What are the generations of golf?

[Jason Thurman]

And what generation do you belong to?


My first set was cutdown steel shafts, cavity back irons, and Persimmon woods. I remember steel spikes on concrete (and if lemonade in coolers at semi-private clubs was a thing in your hometown, I remember that too). And I remember grinding the cover off a ball on the sidewalk, unfurling the rubber bands, and trying to bounce the mushy yellow liquid-filled ball inside off shit.


But all those things went away soon enough. Pops got me playing Pinnacles, but he also scored me a set of Hogan Jr's with metalwoods that had the speed slot. Pros and cons. By the time I was running over my buddies' balls with the golf cart when I found it in the rough on high school summer afternoons, I had his old Yamaha Secrets with graphite shafts in the bag (and the S2H2 driver(.) and 3w(!!!)).


I'm a Metallenial. I recall life before metalwoods, but had them in my hands at a fairly young age. But I didn't play titanium and graphite until I was grown. The Baby Bombers who grew up mainlining that shit scare me.

[Pete_Pittock]

Hogan was winning on 'my" course before I was in kindergarten.
balata balls (no Top-Flite option), Bobby Jones irons with wood paint on the shaft, persimmon woods, slow greens, one irrigation line down the middle of the fairway (if that), hole markers were wooden boxes with places for buckets of water and sand had changed to buckets of water and trash, leather or canvas bags. 

[Joe Hancock]

When I was a kid learning the game, we drank water from a hand pump on the course with a tin cup tied to the pump with a piece of string.


My first set of irons I bought with my own money was a set of Power Bilt Levelumes


I participated in a regional qualifier of the Dodge National Long Drive Championship in 1982, I wore a pair of Hush Puppies shoes and used a laminated Power Bilt Citation driver, with a Dynasty steel shaft. More than a thousand people lined the fairway, and to this day I’ve never been as nervous as hitting those 3 golf balls in that setting......Titleist Pro Trajectory 100’s, I believe.....


My first metal Driver was an Arnold Palmer.....paired with my Ram Tour Grind irons....


Not sure what all this means, generationally, but fond memories for sure.

[Sean_A]

My first clubs were bits and bobs of Macgregor hand-me-downs. I remember the set first bought for me were Nicklaus Golden Bears, half set, persimmon woods with a blue wet leather bag which I used through high school. Private clubs were heavily over watered and most munis were the exact opposite, bone hard and weedy. My last few years of high school were when metal woods were first appearing in the hands of pros. I think by 1982 or so more than a few pros had switched over. I didn't pay much attention to equipment then and still don't, but I recall being shocked by the new equipment after a 10 year absence from the game. It was a whole new ball game. Everybody was hitting metal woods and cavity backs.

Ciao

[Peter Pallotta]

That's one of the many nice things about golf - we get to *pick* our generation.
So even though I only took up the game in my mid 30s, reading & romance had me going to a used equipment store for my first set of clubs -- Hogans Power Thrusts from the 60s, with matching woods and bag.
I remember the guy at the store asking me "You sure you can hit those?", and I not knowing what he meant  -- I thought he was asking if as a brand new golfer I thought I could hit *anything*, you know, just make contact.
I wasn't very good at all that summer, and found the irons (more so than the woods) very hard to hit -- but it wasn't until that set was stolen from my car (along with the car, found two days later sans clubs) and I'd bought a modern set of Powerbilt cavity backs that I realized what the guy meant.
Nowadays I tend to pick being only a half-generation younger than I am, i.e. irons and metal woods from about 2006-2008.
BUT - I do have my eye on a slightly used Original Mini One driver, 13.5 degree lofts. (For some unfathomable reason last year I sold my Ping Rapture 3 wood, 14 degrees -- the best fairway finder I ever had...and can't find one another). With a 43.75 inch shaft and a not so huge head, if I squint and pretend a lot I can almost imagine that I'm almost back to almost square one, generationally speaking.       

[jeffwarne]

My first clubs were my dad"s(who didn't really play) wilson staff 1972 irons and laminated woods.(still have and often use the driver)
+1 inch-perfect for an 11 year old.....


My first set of my own were Gene Sarazen-Wilsons low end Staff copy -with rubber reminder grips and the woods had plastic heads like a telephone(they were really solid believe it or not-just chocolate brown ugly)
Tommy Armour putter

[Jason Thurman]

I put an Original One in the bag last year and want to buy 10 more. It's my favorite driver ever by far, longer and more consistent than anything else I've tried to wield, and honestly it's starting to become a go-to shot off-the-deck when left is bad. I never have liked a 460cc head. You may think this is atypical of Metalennials, but Tiger and I would disagree. Like millennials, we get confused with the generations that follow us.


We need a name for the generation that grew up on persimmon but began getting exposure to metal in early adulthood (Sean, Joe, Greg Norman), and the generation that played scruffy courses and experienced the pressure of competing for adult money and honor armed with sweet spots the size of a dime (Pete, Lee Trevino) before golf got so preppy.



