Skip to main content

The $50 Thrift Store Golf Challenge Part Deux

 Last winter, I set out on a journey - a budget of $50 to assemble a complete, useable set of golf clubs.  My rules were as follows:

  1. Total budget of $50 for everything (including clubs, bag, balls, and tees)
  2. A standard, USGA-conforming set...that is, a maximum of 14 clubs
  3. All clubs must be in USGA compliance - no mega-sized drivers or "illegal'' wedges
  4. The irons must be a complete set - wedges and woods can be piecemeal
For the 2022 season, I've added a little hitch:  The set must be period correct from the mid 1990s.  My earliest golf memories were playing at the now-defunct Rolling Hills Golf Course in Hudsonville, MI in 1996, 1997, and 1998, so Part Deux of the $50 Thrift Store Golf Challenge is my attempt to pay homage to those early days.  As such, I've been using a lot of information from Golfclubspec.com, the PGA Value Guide, and 2nd Swing to nail down production dates of clubs.  

All that being said, I've got the foundations of a set already started:



Hogan Edge irons - not the forged ones that debuted in 1989, but the GCD set that debuted in 1994.  I found a 2i through PW set (with bag) for $16.

Not pictured, and I'm trying to find a date on these, but I've also found a Callaway Big Bertha Steelhead driver and 3 wood, which seem to date from 1998.  Those were a set for $3.

There's also an Adams Tight Lies Air Assault GT 5 wood, which based on looking up the patent numbers on the US Patent Office website, seem to place this club between 1994 and 1997.  This was purchased individually for $2.

As of this writing, I have a putter (Titleist Bullseye, from sometime between the 1950s and the 1970s), and a series of wedges (the earliest from the 1980s, and the rest from the 2000s and later).  The spirit of this experiment, as mentioned above, is to celebrate my earliest exposures to golf, and to expand on the previous $5 Thrift Store Challenge by looking for specific bits of gear that meant something to me in those early years.  

On the one hand, I have a complete set of clubs if you include the putter and wedges in the paragraph above.  On the other hand, they don't have that sentimental draw that the Hogan irons and the Callaway woods do.  I'll be keeping an eye out - I've got a few new gems; some thrift stores that have a wonderful selection of golf clubs, here in Tulip City.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cedar Swamp Village

Holland has only been a settled city for a little over 170 years. But, it's got a dense, unique history. I took an interest in local history during my college years at Northern Michigan University, and was able to take that interest back home after graduation. Recently, I began researching for this blog, and hanging out at the library, poring through the Local History section. I found an old, forboding looking book, entitled Memorials Of The Grand River Valley, flipped open to a seemingly random page, and read the passage "The Indian village, near the southeastern limits of the city,w as also a prominent landing-place. The log-houses, built by the Indians, were of great service to the newly arrived immigrants; and, as it appears, there never has been any trouble between the Red man and the Dutchman." This piqued my interest, as I live near the southeastern limits of Holland. Was there an Indian village in my own neighborhood that history forgot? Memorials ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Rebuttal To *Robert Evans: The Joe Rogan Of The American Left*

 User TheOriginalBigDave on Reddit recently wrote the following scathing review of Robert Evans and his content material , instead calling Robert Evans "The Ben Shapiro Of The American Left:" Yeah, you heard me. I know this is the most unpopular thing to post, but it's been bouncing around in my head for a while, and I couldn't think of another place to say it. Know what the difference is between Robert Evans and Ben Shaprio? Ben Shaprio probably makes less money then Robert Evans. Otherwise, they're the exact same. Shapiro says don't trust the media because its controlled by the democrats, Evans says don't trust the media because they manufacture consent. Both of them do the whole contrarian 'Im just saying' bullshit, both of them indirectly encourage streetfighting and buying firearms for 'self-defence', both of them actively want a second American Civil War, and both of them have come real close to advocating for the assassinat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Merry Christmas from Tulip City!

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more