- 3 hours ago
Joe Ferguson builds his ultimate golf bag from 2002 for under £450 from golfclubs4cash as tests them against clubs from today.
The results surprised us.
The results surprised us.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Right, welcome back everybody. Today I'm going to take you for a little walk down memory lane.
00:04I've put together my ultimate bag of 2002.
00:13So I've teamed up with Golf Clubs for Cash, one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment,
00:18and they've helped me find some absolute gems as they do for a load of these videos.
00:22So if you want to know more about those, check them out in the description below.
00:25But why 2002? Well, I was 19 years old, so I'd just come out on my junior days,
00:32and I was getting particularly obsessed with golf equipment.
00:35So what you see in this bag is kind of a look into my brain in 2002, and I've got some absolute beauty.
00:40So let's get started with the driver.
00:42So for my driver from 2002, I've picked the tailor-made R510TP.
00:48Now this one holds a very special place in my heart because it was actually the first ever club I got for free.
00:53I just started getting on the England squads at that point.
00:55And they start offering you a bit of equipment.
00:57This is the very first individual golf club that I ever didn't have to pay for.
01:01So it really is dear to my heart because of that.
01:03And it was an absolute cracker.
01:05I kept this driver, I think, for nearly three years.
01:07I found it superb, hence why it's made the bag here.
01:11Now I've picked this up for $29.99 from Golf Clubs for Cash.
01:15And this was used back in the day by players like Ian Poulter, Paul McGinley,
01:19who were both tailor-made staffers at that time.
01:21And it was designed to give you a really sort of low penetrating ball flight.
01:25Interestingly, sort of contrary to what we do nowadays, the TP head, which is kind of the better player head, if you like,
01:31was actually 60 cc bigger than the more generic kind of core model that they made.
01:37It was just the 510, not the 510TP, which is a little unusual.
01:41Normally it's different nowadays.
01:43They flip that around and try and give you more mass in the sort of the more mass market model, if you like.
01:48What I found really interesting when looking this driver up was the tech story.
01:52And why I found it interesting is because it's kind of the same as it is today.
01:56We're 23 years on now.
01:59And I found the actual sell sheet for the R510TP.
02:02And they're talking about, I'll probably pop it up on the screen for you now.
02:05They're talking about creating the biggest area they've ever had above the CG to allow you to hit above the CG,
02:12creating those high launch and low spin shots.
02:14Where have we heard that before?
02:16Well, that was the whole story from the QI35 range this year.
02:20So again, 20 plus years on, we're talking about really similar stuff.
02:24So I was really interested to see this similar technology, how it performs.
02:28So I've hit a few up against each other.
02:29Let's take a look at them and I'll come back with the data.
02:46Well, that's just taken me right back to my happy place.
02:59I really enjoyed hitting that R510TP.
03:02But what I didn't enjoy as much was the data, which is pretty comprehensive when we talk about the difference between this and that QI35LS that I was hitting.
03:12Now, there are some mitigating circumstances.
03:14I've been completely fully fit for the QI35 model there.
03:18It's got a very expensive upcharged shaft.
03:22It's got the Ventus Black, the new Ventus Black in there.
03:24So that model of driver is going to set you back the best part in that specification, best part of 800 pounds.
03:31This is less than 30 pounds.
03:33So we're always going to see some of that difference.
03:35Most notable differences would be the ball speed.
03:37So I was getting eight miles an hour more out of the QI35LS, the spin rate.
03:42So this was spinning up a little bit more, kind of 2,600 revs as opposed to about the 2,000 mark with that LS, which obviously resulted in some sort of distance discrepancies, the best part of 30 yards in carry.
03:55But like I said, this isn't all about that performance.
03:58There's some intangibles here at play, some unquantifiable stuff.
04:01I absolutely loved looking down on this again, the sort of squat head in behind the ball, the slightly neater profile and the feel off the face.
04:10It's just exceptional.
04:11It's just a really deep feedback.
04:14It's unlike anything on the market today.
04:16Feel has really changed over time.
04:18And I would expect the performance, as I said, to be a lot, lot different.
04:22There's been 20 years.
04:23It's one of the main focuses for all these equipment companies is driver.
04:27It tends to be the flagship model.
