Shambles

The 15* 3 wood was first choice off the tee from day one to me. The Driver always seemed too long, big and heavy to be used and I gravitated towards the 3 wood as a recourse. I liked it even more when I found it was also a good fairway club whereas the Driver, back then, was only used off the tee. The only reason I forced myself to learn to use the Driver was because I bever felt like a golfer unless I learned to use all the clubs in my bag and when that breakthrough was done, I found many more things needed learning. Shambles

It's actually a good thing as long as you know what he is doing. I like learning how to do a job and then pay someone else to do it with me watching or at least measuring the results when he declares the job done. I bent a set of clubs once long ago and swore never again. Shambles

Shambles

I think you are right about bling but remember that that tiny tap costs just as much as the 100 mph swing in strokes. On the norm you consume about a third of your score on 18 holes with that tiny tap. You'll actually reach for the putter more often than for any other club, unless you are having a truly bad day. If you are going to use a club that often, isn't it a good thing to have one that feels right to your hand and eye ? Shambles

That rule makes perfect sense to me. Simple but effective because it also verifies the seller to some degree. It would undoubtedly make the BST many times safer and should be embraced and encouraged by all. Shambles.

For reasons that escape me you have found offense from my words. I shall withdraw from this conversation. Shambles

For any company, regardless of size, the cost of tooling up for any specific model is prohibitive. The larger companies are better able to endure mistakes, however, whomsoever made the decision that led to that mistake is going to have to answer for it even if he owns the company. The company that was the progenitor of the Royal Collection is an interesting case that fringes on your model. ( I had to resort to the clumsy description because I cannot at the moment remember that company's name. ) That company had the good/bad luck to have a PGA pro win with their club and interest in their design grew to such an extent that demand went well beyond capacity to produce or deliver. For reasons that escape me, that spurt in demand which they could not take advantage of apparently caused them to cash in their chips and sell out to become the present day RC. It's a story I wish I knew the details of but telling in that they apparently handled the sudden demand poorly enough to have to sell out the company. At least, the story looks that way to me so far. [ Still a great club by the way, and well worth the getting, at least in the 3 and 4/5 wood. I was not so lucky with the Driver, but I might have found a dead head and am looking out for another for comparison purposes. ] The point of the RC story is that you need to be prepared to grow in case the opportunity arises and the model you describe severely limits that potential. The idea of buying a first stamping blank strikes me as too fraught with potential faults because every stamping drives out some impurities from the metal. Better would be to buy a model that was close enough to a design you want and adjust it to something you think is better. Your model actually suggests a customized custom fit, which is an attractive idea to me, but would probably be expensive. Shambles

Where we differ is a matter of degree or perceived degree, which is what I asked TSG to define. The model I describe is pretty close to the final product and essentially requires only trimming, polishing and branding. The model you describe is of a blank that has excess metal enough to require cosiderably more grinding and shaping. That, to me, does not make commercial sense and would only be the recourse if only a very few sets are needed, as in " Specially made for ... ". BTW, this is a long cherished pipe dream of mine as I'm sure of others, in those long gone days when my ambition was to become the greatest golfer in the world. I think the model you describe, or as I understand you describe, does not make commercial sense. It's very possible to make " Specially made for... " for those very few who are willing to spend an enormous amount for the sake of owning something no one else has, but even then I doubt the returns or the skilled labor would be sustainable. Shambles

A look at the video of the way in which Ping casts it's clubs via the lost wax process might help you understand why your impression of how clubs are mass produced does not work. I saw it in some documentary program about how to manufacture different things. It's an investment heavy process but does produce reasonably consistent product and the raw heads come out complete with hosel, grooves, loft and lie for each iron. Only the finishing touches and final adjustments were needed subsequently. Forged clubs are a lot easier to find videos of, thanks to the diligence of TSG in posting them here. One of the reasons I haunt this board and wish I had learned to speak Japanese. Neither forged nor cast need be made by hand regardless that both require final finishing by hand. Shambles

I'm of the opinion that considerably more is involved, although I am not competent to accurately list the journey of a chunk of steel to a golf club. It's possible to make clubs the way you describe " hand made " to be, but that would be horribly expensive or ridiculously crude or both, depending on the machinery available to the maker and his skill set with it. I expect a book or a visit to a historic display would better better illustrate. Thankfully, in today's age of the internet, it's easier to find pictures and illustrations of the processes involved as well as the limitations imposed by the available machineries and the skill sets of their operators. You've actually been a resource for me, thanks to your postings of different videos from different manufacturers of how golf clubs are made. It's also thanks to those video posts that I believe a more detailed differentiation of hand made and machine made is needed here. Shambles

I had the impression that cast or forged a fair amount of trimming and grinding is needed to produce the finished product. If so, how much trimming and grinding is required to distinguish hand made from mass produced ? Shambles

The article makes sense regardless that I had to read it twice to make better sense of it, which leaves the question of what does a frequency measure actually give you that you can use ? Shambles

What gives me pause is this old man at customs. Shambles

Likewise. I don't normally buy from abroad but have been thinking upon it and TSG has some attractive products. Shambles

Love that "...flavor of the month ..." description. :) Shambles

Pretty much the same feel here, though I call it dynamic loft with a very lightly just about invisible upward stroke. I even imagine a slight flexing of the shaft when I'm rolling the ball well. Not always, but some very rare times. I'm putting an old Bullseye heavy flange. Shambles

