coops1967

Can't see it in the store here yet , i guess it's a Craft 460cc head to go with the 410cc Craft 611, which i have and love - it has replaced an adams 9015d, both with the same shaft. .... i am keeping the 'old' Adams, though, it is rather fabulous.

Got the wife a putter cover for her 2- ball... and one for me since i'd heard there were plans for a non insert black 2-ball. Best friend finally brought the putter over from the US, the ProType Black... no insert, hurrah. First time with it on the course this weekend.

Blended set from an Epon 901 style 2 iron ( with an option to swap for a 'matchng' hybrid) the to 302 style cavity back and down to the aftpur style blade for the short irons. Nitrided finish, so no plating yet full corrosion rsisitance. Absolutely no stamps like ' Tour', 'Prototype', super jabaa high whatever anywhere on the clubs. Just the very nice S-yard logo and a number on the sole.

Exactly. And they already have a major presence in these stores with their range of balls, but can't get distribution for the clubs? Bizarre.

That Bstone J40 would be excellent. I tried to find Bstone gear when i was over in the US in Pennsylvania... didn't see any of their gear, irons or drivers etc, at all... anywhere. I was hoping to get a look at and buy the 430cc driver they had out. Seemed to have woeful distribution/ marketing, which is a shame. Cannot honestly believe they will truly change the Tourstage name in Japan and Asia.

? Take a holiday in Thailand, amongst others.... plenty of places to get Tourstage clubs including Mb's obviously... and demo them at All Star Driving Range... along with PRGR, Epon, Yamaha, Honma and the usual suspects. Or you could do some food shopping at Fuji supermarket on Soi Phriompong and get yourself a set of Tourstage clubs there - they have a Tstage shop in the supermarket.... Or demo at RCA driving range. Or go to Thaniya plaza. Or Paragon department store downtown Bangkok. ps the Bridgestone's are alsocvery good.

Cold forging a driver face is different from forging a full iron clubhead from a billet. Cold forging a thin sheet of driver face ( maybe with a small amount of 'cup' to it ) which is then welded/ brazed to the other driver head components... sure, and the far smaller angles involved minimise any work hardening issues. Compare that to forging a wedgenhead with hosel and its many much sharper angles. Are they claiming to forge the wedge from billet to head cold? Forgive my cynicism, but notice cold forging is noted as being cheaper in manufacture...

Interesting. What are the claimed benefits? seems there are issues with the material wprk hardening due to the lower temps. Here's a link to a more english based info http://www.qcforge.net/Page.aspx/93/Cold_Warm_Hot.html

Not possible to forge a golf clubhead when cold. Sounds like a bullsh1t marketing term for some final stamping or the like - just as the old TM clubs that were 'coin forged' which is equally misleading and was pretty much the end for the stream of dodgy language mangling/ abusing terms like 'form forged' etc.

looks are a major part... and as a copper chrome epon owner I find looks very important The laser or micro grooves can help in deep wet rough, just as the now outlawed wider grooves helped. With all the modern groove milling abilities... they still have to allow for the plateing thickness with a carbon steel plated head. I'm surprised Fourteen's choice of nitrideing wasn't copied more or at all.

I'd say the laser milling has a minimal effect on spin anyway... or to put it another way - the technique and skill of the human swinging the club and their choice of golf ball will have massively more importance when it comes down to how much spin is produced on a shot. (Remember that on a dry, 'clean' shot that a smooth faced wedge... with no grooves at all... produces more spin - the grooves are there to channel away water etc from the rough etc to allow the ball surface to contact the clubface better. Stop and consider a race car... on a dry day, do they use tyres with lots of grooves? no...they use 'slicks' for more grip) If S-yard wanted to have those laser edges to last longer they would/should have plated the club which gives you a harder face which would wear a lot more slowly. Or they could have nitrided the head, giving a very hard very thin surface layer resisiting wear and also unlike plating, not changing the groove dimensions or sharpeness at all. Fourteen nitrided their wedges for a while, rather than nickel-chrome plateing.

