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Post by Richie3Jack on Jul 8, 2014 18:05:37 GMT -5
Alright, I actually received the Nippon Super Peening blue shafts today from the eBay seller. He is based out of the Phillipines and had his membership revoked for short term. But, I got them anyway.
I had actually heard about the Super Peening shafts from member pavaveda a while ago. He tried some of the Super Peening Orange shafts and really dug them and asked me about them. I couldn't find any real info on them on their Web site. I then found out that the Super Peening shafts are their 'cadillac' shafts and that you can only get them thru a dealer. They sell the Modus, the GH and other series to the public. The Super Peening shafts are known for having an incredibly smooth feeling to them when you strike the ball. I do have the Super Peening Blue X-stiff shaft on the Wishon bend profile software and it comes out to what I want it (although the Wishon software has them listed at a raw weight of 118 grams, they are actually 128 grams so that seems to be a typo).
The 'blue' Super Peening model is more of a 'pro model' while the orange is more for higher handicaps.
What I found interesting is that the raw, un-cut shafts are very short. The 3-iron shaft is only 38.5" long un-cut. So for me who plays longer than normal shafts, this is a bit difficult because at best I can trim a steel shaft to as small as 1/4" with a tube cutter.
So, what I'm trying is to 'soft-step' the shafts. This means putting the shaft of the club that is 1-club longer in the shaft. So, my 3-iron shaft actually goes into my 4-iron, the 6-iron shaft goes to the 7-iron.
This has caused some MOI issues because the Pitching Wedge was too heavy of an MOI for the length I wanted it.
From the looks of it, they are a very tip heavy shaft and I believe one reason why people like them is that they appear to get the MOI up higher (usually clubs have too low of an MOI for golfers) and more weight in the tip probably feels better. Nippon also uses different steel alloys and a different heating process to help with the feel. Can't wait to try these tomorrow.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Jul 10, 2014 9:23:29 GMT -5
Tried out the Nippon Super Peening Blue shafts yesterday.
I try to not get my hopes up too much, too early...but, I thought they were exactly what the doctor ordered. The dispersion was excellent. They launched exactly how I wanted and I could see them having much less spin than the KBS Tour shafts. I was a little worried that the Super Peening Blue shafts would feel too heavy because they are a constant weighted shaft that weighs about 124 grams after I trimmed it (I play roughly +1/2" over standard). But, I didn't have any issues with that.
I was definitely hitting these further than the KBS shafts and my Wishon 575's with the Wishon Stepless shaft.
Feel wise they feel just fine. I didn't notice a large difference from the KBS Tour or the Wishon Stepless (very good feeling shaft), but they have a good feel nonetheless.
The only issue is that the 4-iron, 6-iron and 9-iron MOI's were a little off.
The 4-iron was trimmed to 38-7/8" shaft and came out to 2,733 MOI (I play at 2,725). That should be okay since you can usually play just fine withing +/- 10 MOI points.
The 6-iron came in at 38" to a 2,742 MOI. I've found that in general, every 1/16th equals about 10 MOI points. So this 6-iron probably needs to be made to 37-7/8" to get the MOI down. I'll see how it goes.
The 9-iron I cut off too much and it came in at 36-7/16" and a MOI of 2,685. I think in the end I could have probably made it 36-5/8" and been in good shape. I just added some lead tape and we'll see how that works out.
I should be getting the UST Mamiya shaft to install in the TaylorMade mini-driver today.
The Nippon Super Peening is an interesting shaft given it's short un-cut length. It also has a small diameter around the mid-section of the shaft which reminds me of many of the older shafts in irons. I think because of the weight of the shaft and the short un-cut length, it creates higher MOI for clubs. So if you're really meant to play a higher MOI like 2,730 and you cut these shafts you may end up at a range of 2,700 to 2,750 and that's why I think better players tend to dig these shafts. They are more in line with a heft that they need.
Anyway, next step is to get on a Trackman and check the yardage gaps and do some lie fitting (although the lie angles seem to fit pretty well). I will show some pics of the new bag when I get the Mini-Driver assembled.
3JACK
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Post by pavaveda on Jul 22, 2014 13:47:27 GMT -5
Glad you like the Super Peenings, Rich. I'm still really liking the Oranges that I have in my 4-P. For me, they've tightened up the dispersion quite a bit, feel smooth, solid, and my favorite part is that I can feel where the clubhead is throughout the swing. This is all in comparison with S300s that I had in there before.
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Post by golfbaka on Nov 14, 2014 11:01:04 GMT -5
Are you still getting on well with the Super Peening blues?
