nobmontana

Looks like this is the year for high kick point shafts. Fuji Ventus , Diamana D Limited , Tour AD XC Will need to try them all!!

Hmmmm. I thought the ATMOS 5S was working well.... but not tonight. I was all over the place!! Darn... maybe Loop GK after all in my driver....

My understanding is that they stopped doing customizations and refinishes for other brand putters completely. I think they still do Gold's putters...

Tried a set a while back.. They are fabulous iron shafts. Nice smooth feel and good stability.

Problem with my swing is that I have a fairly early release and so I don't deloft enough on my iron shots. because of this, I'll need a rather low launching shaft to help with maximizing distance. I am working on a more hand forward impact but it'll take some time to change my swing. Another challenge is that there aren't much low launch shafts that are also light weight. CBI-80 are actually spec'd as a low launch shaft and at around 100g,,,, fits the bill perfectly. Basileus BTi shafts are also supposed to be low launch and weighs 100g.

Coincidentally, I also went through that phase 2 years ago. (I'm 52 now going on 53 in August.) Went from K's 8001 to Modus 125 S, then last year to DG AMT S200. Accuracy wise, the AMT S200 has been the best fit for me. With the DG AMT's, as you know, the weight is progressive with the longer irons lighter than the wedge shaft, (105 to 129g raw) the longer irons I feel still give me the right distances. Currently, in 40 deg F temperatures (4.5 deg C) at the range, 155yd carry with the 6 iron and 165yd carry with the 5 iron etc... Starting at about the 7 iron and shorter, the carry distances will start to drop more than I want. I am getting about 137 carry with the 7 and 8 is 125 , 9 is 115, PW is about 105. 50 deg GW is 100yd and 56 deg is 85 yds. So what am thinking is a constant weight shaft set between 100 to about 110. Crazy CBI 80 Ltd Stiff is about 106 g raw so .. weight wise it should be just about right. BTW, Crazy recently released their new CBI-9 iron shaft where they use full length 90T carbon fiber. Should be a really good performer but price is pretty fancy too! 😞

Every year over the off season, I see some drop in distance primarily due to lower temperatures ... but I think this year I'm seeing more drop where my swing speed may be contributing more to the drop.... 😞 I know its part of life to grow older... but I may be at a point where I seriously need to consider going light with my iron shafts. My current AMT S200 especially in the short irons at 120g to 130g is getting hard to reach those distances that I used to. I've got 2 sets of Crazy CBI-80 Limiteds in the stash. A stiff set and a regular.... I'll start with using the Stiff set. So like 604_skyline, I may be in the hunt for some player's cavity back heads. For me, how it sets up at address, feel and workability are highly important. Not quite ready yet to move to multi-material irons or stronger lofted heads. PRGR ID BL that I use today are nearly perfect for what I need. Blade length and overall profile could be a touch smaller to be perfect perhaps... I love the grind, thin top line and minimum offset of these heads. For my RTX 4 Forged wedges, I have some Modus Wedge 105s that I can use. For woods, I re-shafted one of my Grandista RS-D 9 deg heads to an ATMOS Tourspec Black 5S and built to 45.75" / 309g / D2 and it is working great. I can swing a lot easier and get about the same distance as my other 45" driver with the Loop GK which I have to try out a lot more effort to get the proper distance. For my Jbeam G-FW 13 deg 3W, I currently have a Fire Express Prototype 2014 F3 (aka BX70) right now, and while I am happy with the stability, I could use a lighter shaft in this as well. Out of the shafts that I have already, I'm thinking about trying either the ATMOS Tourspec Black in 5TX or possibly a Speeder TR 569 X flex... not sure which one yet.... but I recall trying an 2nd gen M2 fairway a while back which had a stock 50g shaft in it and I was abler to fly that thing a long ways. Since the JBeam GFW is a DAT55G Ti faced fw, I expect it to go longer than the current 215 carry that I am getting. Hybrid will stay the same. Quite happy with the 18 deg Romaro Type R shafted with Crazy STP 85. So no changes needed here.

Out of those three, I would go with the Closer CB. ( or even the CB/MB Combo )

Interesting. But it actually isn't the first time I heard of this. One of my playing buddies had the same issue. He hit his irons miles longer than I did but his wedges were much shorter. I think you just have to forget about the lofts and get a club that gives you the right distance gapping.

