I watched the Ultimate Matches (Shells Wonderful World of Golf) lastnight on TGC from Pinehurst #2 in 1997 with Nicklaus and Palmer. It was taped in 1997 and I noticed that Arnie used a persimmon driver, thought that was very interesting. If you didn't get to see it, keep an eye out for the replay, what a great match. Nicklaus shot a -4 67 and made some unreal putts. Never gets old watching those two greats go at it head to head.

There were a good number of players on tour still using persimmon in 97. Davis Love III, Justin Leonard, to name a couple. I think the 975D Titleist driver was the death knell for persimmon, but it still took longer than most folks expected.

Notice Arnie outdrove Jack by 10 yards on #1. Looks like they were driving it 230-260 yds.

The did a lookback to WWG Nicklaus v. Snead at Peeble Beach. I think I'll buy a copy of that as it looks like they got some great angles on Slammin' Sammy's swing in technicolor!

I watch ALL of the vintage broadcasts that come on. I really enjoy watching the old shows.

It was actually a tape from 1994...which makes Arnie using persimmon a bit more plausible.

Here's a link to all of the matches that have been played on Shell's Wonderful World of Golf through the years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell's_W...l_World_of_Golf

I think the Palmer Peerless brand made an oversized persimmon driver for a while, cant remember the name of it though. A lot of people forget that many good players used persimmon until the bigger tittanium drivers came on the market. The oversized SS drivers such as the big bertha were not really longer than the persimmons, just more forgiving, and better players could work them better.