- 8 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.
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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.
00:34So what you see in this bag is kind of a look into my brain in 2002, and I've got
00:39some 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
00:52got 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.
01:10Now I've picked this up for $29.99 from Golf Clubs for Cash.
01:14And 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,
01:31if you like,
01:31was actually 60 cc's bigger than the more generic kind of core model that they made.
01:37It was just the 510, not the 510 TP, which is a little unusual.
01:41Normally, it's different nowadays.
01:43They flip that around, try and give you more mass in the sort of the more mass market model, if
01:47you 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 R510 TP.
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
02:11CG,
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.
02:32Let's take a look at them.
03:02But what I didn't enjoy as much was the data, which is pretty comprehensive when we talk about the difference
03:08between this and that QI35 LS that I was hitting.
03:12Now, there are some mitigating circumstances.
03:14I've been completely fully fit for the QI35 model there.
03:19It'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
03:30£800.
03:31This is less than £30.
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 QI35 LS.
03:41The spin rate.
03:42So this was spinning up a little bit more, kind of 2,600 revs as opposed to about the 2
03:47,000 mark with that LS, which obviously resulted in some sort of distance discrepancies.
03:52The 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
04:07profile.
04:08And the feel off the face, it's just exceptional.
04:11It's just a really deep feedback.
04:13It'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.
04:30So 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.
04:53This is £24.99.
04:55This is the Callaway Steelhead 3.
04:57Now it's 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.
05:17Non-contracted players as well, which is really where you sort of get the sign of what's working out on
05:22tour.
05:23Now this was a three-piece construction.
05:25So 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.
05:36And 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
05:58times we're in now
05:59is they added this little kind of collar, this little loft sleeve, they call it, this barrel,
06:04even 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
06:14more 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,
06:25didn'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
06:31as 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
07:28tingy sound
07:29that really took me back to that era.
07:32A lot of the clubs nowadays with the introduction of multi-material crowns and carbons and things like that
07:37have 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
07:45that 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.
07:54So 150 miles per hour I was getting with my steelhead and the AI Smoke produced about nine more.
08:02So 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
08:15in.
08:15And as I mentioned, the AI Smoke did have another degree of loft on it.
08:19And 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,
08:38I 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? Do you think I'm wrong?
08:53Have I had any glaring emissions 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 playery 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.
09:09And 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
09:29in 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
09:50length 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
10:01a 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
10:13there as well to help dampen vibrations and really help that sound.
10:18And even in the shaft of this golf club, Ping thought about that vibration dampening again with their Kush-in
10:24technology, which is basically a vibration dampening implement that goes down the shaft, sits at the fulcrum point, so 14
10:32inches 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 way and see what we get.
10:51So let's hit a couple of ways, see how it works.
11:21The ball speed in these kind of full swing clubs, so like for like the seven irons there, five miles
11:27an 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
11:35years with a lot of these irons where we'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
11:50half versus 16.6.
11:52And 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
12:00miles 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
12:10because 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
12:36really fashionable choice.
12:37When I was a junior and in all those sort of squads that I've been talking about, all the better
12:41players had that Cleveland 5-8-8 wedge.
12:45And 2002 was about the time where Vokey started to get a little bit more mainstream.
12:50The first Vokeys around the 1999 sort of year.
12:54And 2002, like I said, was when it was really getting established and really starting to see far more usage
13:00in better players' bags and on tour.
13:02And this is the first in the kind of 100 series, if you like.
13:04So, 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 6 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
13:20in terms of the overall profile or the look at all, really.
13:24Because 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.
13:34How much spin, we often hear about it from Titleist themselves, saying this is how often you need new wedges
13:40because 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 6 degrees of bounce.
13:58I've got an equivalent SM10 down there.
14:01It's the T-Grind at 4 degrees, closest I could get of what I had, again, in the raw finish.
14:06So, let's just clip a few away and see what those spin rates look like.
14:09I've decided I'm not going to go with 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,
14:16hopefully, around the sort of 75, 80-yard mark.
14:19And keep an eye on spin and launch here.
14:25It was a little bit low in the face, but I've pretty much hit my mark of 80 yards there.
14:29So, 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.
14:43Let'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.
15:1579, 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.
16:11Okay, 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.
16:34Again, pretty consistent.
16:36I'm doing all right myself here today.
16:3731 degrees.
16:3831.4 of launch angle.
16:4010,800 and a bit of spin.
16:43Let'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
16:57spin 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,
17:05you 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
17:14of the golf.
17:14But 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,
17:33which is pretty standard for me from a kind of an 80-yard shot.
17:37And 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
17:56degrees.
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,
18:16those 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.
18:27But I'm having it in there, because I was still playing this putter in 2002.
18:30And it's the Scotty Cameron Terillium.
18:33Now, this is the long net version.
18:35Now, this was made famous by Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters.
18:39He didn't use the long net version, but this is the version I had.
18:42So, this is why I've picked it.
18:44Now, probably the most pertinent piece of technology around this is all about feel.
18:48It was about the Terillium insert, which is essentially an alloy of 12 different metals
18:54that 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
19:08just decorative.
19:09There's five rows of these.
19:10And these are all about vibration dampening.
19:13So, taking away a sharper impact feel, sending nicer messages to your hand, and really improving
19:19that feel.
19:20Now, probably the best thing to do here is I'm going to head over to the putting mat, pop
19:24it 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.
19:30And we'll see what the feel difference is like.
19:32So, let's talk about the visuals.
19:34And what I've got to compare the Terillium to is this Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Select
19:40model.
19:40And it is a couple of generations old.
19:42And those of you who know your Scotty Camerons will know there's a slight shape difference
19:46between 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
20:06like 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
20:15know 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, I 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
20:50impact sensation here.
20:52Lines up beautifully squarely.
20:56A 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.
21:11I 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.
21:22I don't know what I'm expecting.
21:23Probably a little bit less easy to line up, actually, because there's no alignment aids
21:27on 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
21:38a little bit longer.
21:43And I don't know if you can pick it up on the audio.
21:45It'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.
21:59Well, I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane.
22:02I certainly did.
22:03Now, the purpose of these little lookback videos is to compare a lot of things.
22:08Performance, yes, but also less tangible stuff.
22:12The less quantifiable things like aesthetics, like feel, like how the equipment makes you
22:17feel.
22:17And when I consider that holistic package from everything I've tried there, personally,
22:23and you'll make your own mind up on this, I think there's a lot of value still to be
22:27had in this secondhand 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, but also feel, and I
22:42still really like the look in behind the ball of some of these old clubs.
22:46So I hope that was interesting for you.
22:48Thank you very much for watching, and we'll see you next time.
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