Gamed the CB4 for a while. I thought the face was a bit too deep for hitting it off the deck. Was great off the tee. The Ti face was very hot. But after trying the AF-202HT, which as you all know has one of the shallowest face on a 3wd. My jaw dropped with how easy it was to hit it off the deck! I have been using shallow faced fairways ever since. Deep faced FW just isn't forgiving enough for me.

The doctor mentioned that my dizziness probably was a benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. I was in a dark room crouching down. and when I tried to get up was when it happened. Now on light dosage of blood pressure lowering medication together with regular exercise during the weekdays my blood pressure already seeing improvements. Also had a blood test done and triglyceride is high. Possibly slightly diabetic too. I think I just need to drastically reduce my weight down about 45 lbs or so.... get down to about 180-185 lbs...

Do your wedges have much heavier shafts compared to your irons? OnOff '15 Kuros have 45 deg PW but if it has a much lighter weight shaft compared to what is in your wedges, that might cause distance discrepancies. I have a 46 deg PW which goes 110 yrds in current winter conditions and Japan Model 50 & 56 deg RTX4 Forged with distances of 95 and 80 respectively. All have DG S200 AMT in them.

Japan always have the cooler stuff!!! If the Japanese companies had stronger global marketing power and advertisement skills, it wouldn't be like this.

Unfortunately never tried the PRGR RS FW so I can't really speak to that. I don't have an issue launching the ball with the Modart MA01F. It has a shallow enough face that it can pick the ball up from the turf. But compared to more modern Ti heads, I do think the trajectory is more penetrating when you compare like for like lofts. For instance my 13 deg JBeam G-FW which is a full Ti head, launch is about there same of slightly higher than the MA01F. This is likely due to the lower CG that Ti FW are known for. They are just easier to launch than all steel heads which have higher CG. You can also see that Modart has a longer hosel compared to more modern FW geared for forgiveness which typically indicates a higher CG If the MA01F had a deeper face, it would not be useable for me. The compact shape looks a bit intimidating at first but after a few shots, you realize that the shallow face helps a lot with forgiveness. I have a Loop FW Seven shaft in the Modart currently but considering trying the new FW Six TS this year. 70+g FW shafts are starting to feel a bit heavy for me though the control I get with this shaft is nothing short of phenomenal.

Go for it Ian!!

Some cheap thing that I bought at Costco a few years ago. Ordered an Omron yesterday. Hopefully will read more true to actual.

Bummer!! Sorry to hear the show was no good. I watched a YouTube video of this guy who was at the demo day this week and he was going around all the brands to hit their latest drivers. After making a round of all the booths, he picked 3 drivers he really liked: No. 3 PRGR Tune 02 driver No. 2 2020 OnOff Aka driver No. 1 Cobra King Speed Zone Other than the Cobra, he had preference towards JDM drivers!! Never seen this guy before and the video was very casually recorded but I just thought it was interesting that he chose those drivers. Maybe Tario took good care of this guy at the booth!? 🙂

Went to a clinic this morning and found that my BP monitor device consistently reads 25 to 30 higher than when measured manually. We only had a couple of reads today but we're gonna monitor BP for the next couple of weeks and then a follow up visit. Dizziness may have been a one time symptom of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) The doctor said High Blood Pressure is usually not associated to dizziness. A bit of relief, but at the same time, still consider this a good opportunity to look after myself a bit more. I hate getting old!! 🙂

yup, for sure.

Last Friday night, after having dinner with a couple of drinks I go into my office and look at the PRGR drivers that I have been working on, thinking about what changes I want to make... Then all the sudden I started feeling dizzy and had lost sense of balance, gradually things started to look blurry.... Woah.. am I going to faint? Luckily I didn't, but called out my wife for help... She immediately said to measure my blood pressure and ... 180+ is showing on the machine. Holy cow!! This is the highest I've seen ever. I mean I've never been a low blow pressure person .. but when it was high it was in the 150s and very occasionally in 160s. Last 3 weeks I've been off of all forms of exercising due to the holidays and then recovery from oral surgery ... Been taking ibuprofen 600mg at a time 2-3 times a day for the last 2 weeks which could have been a contributor too. Anyway , this mini event got me really worried. My Mom had passed from heart failure which was caused by high blood pressure. My Dad who will turn 85 this year had high blood pressure problems during his 40s and 50s. So I guess it's partly hereditary but I really need to lose some weight and get myself healthy. This is ridiculous! but at the same time a reality. This was indeed a wakeup call for me to make some changes to my lifestyle.

