Quote:
Originally Posted by wb4tjh
The natural wooden clubs do look beautiful, unlike the harsh - almost military styling these days, but I would find it hard to part with over $500 for something so old fashioned.
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I assure you, the Louisville Golf persimmons are NOT old fashioned. They are as modern a design as any tin cup sounding, overpriced, Red Chinese robot made, metal club out there. Their modern Niblick fairway woods have over 75% of their headweight BELOW the equator of the ball. NO modern metal fairway wood even comes close to that. There is NOTHING old fashioned about the way they get the ball off the ground. I have been playing my Niblicks for 5 years. Try one, and you will see. They are on sale, right now, too.  |
Well, no disrespect for Louisville, but they weight their clubs the same way that all wood-headed clubs have always been weighted; by boring a hole in the bottom of the club, pressing a hunk of lead into it and then putting the sole plate on. Later, when adjustments are made, additional lead in the form of lead powder is added either through a port designed into the sole plate, or by removing the sole plate and adding weight to a specific area by drilling a hole, adding the lead and then re-attaching the sole plate and finally checking the swingweight.
I like Louisville clubs, but I believe that a true persimmon headed club is a through-shafted club with a whipped hosel and that whipping is what signifies its craftsmanship and gives it its charm, as well as its authenticity. Just making a head out of persimmon and then boring a hole in its hosel to accept a metal sleeve into which a graphite shaft is inserted is not all that much different than any other driver or fairway wood made today, save for the material from which it's made .
It is entirely possible to make a through-bore wooden headed club using a modern graphite shaft and then whipping the shaft in place in the manner employed by clubmakers throughout history. But like everything else made today, ease of shaft removal and "changeability" must be placed over craftsmanship, which is why Louisville falls just short, in my opinion, with regard to true "traditional" standards. That's a shame, because they "almost" got it, otherwise.
-JP