These can't be considered S-Yard's new 'players' iron though, surely? The previous blingtastic XV's were always the GI type of club... Bit less honma than the previous XV's but still... as you say, disapointing. And sticker's for the XV.... really? And i'd rather move the weight around the actual head where you're going to be hitting the ball, rather than sticking it in the hosel... or is that just for headweighting? Do you think they saw the Honma's with that red blob and thought, ''mmmmm, tasty" ?

Up to you. Same steel shaft in my Epon 901 as my irons, works great and because it's the same shaft the standard swingweight scale does its job ok. You could maybe go for a shaft slightly lighter than your iron shafts... but if you're using say 120gm steel shafts, then a 60g graphite shaft is going to throw you off quite horribly.

I'd imagine this is a 460cc Craft version, as there's already the fab MP-611 Craft at 410cc. More pics would be nice - but since it's somewhat a Craft version of the already good looking MP-650... it's hardly going to be ugly Interesting difference to the sole weighting (and the adjustable weights? for head weight adjustment?). Always intrigued by that sole shape, as it reminds me of the Adams 9015d (or the newer Ryoma?) - does give great results. When everyone is trying to push weight away to the corners... is it a coincidence that this old Adams and the Ryoma produce great results with.... an alternative idea. Like a cavity back iron with more mass placed in the impact area (or inline with it, in a driver's case)

Titanium in a fairway wood gives the same benefits as a driver - save weight in some areas to be postioned elsewhere to maximise clubhead MOI (forgiveness). Much more expensive material, and the smaller clubhead sizes mean the benefits are not so large as that between a Ti 460cc and SS 460cc driver head... so most just use steels. Obviously Titanium is very strong, but it is not so hard - which is why you'll see small scratches so easily on your driver face and sole... even though the driver is kept in a cover, the sole barely touches grass (let alone takes divots etc) yet it will still scratch a little bit. Same goes for watches if you ever look for a Ti watch - so beware... make sure it's surface hardened in some way ;-) Mizuno MP fairways seem to be the most well known and very, very well reviewed titanium fairway woods. (I have FW wood yips... so saves me worrying about them!)

Fairway woods can use the same steel shaft as your irons, no problem - especially 5 woods etc as you're not meant to be looking at distance, but extra forgiveness over the 2 or 3 iron it's replacing (depending on jacked upness of its lts loft and club 'number'). FW is more clumsy put out of rough.. which is where the hybrid steps in as almost all the forgiveness with more manageable size, and better from rough. A good, modern 'driving iron' or iron-brid like Epon 901, Mizuno Fli-hi's and the like also has close to the forgiveness of the hybrid (and out of the rough) - and has the distinct advantage of allowing the hosel to be bent for proper lie angle. Plenty of forgiveness with most of the feel of a regular iron - and a well hit long iron feels fabulous.

You won't really see them on the Gripmaster site for some reason, but they do still offer a wrap leather grip in a D shape rather than 'just' the usual stitchback type. I had one put on a Byron Morgan putter i had made - somewhat like an old leather wrap you used to find on the original old Bullseye's. D shape not so pronounced, but very nice, and seems more durable than some of the stitchbacks (the deer feels lovely but get sscuffed easiyl from bag wear when removing form the bag etc... black should be good, here's a pic of a brown veriosn to give you the idea So, leather is great.. a cheaper one to try would be a Lamkin Deep Etched paddle grip - very nice feel to it, almost mid size, good shape... just take a black sharpie to the Lamkin logo maybe

313 - is that blade above with 'zero' offset what you have in mind? With the leading edge pretty much in line with the front edge of the hosel? The only 'modern' produced iron i've seen pictures of with that look is a set of custom Scratch. Not my cup of tea - looks kind of 'spoony' somehow - but then Olazebal liked his forged MacGregors with offset cranked in to them, so each to his own! If you like the leading edge in line with the front of the shaft as you look down at address (so there is offset from the hosel) then i've really liked the offset on the Epon AF-Tour blade (and the 302 cavity back, which has ofset specs almost identical) - and can be done in a ridiculously beautiful copper chrome. Be careful just relying on the measurement numbers - make sure you have a look in person. When the Epon Personals came out, I had a look at them at an Epon shop and could compare directly to the AF-Tour and 302's ... and to the eye (well, my eye ;-) ) the Personals looked like they had quite a lot more offset than the other two, but stated specs said otherwise. Same way, the RF-551 looked like a lot less offset than the 'original' 501's... but apparently was largely due to how the hosel/face area was ground/finished. Anyway, take your time... the Mizuno Yoro thread has my favourite Mizuno look in there, a set of double nickel satin blades No pics of copper chrome Af-tours... but i've seen them and they are sexy enough to make me unfaithful to my CuChr 301's...

