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Post by cwdlaw223 on Feb 19, 2015 10:07:33 GMT -5
You ought to try the face on GP Putter. It takes some work to get used to the Kuchar putter (as well as the GP putter). I just think face on is less stressful on our brains when it comes to putting.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 20, 2015 10:48:13 GMT -5
I'll try the Kuchar armlock because I purchased it. I'll try and give it a good go. My largest worry is the aim and the long putts. When I had the belly putter I thought it was very tough to putt a 40+ footer well. But, I think the armlock method is still going to be easier than the belly putter.
I've always been interested in any method that you can look at the hole while putting. Or any face on method from my days when I used to bowl (I used to bowl at a 200 average), so it is much easier to aim yourself face on than on the side.
And when I was a junior golfer one day I got paired up with a guy that created his own putter where he would straddle the putter and the stroke would go between his feet (completely illegal, but we were just playing a casual round). I believe he took an aluminum shaft and shaped it so it would bend perfectly. He also made EVERYTHING that day as well.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 20, 2015 13:35:29 GMT -5
Alright.....got the following in the mail today:
Wishon 919F/D, 13* loft, 0* face angle 3-wood
Bettinardi Golf Kuchar Model 2 ArmLock Putter (42", 7* loft)
Yonex EZone MB irons, 3-PW, standard lengths and lies with Dynamic Gold S200 shafts
Some initial impressions:
WISHON 919F/D
I actually hit my TaylorMade SLDR Mini-Driver pretty well, but often times I hit it too high with too much spin. I think the loft may be off which happens far more often than people think with OEM clubs. Also, the head may be a little too big and I may be hitting shots off the deck below the CoG of the club; causing the vertical gear effect to kick in.
With the Wishon 919F/D, the head was hand picked to 13* loft and a 0* face angle. Every manufacturer gets their heads that come in and they measure the lofts and face angles. IIRC, the industry standard tolerances is +/- 1.5* from spec. But, it's really questionable if OEM's are doing even that as I would say the MAJORITY of the time I have seen wood lofts measured from OEM clubs that they are HIGHER LOFTED than what is stamped. With Wishon, I don't have to worry about that as it is hand picked and measured by Tom Wishon himself.
The TaylorMade Mini-Driver is at 260 cc's, so I was curious to see how much smaller the Wishon head was at 200 cc's. The height of the face is only a very small amount smaller than the Taylor Made. The same with the length of the face from heel to toe. In fact, the difference is so small that you really have to sit there and carefully measure both to tell the difference.
Where the difference in the size of the head is noticeable is towards the rear of the club head. Thus, I'm very happy with how the Wishon 919FD looks so far. It has been built to overcome some of the issues with the TaylorMade Mini-Driver design. Now I will just have to see how it works.
BETTINARDI GOLF KUCHAR MODEL 2 PUTTER
This looks like brand new and feels fantastic. I think the feel of the Bettinardi's is overrated, but the FIT face feels much better than most Bettinardi's I've tried. For my money, the best feeling putters are the Piretti's, although I've never tried a Byron Morgan putter.
The good news thus far is I can more easily feel myself trying to 'hit' the ball and thus that is the feedback I'm looking for so I can avoid that.
YONEX EZONE MB IRONS
These look brand new from a distance. The seller gave me iron headcovers and I believe he used them on these clubs which he probably didn't use for long. You can only see a very slight wear on parts of the sole grind.
The clubs look fantastic otherwise and I can't wait to hit them. Although I will have to swap out the S200's for some Modus 130 shafts.
The clubs are standard length, but I see that Yonex uses a 35.5" P-Wedge length instead of a 35.75" P-Wedge length like so many OEM's do these days.
They were measured at a D-1 swingweight and here are the MOI numbers:
3-iron: 2,700 4-iron: 2,685 5-iron: 2,660 6-iron: 2,650 7-iron: 2,620 8-iron: 2,630 9-iron: 2,630 P-Wedge: 2,590
That's going to require some weight to get the clubs to match to 2,725.
However, the good news is that my lengths will be longer. The Modus 130 shafts weigh about 129 grams to the S200's 127 grams. Always hard to tell with shafts because it depends on how the shaft weight is distributed throughout the club.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 21, 2015 23:44:17 GMT -5
Played today but only used the Bettinardi putter. The putter was fantastic. Putted extremely well with it on crappy greens. I did miss a 5-footer as I missed it badly off the toe. But other than that, I made a ton of putts or hit it exactly where I wanted to and it just didn't drop.
I removed the shaft from the Yonex 6-iron so I could install the Modus 130 shaft.
First, the Yonex was a colossal pain in the ass to remove the shaft. The hosel diameter is very tight and it's not easy to get a shaft in there either. I finally got the shaft to fit in, but the hosel depth of the Yonex is much shallower than the Mizuno by about a 1/4-inch.
The Yonex 6-iron head weighed in at 261 grams. I'll get to try that out tomorrow.
