Equipment

The incredible story behind Arnold Palmer’s $275,000 irons from the 1960s

Published

3 years ago

Feb 3, 2023

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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Andrew Tursky

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

8 Comments

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Ray arcade

Feb 5, 2023 at 1:45 pm

Where’s the fluid feel plug in the heel?

Reply Report comment
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.

Reply Report comment
- J
  
  Feb 5, 2023 at 4:29 pm
  
  Golfer just being d*ck golfers lol
  
  Reply Report comment
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.

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Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

Published

8 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.

Equipment

TaylorMade MySpider Tour and Tour X: More customizable build options now available

Published

9 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.

The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.

One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.

Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:

MySpider Tour

MySpider Tour X

Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

Published

11 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.