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Post by Richie3Jack on Nov 14, 2014 15:12:27 GMT -5
Yeah, there's not too bad. With the Pings I tend to launch them a bit high.
I don't think I'm as nutty about them as other golfers are, but they work fairly well. I can see how the Modus line appeals to more golfers because that is a very unique shaft if you can get it to fit your swing.
I do want to try out the Aerotech SteelFiber i110 shafts though. I will probably buy a 6-iron shaft in a month or so and see how that plays.
3JACK
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Post by golfbaka on Nov 14, 2014 15:30:03 GMT -5
Are you gaming the Pings full time now?
I've been experimenting with the Modus 120 x for a couple of weeks. Hit the 125 didn't really like it. Haven't hit the 130 but I don't think my release is late enough - MOI machine arrives next week that's when the fun will really start...
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Post by Richie3Jack on Nov 16, 2014 9:51:56 GMT -5
I'm playing the Ping S55's full-time. I'm probably going to switch to Edel next year though.
I don't think you need that late of a release to hit the Modus 130's. I would occasionally catch the Modus 120's perfectly and when there was no wind, it was a beautiful shot and feel. But, they ballooned too much for me. It's a very interesting bend profile as the mid-section is quite soft and then the tip gets very stiff.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Dec 17, 2014 11:04:35 GMT -5
I haven't really changed much in a long time. I've been experimenting with a 45-1/4" driver instead of a 44-1/2" driver as I've changed some swing mechanics. But, I think I'm probably still better off with the 44-1/2" shaft. If anything, the longer shaft seems to curve the ball more. When I take a pretty good swing sometimes with the longer shaft the ball will unexpectedly curve a bit more. It does produce some more power although I'm still working on my release pattern. I did get a new staff bag as my old Cleveland staff bag was starting to wear down. I'll show the new staff bag when I get the headcovers which I got some custom ones from Sunfish. I also see that Nike has the RZN Black golf ball in yellow now. I prefer the yellow ball because it is easier for me to see in the Florida sun. And the RZN Black is L-O-N-G. I got them at the new PGA Tour Superstore in Orlando. I was there when the PGA Tour Superstore first opened up in Atlanta. The original location was at Lindbergh Station and as amazing as the PGA Tour Superstores are...they were insane when they first opened. Eventually Arthur Blank and company took over and had to cut their inventory by 50%! So as bag as people think the PGA Tour Superstores are now, they had 50% more inventory when they started. Anyway, there were two putters I really liked when I went there. The Bobby Grace 18 Blade: This putter has a great look and tremendous feel to it. Not only is it very soft (but not too soft), the putter swings very nicely. I think it retails for $299 The other putter was the Scotty Cameron Futura X5 with the dual balance: This reminds me a bit of the one of the Tank line of putters from Odyssey which I have tried out before and putted well with. The ball rolls fantastic off this putter. I also decided to install the Superstroke Slim 3.0 putter grip in my Edel and give that a whirl. I haven't played a round with it. I know Geoff Mangum doesn't like it, but I'm trying anything to get my putting from inside 10-feet to be better. Outside 10-feet I'm quite good, but inside 10-feet it seems like whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. The only other thing I have on my agenda is to try out the Aerotech SteelFiber i110 shaft sometime. I suspect that I will end up with new irons sometime around June and Edel is the current leader in the club house. I would also like to try the new Wishon 919THI driver head design when that comes out, but would like to get fitted for the Wishon 919THI thru a fitter with Trackman (although I think this driver I set up for myself performs very well). 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Dec 17, 2014 11:18:31 GMT -5