04:28It's where the most research goes, so you're likely to see these jumps.
04:32However, could I still gain this to an extent and be reasonably competitive?
04:37Yeah, I think I could.
04:37I was still getting out there 285 yards through the air.
04:40The extra spin might keep it in play a little bit more.
04:43So quite frankly, you're not going to talk me out of things.
04:46I still like this driver.
04:47This was my first love and I'm sticking with it.
04:49So my choice for fairway wood.
04:51Now I've got this again for under 30 pounds.
04:53This is £24.99.
04:55This is the Callaway Steelhead 3.
04:57This followed on from the original Steelhead and the Steelhead 2, as you would imagine.
05:02And this was around the time where Callaway were really dominating the fairway wood market.
05:07I would argue nowadays in 2025, for me, TaylorMade tend to have that title, particularly on tour.
05:13We've seen the QI10 and the QI35 this year in a lot of players' bags, non-contracted players as well,
05:19which is really where you sort of get the sign of what's working out on tour.
05:22Now this was a three-piece construction.
05:26So it had a very light but strong crown and that was welded to a very heavy face and body.
05:31So to try and manipulate that CG a little bit lower, provide the launch that we all know.
05:37And I saw this in so many players' bags around this time at 19.
05:40That was my county era when I was getting in England squads and things like that.
05:43And this was really that better player fairway wood that everyone who was anyone had in the bag.
05:50You were cool if you had one of these Steelhead 3s.
05:52One other thing that I think is really interesting to note and sort of harks to the difference between the times we're in now
05:59is they added this little kind of collar, this little loft sleeve, they call it, this ferrule, even though it had nothing to do with the loft, shaft sleeve more like.
06:08And the reason they added this shaft sleeve was because shafts back, even 20 years ago, were a little bit more prone to breakage.
06:16They weren't as sturdy and well-manufactured as they are today.
06:19And Callaway, who always historically and characteristically used very, very short ferrules, didn't have much support for that bottom piece of the shaft.
06:28They've actually added this little plastic piece between the head and the shaft as kind of a structural element to make sure we're not breaking as many shafts as we were.
06:37So that should tell you a bit of difference between the manufacturing between now and back then.
06:42So again, I want to compare it to something today.
06:44This is 17 degrees of loft because I've got forward here.
06:47So I've got a Callaway AI Smoke Paradigm 5 wood, which comes in 18 degrees of loft.
06:52That's the closest I could get for comparison.
06:54Let's hit some away again and we'll check the data.
07:17Interesting.
07:18So the first initial reaction when I hit my first shot, I fell back in love.
07:24It felt so sort of a tingy strike to it, a little bit of a spring and that kind of tingy sound that really took me back to that era.
07:31A lot of the clubs nowadays with the introduction of multi-material crowns and carbons and things like that have just got a little bit duller, which some people love.
07:39I still like that kind of feedback and the liveliness that you get from something that's got a bit of that zing to it.
07:46And that's what I was really feeling from the steelhead there.
07:48And in terms of the performance, it really still stacked up.
07:52I mean, again, ball speed was a little bit down.
07:55So 150 miles per hour I was getting with my steelhead and the AI Smoke produced about nine more.
08:01So, again, similar to the driver there.
08:04We're seeing similar levels of discrepancy.
08:06The spin, however, was very interesting.
08:09So 3,600 revs I was getting from my steelhead, which is about where I'd like to see this peak in.
08:15And as I mentioned, the AI Smoke did have another degree of loft on it, and maybe that was contributing to the extra spin that I saw from that.
08:22So I was getting kind of the 4,200, 4,300 revolutions per minute mark.
08:28But it resulted in a very, very similar kind of carry.
08:32There was only six yards in it in terms of carry.
08:34And, again, when we're talking 20-plus years between these clubs, I could quite comfortably game this and only spend £25.
08:42Right, I hope you're enjoying this little look back.
08:45And if you are, if you could hit that like button and subscribe to the channel, that'd be great.
08:49It really helps us.
08:50And comment down below, have I missed anything?
08:51Do you think I'm wrong?
08:53Have I had any glaring omissions that you'd like to have seen in this bag from 2002?
08:56Let me know.
08:57So into the irons now.
