Question

863 viewsApril 5, 2025

Bill C.16 April 3, 2025 0 Comments

Hi folks,

I’m new to the forum, and am trying to return to the game after a 25+ year hiatus.

I’m 67, currently working on body conditioning, and want to start back going to the range and hitting balls again soon.

I also want to upgrade my ancient, 2003 Top Flite Tour Irons, with a new set of Maltby irons. Most likely either the KE4 Max, or TS3 (and grow with them), once I regain some semblance of a swing.

After such a long layoff and playing with dated equipment, I’ll be trying to get a feel for how my ball striking may be in comparison to the playability of these older clubs, to help me gauge what the quality of my swing may be in relation to playability of the older clubs (if that makes any sense?).

I’ll be getting a basic fitting before I order new clubs.

But in the interim, I was wondering if anyone might know if my old 2003 Top Flite Tour Irons have an MPF rating as I couldn’t find one.

TIA

Bill C. Edited question April 5, 2025

2 Answers

Answer 1 · 2025-04-04T12:00:11+00:00

ifontaine 17 Posted April 4, 2025 2 Comments

Bill, were these the old “diamond” cut soles? If so, those were the first golf clubs I could ever hit consistently. Absolutely LOVED those irons!!

Rlafoone Posted new comment April 7, 2025

Bill C. commented April 4, 2025

No. These have regular smooth soles.

But these are decent clubs as well. This particular Top-Flite model was highly rated and sought-after at the time. Albeit they were branded as ” Department store” clubs, and priced accordingly, their performance is on par with some better clubs of that era. Here’s a link to a pic of them.
http://thesandtrap.com/uploads/static_huddler/5/5c/5c2f5a9b_C107F0E9BCCE40449E01EFDBE62C07D6.jpeg

Rlafoone commented April 7, 2025

XL 2000 were diamond cut. Think I still have a set in the shop

Answer 2 · 2025-04-04T09:48:31+00:00

We have MPF ratings on some Spalding iron models dating back to 1936 and up to the year 2000, but I am not finding any after the year 2000. I know there were some made after, like yours, but we do not have them in our database/library of iron club head designs. I will do a little research to see if maybe we do and they were simply not measured, but Ralph was very diligent to include all models possible from the different decades. That one just might have not been attainable when he was doing the original work, that lead to the first book on the MPF published in 2004. That book listed quit a few Spalding irons, but 2000 was the last model year that was in the book.

Britt Lindsey

Britt,

No worries. I very much appreciate your looking into that, Thank you.

Yeah, I’m just trying to use the performance of these older clubs, vs my ability, as a baseline to help determine which model Maltby may best suit me. And if an MPF was available that would be helpful.

Regardless, I’m sure I’d be quite happy with either the KE4 Max, or the TS3’s.

Thanks again.