I also found a refinished Toney Penna persimmon driver on Ebay for only $20. I will have to get a picture of that. I like to fool around with persimmon. Back in the day, golf clubs were bought at Pro Shops at the golf course. And typically the members of that club ended up playing the clubs that the pro shop featured. I was fortunate to be a member at a course that had one of the best local pro shops I've ever seen as it carried tons of different equipment and all the latest new things. And it was in particular very big on MacGregor equipment (their persimmon drivers were the best and in the 80's, they had some fantastic irons). That being said, I never knew who Toney Penna was until John Erickson started showing some of his work on John's Web site. My friend Dave, who played briefly at U. of Miami, was one of the best ballstrikers I have ever seen (and the worst putter I have ever seen). I remember one time I was playing a tournament with him and his wife was telling me that Dave used to have a Toney Penna driver that he just didn't miss with. But at the time I had never heard of Toney Penna and thought she was talking about the great Tony Lema. Anyway, this driver is a beautiful looking design. It's only a 4-screw instead of the 6-screw which is usually what the best persimmon heads were. Mr. Penna was a MacGregor rep and designed some heads for them. He was sorta famous for making an oversized persimmon head like this one: I have the 65 Model of Penna's persimmon when Penna went out on his own. The person that refinished the head also stuck a 44" long Rifle steel shaft in there. Typically persimmon played to about 42.5 to 43 inches long. I plan on testing it out against my Cleveland RC85 and see which one flies further. But, so far I really like the feel of it. I can't say that for all persimmon. The Cleveland persimmons are excellent, but I haven't been very happy with the Hogan persimmons that I've used. The MacGregor, if they are a 6-screw version are usually fantastic as well. This Toney Penna head seems to fly just as well as my Cleveland, but I'll have to see when we take it to the course. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 6, 2015 11:54:19 GMT -5
Some Updates. Here is my current bag:
DRIVER: Wishon 919THI, 10* loft, 45-1/8" UST Mamiya ProForce VTS Red 7x shaft
3-WOOD: TaylorMade SLDR Mini-Driver, 14* loft, 43" UST Mamiya ProForce VTS Silver 8x shaft
2-HYBRID: Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK, 17* loft, 41" KBS Tour Hybrid shaft (stiff)
3-HYBRID: Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK, 20* loft, 40-3/4" KBS Tour Hybrid shaft (stiff)
4-IRON THRU 9-IRON: Mizuno Pro TN-87, Project X 5.5 shafts
P-WEDGE: Ping S55 with Nippon Super Peening Blue shaft (x-stiff)
S-WEDGE: Edel Driver Grind, 52* loft, 16* bounce, Nippon WV125 Shaft
L-WEDGE: Edel Digger Grind, 60* loft, 27* bounce, Nippon WV125 shaft
PUTTER: Edel Columbia Custom, 35" long, 74* lie angle, 3* loft
PUTTER
I've been working on my swing with Kelvin Miyahira and my putting with John Graham. I've gone back to the Edel that was originally a belly putter that I turned into a 35" putter. It has a pretty heavy head (370 grams) and I went back to the normal sized PURE putter grip.
I have the SuperStroke grip on my other Edel. But as John teaches, you really have to feel the putter head in your stroke and allow the gravity to drop the putter head on the ball. With the SuperStroke grip it's just too difficult to do that. Geoff Mangum has similar theories as well and I can see why he hates a lot of modern putter designs and doesn't like the large grips.
When I worked with John on my putting we found that I aimed too far right. The problem was that aiming more towards the target looks like I'm aiming WELL left. What I found was moving the ball position back a little with the Edel (former belly putter) along with getting my body moved a little forward makes it easier for me to aim better.
I've been contemplating the Scotty Cameron Futura X5 putter, but I think for now I'll stick with the Edel.
WEDGES
Can't complain here. I put my L-Wedge which is 3 years old on Trackman and it was still getting more than enough spin.
IRONS
I decided to pull out my old Mizuno Pro TN-87's. I don't like the turf interaction with the Pings because of the wider soles and that's why I think I generally prefer blades. Something about those narrow soles and hitting them off tight lies works. I also hit spinny shots with the Pings.
I'm starting to 'get it' when it comes to my swing and I would just like 1 good week of weather and practice and then see what it looks like on video.
Once I feel like my swing is close, I can then decide whether or not to re-chrome the Mizuno's or go after some modern blades. I do think I want the Modus 130 X-stiff shafts as I like the way they perform.
I'm not really into paying more than $1K for a set of irons these days, so I may go after either the TaylorMade, Nike (perhaps even the old VR Pro), Titleist or Mizuno irons.
HYBRIDS
I'll stick with these. They are just too good for me to pass up.
DRIVER
Still love the Wishon, however I'll probably end up buying the new black head. Sometime down the road I've got to see a Wishon fitter and see if I can get fitted for the best loft and shaft combo.
