Assembling Retro Sets with Nick Sherburne of Club Champion

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Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg podcast. Today's episode is with Nick Sherburn, the founder of Club Champion. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Really excited about this episode with Nick. I've gotten to know him over the years. We're both from Chicago. I've been going to Club Champion basically my whole life. Nick is a really good dude and knows so much about equipment. This year, I kind of I got bit by the retro club bug.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

And you know, normally I'm on podcasts talking about you know, club fitting and club champion and I know we'll discuss a little of that. But when you said, hey, let's have a little fun building retro bags, I'm like, yeah, that sounds good.

Let's do that.

And we, as we mentioned before, we jumped on recording. It's like there was some rabbit holes I went down that were pretty fun.

You know, this the impetus and the idea for this topic. I have had some club's break this year and it left me with like, you know, I had this like set of FG seventeen Wilson's that were just like sitting and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna play these all the time until I go ghetto new fitting. And I just haven't done it because I've been really busy and I haven't like just set aside the time.

Did the clubs break by themselves.

Or yeah, yeah, the POxy the POxy came loose and they're old. They're like Apex pros from like the early generation Calaways.

Making sure there was no anger issues that we maybe needed to talk about.

No.

And then I had this driver.

My buddy who plays on the corn Ferry Tour gave me a great big Bertha Alpha and it's funny, like just a side note, And I don't want this to come across as an ad, but like I've gone to Club Champion multiple times to try and get fit for something new, and the guy that I've gone to for club fitting for a number of years now has been like, no, like, I can't like this driver. You'd be crazy to change, Like your dispersion pattern is so tight, and it cracked

I was like, that was that was the driver for a couple of years.

But anyways, that was the impetus of this conversation is like, what would be really cool sets of clubs from different generations if you wanted to have retro bags.

I play a lot of classic golf courses.

What I've found has been really fun is that I'm playing like the regular teas and I'm hitting lots of long irons into courses that would a lot of times if you're if you're if you have a pretty high ball speed, it's going to be like a driver wedge fest and that's that's been really fun. I'm kind of getting tired of it being every day, but I bet it has been fun.

So that was kind of the impetus, and let's kind of get into it.

I for this, we did eighties, nineties, and two thousands, and the thing I found and I'm sure you found, but like the nineties is probably the hardest one because there was so much innovation.

I agree it was harder to make a decision on which ones. I actually put like two in a lot of places where I'd be like, I'd be really on the fence.

With this.

Eighties I found to be the toughest, only because I was born in eighty three, so like, yeah, I play. I actually played a couple of the clubs that came in the eighties to your point in the nineties, but I didn't really you know, I wasn't a golfer then and whatever, and so that one I found to be a little tougher. But yeah, this there were some interesting things. I can't wait to divulge some of my my findings.

That's that's the thing.

Like the eighties, I feel like this like golf, like mid nineties is where like equipment changed forever. But when you're like in the even into the late nineties and you saw it on tour. I mean Davis Love at Vague, that Vegas tournament that Tiger won his first win on tour, Davis Loves in the playoff playing a Percimit driver. Yeah, it's it's that's when the world kind of just changed. But at the at the end of the nineties, the bags were still filled with eighties clubs. Like you know,

So again, this was tough because I was not a golfer in the eighties. I didn't become a golfer till early nineties. So I when doing research, I think if I were to played a driver in the eighties, it probably would have been either Taylor Mats at Pittsburgh per Simon or the ping I two per Simmon Wood, which actually I did play one of their ping I two Fairway woods in the early nineties.

Those they had the laminates then, yeah, which like completely changed the game, and those stuck around for a long time because they didn't break as easily as the Persimmon clubs.

I had a couple here.

You actually have these woods of mine in your office, the Hogan Apexes.

Yep.

If you're looking at.

Like a persimmon set of persimmon woods, these are like absolutely gorgeous.

Well, and they were one of the most famous, like in the eighties, like one of the best selling too. That was actually in That would have been an honorable mention on mine. I've seen yours. I've seen them a couple of times. I've never actually hit when I should just take years and go hit it.

I didn't say anything.

I've not got That was a good one too.

And then for my honorable mention, I've got like the tailor made tour Burner the medal the original metal wood.

Yeah that's well, yeah, that's kind Yeah, I did the Pittsburgh Pittsburgh per Simon, but I guess that was probably that was more like late It was like seventy eight, seventy nine, and then it got big and early and then.

They came out with that. But yeah, that's awesome.

Pittsburghsimon was the first medal.

Right, right, Yeah, Pittsburgh per Simon was the first metal driver. I think ever designed. Well, it was the first mainstream one, that's for sure.

What do you have for faaraway woods?

Well, this was one of my favorites, and I actually played this in the nineties for a year, probably my whole high school career, almost I had two fairwoods in high school. The other one I'll talk about in the nineties when we get there. But the Callaway s two h two oh. And it was a tiny little bore through a little head. It was small, but like a decent amount of tour guys played. I think, like Freddy Couples

By Ust, we're gonna have to talk about that shaft for at like, because that was like an iconic piece of equipment in the nineties.

That that three wood.