08:59Now, I've mixed it up a little bit in terms of genre here.
09:01I've gone a bit better player-y there with that tiny little steelhead forward and the TP driver.
09:07So I'm going with a bit more of a game improvement iron.
09:10And I've gone with the Ping i3 O-Size.
09:12So very much a cavity back, very much a game improvement style clubs.
09:17And I've picked this for a load of reasons.
09:20First of all, I kind of just wanted to demonstrate the durability of Ping clubs.
09:2420 years old, and this looks exactly the same as I'd have seen it when I would have seen it in 2002.
09:30They barely mark up.
09:32And that's what so many of you like about Ping clubs.
09:34You get so much time out of these clubs still looking in their original condition, which I think is great.
09:39Ping were one of the very first companies to get heavily involved in custom fitting.
09:44And their color coding system made it really easy for the players to understand what kind of lie angle and length requirements they had.
09:51You just knew you were a blue dot or a yellow dot or whatever it was.
09:55That was super simple for people to understand.
09:57And there was plenty of tech involved in this iron as well, despite the fact that it just looks like a lump of metal shaved into a cavity shape.
10:04This pad at the back that just looks like a decorative badge actually wasn't.
10:08It's kind of a, they called it a custom tuning port where they put a bit of material in behind there as well to help dampen vibrations and really help that sound.
10:17And even in the shaft of this golf club, Ping thought about that vibration dampening again with their cushion technology, which is basically a vibration dampening implement that goes down the shaft, sits at the fulcrum point, so 14 inches from the head.
10:33So it doesn't affect swing weight at all and just takes vibration out.
10:37So they were really getting in depth in how this club would feel for the player back then.
10:42So again, I want to hit a couple of ways, see how it performs up against the modern day equivalent.
10:46I've selected the Ping i530 to go against this.
10:49So let's hit a couple of ways and see what we get.
11:11Okay, some more interesting stuff.
11:17So there's a little bit of a theme developing here and it seems to be ball speed in these kind of full swing clubs.
11:24So like for like the seven irons there, five miles an hour in it more or less, four and a half miles per hour.
11:30So the i530 just jumping off a little bit quicker and that's what I've seen in my testing over recent years with a lot of these irons.
11:37We're dealing with more hollow bodied stuff with faster flexing faces.
11:40So ball speeds with tending to see that little bit of a jump in irons.
11:45Launch angle as I work up the data, pretty similar, a little bit lower from the i3, 15 and a half versus 16.6 and the spin rates are basically identical at 5,600 revs.
11:57And there wasn't too much in it in terms of the carry despite that sort of four and a half miles an hour ball speed difference.
12:03It's getting 189 out of the i3, which is still really healthy and 195 at the i530, which I expected because that's one of the hotter irons that I've tried recently.
12:14Looking at the data, could I gain that i3 today and not be worried at all?
12:18Absolutely.
12:19Into the wedges.
12:20Now, this was actually quite a difficult category for me and I've gone with probably the safer choice.
12:25We all know Vokey and I've got a Vokey 200 series here.
12:30Now, the reason I say it was a difficult choice for me is just before that era, Cleveland was the really fashionable choice.
12:37When I was a junior and in all those sort of squads that I've been talking about, all the better players had that Cleveland 588 wedge.
12:44And 2002 was about the time where Vokey started to get a little bit more mainstream.
12:50The first Vokey is around the 1999 sort of year and 2002, like I said, was when it was really getting established and really starting to see far more usage in better players' bags and on tour.
13:02And this is the first in the kind of 100 series, if you like.
13:05So this is one of the 200 series.
13:06We went on to 300 and 400 from there, obviously.
13:09I've got it in a 60 degree, this slob wedge, it's six degrees of bounce.
13:14And you'll see in a minute when I compare it with a modern day SM10, there's not masses of difference in terms of the overall profile or the look at all, really, because I've got that SM10 in a raw finish.
13:27So what I was really keen to explore here, going back 23 years as we are, spin retention, how much spin.
13:35We often hear about it from Titleist themselves saying, this is how often you need new wedges because your grooves wear out.
13:41And if you don't have spin, you don't have control.
13:43So I've got something that looks a little bit dinged up here.
13:46It's 20 plus years old.