I'll try to get new pics of my new bag and new headcovers tonight.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 11, 2015 7:07:34 GMT -5
Here's a pic of my new bag: I plan on purchasing a BombTech Grenade Driver. I've heard some really good things about the driver from golfers. For those that don't know, the long drive competitors often do not use the traditional OEM equipment. Krank Golf is a very popular driver on the LD competition. I think what we are seeing is you can create clubs for golfers with 105+ mph swings that can generate more club head speed. Wishon has discussed some factors like the length of the driver being beneficial for distance, but only for golfers with a later release. And if you talk to enough R&D guys and club design guys, they'll claim the same thing with different design features of driver heads. BombTech has come out with a similar type of head as Krank Golf. One differentiating feature is that their head is made from a 2-piece forged head. Most drivers are made from a 4-piece construction. I believe the Wishon 919THI is made from 3-piece. The less pieces supposedly mean that the quality control on the face thickness is far better and that will allow for higher smash factors on off-center hits. I know that the Wishon 919THI claims to have high smash factors on off-center hits and I tend to believe them as I can miss by a lot and often times only lose about 5-10 yards from a perfect strike. I'm just getting to the point with my swing changes that I'm starting to hit the 919THI too high, so it's either look for a new loft and shaft or try the BombTech Grenade which has a 60-day guarantee. If I don't like it, they'll either find a different loft or shaft or if I want a refund, they'll give me 90% back. So at worse, I would be out $30 or so. *** I'm still waiting for my Nippon Modus 130 shafts to come in. I tried out the 130's before, but that was with a cavity back and I found that I hit them too high with the CB. But over the years trying them out in MB's I've found them to work extremely well. And I've loved the Modus 130 that I have installed in my Mizuno TN-87. The Mizuno TN-87's are legends on the internet. The main thing that gets raved about is the feel and I do enjoy playing with these as they are smooth feeling clubs. Over the years, the common theory with the feel of the TN-87's is that they had a 'copper inlay' which is copper beneath the surface of the chrome and the theory was that made them feel so good. Tom Wishon has denounced that theory, claiming that all OEM's used to do that and the only thing that changed is that the nickel inlays were less expensive and it has nothing to do with the copper. I tend to believe Tom (he's extremely credible and it makes sense). But as far as the feel of the TN-87's go, it still perplexes me as to why they feel so good. The TN-87 head is basically Mizuno's version of the old 1962 Hogan Precision irons which were remade to the 1983 Hogan Personals. I had a set of the 1983 Hogan Personals and they did not feel anything like the TN-87 irons (which is why I sold them back to eBay). The big thing I noticed about the TN-87's is that they have a very heavy head. I've only removed the 6-iron and the PW shafts and measured their head weights. The 6-iron was at 267 grams. Your typical 6-iron OEM head will weigh 261 grams. The PW head weighs 294 grams. For whatever reason, many OEM's do not have a 7-gram difference in the 9-iron versus the PW, so you will find a lot of PW heads from OEM's that weigh 284 to 288 grams. Essentially, the TN-87's heads are roughly 7-grams heavier than your normal heads or another way of looking at it is the heads are roughly the equivalent of the next higher lofted head (meaning...their 6-iron head has a 7-iron head weight and their 7-iron head has an 8-iron head weight). The other thing I noticed is when I installed the Modus 130 x-stiff shaft in the 6-iron, the MOI came out to 2,720. I play my clubs to 2,725 and with the Ping irons which have far lighter heads and the same shaft, they pretty much all came out to about 2,725 after I installed the shafts. So, I'm curious as to why the MOI was about the same for the TN-87's despite the far heavier heads. The other TN-87's have Project X5.5 shafts in them (115 grams) and their MOI drops off dramatically in the 8, 9 and PW despite those heads being very heavy. This tells me that there is something about how the club was designed and where the mass was placed in order to create a very heavy head with low MOI 'weight' relative to the head's weight. The hosel is a little long, but not too much. That would indicate a little more weight towards the heel, although I'm not sure if more head weight towards the toe or the heel would increase MOI. *** I've also been interested in ArmLock putting. A while ago, Erik Barzeski wrote a great article about how and why the putter head should NOT accelerate thru the ball. thesandtrap.com/t/74295/putting-do-not-accelerate-through-the-ballI agreed with Erik's premise not only because of the science behind it, but back in 2011 I would go thru these weird stretches of putting where the putter head would feel like it stop almost right at the ball. It felt like the putter head would 'run out of gas' as it was traveling to the putter head. And I would putt *incredibly* well. It would show up out of the blue at random times and I always wanted to figure that out. Fast forward to my lesson with John Graham and the SAM Puttlab reports show me accelerating the putter head thru the ball. John surmised that the reason why I missed left is the acceleration of the head was causing the putter to prematurely close. There were other problems as well, but the acceleration was a biggie. John teaches the golfer to 'let gravity allow the putter head to drop on the ball.' When you haven't done it in a long time, it's hard to figure out. Furthermore, you have moving pieces between your arms, shoulders and hands. To me, I think the arm lock putting style could help with that because all you have to do is swing the left arm and 'drop the arm' in the thru-stroke. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 13, 2015 10:45:01 GMT -5
I received the Nippon Modus 130 shafts. I'm just awaiting on a new bench ruler from GolfWorks which should make the process of trimming the shafts quicker and more accurate. I should get that in on Monday or Tuesday.