So my uncle was a great player, not a great player, a really good amateur player, and as a kid he had I think the next iteration of that three wood was the Bobby Jones of Calway. I think it was the Bobby Jones three Wood, and I just remember he used that into like the two thousands, and I thought it was I mean, I hit it a few times and I was like, this is like one of the

Yeah, I remember just hit it didn't have much forgiveness. But again nineties, we didn't really have a lot of tell us what was good outside of which just could you hit it right and did you like the look in the field. I just remember it looking good, feeling good, and it would hit these low like screamers that just went a mile. At the time, and I was like, man, I love this thing. Plus it had like, you know,

Yeah, we would do this.

And I bumped it and made it like a mirror finish and it was really cool.

It's uh, that's kind of along the lines of uh was it the titleist headcover?

If you turned it inside out?

Tailor made was a tailor made burner one.

You turn it inside out and it was like that crazy like it almost looked like the Big Lebowski's coat.

Yeah, it was like woven. It was super cool from by Fairway Woods. I had, you know, this was pre hybrid, so I kind of cheated. I got two in here. I had the tailor made tour spoon, the little.

That's a good. Oh, that is a good one. In fact, I know I had one of those two that I forgot about. That good one.

And then the Cobra baffler with the rail on the bottom, the wood, the wood with the rails on the bottom. It was incredible at digging balls out of rough.

You know, I I don't know if I even I'm gonna look that one up because I wouldn't have guessed that was the eighties, Huh.

I think I think it was the eighties fairly.

It probably was, now that you said it, I think it probably was. I never played one, but I definitely remember now that you brought it up.

Yeah, I you know, my dad's not a great player.

One of my memories of it, like my dad's like, you know, he's like a probably at the time between a twelve and a fifteen, and I remember as a kid, he was like two forty out and thick rough and he just hit it and he hid into this group. And I'll never forget it because it like we never thought in a million years he'd get there, and he hid into this group and it just like it. That's a shot that I'll never forget from my childhood. But

Was like it was really.

Easy to hit and and the thing it was really great at was like getting you could hit it out of pretty thick rough you know.

Long irons then were just a disaster out of the rough.

Well.

Fairway woods when you when you really think about like the ones we're talking about today, honestly, that was that generation's hybrid because there to your point, there was no hybrids, but fairway woods were smaller, they had more rounded souls, things like that you could dig them out of stuff. Where once like the speed height hybrid fairway wood came, it kind of created the need for a hybrid because it flipped the script where you didn't need it so much back in the day.

Question, I've got this pet three wood, and when I shake it, I hear a POxy. You know if I when I swig, I hear a POxy. This is a club I've been playing all year. I might not go back to modern three wood.

I might keep this. I love it.

By the way, the title is pat not to spoiler alert titleist pt is my three wood of the nineties.

I mean Tiger made.

It's so cool. It's it's insanely fun to play. It's insane. I've had more fun hitting that club like I hit it irrationally just because I want to hit it. I one of my questions I've I like, worried about the shaft breaking, like the POxy.

Can people still do the boar through shaft?

Absolutely?

Okay?

Now I'm not sure how many, Like if you took it to Tom Dick or Harry's place, you know, a younger club maker, Like even if it came to us, I guarantee if you went to one of our stores, they're gonna be like, yeah, we're gonna have to send this back and Nick's.

Probably gonna be the one that does it.

Or you know, I got two old school builders that you know, I've been building with for many, many years. There's about three of us that would have no we would love to do it. To be honest with you, I can still whip a wooden wood, just believe it or not. I could actually if you really wanted me to, I could refinish a wooden wood. I don't really have

That's amazing.

It's ah, that's I mean the refurbishing of equipment like I got years ago a toillium and we can talk.

I'm there's two a rabbit holes with this.

Yeah, the research like this, the refinishing of old equipment when you get something back, and it's just it's unbelievable. It brings kind of all the fields. All right, what about irons? You what are you going with?

So if I had to play, and it's funny we still have people walking our doors today and still bring them in is. And if I were playing with my ability, it would have been the ping I too, probably, but the three sets I have three sets, I would have got three sets. We've been ping Eye two, Tommy Armor

Oh wow, don't call me Kenny Kenneth Smith. Yeah, that's uh So I have two of the three I've got.

I had three written down to pig.

I two's Silver Scott and then I've got the Titleist Tour model. I just think that they are like aesthetically, I don't know, I don't they're the some of the most gorgeous irons that you can see look at now. I don't think that like I personally, I've been playing these FG seventeens, these Wilson FG seventeens. I think they are better irons, better performed, like they're really like having hit both of them. I have sets of both. I like the FG seventeens like more. But I think those

Ah, that was that was gonna make my list.

I went with the Kennis Smiths because I was like, well, nobody's gonna really remember those. Maybe they'll go look at him. But as a club fitter and a clubmaker at the time. They were just like kind of this really like weird niche thing, but kind of like Henry Griffith's. Most people don't know that, like that was one of my first sets ever, but like, yeah, those those and actually, believe it or not, I was selling Maxifly irons when we

That's yeah, I mean, that's the cool thing.

I you know, my my FG seventeens have been playing have modern shafts in them. They have like my spec shafts from the guy Elliott at T World Clubs. I don't know if you've ever seen that account. They refurbish,

It's like the specs are more mine.