13:48So let's get it on the launch monitor and find out how much spin we've actually lost.
13:51Okay, so I've come to use the GC Quad.
13:54I've got my 200 series in my hand.
13:56It's got six degrees of bounce.
13:58I've got a equivalent SM10 down there.
14:01It's the T-Grind at four degrees, closest I could get of what I had, again, in the raw finish.
14:06Let's just clip a few away and see what those spin rates look like.
14:09I've decided I'm not going to go full shots or chip shots.
14:12I'm going to go with kind of a three-quarter in the middle pitch shot for me, which will land hopefully around the sort of 75, 80-yard mark.
14:19And keep an eye on spin and launch here.
14:21I was a little bit low in the face, but I've pretty much hit my mark of 80 yards there.
14:30So it'll be interesting to see what that tells me in terms of launch and spin.
14:34So launching at 28 degrees, just over 10,000 revs of backspin.
14:39That's quite a lot of backspin for a shot of that length.
14:42Let's hit a few more away.
14:50Again, pretty good on my number.
14:51I think about 83 there maybe in terms of carry.
14:55Launching a little bit higher there near the 32-degree mark.
14:59But again, 10,600 revs of backspin.
15:03That's pretty healthy.
15:04Let's get one more for good measure.
15:06See if I can hit it just on the 80-yard mark.
15:0879, pretty good.
15:16Okay, interesting again there.
15:18So 33 degrees of launch.
15:20Really high backspin again there.
15:2210,700 revs.
15:24So I'd say we're averaging kind of 10,500 with that.
15:29I'll give you the exact details in a moment.
15:31And probably around 31 degrees of launch.
15:33Let's see what the SM10 has to offer.
15:35So using Pro V1 X balls here, just for your reference.
15:39So let's hit these 80-yard shots again.
15:47Okay, pretty good again there.
15:49About 78, I reckon.
15:5079.
15:5232 degrees of launch angle there.
15:54Just under.
15:55And 1,100 revs of backspin.
15:57So we're talking about 500 more there on that first one.
16:01I was expecting to see a little bit different maybe.
16:05Okay, 82 yards in terms of carrying.
16:14Similar numbers again there.
16:1531 degrees of launch.
16:1711,000, nearly 12,000 revs of backspin.
16:22So a touch more than what I'm seeing on the 200 series.
16:27But not by much.
16:28Give me one last one.
16:29Again, pretty consistent.
16:36I'm doing all right myself here today.
16:3731 degrees.
16:3831.4 of launch angle.
16:4110,800 and a bit of spin.
16:44Let's see what those actual averages stack up like.
16:46Well, that might be the closest comparison we've got yet between these clubs from different eras.
16:51The main sort of parameters I was looking at between the wedges here that I really wanted to see was spin rate and launch angle.
16:59Because what tends to happen when you go for a wedge that's older or its grooves are worn out, you tend to see that launch angle popping up and the spin rate coming down.
17:09So you kind of get that high launch, low spin shot, which we know is more synonymous with good driving of the golf.
17:15But what we're looking for in wedges is quite the opposite.
17:17You want a nice low launch with plenty of spin.
17:20That's what all the tour pros are after in terms of optimal flight conditions for scoring.
17:25So I was keen to see what we'd have there.
17:27Now, when I look at the 200 series, I was getting an average launch angle of 31.1 degrees, which is pretty standard for me from a kind of an 80-yard shot.
17:36And spin rate, 10,600 revs, which actually did surprise me.
17:41I didn't anticipate it being as high a number as that.
17:45Then when I flipped over into the SM10, my launch angle actually popped up a little bit.
17:50Only 0.3 of a degree, so negligible and not something you'd see with a naked eye, to 31.4 degrees.
17:57But the spin popped up a little bit as well.
17:59However, I would say it wasn't quite as extreme as I thought it might be.
18:04It was only around the 300 revs mark, so I was averaging 10,992 revs of spin there.
18:10So when you consider there's 23 years and probably an awful lot of usage difference between these golf clubs, those numbers are pretty extraordinary.
18:18I think that shows some real value in an older wedge.
18:21Onto the putter, and I don't mind telling you I've blown my budget here.
18:24And I've also cheated, because this wasn't released in 2002, but I'm having it in there, because I was still playing this putter in 2002.
