Yes, The Times They Are A' Changin (Part 4) The Driver

       I love watching golf on TV.  It is truly exciting to see the pros hit the ball as far as they do.  I especially love it when they sometimes melt down and show that they are human by making some sort of mental error. My favorite part is watching the golf equipment commercials because they promise a better game for me. All I need is the newest TaylorMade driver that costs $500 but will totally revolutionize my game.  Let's make this very clear.  If I bought a $500 driver I would certainly be sleeping the next millennium in our doghouse in the back. You know, the one I have mentioned in past posts. One thing is for sure though.  Driver technology has changed as have a lot of the equipment in golf.
        I am not going as far back in this post as I have before and basically I will share my own experiences. My experiences basically mirror what has happened to the "Driving Club", and I still am not caught up to what technology is today. I can't afford it so I use what is comfortable to me and what I have been using for a while now, 2008 to be exact.   I started my golf career with an old starter set which included an "Otey Chrisman" blade putter and a laminated head "Slammin' Sammy Snead" driver.
        My little starter set with my "Slammin' Sammy" driver kept me going for about four years when I was given a new set of "woods" for Christmas. This was a complete set of Arnold Palmer woods, driver to four wood and included a 2 wood.  By the way, woods were woods back then and my Arnold Palmer's were made of laminated wood with regular flex steel shafts.  I loved these clubs and it was like going from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Chevrolet Impala. They weren't quite top of the line, but they were an improvement. I added a new set of  Citation Power Built steel shafted irons and I was unstoppable, except by the California Highway Patrol I guess.
      About five years after I got my "new" set I was approached by my golf pro/teacher whose son was also a pro and was on the MacGregor teaching staff. His son was given a new set of clubs by MacGregor and asked me if I wanted to buy his son's old set. The shafts were stiff shaft, but he said that with my swing I could handle them  The great part about the set was the woods were persimmon, and good, oil hardened persimmon at that.  There is just something about hitting a solid persimmon wood driver that is indescribable. The solid feel of the club hitting the ball resonates in your hands as the club head hits the ball. I had traded in the Impala for a top of the line Mercedes Benz.  I was VERY happy and my game showed it.  
      By the way, the head of the club was nowhere near the size of today's club heads and when you look at how small it really is, you want to almost laugh. I honestly think that it would fit into one of today's huge 460 cc driver heads.  I felt very strong when I swung that club as it had a stiff steel shaft on it.  Those were the days and I actually still have that driver along with the three and four wood.
      Not all things last forever.  The "Pitsburgh Persimmon" or steel headed driver came out and things were about to change. What happened next, I will talk about in a future blog post.

Let the "Big Dog" Eat!