Well, we still reshaft.

We have other folks that are similar to yourself that sometimes want a nostalgic set shaft of the thing. And I always laugh when I hand him to. Sometimes our younger like builders who haven't maybe done a club from the eighties and like a club like that, they may have a pin in it and they're like they're like, Nick, I can't get this head off, man, Like what's going on.

I'm heating it up. I'm eating it up. And I could have told him.

I just like to watch him kind of like squirm at it for a while and and I'm like, did you look at the hasle a little closer, and they're like, oh, is that a pin. I'm like, yeah, back then, poxies weren't quite as good. I mean, every POxy still has a chance to break, but like back then, especially so they put a pin in there, and then that pin

Yeah.

The other thing about the eighties in the early nineties was the you know, there were still like individual like small shop club makers around, Like you just talked about Kenneth Kenneth Griffith.

No, not Kenneth Griffin Smith. Kenneth Smith and I.

Grew up in Lake Bluff, Illinois, north of Chicago, and there was a famous club maker that had a shop at on Wensey, a club called Hubby hub John. You ran into that, you ran into Hubbies clubs, but like you know, you go up there, anybody could go you go up. He had like it was at the top floor of this old on Wentzy a clubhouse like iconic old clubhouse.

You go up there and there's just this guy that was like he was a club maker. I mean, this is you. We'd run across.

Him all the time because like I got a ton of clubs at my church's rummage sale. Like I'd go there and like I'd get like it was Lake Forrest, Like you get tons of golfers that just like turn in these sets of clubs that were like great clubs. And for a kid that didn't, like I didn't have like money to spend on clubs, I'd go there and get like, you know, these great clubs for four dollars, but ones that I always came across for Hubby hub John's and I had like a bunch to Hubby hub

Yeah.

Well, and that's how I got mine. I mean, ever, Lockinvitz was a clubmaker kind of like that. He would have been kind of Hubby's age too, actually maybe not much younger, but about that. And that's how East who taught me ninety percent of what I know. You know about club fitting, club club building, all right, I should say club building more than anything, because he was one of those guys, and so you know, that's how you learn. Those those guys knew how to build a golf club.

Yeah, yeah, all right, Putters. Did you do putters?

Yeah? I did, Potter.

I actually did a wedge and I did ping, I too, and I think that's probably I just that would have been it. But yeah, and then Potter wise, I did the Zebra, which I the ram Zebra. I still own one for the originals.

I have one above me right here.

It it.

I mean, I feel like that. You know.

The thing about the zebra is if you walked into somebody's office or walked into somebody's like putting, like Matt at their house in the nineties, like there was like a ninety percent chance of the zebra as the putter that was laying there.

Well, you know, again, this is when I was just getting into the game.

But for me, I just remember everybody playing, like you know, ping, answers things like that, and those are cool. But like I was a kid, and I'm like, man, this mallet looks cool because there wasn't really mallets as much then and I'm like, there's some aiming device.

It's kind of cool.

It's funny now with whoever's relaunching it, and there's now you can go buy a new one. I'm like, no, I'll never buy a new one. I would just refinish my original one if I really wanted to play it, because it's it's it's og, I'd have to stay with that.

I have to say, Putter innovation is one of the less Like everybody talks about dry irons all that. If you use an eighties Putter, it's shocking how much harder.

It is to put with.

Oh yeah, it's so I had, so I had, I had, I had a couple in here. I think like I'd be hard pressed not to go with a ping Yeah, I had like a ping answer. It could be the answer original answer. I'm not sure that was the eighties. It might have been like late seventies, but like you had,

Yeah, I mean you could you could do the insert ping putter here and just cover every ping putter and chance odds are I probably owned one or plotted with one, and they were all pretty darn good.

I feel like one of the things about the like Ping's innovation is astounding, like they they were the innovative brand at this time.

I mean, like you think of.

The Irons like they really, you know, and then you get into the nineties with the tis I, but like the Putters, like they they really I feel like we're pushing the envelope.

Well, I think I think they not that other companies weren't doing like engineering engineering, but I think they were taking it more from a golf approach, you know, stuff like that with some general engineering principles. I think, you know, Solheim was an engineer at heart first and you know everything else, and then kind of like instead of being a golfer an engineer, he was an engineer than a golfer, and I think that helped him break the mold of

Like those, those are the still the designs you're buying, like across the board, like so many brands, I mean, so many putters. And then if you're going with a bag, it has to be a Pig at this time or a Jones.

You know what. I didn't do bags.

Interesting, Yeah, well I still use a ping hoofer, so I don't.

Yeah, it'd be probably like the original L eight at this time, the single strap L eight or or like that Jones bag was a big deal at this time.

I didn't do bags, But I'm gonna ride with whatever you probably did because it sounds like you know them. But if that ping hoof for the original one with the one strapper, what is it, elie If not a hoof for at the time or whatever it was with the one strap, You're right, I owned one of those two.

Yeah, it might not have had the stand at this point because I think I'm not positive and people are gonna definitely correct me here because there's gonna be a lot of inaccuracies. But the uh, I think Jones was that first stand, so that might be. But I love the the no stand single strap ping ul eate, which and then the hoofer would have.