What I've noticed about the shafts is that they are more 'normal' length unlike the Nippon Super Peening Blue's which are very short when they are un-cut. I think the Nippon Super Peening Blue PW shaft is only 35" long raw while the Modus is more towards the industry standard of 37" (PW) raw.
I'm going to be trying these out in my Mizuno TN-87 irons and see how they work in them. If I like them, I'll want to send them off to the Iron Factory to get re-chromed.
According to Wishon you can lose some weight in the re-chroming process, but he says it's likely to be a 1-2 grams and up to 6 grams, but he doesn't think it will be that much. He also says you can add weight either via tip weights or lead tape and still get the same performance. However, that will be a 4-5 week wait to get the clubs back from the Iron Factory.
So I may purchase a cheap replacement in the meantime if I really like the TN-87's with the Nippon shafts. Or I may just install the Nippon's in my Titleist 690MB's.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 16, 2015 9:29:17 GMT -5
After selling some clubs I purchased a new set of irons:
These will compete with my TN-87's to be my gamers. The problem I have with the TN 87's is that getting them re-chromed will take 4-5 weeks. So at the very least I need something in the meantime. And I got these for only $499 on Ebay!
I have hit these irons a few times before at the PGA Merchandise Show and they are pure. Of course, Yonex out-did themselves with the Ti-Hybrid MB model, but that is too expensive for my tastes (sets are $1,600+ right now).
Speaking of the TN-87 irons, I took the heads off and measured the head weights (typical OEM head weights are in parantheses):
4-iron: 248 grams (247 grams) 5-iron: 259 grams (254 grams) 6-iron: 267 grams (261 grams) 7-iron: 272 grams (268 grams) 8-iron: 276 grams (275 grams) 9-iron: 284 grams (282 grams) P-Wedge: 294 grams (292 grams)
The heads are heavier than OEM heads across the board but don't go in 7-gram increments. There is usually about a +/- 2 gram discrepancy allowed in iron heads, but they also didn't have the tightest quality control standards back then like they do today.
One of the reasons why I was interested in the Yonex EZone MB's is that it has a similar muscle design as the TN-87's. We will see how they perform.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 16, 2015 13:57:37 GMT -5
New item purchased that I'm excited about: The Wishon 919f/d This is a mini-driver design. I currently have a TaylorMade SLDR Mini-Driver. I actually hit it pretty well, but I wouldn't say that I'm overly long with it off the deck. That's mainly because I think the head is a little too big and you're still going to hit below the CoG of the club and the vertical gear effect kicks in. The other problem is that OEM heads tend to have higher lofts than stamped, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Mini-Driver SLDR is actually higher than 14* loft. The TM Mini-Driver is a 260 cc head. Ping has a Rapture mini-driver model that is 219 cc. The Wishon 919f/d is 200 cc's. I hand picked this one to 13* loft, so I know exactly what loft this is and hopefully that will keep the ball flight down. This head has a weight port. The other 919THI drivers do not. I asked Tom about that and he said with the 919THI driver head they tried to make a weight port but it just made a sound when struck that was 'unacceptable.' So I really look forward to giving this a whirl. More to come. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 17, 2015 15:49:39 GMT -5
And the spending spree hasn't quite stopped, yet. I purchased the Model 2 Matt Kuchar ArmLock putter from Bettinardi.
I am very excited about this purchase as I think the ArmLock method has some real merit to it if it can get rid of the 'hitting' of the putter.
Last week, friend Victor Rodriguez had a video posted on his Facebook timeline called 'Muni Madness.'
Basically, Victor and his friends play in large groups at night time under the lights on a muni course with money going into a pot.
Last week they showed guys putt and all of them are good players. And you could just tell who were the good putters and the bad putters.
The good putters had the shortest follow thrus and the least amount of 'hit' or none at all. They were allowing gravity to do the work and naturally decelerate the putter head as they get into impact.
The bad putters had the longest follow thrus and the most noticeable 'hit' motion. They also often putted cross-handed or had other 'gimmicks' going on with their putting.
So hopefully the armlock method will promote that and make it easier for me to naturally let the putter head decelerate into the ball right before impact.
3JACK
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