I removed the UST Mamiya VTS 8x shaft from my TaylorMade Mini-Driver and installed that into my Wishon 919F/D. The hosel depth is also much deeper in the TaylorMade than the Wishon, by about 3/4-inch. I installed that shaft and had to put a 9-gram head weight and will have to put another 5-grams or so onto the head to get the MOI to 2,805.
Can't wait to try them out tomorrow. Thank god it's finally becoming decent weather outside.
3JACK
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Post by golfbaka on Feb 23, 2015 10:17:34 GMT -5
Have you abandoned the ascending weight concept for now?
When I installed a Modus 130 the MOI came out pretty low and I had to add quite allot of weight to the head but as you're going over length I would have thought you may have some trouble with the 3 iron MOIing too high considering its at 2700 with an S200...
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 24, 2015 10:38:26 GMT -5
Have you abandoned the ascending weight concept for now? When I installed a Modus 130 the MOI came out pretty low and I had to add quite allot of weight to the head but as you're going over length I would have thought you may have some trouble with the 3 iron MOIing too high considering its at 2700 with an S200... I think it's a valid concept. The Modus 130's are constant weighted. It's just too hard to go thru and find the correct balance. I've only installed the Modus 130 in the Yonex 6-iron. It came out to 2,660 which was only slightly more than the S200, but the Modus 130 was +1/2" longer. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Feb 24, 2015 12:50:35 GMT -5
Uninstalled the shafts on the Yonex EZone MB's. I found that part of the issue of getting the EZone's uninstalled was that the hosel depth is 1/4" shorter, so you have have the hand torch directed higher up on the hosel. Anyway, here are the head weights (standard OEM head weights are in parantheses):
4-iron: 249 grams (247) 5-iron: 254 grams (254) 6-iron: 261 grams (261) 7-iron: 267 grams (268) 8-iron: 277 grams (274) 9-iron: 284 grams (281) P-Wedge: 291 grams (288)
Not sure exactly what Yonex's standard head weight specs are. Usually I go by what the 6-iron says and use 7-gram increments from there. But 4 of the clubs are 2-3 grams heavier than industry standards.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 6, 2015 11:36:39 GMT -5
Update... The Mizuno TN-87's have been sent off to the Iron Factory to be re-chromed. I had debated this as I had heard a lot of pros and cons (mostly pros) of going to the Iron Factory. Most of the cons were just from people that seem like the type that they would complain about anything. The more legitimate complaints were about losing head weight. Tom Wishon swears that you're going to lose some weight (1-6 grams) with any re-chroming. But, Tom also says that if you add tip weights or lead tape you won't lose the feel or performance. The counter to this is I have had people say that the Iron Factory actually weighs the heads beforehand and then tries to add enough chrome back onto the club to get the head weights back to their original weight. In the end, I looked at it like this: 1. If the head weights are lighter, I could always add tip weights and see how that goes. 2. If the tip weights don't work, then I'll just re-sell the club and probably make up for what I paid the Iron Factory (roughly $200). The problem for the Mizuno TN-87's is a good problem to have...I'm really digging the Yonex EZone MB irons. *** I also purchased this bad boy (too good of a deal to pass up) I really like my Edel 52 degree, but at $50 for this club I couldn't help but give a shot. I've actually hit the Fourteen Wedges many times before, usually at Demo Day of the PGA Merchandise Show. In fact, I remember their first show they were at one of my friends asked what clubs I was impressed with and I said 'check out the Fourteen wedges.' And then they started to develop a cult following in the US. What I still love about my Edel Lob Wedge is that the score lines and CoG goes more out towards the toe. I think that is critical if you're opening the face based on this Kelvin Miyahira video: However, I rarely used the 52 degree where I have to open up the face. I rarely even use it from the bunkers. I still think it is a good thing to have a head that is designed like a 56 degree head, just in case. I just don't think Edel's CoG and scorelines towards the toe with the 52 is overly beneficial. So I'll give the Fourteen wedge a shot as the deal was too good to pass up. Lastly, I finally ordered the BombTech Grenade driver. I still have my Wishon 919THI and I won't be getting rid of that with the UST Mamiya VTS shaft. However, I'm starting to hit the 919THI a bit too high (it's at 10 degrees loft). Part of this is due to generating more club head speed, but another part of this is due to a bit of an under-flip that I'm working on getting out of my swing. I wanted to try the BombTech Grenade mainly because I think the head design seems logical in that it could increase ball speeds and even some club speed. I have heard a lot of great things about Krank Golf's drivers and the BombTech is sort of designed in the same light. I did ask a friend who has hit one if he liked it and he said it was too spinny, but he generates way more spin than I do. And in the end, if I don't like it after 60 days, they give a 90% refund. 3JACK
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Post by golfbaka on Mar 13, 2015 6:57:24 GMT -5
How's the Wishon F/D versus the SLDR mini-driver? I also notice that TM have also released a Aero Buner mini driver
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Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 13, 2015 8:17:40 GMT -5
Wishon is smaller in total size (200 cc's vs. 260 cc's). The face height of the TM is a hair taller, but most of the difference in the size comes from the backend of the club head.
So far, I just haven't had to use it much lately.