Been in the nineties.

And but I believe that the second, the double strap ping L eight, was like the greatest bag ever made. Now for a quick word from our sponsor, Club Champion. Yeah, that's uh, that's Nick's company they started. They have their biggest promo going on right now.

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It's not about you know brands, it's about what's best for you. So go to club champion dot com. They have their best deal of the year with the fittings and use the chromo code one hundred fried Fried to get this deal. Thanks, and back to our retro bags with Nick Sherburn. All right, I got to ask you, so we're moving to the nineties and to be something that I when I was doing this that stuck out was like, this has to be like the golf shaft. This is just the this is the decade of like

Yeah, I was a high schooler and I wanted to get customized, started learning met Everett started a business in the late nineties. That now here we are twenty four years later. But I mean, we'll jump into it. Like for me, I put driver, I put the callaway Big Bertha the tailor made burner in the nine to seventy five D. And the funny part is is the burner came out. I had no money, could my family could never afford it. But my best friend, whose dad could afford it and was a huge golfer, who got me

That's like an incredible graandmar teaching you like like this is the way, this is what borrowing money is. You know, yep, I have I have five written down. One comical one that I have to fit in is the Wilson fat shaft.

Ooh hey, a lot of people bought those things though, I know.

But my cousin up until like five years ago, he's a good player, played in high school, like really good player. Still just had the five five wood fat shaft in his bag and he would just take it out and practice swing. So you'd hear the wooshing. What was the principal behind the bubble shaft? That was a question I had for you.

Yeah, you know, I used to know the answer to this, and I'm going to guess on what it is because I don't really remember after all this time.

But I did, I mean obviously knew it one time. I want to say.

What they were trying to create was a little bit higher kick points, so like you know, it's firmer up there at the at the top and you know, but not make it play stiff, so like you had a normal handle, right, Like a lot of times, if you make a shaft that's supposed to be kind of lower launching, lower spinning, it's gonna play really stiff for most people that think, you know, they really can't swing it. The bubble shaft allows you to have more of a normal

Well.

Yeah, so the I gained a lot of my high school career was a great big Bertha with the pro force. That's obviously, and there I feel I've hard pressed to like put it over the big Bertha, which was, like you know, obviously like a transcendent club The other one I had was the ping tis I, and I had it in here.

I feel like everybody used it.

And the thing that I like think is comical about it was how the weight in the back like always popped.

Out, always fell out. Now here's the other thing, that hozzle. Okay, So the ping ice I was huge, and you know I owned one of those because that was later like when we we had the business going so and so we didn't sell ping of time. We couldn't get an account, but we had tons of people would come to us and want reshafted. For folks that may not know that

It was a great, great driver.

I think like that the title is run from this point and drivers was really great with the D, the J and then the K like those all three of those drivers were spectacular. There was something about the aesthetic look of the titleist at that time.

Oh so good, so clean. I mean that night, I mean, I loved my nine seventy five D. I thought that was just like the greatest thing ever. And then I you know, that was when I was starting to get really into club building. And you know, you had a three and a half inch bore through which just stiff in the crap out of the shaft. That was one of the things that helped them, you know, keep the spin and launch down, just like I believe you know,

I had. I had a lot of fun with that driver.

That had to mess with like fittings right that the shaft would come out way stiffer than actual right, I mean that's not you couldn't you had to boor through shaft.

It's not like you could pop it enough.

Yeah, and you couldn't measure as much stuff back then. So that was back when we really had to be like artists to a degree and kind of know what was going to happen because there wasn't a lot of ways to measure it back then.

So I'm gonna go with the I'll go with I'm gonna go with the D. I never I never had the big bubble shaft. I you know, that was something I always wanted that. One of the things about the burner bubble is underrated things just the color of it.

Well, so I ended up I got a driver. I ended up, you know, over time, building up to buy these things or whatever. I remember I used the three wood for a super long time. And actually back in the day, I used to not use a T. I used to take the like the toe of that three wood, hit it in the ground, create like a dipple, and then put the ball on top of it and smoke it off the T.

That's what I would do.

And so over time the copper paint would wear off and this thing just looked like a nightmare. And then eventually, just like I did with the S two h two, just like I did with the three wood the PT, I eventually just made them all shiny, buff them up, made them shiny.

I there was something with the D.

If you took the finish off the nine seventy five D, it looked really cool too.

This this was like the time.

When you took finish off and it was like they you know, that was like the ways you know, you had the inside out had cover, you know, guys that had to finish off, like you're kind of worried about the like it was like, I feel like in junior golf at this time, and I don't know if it's like this because I'm not a junior golfer anymore, but there is like certain people's bags intimidated you.

Yeah, absolutely I tried to be one of those people. I didn't have the funds to do it, but luckily I knew how to use my two hands. And were you know, coming from a smaller farm community and didn't getting into golf and having no money, You're like, okay, I got to figure this out. And I've seen how other things get worked on, so I'm like, what's the difference to golf club.

I can work on this nowadays.

I don't know if, like you know, with all them in different materials, I don't know if I would be buffing out a driver, but actually I can tell you I would not be. But back then, we you know, that was solid head drivers, steal whatever. You could just go to town on them.