You could always go full lovely Mizuno - check out the model you prefer anywhere in the USA, then one you've chosen a model get a Yoro custom order made to your finish and the offset reduced to your own specification.

I remember the old wound balls. Even the Surlyn covered wound Titleist had a great feel with an iron shot - a lovely kind of progressive compression to it. Only occasionally used a balata (too expensive for me back then... especially with a wild swing)... even more fabulous feel and the sound when you hit an iron (or a wood made of wood), ooooh But i absolutely hated putting with them - felt like slapping a dead fish ;-) too soft for my liking when putting ( detest the Odyssey inserts etc).

Wasn't aware there's a copper layer under the Epon wedges - but you never know... I thought a copper underlay was common say 20 years ago - due to the usual nickel plating not adhering too well with the materials/methods in those days (so a layer of copper first before the nickel chrome layers). I think it's less common now as plating has improved to a stage where it's not needed - not needed for 'mechanical' keeping the plating from bubbling etc reasons. Some of the older Mizuno's were famous for their feel and it's been thought the old copper layer underneath had something to do with it.... My 301's were originally in the black finish, and did feel firmer than when they were subsequently refinished in the copper-chrome (not that the copper chrome means they have an actual copper plate layer on them) - reckon sound has a large part to do with feel and maybe the plating makes a difference... I'd have thought Epon would mention a copper underlay in their marketing as a plus point, but maybe it's a secret ;-)

Ever thought of trying out the Nunchuk Xi iron shafts? Can't get hold of them where i am... would love to hear how they perform.

Not so much discussion because they're not for sale here... I did see them in Bangkok before i left for work. A somewhat strange move from Epon, i think. Previously with the Tour blades, 301/302, then 501/502 and the 701/702's Epon had a wide range, quite clearly apart from each other - and you could easily combine aset of the Tour Blades with 301's or 302's, or you could combine a set of the 501 and 701 styles. Pure blade to 'regular' forged cavity back 301's (etc), next to a more forgiving 501 series with undercut in the mid to longer irons only with a bit more offset and bigger heads... and then the super forgiving 701's with undercut in all heads, more offset etc. Now.... the 503 is undercut in every head. which leaves the 700 series where? Can only imagine the next 700 will be a mega blobby Ping K series style (but forged) with honking offset, tungsten doodads, inserts, badges and flashing lights.

Oddly, i straightaway took 'toe down' as meaning face closed (rather than a lie angle thing) - perhaps due to the illustration, and then they mentioned "disgusting left pull shots" ... which err, reminded me of me. ;-) . It's a weird thing too about whether more weight on the toe promotes a fade or more wight on the heel promotes a fade - google it and prepare to be confused... Pedant alert! I'm so old i think i could have a second career as a proof reader - "powerrful shots" - fat thumbs when you're typing away on an internet forum, ok.... on a marketing brochure.... ps George.... your name is pretty much already on there - "George Spirits" - do you really need the 'by George Takei' also? Bah ;-) pps edited to change 'to' to 'too' - did i mention fat thumbs?

Very nice shot pattern from Tatsuro - looks like a bit flatter lie would get it more centred rather than left biased .... just kidding.... kind of. Incidentally, i did find the 'sharpie' lie angle can work on a driver, but use a paint pen rather than marker (used a cheap one from a Daiso shop). The paint doesn't dry off so quickly and leaves a clear line on the impact tape. Would be very interested to see results of it with a consistent swing like that. Use one of those putting ball marker aids and use the paint pen to put a line on ball, put on tee with line vertical and blast away.... use impact tape as you don't want ink on your driver's face (!), and if the tape has horizontal lines it makes it easy to line up and then measure for lie uprightness etc. (My marks were ok for lie at 56 1/2 deg lie, but major heel strike tendency... oops).