I brought out the Proto head today. It's the all black '16 RS-F in 10.5. I think I love this head more than the '17 or '18. It's not as forgiving and it has a smaller sweet area and the feel and sound at impact is a tad firmer than the newer ones.. In a way like a 2 stroke motorcycle from yester year with a very narrow powerband but explosive and brutal speed when you middle it. Very peaky! I love it. At 460cc you would think it would be more forgiving than the 445cc Grandista RS-D but I feel that the Grandista is quite a bit more forgiving. I'm gonna put the Loop GK in this '16 RS-F Proto and give it a go. 10.5 is the right loft for me in this '16 RS-F

Finally got to try the trio of RS and RS-F drivers today at the range. I mostly wanted to get a feel of the differences in trajectory and to see which shaft and head combo works best for me. '17 RS 10.5 / Kai'li 70 S / 45.25" / 8g screw in the front heel, 3g screw in back. First shot was a rather strong draw, higher trajectory with pretty good distance. Sound and feel was not bad at a all. I think these have 6-4 Ti face with 8-1-1 Ti body. Not quiet but a pretty powerful "thwack" with mixed metallic sound with semi-soft feel. Kai'li feels a bit stiff on the but section for me. Mid section flex and kick is nice and tip side firmness was good too. Got around 70 m/s (156mph) ball speed pretty consistently over about 5-6 shots which is a pretty good number for me. Unfortunately, and as I expected, the trajectory was too high for my liking. Though I do not have numbers, it is likely getting around 16 or 17 deg launch angle. I definitely need 9.5 RS head for this combo to work. Moving on!! '17 RS-F 9.5 / I'lima 70 S / 45.25" / 8g screw in front toe, 3g screw in back First thing I noticed was that the sound and feel on this RS-F was slightly quieter and softer feeling at impact. The feel may all be a product of the shaft too. This shaft felt really supple compared to the Kai'li. The shaft felt flexing and kicking more and doing its work. The trajectory was mid trajectory and out of the first 5 shots, the first two shots went waaaaay right. One of the big difference between the RS and RS-F is the lie angle. I think they are 3 deg different. 59 for RS and 56 for RS-F. also the face angle is more open on the RS-F. Combined with these specs and weights placed for more fade bias, I think was the cause of those shots. With that in mind, I tried hitting with a more draw swing and then I started hitting straighter. Numbers on the device were really similar to the RS. But because the trajectory was lower, it looked like it would run out more. and finally... '18 RS-F 10.5 / A'hina 70 S / 45.25" / 8g screw in front toe, 3g screw in back As I mentioned, the RS-F '18 now has a carbon crown construction. I was eager to know how the sound and feel would be impacted. I was excited after my first shot because the 2018 RS-F is probably the best sounding and feeling RS ever!! Softer feel and much better sound compared to the '17 and '16s. Yet it still has a powerful thwack at impact. This '18 RS-F was actually not so fade biased. It did not go left but it also did not go to the right. Very neutral. Another thing I noticed was that the head felt more forgiving and I was hitting it more consistently compared to the other combos. Coming in to this comparison, I actually kind of knew that the A'hina was going be the shaft I'd do well with. The butt section is supple with a very tight feeling tip section. The trajectory of this combo was just about right. Not too high and not too low. I will next try a Loop GK shaft in this '18 10.5 RS-F. As Stu mentioned in his post, the RS-F in particular just seem to be lower launching heads. I've never gamed a 10.5 deg head before but for this RS-F 10.5 loft is what I need.

For me, "JDM" are what are sold in Japan and typically as Japan market specific items. "USDM" are items sold in the US as standard US market products. Nowadays, I do see many US market products making its way into the Japanese market via large scale online shopping sites. But they are usually marked as "US market models imported" Also, TM and Cally have started to offer their traditionally JDM only products like the Gloire and Epic Flash into the US market. So I guess the line is starting to blur a bit.

I have a very similar one using the same blank. Mine has Tungsten weights on the face and some additional letter stamps. The smooth face is actually not that different from a grooved face from a feel perspective. But I too have wondered how the initial roll of the ball is impacted. I've had it now for close to 6 or 7 years but I only take it out once in a while during warm months when I play on a faster green since the head is heavier at around 365g or so. Getting harder to find these older Gold's models. I feel that the shape of these blanks were better looking than the later models. The one above would make for a great base to customize!!

Didn't realize those Cally Exclusive Apex MB Tour Versions were Miura made!! One thing I noticed was the TB Zeros are now S20C as opposed to the S25C used for the 5003. Don't know if there is pronounced difference in how they feel at impact?