Shambles

Those things look like they could be repainted but in my hands the brand and other identifiers in the painted area would be covered up in paint. Still, if all you want is something playable and decent looking, just get it repainted. Shambles

If it's new it's probably just the brown patina. Keeping the brown away gets old real quick with me. I consider that a battle that will be lost. If you want to put up a fight against the brown patina, you might try a spray of wax and a cover of old newspaper. That should work provided you don't often use your clubs. An oil wipe also works but I really don't like either because you can get a transfer to the grips in the course of handling. I pretty much gave up and settled for the brown patina. If real rust develops, I will need to include new clubs in my budget more often in the same way new clothes become a real need more often because of air pollution, or use stainless clubs like the 17-4 that Ping uses. Air is like hydro static water pressure. There is no material that stops it, just ways of slowing it down, or diverting it. Shambles

Good luck finding them. It should not be too difficult. I just completed a set of 3 woods but my 3 and 5 woods are Sonartec and only the driver is R.C.. I'll be checking them out for a while. Early results, they all need attention when used as they are apparently very neutrally oriented, the clubs I have in any case. They also produce a very penetrating flight and would probably suit someone with a high swing speed best. The sound at impact is quiet, which is something I'm liking. Shambles

The most common cooking oil we have here is coconut. I wasn't aware that there was anything bad about vegetable oil, unless you were referring to it's effect, if any, on the taste of food. Back to donzelly's question, I long ago found attempts to resist rust too much trouble and settled on just cleaning the clubs with water and a stiff nylon brush every once in a while, letting them air dry and packing them back in the bag with the rain cover closed. I did the same with my raw wedges and to date the only thing that developed was a nice even brown patina. I rather like the looks because it's even and smooth. Much better results than rust converter which only looks nice when newly applied but wears unevenly if left alone. Rust on mild steel is very very slow to grow and only develops flakes if the surface is left dirty to the point dirt cakes. These days I consider raw clubs more attractive than plated because, other than the brown patina, it maintains it's appearance. I've seen some new raw clubs that looked cancerous but that was only because the brown was still growing and it was coming in splotches. If you can handle the looks, just keep using them. I'm a coward and put them in the closet so I would not see them for long enough to let the brown even out and the club become attractive again. Shambles

Tell me about it !! I've been trying to complete a set for the last couple of years and only found clubs that were way too abused or their owners were way too ambitious. Still looking. On the plus side, I do have a set of burners that are not that bad albeit the Driver and 3 wood are set to draw. I suppose I could improve their potential with a judicius change of shafts. Shambles

I'm not so sure I would reccomend the RC or the Sonartec to the OP or any reasonably new guy. The head requires a pretty high swing speed to show it's qualities, higher than I have experienced with other heads. It also requires a pretty accurate swing to perform, but that's not nearly all that difficult to learn. I would assess it as a genuine players club that is more designed to send the ball forward in a more penetrating flight and if you don't have the swing speed, it leaves you with a whole lot of roll that is far from predictable. The kind of wood that forces you to get good with your irons. In short, if you play these you better not be counting your score, or you better be good. More forgiving, much more, is the TM Burner or the V Steel, in my experience. Those fairways can be played from a very wide array of lies, though the burner is much kinder. Their limits can be reached without a lot of trouble and stretching them thereafter is a bit of an effort but worth the learning. It does become a bit of a problem choosing between the kindness and added length, but it's the kind of problem that should be welcome to many. I was not willing to reconfigure my burners or V Steel so I just got the Sonartecs and RC to find out if I can handle more demanding but promising clubs. Shambles

I'll give a plus to this and am much surprised to do so. Lately I've begun bagging some old Sonartec FW's and will probably put an RC Driver into play soon. They do not fly easy and need attention if you want to hit your targets, but they do bend the ball either way with equal facility and feel like they have more to give than I've been getting. Shambles

I learned this trick a long time ago, say a couple of decades, and it was done to a steel shafted 8* Mizuno Driver which I very much treated like a sledge hammer. I did not know the shaft was only partially, about half the hosel, inserted until some years after when I pulled the shaft because I needed it for another Driver. I never reinstalled it because the shaft was a bit short, but I think it's somewhere in my junk pile. I do remember that the pro who installed it went to the trouble of using some of his 24 hour epoxy, and might also have dimpled the shaft, though that part I really do not remember. I ran across this trick again more recently when a friend bought an old Driver with a Roddio on it. The shaft was much too soft for either of us regardless that it frequed way stiff. He offered it to me for dirt and on impulse I bought it, planning to tip the thing. Instead, I installed it on an old 909 D3 and it played much stiffer but is too light to suit me. Turns out that Roddio had been partially inserted to suit an old man. I was planning to install a different shaft on that Driver but ran across an old Royal Collection that ought to suit my current Sonartec fairways so that project will need to wait. :) It's a very old trick from a time when finding a shaft was more difficult. Shambles

Installing a shaft fully inserted is supposed to let the shaft play true to flex and true to cut. If you want it stiffer, you need to tip it. Partial insertion, on the other hand, will soften the shaft flex, and the amount of softening can be dramatic. Shambles