Nice looking set. Kind of jogged my memory and found that I had picked up a set, 3-P a couple of years ago but was distracted and ended up playing some other clubs since. These did not play the way I wanted and I have not yet gotten around to reshafting them to fit. The looks drew me to them. Wow...time passes without asking permission ! Shambles

I recall way back when I was in grade school in the States a chemist from some company came to encourage some of us to become chemists. One of his attention getters was to mix a couple of chemicals that very quickly expanded into foam. I'm thinking the chemicals should be reasonably available and, even if I do not know what they were, some chemistry teacher ought to be able to look them up or figure it out. The reaction came with a very strong smell that filled the room. Caution. If you try this out, be sure you do it right the first time because there is no second try unless you have heads to spare. It's way easy to put it in but I think just impossibly difficult to take it out. Shambles

Fake or not, if I could afford it, I'd take it. I like the gold, it's the only time I've seen a club dressed that way. PM me a price and additional pics if you want to let them go. Shambles

FIRST : THE PUTTER FACE IS NOT FLAT. The putter face is not flat. The putter will be between 2.5* and as much as 4.5* loft, with the higher lofts more common amongst the old putters. The higher the loft, the more usefull the putter on slow, poorly maintained greens. The lower the loft the more it needs to be used on fast and very well maintained greens. I consider 3.5* best all around but others have different preferences. The higher lofts are, as a general rule, easier to learn with. You can feel this when you try it out because the ball will roll more easily and point better. It's rather unfortunate that such data is neither marked or very well published, so you need to rely upon your personal feel. That's difficult especially for new guys because everything feels difficult for the new guy and he more often resorts to relying upon reputation, price and bling. A putter is a very personal choice and the ability to feel it's performance under different conditions is important. SECOND : YES YOU CAN GET USED TO A PUTTER However, regardless that you get to knowing that putter well and can use it well, somewhere inside you is that tiny feeling of discomfort that is not going to be there when you find the right putter for you. There will no longer be a need to do compensating grips or funny balances with the muscles of your feet. It is not magic, it's just finding something that feels and works better in your hands and you will know it when you find it. When you think about it, there really is no reason for a player to fail to putt a straight line or have reasonable control of the distance strength or the putt. The putt is so easy that there are a ton and more of individual techniques and they all manage to roll the ball. If you find a way to putt straight and control distance, be happy and stay with it because that is the difficult part. However that does not mean you stay with that putter forever. The next one might truly feel and play better, so keep on trying. THIRD : THE READ IS IMPORTANT You need to learn to read because everytime the ball finds the green, even if it's the same old green, the read is going to be new. Regardless, reading isn't everything to putting. It's very important but finding the right putter, as evidenced by the vast collections of top golfers, is also very important, and they really are already so good that it's easy to believe they can putt with everything. Personally I've seen John Daly putt with a three iron and hit a putter 180 yards, more or less. Common tricks for the pro but fun to watch regardless, and surprising to see Daly do it. Shambles

Not necessarily. I've noticed that USDM products have a tendency to run a bit heavier and a bit stiffer than JDM. They will have to make a decision as to whether to stay with their original formula or make changes to suit what the market is already used to, or might just make the slightly different assembly for each market. Ping ran a bit lighter than the normal USDM but still did very well so maybe they will test the waters with their original formula and make a change if that doesn't penetrate the market. Shambles

Bottom line with Golf clubs, as with any marketed product, is that you like what you bought, and it works for you. You get attracted to a club because it has the lines that draw you, and are proud when friends and aquaintances show more than just passing admiration for it. You end up keeping it because it works for you and allows you to play a satisfactory game with the promise of better things to come. You ever notice that the basically bathtub shape of the space shuttle looks nothing like the Flash Gordon type rockets that were designed after the V2 rocket that was made by Germany ? That's because that bathtub shape proved to be an aerodynamically sound design for the high speed and long distance glide needed by the space shuttle. You don't have that in a golf club. Likewise, you don't see the bathtub being used as a daily plane because it is impractical at the low speeds that airplanes use and would require too much power and fuel to even get up in the air. The golf club works in a space that is miniscule, except to us, and at a speed so slow that many sports cars can out run it. But the sports car is only good at carrying golf balls and the golf club is good for hitting golf balls in a confor5ming manner. I'm of the opinion that all this talk of superior materials and design innovations are just re shuffling the same deck of cards and done to attract your attention to their product so you can see if it attracts and interests you. Shambles

I agree that it is somewhat confusing to see Epon as a USDM, for me at the very least. However I don't know very much about JDM and spend my time here looking and trying to understand the products. I rather expect all production to have ambitions of entering the global market and competing on the world stage. A bit more complicated from the marketing point of view, but very rewarding as only a very large market can reward. Shambles

It makes sense to me that fakes would make an appearance amongst the JDM poducts. It would be just about unforgiveable not to fake these high priced items if the opportunity were available considering the per unit returns potential. Shambles

If you're going to ask for shoes, put on your golf socks and trace your feet on paper. The salesmen ought to be able to measure the perfect size from those tracings and your shoes have a very good chance of being a perfect fit. I've been doing it this way since I was 5 years old, which was probably a couple of years ago. :) Shambles