Interestingly, it's not just an age thing. Trevino and Nicklaus aren't quite the same golf generation even if they're the same birth generation. Nicklaus is from the same golf generation as Mucci and those cats. The Golden Generation, in Jack's honor. And, I mean, because if you could choose for yourself... well you'd definitely choose that one right? Patterned pants, steel spikes and steely glares, good turf, beautiful clubs and bags, hair blowing in the wind against a blue sky. Did anyone ever see it rain on a decent golfer between 1965 and 1985?

[Matthew Rose]

I started playing as a junior in 1985, with my brother's hand me downs. They were the Ben Hogan junior set - they looked exactly like Apex blades, and they had the cool Golf Pride Chevron grips on them, except they were blue with red marks instead of Black/Aqua. My putter was a Bulls Eye. I had a ladies Curtis Cup brand pitching wedge. Driver was a persimmon Hogan wood but I had a metal 5 wood which I used to advance the ball in the fairway.

My first metal driver was a Taylor Made Burner Plus with the dots all around the outside. I graduated to some Palm Springs cavity backs until high school, when I got my Ping Eye 2s that I used until about five years ago (I have a set of i E1s now).

I wore metal spikes until I was probably 19 or 20 years old. Pretty much exclusively Foot Joy saddles up to that point.

So I guess I could be considered in the "transition" generation - persimmon as a kid, metal as a teen, 460 CC and ProV1 as an adult.

I'll be the first to admit that I have greatly benefitted from equipment. I am much longer and straighter in my 40s than I ever was before.

[Cliff Hamm]

First set of clubs were Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge. If you’re from that era and not wealthy, I suspect you had them or knew about them.


Caddied and almost all golfers played Wilson staff’s. Also a decent amount of Spalding executives? and Hogan’s.  Balls were predominantly Titleist and Wilson Staff. Some Spalding dots and Maxflis.  Distance was all about your eyes without yardage markers.

[Bill Shamleffer]

I began as a caddie in April 1977.  My older brothers both caddied, and most of my the boys in my class from the Catholic grade school a few blocks from the club all caddied.


I bought a set of Hogan junior clubs in 1978 from the pro shop.  (The pro let all caddies buy at cost).


By high school, I got a set of Hogan Producer irons from one of my brothers, and I had a Powerbilt woods, and a blade putter.


In 1988 I bought a used set of Sounder SB IV irons (one of the best irons ever made).  I continued with a Powerbilt driver & Hogan 4 wood.  My putters were either the Ram Zepbra or a Ping Anser or a PGA replica Tommy Armour Silver Scott.  My wedges were Wilson JP IIs, or sometimes a Hogan Sure-Out


I eventually put a 2nd generation metal driver in my bag in the late 1990s.


After 30 years with the Sounders, I bought used set of 1999 Hogan Apex Plus irons.


I still Use the Hogan irons, Wilson wedges, Anser putter.  I put in my bag last year a 460cc driver, and then I have a hybrid I added a few years ago.


My golf bag is currently either a Mackenzie or a Jones Bag.


I guess I am either Old School or cheap.  But I get more enjoyment from the old equipment.  Although that probably is mostly due to memories of a great youth in the caddie yard.

[Peter Pallotta]

"Did anyone ever see it rain on a decent golfer between 1965 and 1985?"

Great line, JT!

It would be a wonderful start to a short story/novel. It would work too as the title (and first line) of a poem, some old-new hybrid all in lower case.

[Joe Hancock]

The Woods


The Wood Nots


The Metalennials

[Peter Pallotta]

But crossing generations and blurring categories, there is this:

The Card and the Pencil.

I simply can't let them go. I don't think Joe H ever once held onto them.

We can be friends, and we are.

But between us lies this shadow, this bridge too far.

[Michael Wolf]

My two favorite examples of overlapping generations in golf:

In 1997, a 21 year old Tiger Woods won the Masters with a tournament record 270, -18 performance.
The following year, a 58 year old Jack Nicklaus beat him by two shots.

And how about this one - Gary Player, who is obviously very much still alive, was once seated next to 1893 Open champion Willie Auchterlonie at an R&A dinner.

Michael

[Sean_A]

But crossing generations and blurring categories, there is this:

The Card and the Pencil.

I simply can't let them go. I don't think Joe H ever once held onto them.

We can be friends, and we are.

But between us lies this shadow, this bridge too far.

