Are 20 Year old Irons as Good as Today's? Is there any point to Upgrade?

Are 20 Year old Irons as Good as Todays? After an interesting conversation with one of my clients about his thoughts on whether or not he will look to upgrade his ageing irons, he thinks that his old clubs are as good as today's versions. So I have my old set of Cobra SSi irons still and they were bought (by me) in 2003. I'm going to put them up against an unfair matchup, a Blade which should be massively less forgiving....... Lets see what the results are for forgiveness.

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[edwinlambley]

Love it, what a comparison. Another bang on production. The question for your client might be do I change to new game improvement irons or give blades (maybe forged players cavity) a place in the bag. Many golfers have never even tried forged irons let alone blades so don't know what they are missing. They just listen to people saying you can't hit that type of iron you aren't skilled enough and believe them forgetting everyone played blades at one time. If it was true no one would have taken the game up.

[solson]

I'm still playing the SSi irons after 20 years. I've just never really had a reason to replace them. I'm finally starting to shop around for something new but not due to performance. They've been great, feel great, and I've scored very well with them over the years. I have lost distance but I think I can equate that to being 20 years older than when I bought them. lol.

[robertratliff]

Test would have been more beneficial if you would have tested 20 year old game improvement irons to new game improvement irons. Blades vs cavity makes no sense. Please try making a new video comparing apples to apples.

[tag_]

Great video and I appreciate the amount of work it took to produce it. I will say this though from a personal perspective. When I'm struggling with my Mizuno 921 Tour irons, I break out my 35 year old Ping Eye 2 set and I find I almost can't miss no matter how bad my swing is. Due to loft differences the Ping irons are one club shorter but I do find them far easier to hit if the swing is off. That Ping set is my baby and I'll never get rid of them. They just feel so darn good.

[nielsaxelsson]

In the beginning, I didn’t get why you would compare blades to GI irons, but it ended up both surprising me and making a LOT of sense!! If it hadn’t been you, and me knowing how you approach things, I would probably never have spent the time - now I’m glad I did. Thanks for another great video, and for making us all learn along the way. 😊

[jeffnahass]

Going from cast to blades is night and day. Once I got used to blades, the cast clubs felt heavy, clicky etc.

Good comparison.

[JarrettTeel]

This is literally the question I was trying to figure out how to answer. Thank you so much.

[mariad]

Would love to see the results of a 20+ handicap vs a single digit (assuming). Would imagine the blades would be sprayed in all directions.

[JW-izmv]

I see guys at my club playing excellent golf using 15 old irons every week

[mpkelley]

Would love to see this with an actual mid to high handicapper who doesn’t have a repeatable swing like you. I get the mishits you were showing but would love to see someone like that try them.

I use hogan PTX irons today which are forged but with tech. I still have every set of clubs I’ve ever owned and have used them in my home sim. Even my 845’s from the 80’s give me lower dispersion rates than my Hogans. Mishits is where they perform better. I use my Hogans because I love the feel and they are slightly stronger lofted giving me the extra distance I need as I get older.

[thebigeasy]

Good stuff sir. I have the Mizuno JPX-900 Hot Metals and they are like cheating. Give me the old stuff that I grew up admiring. I love playing my old '78 Wilson Staff Tour Blades, '99 Mizuno T-Zoid Pros, and I'm not sure what their actual name is but I really enjoy playing my '82ish Dunlop/Maxfli wide soles radial design. Keep'em coming!

[FrugalFixerSpike]

I compared my old Adams Ideatech 7 iron from my 2013 set or so against the new Mizuno 923 Hot Metal HL 7 iron and got great results! Senior with slow swing speed, 72.2 on 7 iron, the launch up almost 2 degrees and 16 yards more carry average on 5 shots! Was my first test since setting up my Simulator. Video on the Channel! Some old dude testing!

[CH-pppy]

Awesome content, been watching a ton of your videos! Not seeing much else there like this on YouTube.

One piece of feedback I have is I think it would make for a better presentation of you didn't read off every single number in your data comparisons and just called out the signifact differences. Would help keep the video more focused on the comparison and not lose me in data. Again, thank you for the content and I can't wait for you to get your hands on the new T Series from Titleist.

[hermii]

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Although interesting, this would have been more beneficial comparing apples to apples than not. It would have been nice to see what the difference is between 20 years game improvement clubs and today’s game improvement clubs versus the blade example. Notwithstanding such, the best clubs in my personal opinion were the, now 21 years old, Nike Pro Combos (somehow I didn’t keep the full set😢).

[mman]

Am I the only idiot that still didn't understand if it's worth buying new? I'm just getting back into golf again and have NIKE CPR irons from 20yrs ago. They seem pretty good but if I'm missing something, I'll buy new irons NP

[TenPester]

I sort of did the opposite of this test. I own Ping S55, and seen a really cheap mint set of MP-37 going and rushed to buy them as they are super rare. S300 shafts (130g) on them so utter pants, but the shaft is too heavy. Anyway, I pulled the KBS Tour 120 shaft from my S55 7 iron and plunked it into the MP-37 7 iron and swing weighted it to D2 as from factory. Hopefully this weekend it'll work the way I expect. The S55 is a great iron, but you could toe or heel them all day and not feel a single difference. They make your swing lazy.

[johnegoodland]

I have recently come across your videos and I really enjoy them. My question is while we accept that new irons are technically better than irons from say 8 years ago. How much improvement would you expect especially in respect of dispersion? Also what amount of loss in performance, if any, would you expect to find in 8 year old shaft irons through degeneration, I have an 8 year old recoil graphite shafts. Many thanks.

[robbiecleighmarks]

I've been playing Cleveland CG2s since 05, and hit them well. But I just ordered some PXG 0311s and I'm excited to see what happens.

[gagazzo]

Jay, I have a set of Titleist 695 blades that you could compare to modern day blades. Is there any difference? Or were game improvement irons or 20 years ago a big lie?

[hermii]

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As Nike got out of the equipment business, I migrated over to Mizuno and currently playing JPX 900s. As I have the opportunity to purchase some immaculate Nike Pro Combos, versus what I am considering in trying to recreate my favorite aforementioned set, by looking at creating my own combo set with the new Mizuno JPX 923 Hot Metal and Hot metal Pro. So long story/question, your thoughts on the original Nike Pro Combo versus Mizuno 923 Hot Metal game improvement clubs; worth the cost difference?

Thanks in advance fir your response.