Yeah, all right, three woods, this is this is maybe the hardest nineties spareaway woods. It's maybe the hardest selection of all.

Yeah.

So, like I said, my number one would have probably been the title is PT. I loved it, the Tiger effect, all that stuff I'd get, you know, I loved play. I had an stoh two, I liked playing too, so it was like a similar kind of size kind of thing. And then if it wasn't that, it would have been the tailor made burner for me. That's what it would have been.

So I have a bunch listed here. I couldn't not like, I couldn't help myself. I think I'd take the pet. I mean, I honestly may never get rid of it. But also in here you cannot you cannot not have oral of ar trimetal.

Yeah.

So it's funny you mentioned that because obviously when I was looking going down my rabbit holes and looking people and actually I was talking with one of our general managers here for the Central and I was like, he's like, you got to put the Olamar on there. I'm like, dude, I didn't like the Olamar when I was there. It wasn't for me. I did not I didn't like that shallowhead. I just I'm a steep player. I didn't like it. Everybody loved it. Obviously, they sold a kadrillion of him.

He brought it up.

I saw it in every article I looked at when I was doing this, I just couldn't put it on my list.

I swear there's something with like launch conditions, right like obviously this was a time like that shallow Head made the ball get up in the air, and I had a seventeen degree or Lamar that went like almost as far as my driver, Like it was just it was a beat, like you could just hammer the thing it was and I'm a shallow swigger, so like it was just like perfect for me that that three would It's that whole business case is like an unbelievable like kind

Build with Lamar.

Now I will say like as a club, as a as a club fitter and a club junkie, that was the first like super technology wise fairwwood like super hot, super easy to hit ball in the airth like it was the one that you know, really got that firing up.

The other thing is direct to consumer brand in the nineties like almost like you know, almost ahead of their time if you think about like society in general, right like way ahead of their time in terms of especially a golf which is usually a little bit slower like innovation front, but like they were direct to consumer like if that you know, that's like what every brand and consumer care you know or consumer like is doing direct to consumer. They were doing it in the nineties. Fascinating,

Well, similar story, I mean in a early way. But uh now I did try that. It was okay for me, not the best, but yeah, that was another huge one back in the day. I think I had an E seventy in that one when I played it.

Other other ones I had Callaway Steelhead. I think that at the very end of the nineties, those were spectacular. And then you can't not say the big birth of war birds because they had the heaven Wood and the divine nine.

Steel had for me was I played that for one year and that was that thing.

Felt like a rocket ship.

Oh yeah, it was maybe that and Olamar. I don't know which one would have been hotter. They were pretty close, but that thing was It felt and looked like a rocket ship.

Yeah, those things went forever, all right, Irons.

So I had for me the title is nine sixty twos, and.

I could have said that here too. I could have said the nine sixty two bees. I was trying to think of what I would play. I'd want to play the Bees because two our guys played them, but I probably wouldn't. I played the nine sixty twos, and I actually put rifle six point five shafts because that's what I would have played, an original precision rifle six point In fact, I had a set of six point five shafts in them and I thought they were just like the coolest things ever, and that was that was my

I mean spectacular choice.

I had them on here they were I was thinking about, like, this is like one of those irons, Like I immediately like when I was doing this, I was like, you know what, it'd be awesome to have a set of those. Those they are spectacular irons. Can I with the rifle shaft?

You know?

If I remember correct, the whole thing was they turned the shaft inside out right.

Well sort of, I mean so really, what what was cool about rifle is is if you take the steps out of it, Okay, it gets thicker, quicker, and so the idea was is that you were going to get this little bit different feel, a little bit different performance. The other thing is is you could create a little bit easier, like better like tipping situation. So when what I mean by that is they could rate a blank shaft where you could tip off, you know, take uh, mass off the tip, mass off the butt and kind

That's uh, that was a big change.

I think I got them like late late nineties, maybe early two thousands. I don't know when the ping I three came out, but I had them in those uh the uh the others I had on here, the Hogan Apex blades at this time, ye were like, I mean, if you want to blaze set of blades like those, those are among the most gorgeous irons ever. And then the Mizuno Tezoid, the t zoid like pro amazing irons. One of the guys that works for US Cavern Herds

Those were awesome.

We sold those actually in ninety eight or ninety nine whatever, we sold those.

What was the other one?

It had a black face and it was actually it could have an illegal face.

It was illegal.

You could change it in and out.

Yeah, I can't remember the name of it. And they had the infomercial where they would like hit balls onto like a parking lot and it would backspin in a parking lot on you know whatever. You just reminded me of those two shit. I didn't think about Dot Puercepin Diamond Diamond Face. Wedges definitely had them sold them. I actually went just old school with mine and I went Voky four hundred series. That was the first like votis and I got them and I thought they were like

So yeah, voke felt like a startup within Titleist right because it didn't have like that Titleist brand. It was their Vokes, and it's it's an interesting case study of like the idea of like having something that's different within your brand.

Absolutely and he paid off for him looking at it this year's I mean, vokes still sell better than about any other wedge on the market at this point. Part of that's their options and just grinds and everything that they do. And I think it also lends to show like when you're super focused on something, how you can make it really good. I think that's something Titleist has been good at, Like, hey, we got Scotty that does putters, focus on putters. We got Vokey that focus on wedges,

So I only put one, and again it's this is nostalgia for me.