That's not a question I can answer without knowing and having seen your swing. Shafts can be treated many ways to affect their performance and I am not expert in the treatment or their effect. At the most simple level, lower kick points help people who have trouble get the ball up in the air and so does a softer shaft because, swung correctly, they can equate to higher club head speed at impact. In your case, in very general terms, the ability to hit a 210 yard carry with a 21* wood is pretty much expectable regardless of stiff or regular shafts in the American norm but if Japanese, I find they come a bit softer so I would stay with stiff, unless your problems are coming from or beginning with being able to hit the ball that far from a very slightly downhill lie. Sounds to me as if you have plenty of swing speed and your problems might more likely come from a misread lie or just plain errors that come from fatigue or loss of focus. With a 70% success ratio, I would be looking at swing errors more than for an equipment fix. There really is good reason for the best pros being so methodical about executing a swing as compared to the pros who miss more often. Next time that error comes up, take the time to review the swing just executed and see if you can find the error and, if possible, put down another ball and try to do the swing again the same way. It's far from precise, but might give you enough data to make a decision on your own about your error and what fix is needed. Shambles

Seems to me there is a little bit more to the low,mid and high kicks. If your swing speed isn't all that high, a low kick can make your fairways and long irons a bit more useful. Of course, if you have a high swing speed you would need a higher kick to be able to access all your distance potential and not lose it in ballooning. In short, you need to match your kick point to your swing speed, and that does not mean your best swing speed, but your most common. There are many other factors that can affect your swing results, but kick points, so often disregarded, do have a reasonably significant effect upon your overall game. Shambles

Actual length does not change with lie adjustments, however the handle does end up closer to your hands, or you don't have to bend as much down, by adjusting lie upwards. It's the difference between sensory and actuality. For playing purposes, adjust the lie according to what suits you and only then adjust the length if needed. BTW, there is no need to buy new shafts if you are only adding an inch or less. Butt extensions will do the job just as well. Shambles

I essentially agree, albeit disagree a little on some details. A club requiring little or no effort for the player to square up at contact is actually a club whose playing characteristics suit the player very well. Next time you're in a golf store and checking out the offerings, you might notice that some clubs have more toe swing than others. With your own clubs, try making them more upright or flat and you might also feel a change in their squaring or toe swing tendency. If you have a very light grip and a gentle swing, it's easier to feel such changes. The hand feels very little when it's engaged in a death grip. It's little things like this that can make sensitive players prefer one club over another even if they appear the same. You have a better chance at hitting your targets if there are no distractions. Changes of this sort are very small but can cost you a stroke or two if you momentarily lose attention. In short, they are not insurmountable, just a small distraction that can cost you a stroke and the round. Shambles

I think you need a good club fitter to cut the shaft for your hybrid. If you want to learn on your own, practice with some old, out of fashion, shafts just to verify the needed principles. I doubt it's all that difficult but the cutting isn't something I'm familiar with. Shambles

Unfortunately for you, our umbrella girls are chosen for most appealing appearance, and are dressed soft fluffy form fitting clothes. Sort of female work clothes . They do know how to hold up an umbrella and stand closer to you, the better to protect you from the elements. ;) Shambles

Seems to me you were struck by the Zaibatsu mentality that is reasonably prevalent in Asia and might even be in other parts of the world. Not really a big deal. We all need to play the cards we are dealt and do wrong foot on occasion. As a matter of fact, this incident might be indicative that you are more valuable as a trading partner than is obvious. Then again, I may be over reading. :) Life happens and other opportunities for you to apply your energy will come from time to time. Shambles

Are these stiff and in what sense ? Meaning Japanese or US ? Shambles

I made a mistake and tried out a Honma Beres with a stock 2 star shaft a couple of weeks ago on my home course. The owner warned me that I would probably end up wanting to own it. The damn thing was the smoothest Driver I have ever tried and actually gave me something like 10 more yards than my norm and could have had more but I had a tail end slice on it that carried the ball into the rough. Down side was that it left me feeling as if it had nothing more to give and I was not going to find any more performance except to fix that tail end slice. Now I'm looking around for a model with 3 stars to see if that would be better. Shambles

What's the tip ? Taper and Flex please ? Might need this set as a gift. Shambles

I'm wondering why nobody mentioned cooking oil. it's a very light oil and if you wrap the heads in old newspapers the oil will last way long. A spray of wax would probably work as well as long as you wipe it evenly over the entire surface. It would certainly be a cleaner way of protecting the heads. Lately I have been using rust converter but the brand I use puts a whitish gray color on the heads. Just brush a layer on and let dry, after which I can bag the clubs and play straight off. The rust converter lasts a couple of rounds, depending on how frequently you use the clubs involved. Shambles

Thought about this too. It's certainly enlightening as you can find shafts with similar or even the same bend and flex characteristics, or just close enough to good, for different prices. It's a handy thing to have if you do a lot of shaft experimentation. Shambles

Fake shafts are more difficult to identify. You have nothing to work with except labels and color. Shambles

I used a full length 8 Iron shaft for a few years and really put some work into it. I never found a real advantage in it other than making the ball fly way high and having more options whenever the ball ended up on the slope on the left side of a deep bunker. The added length allowed me more direction for the ball. However I also found pointing the ball was more difficult in the short game because the shaft was so soft. I had to choke the club down to near the metal to improve my ability to point the ball in the short game, and when I had a reaonable stance in the sand. Towards the end I became habituated to simply choking down all my Sand Wedge shots even in a full swing as that allowed me better trajectory control. These days I play the same head with a tip trimmed wedge shaft in standard length that plays way boardy and has cost me some distance but points very well. I think I'll keep it this way for a while though I do miss those added bunker options at those times I all into the left side of a deep bunker. Shambles

That kind of question belongs more in China than anywhere else. It's where the Major, Minor, Also Ran's, Component, Clone, Counterfeit and Novelty distributers are sourcing these days. Shambles

To be honest, there are many things listed on this board that I would like to examine but have refrained from doing so because of the difficulty of bringing those things to my part of the world. Instead, I try to keep an eye open for some of them to turn up locally so that I can try them out. Shambles