Pietro

I grew up with c&p as one almost invariably does if one is from US/Canada. As soon as I latched onto matchplay I was released from the tyranny of c&p. Its probably one of the best things that ever happened to me so far as golf is concerned. If I continued to think about scores and handicap I likely would have quit the game 20 years ago.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Long nose
Bull nose
Steel and wood
Graphite
Titanium


Pebble
Wood
Feathery
Guttie
Wound
Multi-piece


Play club
A few clubs
Mashie/Niblick
Sand wedge
Cavity backs
Metal heads
Lob wedge
460cc


Hobnails
Spikes
Non-spikes


Black and white stills
Black and white film
Black and white TV
Colour TV
Satellite TV


Walk to course
Horse and carriage to course
Railway to course
Car to course
Helicopter to course


Cut by sheep
Cut by scythe
Cut by hand mower
Cut by ride-on mower


Irrigated by nature
Irrigated by ......
Over irrigated by .....
Sub air



Atb

[ward peyronnin]

You guys are all newbies. I started out with a set of cut down Patti Berg's 9-7-5-3wd-driver-butter knife putter using old first flights or new Wilson Staff pills. Learning to play with a cut didnt necessarily mean moving the ball left to right

I knew so little about clubs that my Dad once bought a set of aluminum shaft irons and then gave them to me when they didnt work for him. I was in HS and the ball was going everywhere when the pro stopped me and asked what the hell I thought i was doing trying to play my Dad's regular shafts with a 16 yr old's rocket swing?
We had juvenile pines as the only yard marker at 150 and I think they were paced off when placed. Everyone was a feel player back then

[Tommy Williamsen]

My first set of clubs were hickories. My first pair of shoes were black high-top Keds. My first balls were balata.

[Pete_Pittock]

You guys are all newbies. I started out with a set of cut down Patti Berg's 9-7-5-3wd-driver-butter knife putter using old first flights or new Wilson Staff pills. Learning to play with a cut didnt necessarily mean moving the ball left to right

I knew so little about clubs that my Dad once bought a set of aluminum shaft irons and then gave them to me when they didnt work for him. I was in HS and the ball was going everywhere when the pro stopped me and asked what the hell I thought i was doing trying to play my Dad's regular shafts with a 16 yr old's rocket swing?
We had juvenile pines as the only yard marker at 150 and I think they were paced off when placed. Everyone was a feel player back then

You evoked a memory. Not all of us. I remember playing Glendoveer (East), must have been in the late 50s and saw someone had nailed a piece of wood painted white, about 6' up the trunk of a douglas fir which read "160"

[Rick Shefchik]

You guys are all newbies. I started out with a set of cut down Patti Berg's 9-7-5-3wd-driver-butter knife putter using old first flights or new Wilson Staff pills. Learning to play with a cut didnt necessarily mean moving the ball left to right

I knew so little about clubs that my Dad once bought a set of aluminum shaft irons and then gave them to me when they didnt work for him. I was in HS and the ball was going everywhere when the pro stopped me and asked what the hell I thought i was doing trying to play my Dad's regular shafts with a 16 yr old's rocket swing?
We had juvenile pines as the only yard marker at 150 and I think they were paced off when placed. Everyone was a feel player back then

Every now and then I think back to my early days in golf, before distance markers, yardage books, sprinkler heads and range finders, and recall that I pretty much could tell the difference between 160 yards and 170 yards just by looking. I really wonder if I could do that now, after all these years of relying on outside help. Forgive me, Melvyn.

[Peter Pallotta]

Yes, Rick - my opinion is that you could do it again, and more easily (and better) than you imagine.
And I think there is one advantage rarely mentioned: i.e. that once you (once again) get good at it, that "160 yards" your eyes tell you gets 'in your body' and is manifest 'through your swing' more fully-accurately and organically (for lack of a better word) than if using a range finder.   

[ward peyronnin]

At our last member guest I repeatedly wowed my partner with the ability to tell him within a yard or two what his shooter was going to read. I still do it all the time unless there is some optical confuson going on

[Jason Topp]

First set of clubs were Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge. If you’re from that era and not wealthy, I suspect you had them or knew about them.

Me too - 1/2 set if I recall correctly. 

[Peter Flory]

The following year, a 58 year old Jack Nicklaus beat him by two shots.

That was an amazing thing.  They both played well too, it's not like Tiger just had a bad week. 

It's an interesting game to see how far back you go with only a few overlaps. 

Of the players who have beat Nicklaus in a tournament, which one of them had the earliest birth year?  Sarazen beat Nicklaus by 2 shots in the 1957 US Open and Sarazen was born in 1902.  Would be surprised if that wasn't the answer, but hard to verify.  But it is funny to think that Woods got beat by a guy who got beat by Gene Sarazen. 

[Cliff Hamm]

First set of clubs were Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge. If you’re from that era and not wealthy, I suspect you had them or knew about them.

Me too - 1/2 set if I recall correctly.

3, 5, 7, 9 and a pitching wedge as I recall. Driver and 3 wood.  I still remember the grips were flat for about 1/3 of the circumference to help you grip correctly. That was only for an inch or so at the top...I continue to just use my eyes for distance. Unlike most though, first I decide what club fits the situation and then I will tell the yardage with quite good accuracy.