I did Scottie Cameron Corona and that's because I back in Central Illinois. You do a thing as a kid called the tasseline. It's like the worst job you could ever do. You basically get paid for six weeks during the summer to walk up and down cornfields and pull the top of the corn out the tassel they call it, and it's how you pollinate it. And you get paid, like at the time it was like minimum wage. I think I got like five and a quarter or something

It was awesome. That was my putter.

I think there are two choices here and they're Scottie Cameron's and it's the oil Can and oil Can series or what I chose, which is the Scottie Cameron to Rellium.

I never had one as a kid.

This is something that I at that rummage garage of the rummage sale yours. I found a beat up one and then I paid like at the time, like one hundred bucks to ship it into Titleists and they sent me back one. But like to me, there was no greater envy than somebody that had like a fresh trillium Scottie Cameron putter.

So the long neck Carillium to this day is still one of my favorite putters in my arsenal. I thought I bought it probably twelve years after they they came out, found a beat up one, had it completely refinished. It's sick and it's still one of my favorite putters today.

And obviously Odyssey at this time had like that rossy ballot that was like a big one, and then you had like the they I had a blade, an Odyssey Blade. I think they called it the Pro Force maybe yep, it was yep. I love that putter too, But those were what I gave. I couldn't I at this point, I could not afford to get like a four hundred to really im putters as a kid.

Yeah, same, I couldn't get it trillium at the time. I did, like I said, save up for that oil can and use that for a long time. But yeah, the the the honorable mention I had because that was still I mean Steve Struckers, who make me think of that Pro Force. He used that thing forever. But that was a great putter. I never was a Rossie fan, but that that Pro Force was a great putter.

That Pro Force. I think there was something like with rain. They sometimes get messed up. The insert would get messed up with rain.

Oh they they over the years they had different yeah, different things with heat or rain on all those inserts. And you know, at the time, not many people were doing a lot of inserts. That was like what inserts were becoming like more of a thing. Like I think Ping had their like the one that had like the pixels. I can't remember what the name of it was.

Things.

Yeah, I think I think DJ Singh might have want to turn somebody won something with that, and then everybody, every kid I knew, wanted one. But yeah, that was when inserts were coming. I mean, you can even say I called it the Nubbins putter. But what was the tailor made.

I was gonna bring this up the basketball I think it was, and they put the basketball, they put it outside of a basketball on the face.

I just remember, like I would go to the store.

Because we didn't sell tailor at the time, So we were more like custom brands at the time in the late nineties, like Kzgs and all these little you know, Wood Brothers and stuff. We didn't have a lot of big accounts because we were just new and nobody knew us, and we couldn't really afford it. So I would if I wanted something like big custom brand, I didn't have to go to the store like anybody else. Even though I had a little golf shot and I remember I

What happened?

So I can't remember if it was the end of the nineties or the early two thousand for that putter.

I haven't In the two thousand, I wasn't sure.

I couldn't find the I was looking online trying to figure out when it was.

It was right around that two thousand.

Yeah, yeah, that butter is one of the most interesting design experiments of all time because it was like it was bad. They put a basketball the feel of a basketball on the house. Wait what yeah, all right, two thousands. I think we got to keep this early two thousands. I hope you kept it early two thousands because.

I tried to.

I feel like once you once you hit the five sixty with that uh with the tailor made, that's when everything like kind of changed and uh so, well.

I did the I did. I tried to keep it as early as possible, but I could. I didn't find the year like I did five five the R five eighty TP, I want to say that was like two thousand and two, two thousand and three. I didn't like look it up, look it up, But that was one of the coolest all time drivers to me. Of all, you had to be the five eighty TP. You couldn't just do the normal five AD. You had to be the TP.

It had that little stamp on the toe that you knew was the TP.

Right, that was like that you knew it was.

Hey, if you had that stamp on the first you were cool.

Now what about the Graffalloyd Blue.

Well, First of all, Hendrick Stenson played that. He might still play it in a fairy Wood. I know he was trying to get out of it for a long time, but that was like the first like super low launch, super low spin, stiff feelings golf shaft to me, like when I think about golf shafts and what felt like a poll that was a graph Alloy blue.

That shaft I think was it.

Aldela had the NVS the green one around this time too, well.

They had had the NVY green. They had an MVS that was orange, but at the time they had the green that killed it. Then you had the Grafoy blue and then the Fuji speeder, which the TP that five any TP came stock with a Fuji speeder.

Yes, that was a great driver that that TP. I didn't have that on here. And now I kind of like aim like, well, that was like kind of the driver that kind of like the three hundred I had the Tailor made three hundred series because I feel like that that kind of started the run of like iconic Tailor made drivers.

But I guess you go back.

To the burner, and the Burner was great, but like I feel like where they like in the two thousands is where Taylor made just like all of a sudden became this like dominant driver company and what I have because this was a personal driver that I used forever that I just like, I used it until it cracked. I had that Akra. I had an acroshaft in it. It was the titleist nine eighty three k that that driver was fit by by you guys. I think that's

Oh, that was their believe it or not, that was their original shaft. It was a I think it was called the SC series or something, and that was Akra's launch shaft. I mean, Akro was kind of part of us team me and it was kind of this thing. And when they broke off on their own, that red and black was their first shaft on their own. I

Yeah. Other one I have here is the Launcher, the Cleveland Launcher. I thought that was a great driver that they made.

