Equipment
The incredible story behind Arnold Palmer’s $275,000 irons from the 1960s
Arnold Palmer earned his nickname, “The King,” in multiple legendary ways. As part of his folklore, Palmer was, indeed, The King of tinkering with golf equipment.
For proof, look no further than the story of his personal Wilson Staff Model Dyna-Powered “Arnold Palmer” irons, which are selling for $275,000 at the Golf Links to the Past store, which is located at The Lodge at Pebble Beach.
Using this particular set of irons (2-9 iron), Palmer won 14 events in 1960-1961, including The 1960 Masters, the 1960 U.S. Open (at Cherry Hill), and the 1961 British Open (at Royal Birkdale).
A closer look at the irons reveals the lead weight plugs that he added to the toe sections of the irons. In general terms, adding weight to the toe portion of a golf club typically helps reduce a hook, whereas heavy heel weighting helps reduce a slice.
The “Golf Links to the Past” shop at Pebble Beach acquired the historic irons through Joe Black, who’s a former PGA Tour player, rules official, President of PGA America, and founder & director of Western Golf Properties (among many other roles in the golf industry throughout his career).
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How did Black get his hands on the irons in the first place? He tells the full – and fascinating – story in his book, “A Few Good Golf Stories,” which was published in 2011.
In the book, Black writes: We played the Dallas Open at Oak Cliff where I was a member. If you know Arnold Palmer, you know he has always fiddled with his clubs. He did everything in the world with his golf clubs. He would rewind the grips during the practice rounds and be in the bag room beating on them with a hammer. He went into the bag room at Oak Cliff to tinker with his clubs, and he saw my clubs in the bag room and started examining them. He couldn’t keep his hands off them. He came to me and said, “I’ve got to have your driver.”
Arnold was with Wilson at the time, and I was playing Wilson clubs. I had a driver that Joe Wolf, Wilson’s tour representative, had made for me. He said, “I’ve got to have it.”
I said, “Arnold, you can’t have that driver.”
Then he said, “I’ve got to have that driver.”
Again I told him no. Then he said, “Let me use it this week.”
So he used it that week and drove great with it. He was supposed to put it back in my bag at the end of the tournament.
Well, Arnold, Gary Player, and I were going to Chicago the next week to film a television match between Gary and Arnold.
Then Arnold said, “Why don’t you fly up there with me on Monday? Since the match isn’t until Friday we can mess around and play golf and go out to Wilson.”
I told him no, that I had been gone from home all summer, and I was going to stay home and would be in Chicago on Thursday. He said, “Okay.”
So I called him on Thursday when I got in and he said, “Hey, you’ve got to come over here and see your driver!”
I said,” What do you mean I have to see my driver?”
He said, “Well, I brought it with me and I took it out to Wilson and, boy, it’s really great now!”
So I went over to his room and he had taken a wood rasp and rasped the toe right off my driver. He hooked everything, so he did that to all his clubs. He had just destroyed my driver. I was really hot.
He went out the next day and drove it dreadfully. Then he tried to give it back to me. I said no, that he had ruined my driver and that he owed me. He asked me what I wanted, and I said I wanted his backup putter. He had that famous putter that he made by welding a flange on the back of a Tommy Armour putter. He had two of them. He refused, saying he would be in trouble if he lost his putter.
We went to Seattle from there, and every time I saw him I asked him about my putter. Next, we went to Portland for his last tournament, and every time I saw him, I asked, “Arnie, where is my putter?”
At the end of the tournament I was standing near the scoreboard when he finished and he came over to me and said, “Come out here!”
I walked into the parking lot and he pulled his irons out of his bag and handed them to me and said, “I don’t want to hear another damn word from you about my putter!”
Those irons were the ones he used to win fourteen tournaments, including the Masters, the British Open, and the (U.S.) Open – tournaments that enabled Arnold to set the all time money record of that time.
Palmer’s 1960-61 irons are a certified piece of golf history, and thanks to the store owners at the Golf Links to the Past store, GolfWRX was lucky enough to take in-hand photos of the 7-iron.
Check out the full photo gallery of Palmer’s irons in our GolfWRX Forums
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Whats in the Bag
Rory McIlroy’s winning WITB: 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @8.25) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X
Irons: TaylorMade Proto (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9) Buy here.
Shaft: Project X 7.0 (4-9)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB) Buy here, Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-K @59) Buy here.
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3 Buy here.
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour
Ball: 2024 TaylorMade TP5x Buy here.
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Rory McIlroy’s WITB in the forums.
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The winning WITB is presented by 2nd Swing Golf. 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.
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Whats in the Bag
Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)
- Kevin Tway what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX
Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)
Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4
More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.
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Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?
Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.
When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.
To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.
Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.
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Ray arcade
Feb 5, 2023 at 1:45 pm
Where’s the fluid feel plug in the heel?
Tiger
Feb 4, 2023 at 8:36 am
Palmer has always been praised as a saint.. and maybe he was in his later years. He kinda sounds like a piece of sh*t here though. He deserved to get some teeth kicked in for the driver stunt.
J
Feb 5, 2023 at 4:29 pm
Golfer just being d*ck golfers lol
Steve
Feb 3, 2023 at 11:29 pm
At the end of the day most golf stories really aren’t that exciting. Like this one.