I also ordered Nippon's new Modus wedge shafts. These are the new wedge line of shafts from Nippon that were made with the Modus model in mind. I really like the Modus 130's in my irons, so I wanted to try it out on the wedges. I have the Nippon WV125's which I like in my Lob Wedge, but like it less in the Sand Wedge.
Should be getting that next week.
3JACK
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Post by golfbaka on Mar 14, 2015 5:28:34 GMT -5
From the marketing blurb it seemed that the Modus wedge shafts may just be a rebadging of the WV.
I'm looking at Cobra's Long Tom 2 wood as a mini-driver at the moment (obviously reshafted!) but I fear that the face angle may be closed and therefore not for me. Struggling to find any specs online!
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Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 16, 2015 8:47:20 GMT -5
The WV125's feel much different from the Modus, a little more boardy. The Modus shafts have an interesting bend profile as they are very soft thru the mid section and the top section of the tip, but are quite stiff thru the rest of the tip. I have really taken to them with my Yonex irons. I do believe my clubs have minds of their own as this week I hit the 52 degree Edel the best I ever have. It may have seen that I was looking to move the Fourteen Golf 52 degree wedge into the lineup. Here's another story of how accurate I find MOI matching to be. I have found that if the MOI of a club is too light or too heavy, it has different effects depending on the length of the club. Too light with a short club (i.e. PW or 9-iron) is more likely to cause the golfer to hit it thin. But, as the club gets longer, like a hybrid or fairway wood, you're more likely to hit it fat. Too heavy with the MOI with a short club usually means hitting it fat, but with a long club it usually means topping it. I had not used my Wishon 919F/D that much as I just didn't get to use it. But, when I did I was hitting a little bit behind the ball. Sure enough, I measured it on the MOI machine and it appears that some of the lead tape I had on the club head came off as the MOI was at 2780, about 25 points too low. I re-applied some lead tape in a different position and started to kill that 3-wood. Best $500 I've ever spent in golf. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 27, 2015 8:24:43 GMT -5
I hit the Modus wedge shafts and they certainly different from the WV125 shafts. The WV125's are a little more boardy, definitely stiffer in the mid-section. But, the Modus shafts produce a lower launch with clearly more spin. Not sure how I will like that in the 52 degree since I don't use it a lot on short shots around the green. I'll put one in the 60 degree, but I really like the WV125 shaft in that 60 degree as well. What's interesting is that unlike the Modus iron shafts, the Modus wedge shafts don't produce low MOI readings when you dry install. Still waiting on the BombTech Grenade driver that I ordered 3-weeks ago. The Web site says 'shipping takes 1-2 weeks', then I was told that it was 2-3 weeks, now I'm being told it is 2-4 weeks. Problem is I cracked the head of my Wishon 919THI. So if I don't get the BombTech Grenade by next Friday, I'll want my money back and will be steamed about it as I could have just gotten another 919THI head by the time I waited for the BombTech driver. I think 4 weeks to wait is ridiculous to begin with. My Golf Spy did a great study on golf ball performance that can be found here: www.mygolfspy.com/direct-to-consumer-golf-ball-buyers-guide/I would like to try out the Nicklaus golf balls. Very low spin with the driver and high spin with the wedges. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 31, 2015 10:24:39 GMT -5
I have been playing with my spare Wishon 919THI with an old Aldila RIP Beta shaft. This is an old version of the 919THI head. It looks like the current 919THI head, but it has a shorter hosel and the sound is more muted. It is also only 9 degrees of loft. I hit this club quite well this past weekend, but I just received notice that the BombTech Grenade is on its way.
I'm growing a little more skeptical of the BombTech, but again...60-day guarantee will get me 90% of my money back.
I was told by a friend that it spins a lot, but that could be more due to the shaft. It also didn't test out that well at MyGolfSpy either. Again, could be a shaft issue and a loft issue.
The Wishon 919THI at 9 degrees worked quite well, but I added a lot of weight to the head due to the club only being 44.5" long which helps launch it higher
I have been putting really well with the Bettinardi ArmLock. I would run into a situation where if I made 10 putts, 8 of them would be stroked like I wanted but 2 of them I would revert back to some old habits. I think I started to figure out a few more things and on Sunday at Orange Lake Resort I putted lights out on the back nine and shot 31 (-4) on that back nine. I haven't putted that well in a stretch of nine holes in forever.
I've installed the new Modus 125 wedge shaft in both my SW and LW. I haven't hit the LW, yet but I like the shaft in the SW so far.
3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Apr 2, 2015 8:55:14 GMT -5
Just spoke to Jim Kronus, yesterday, from the Iron Factory. He has finished my Mizuno TN-87's and is shipping them back to me. I'm guessing I'll get them sometime next week.
In the meantime, I've really enjoyed the Yonex EZone MB's and will have to play with both the re-chromed Mizunos and the Yonex to see which I prefer. I have my doubts about the P-Wedge in the Mizuno (It's very big and bulky head), but I really like the P-Wedge in the Yonex.
I will take pictures of the heads and measure the head weights in comparison to what they were previously when I get them in.
I also am supposed to receive my BombTech Grenade driver today.
3JACK
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