It was a good driver.

I loved the fairway Wood more than the driver, believe it on my side, and I played that fairway Wood for a good chunk of time there in that The driver.

Was really good too.

I mean, we we fit and sold a bunch of perform good but the Fairwaywood really stood out to me with that one.

All right, Fairleywoods, I'll start. I had the Akra.

I had the Fairwaywood acroshaft too, and it was in a Sonar at tech SSO three three wood, which I believe like that. I don't think there's ever been a better three wood made in the history of golf than the Sonar tech SSO three, And i'm that might be something I go to the grave with.

It was so good.

And on top of it, for a club maker like myself, it was bendable because at that time, like drivers were starting to get a little harder to bend, like back when it was per sem and you were screwed. It was what it was unless you were custom making a Persimon driver and then you could kind of adjust it. But like a lot of these dry and then when they came out, these little metal heads. A lot of

One. I liked it. You were a little bit better player than me.

I felt like it was a little less forgiving, So like you, if you didn't hit it on the screwsy and get away with it. The draw the fairy wood I chose to pick was because I played a lot, because it was forgiving, it was easier. Was the tailor made two hundred steel and okay, and believe it or not, I'm such a geek. On tour that used to peel away the paint from the face up the up the hozzle, and the idea was it would make the driver look or the ferry would look more square or open and address.

The I had the V steal in here too. The tailor made V steal. That was a I mean, I think you could play that right now and it would be you know, you like you'd you'd be happy with your three wood. The other thing I had at one point, I can't remember when this was. I had a Steelhead plus foward and I thought the Stelhead plus was like a great, great fairaway wood that never gets talked about.

The three woods.

At this time were just rockets, like the ball came off three woods so insanely hot.

Another honorable mention would be Tour Edge, their original exotic CB or CB two. That would be another one we need to add to the list, because that thing was awesome too.

That the tour Edge when was it original? And the Bazuka I remember the Bazukas. Wait, that might have been a nineties three wood.

Yeah, I think it was definitely that.

It was like ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand was Bazuka and then Bazuka kind of lived on for a little bit too.

Beyond that.

Yeah, the Bazukas were good too, too, But the two, the Exotic was the one that took it to the next level.

And man, that thing was good.

All right, irons, So I put the well, actually, I'll just say this, this is where I put a rescue. Taylor Iburn in there, and I said the tailor made rescue only because it was kind of like the O G one.

And I hit the crap out of it and I used it forever.

They had the titlest one too, right, the titleist what was the titleist one?

Original one?

They were They were early, but it was almost more of like a driving iron.

It had the screw at the bottom of it or the rights.

I'm gonna look that one up. I forgot about it, but you're right. And Sonar Tech had theirs too, and that thing drove nails too.

That was pretty good.

The Todd Hamilton, Uh hi.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

But going to irons, I put the tour preferred uh two preferred irons for me, and that might have been more like oh five, so it might not be super early, but for me, they were a set of irons that I loved playing and I still today would probably love playing.

They just looked good. They felt good at the time. To me.

They were like that first like as a person, it's like a fot that floats between like a five and eight. It was the first iron that I felt looked like what I wanted to play, which is like what every tour player plays, right, but I felt like I was getting the forgiveness and speed of more of a game IMPROVEMN iron.

I love them and I still have a set.

I haven't played him a long time, although doing this exercise makes me want to take them out and play them again.

But yeah, that was my.

All right, I got here.

I've got three irons that I that I'm going to highlight. The Titleist nine nineties. I thought those were gorgeous irons. The Miszuno MP thirty threes, which I use for so long.

Well, that's a good one.

I had a combo set of of MP thirty threes that you guys built that blended to MP sixties in the three, four and five, and I thought they were just like that. I gave them to my buddy. I'm actually I'm so mad at my friend. My friend is like, he's roommate. He's like, I want to start playing golf. Do you have clubs? And I'm like, these are gonna be awful for you to hit, but you can use these, and there I gave them my my Mizuno irons.

He then turned around and gave them to somebody else who sold them.

Well, oh that's yeah, that's dangerous.

Like I used these clubs for you know, something like ten ten years maybe, and he just sold them down the river. But anyways, the final one, the Nike pro Combos, I thought were really cool, innovative irons.

I don't know was Mira making those at that time?

Well, that's what everybody says, and I believe it to be true. I could never get a total answer out of like anybody at Mira, but I think they were.

Was was Nike har hard goods, sneaky like kind of underrated for a few years.

I believe so like that. So that what was the original Blue Driver, I don't remember the name of it. Those were actually really good woods. The irons I played whatever it was there, pro forged combo set, you know, I yeah, I mean, honestly, Nike made a lot of good stuff. I mean you could sit there and make people make fun of the square sumo whatever thing. Honestly, the sumo, I mean it sounded horrible, it looked horrible, it actually perforrible really well. And actually the Square Hybrid

In fact, I missed.

