get out of trouble with them like I can with the new clubs.
My misses with the old clubs might be slightly worse, but the biggest difference is in how the game is played, I just can't carry the ball very far with them, so bouncing the ball onto the green becomes a necessity.
K