Persimmon and plaid

Blades and balata

Bump and run

Lord Byron in ‘45

Hogan vs. Snead

Arnie at Augusta

8802s and Bullseyes

The Crosby Clambake

Middlecoff, Casper, Boros, Di Vicenzo, Demaret

Bucket hats, Amana ropes, tour visors

“Champagne” Tony Lema

Gene “The Machine” Littler

Trevino vs. Nicklaus

Johnny Miller shooting a final round 63 at Oakmont to win the US Open.

Wingtips, Metal spikes, kilties

Seve winning the ‘79 Open at Lytham

Watson chipping in on seventeen at Pebble

Our Mission:

1. Promote play with persimmon woods, blade irons, simple putters and balls that spin.

2. Celebrate the Classic Era of golf, from the 1930s to the early 1990s, where the fifties, sixties and seventies represent the greatest period in Golf.

3. Connect with other like-minded Golfers for competitive play, spirited discussion of the Greatest Game and its rich history, sharing a passion for classic clubs, and general camaraderie and enjoyment of fun and challenging golf on interesting courses.

In 1930 Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam using hickory shaft clubs. Just a year later, in 1931, the US Open was won for the first time by a player swinging steel shafts. By the late thirties hickory was almost completely gone. Players at the highest levels all gamed sets with the same fundamental characteristics: fourteen clubs, numbered and matched sets with steel shafts, forged blade iron heads including one sand wedge, and persimmon woods, all used to strike wound balls with balata covers.

Setting aside minor trends in design this didn’t change much until the 1980s. It was quite common for PGA Tour players in the 1970s to use drivers, putters or even iron sets from the 1950s. Clubs were designed and manufactured by a combination of craft and mass production, and the best clubs had magical qualities for players. When something worked, you kept it in play, often for decades. Jack Nicklaus used the same persimmon 3-wood most of his career. He had only two drivers, the second coming only after the first one finally cracked irreparably from the force of his many thunderous blows. Johnny Miller won the 1973 US Open using MacGregor Tommy Armour irons from the 1940s, MacGregor fairway woods from the 1940s, and a 1961 driver. Most players used simple heel shafted blade putters, or maybe a Bullseye.

Curt Sampson, former PGA Tour professional turned golf writer, authored the book that inspired our club: The Eternal Summer: Palmer, Nicklaus and Hogan in 1960, Golf’s Golden Year. It describes an incredible year on Tour, the year Arnold Palmer won the Masters and the US Open - where an aging Ben Hogan and a still-amateur Jack Nicklaus played together in the final two rounds and both held the lead before Palmer eventually won. It was the year Arnie first crossed the Atlantic to play in the Open Championship, single-handedly reviving the greatest championship in golf, which had faltered during British austerity after WWII. It was an spectacular time for the game, and 1960 was its pinnacle. 

From roughly 1930 up to the 1990s little changed. Yes, the Pittsburgh Persimmon steel driver came along, as well as graphite shafts, and there were many cavity back irons in play. Ping sold a zillion Anser putters. But the effect of those developments was miniscule. Distance gains were very small. The clubs Tiger Woods used in his ’97 Masters win had more in common with what was in play a decade earlier than a decade later. Players in the early 1980s and early 1990s mostly used clubs not dissimilar to what players used in the 1940s and 1950s.

More importantly, the great courses played the same - equipment had not yet driven the need to greatly increase their length to compensate for radically changed driving distances off the tee. For a roughly fifty year period, golf was consistent, and perfect. It was a sweet spot, and while it’s gone, in our hearts that Eternal Summer of 1960 will last forever.

The Eternal Summer Golf Society is founded in the spirit of this Classic Era, and the pursuit of Golf as it was meant to be played.