There was a Fujikura a time had a chef called the rum Box, one of my favorite Fuji chefs of all time.

And then the yellow one.

Can't remember the name of it, if it was y or something, and they had like three different series and what the name was, but it was a yellow one and had I had shimmed a wood shaft into that Sumo hybrid. It was a total Frankensige off. The never hit a hybrid better in my life. Of course, being a club junkie, you know, I switch, I go to the next thing, and then somebody took it. Never got

You know, they were satin so they rusted and it was great.

I mean the rusted wedges at this at this period of time I remember, and this might have been more of the nineties. I remember I had like a wedge and I used to put like a damp washcloth over it to get it to rust more at night, like before before a tournament.

Just like absurd stuff that you'd do as a kid.

Jesus, Yeah, I mean I what else did I do to golf clubs? I mean I definitely painted them, I definitely rusted them. Yeah, I did a lot. I mean that was what's fun. I feel like today they're not as easy to customizeable. You got to send them to do things because all the materials and stuff that are in them. But you can still do a lot of stuff to make them fun. But there was all I mean, this was like wedges were huge that you know. I used so many different wedges, but those Cleveland nine hundred

They had the gun metal finish.

I feel like they were the first, maybe the first one that did the gun metal the black finish.

Yeah, I think you're right. Who else did gun metal? They might I think they were the first. I mean Cleveland was one of the first to do like a lot of different finishes on wedges. Like Voki really didn't get into it well till Well passed Cleveland. I can't think of any others. Yeah, that'll be I'll go down that later. How that you say that? So I'll be googling like wedges again from the night of two thousands, trying to remember I had a sixty.

I had a nine Cleveland, nine hundred and sixty degree. That was gun metal. That's how I just like remember, and I think I won it. I wanted it a caddy tournament. I think it was I wanted at the at a Conway Farms caddy tournament.

I won that gun metal sixty degree for something.

Yeah, they definitely had gun metal.

They did raw like raw gun metal, and chrome I think were the three colors you got to choose, their three finishes you got to choose from in those and I think they were the first ones to do that dark more gun metal finish like So, but that's what I'm interested to remember.

All right.

The last but not least the putters. I have the Odyssey two ball.

So it's funny my notes right here show Odyssey two ball. So like again, we could list off, you know, one hundred putters, right, and so I was just trying to think, like what was iconic a what did I play be? You know all those things, and I ended up not playing the two ball a super long time, but I'll

Unbelievable.

That was, yeah, everybody had one. If I remember, there was some controversy about like with the with it, whether it would be conforming, and they wanted to do like the the three I think they wanted originally to have three balls, but the USCA and RNA was like and it might have been that it was gonna be longer, the putter was gonna be too long front of from the face to the back then wide, and that might

That was the RC had the super hot face whatever. You had the C four driver which was all carbon. I think they questioned that and then right, yeah, the two ball. There was also some shafts back in the day. I don't know if you remember the shaft's stults. I

Yeah, leave it with me. I'll put a sightline on it.

You know. I did that myself, and it was a disaster.

I had the first the first ball was perfect, but the back one was all crooked and it was like I did it with sharpie.

I could never get it out of it.

It's not easy like it's especially because it has a little bit of a curvature, it kind of goes down.

I had to find.

I finally found this piece of metal that was really flimsy, and I would use it as my straight edge and then I would tape it on there, and then I always would use a brand new sharp sharpie and so like, and then that way I got a really crispline. But it would it was always and stilled the day like trying to make sure it was centered, because once it's on there, it's on there, So it was always like, okay, let's hope I do it correct.

You know, one thing I realized we didn't hit on this, But I'm just gonna run down off the top of my head what I would do for golf balls. You know, if we did nineties, I would say there was a few. There's the professional, the titleist, professional, the strata, the top fight strata that obviously Hal Sutton used the Maxly Revolution. And then I would also throw in remember when Wilson had the titanium balls.

I was about all.

I didn't know if you were going to talk about titanium golf balls, but I was going to bring it up. Yeah, I mean I played the professional. That was like back then, all the kids Taylor made had a ball that came in those little weird tubes that I thought was so cool. I don't remember what they were called. They were like Taylor made Red and Taylor made Black or something like that.

And then the last, obviously the pro V one, was when it changed everything and you had the seam on the pro V one, the original prov one, I'll never forget. You tee it up with a driver with the seam going towards your target and then if you're using an iron, you moved you tee it with the titleist, and that that obviously changed changed everything at that point.

Yeah, that was a good ball man nostalgia.

I'll never forget the first time I played a pro V.

One in a tournament. It was nuts.

Yeah, same, Nick, this was super fun. We'll have to have you back. We're gonna come up with some more of these. This was This was so I I mean, I had so much fun researching. I mean, I was telling my wife how much fun. She has no clue about anything about golf. I'm just like, I'm really all these childs I ever and uh.

And we'll have you back.

But but thank you so much for coming on and uh and we'll talk sometime soon.

Thanks again. I had a blast doing it was fun.

Thank you for listening to today's podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed that as much as I did. And I hope everybody had a great and safe Thanksgiving. We will be back next week with more episodes. We've got a big company announcement coming pretty soon that I'm excited about that.

Talk to you soon.