18:31And it's the Scotty Cameron Terrillium.
18:33Now, this is the long neck version.
18:35Now, this was made famous by Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters.
18:39He didn't use the long neck version, but this is the version I had, so this is why I've picked it.
18:43Now, probably the most pertinent piece of technology around this is this is all about feel.
18:48It was about the terillium insert, which is essentially an alloy of 12 different metals that Titleist put together to create this, what they call the terillium insert.
18:59And it gives us a really soft feel.
19:00It was the softest feeling putter they'd made to this point.
19:04And again, on the feel point of view, these little white dots in the back here aren't just decorative.
19:09There's five rows of these, and these are all about vibration dampening.
19:13So taking away a sharper impact feel, sending nicer messages to your hand, and really improving that feel.
19:20Now, probably the best thing to do here is I'm going to head over to the putting mat, pop it down against the more modern day Scotty Cameron,
19:26so we can take a look at the visuals, what's changed or what hasn't changed, and we'll see what the feel difference is like.
19:32So let's talk about the visuals, and what I've got to compare the terillium to is this Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Select model.
19:40And it is a couple of generations old, and those of you who know your Scotty Camerons will know there's a slight shape difference between the Newport and the Newport 2.
19:49But what I really want to focus on is the color, something as basic as the color.
19:53Now, Scotty Cameron, in the last few years, has really gone away from darker finishes.
19:58We see much more of this silver finish in the putters.
20:02And just picking up this terillium was a real look back to me and reminded me how much I like the darker shades in a putter.
20:09It kind of works a little bit like clothing.
20:11If you're a bit on the overweight side or you've put on a bit of weight like me, you will know that a darker, a black, for example, is slimming.
20:20It helps make things look a little bit compact.
20:22It's an optical illusion.
20:23That's what we see in putters and golf clubs.
20:26I see it in irons.
20:27I remember commenting on the Cobra Dark Speed irons a few years ago.
20:30They don't look as big as they actually are, which I think looks great.
20:34And that's what I see when I look down on this terillium to start with.
20:37I love the older, darker finish and how much more compact that makes it look behind the ball.
20:42But let's move on to the feel.
20:43That's what I really wanted to see here.
20:45So I'm going to hit a couple away with the newer version first and get a sense of the impact sensation here.
20:52Lines up beautifully squarely.
20:56And really sort of audible, kind of a click off the face.
20:59It felt pretty soft.
21:00I'm using a firmer tightless ball here in the Pro V1X.
21:03It was slightly clickier than I'd anticipated off the face.
21:08But yeah, very sound feeling putter there.
21:10I wouldn't say it was overly soft, but it was good feedback through the hands.
21:15Let's switch to terillium now.
21:19It's been a while since I've hit a putt with this.
21:20It's been a good few years, so I don't know what I'm expecting.
21:23Probably a little bit less easy to line up, actually, because there's no alignment aids on there.
21:27So I'm relying a little bit more on the feel of that top edge.
21:33But yeah, off the face, instantly I can feel the ball just feels like it's on the club face a little bit longer.
21:40And I don't know if you can pick it up on the audio.
21:46It's just a slightly duller, more muted sound.
21:49There's a little bit more meat to the strike.
21:51So maybe it's my nostalgia.
21:54Maybe it's the video we're filming.
21:56But I really do prefer the feel of that terillium.
21:59Right, well, I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane.
22:02I certainly did.
22:03Now, the purpose of these little look-back videos is to compare a lot of things.
22:08Performance, yes.
22:09But also less tangible stuff.
22:12The less quantifiable things like aesthetics, like feel, like how the equipment makes you feel.
22:18And when I consider that holistic package from everything I've tried there,
22:21personally, and you'll make your own mind up on this,
22:24I think there's a lot of value still to be had in this second-hand market.
22:29Yes, in some of the longer clubs, I was giving up something in terms of ball speed
22:33pretty much through everything I tried there from driver, fairway, and irons.
22:37But I was gaining back some other stuff in maybe just nostalgia,
22:41but also feel, and I still really like the look in behind the ball of some of these old clubs.
22:47So I hope that was interesting for you.
22:48Thank you very much for watching, and we'll see you next time.
Comments