chiromikey

vegetable oil is the worst thing to use for cooking so maybe there is an actual benefit to it! :)

that sucks! zippers aren't covered by most airlines anyways. it's in the damned "fine print". when traveling with my clubs, i always ask to witness the tsa inspection and that seems to have worked so far. it takes an extra few minutes but well worth it.

sword oil is cheap and easy to find on amazon or any local knife store.

never played the nippon protos, just the spb's. but vs the monacos, the i125's at the standard length are tad stiffer and take a bit more to load but still smoother. at 1/4-1/2" over standard length the steelfibers felt better than any steel shaft i can recall since the original rifle precisions. since i don't like anything over standard length i think soft stepped once would be perfect for me.

i had the copper shogun which looks to be the same head as the borzov minus the center shaft...and as stew pointed out, it's smooth roller. it had a nice solid, crisp feel (do not read that to mean hard or clicky).

no demo...but you're welcome to hit my af-tours for a while...

congrats on the black widow! the 435 just keeps impressing me. i got to play a practice round with 3 fellas prepping for a their gateway event on monday and let's just say i was rarely first up to hit an approach shot!

actually, i'm wondering why you didn't do the 125's...?

even less offset...hmm, i like the sound of that!

i've got a set that i can't figure out what to do with. they're 3-pw pulls in stiff soft stepped once that were finished to a 38" 5 iron. i guess i could be talked into letting them go...

let's see how long this set up lasts! ;)

thanks guys! stew, as far as wedges, i want to do something special like the tourstage maru's that tae was showing off (black is fine, they don't have to be his one-off satins) or something different like the raw george spirits gt-sw.

made some changes to my game bag and this is as close to a perfect set-up for me as i have ever been. the only thing i might consider would be some wedges with a little less spin and a slightly less sharp leading edge for traveling in softer conditions. anyways, driver is now a jbeam 435 9.5* with crazy ly-02 noir in 7.2 at 47". it doesn't feel anywhere near as soft nor is it as deadly straight as the ryoma...but it is more forgiving and longer. my new 3w is the tourstage x-fw type t 12.5* on ngs seve 80t. it's super long (i could easily play without a driver) and by far the easiest i've ever hit off the deck. the 5w is the jbeam 18* bm-ti fw on a gd ad-dj6. it's promoting a slight pull/draw because of a toe up for us short guys but totally managable and easy to hit. the copper yamada shogun is gone. i fiddled with a miura km-350 for a bit but now nothing is getting the epon zen out of my bag for a while. i've got a lot of stuff to sell before i play around any more so keep an eye on bst. my garage sale may not be as classy as tae's but there will be some worthy items. ;)

you got me interested in these...until i realized they only come in x. :(

wow! those are beauties!!!

some day!!

i'm beginning to think anything shafted with a quadra or other 80t shaft is going to be a champion. i know the ngs is largely responsible for the love i have for my tourstage...

absolutely not true! bad info from that source. ;) i already had the stiffs built to graphite standard lengths (1/2" over steel standard). it wasn't until i cut them down to steel standard that i noticed more increase in stiffness than i expected. however, with that said, i still think reg flex would be too soft for me.

i would wager the confusing results have something to do with the weighting/balance of the shafts. a constant weight shaft will change a players swing compared to a shaft with a weight bias...even if the gram weight is the same.

i'm sure you already know their characteristics so i'll leave those alone and just give you my opinion. keep in mind that my thoughts on the any shaft are probably quite different than most, if not everyone, around here...example; i love the c-tapers so which makes me the black sheep of the tsg family. for me the spb's are awesome feeling, but only when struck dead center and because of their weight distribution, i found that hard to do (i prefer a constant weight shaft). they seem to favor a swing with lots of lag and a very late release. when i forced myself to do that there wasn't a better feeling. the feel reminded me of a cross between a heavier c-taper and an s300 (c-tapers deliver pure feedback without hiding or enhancing anything while s300's have what i feel to be almost like a slow motion frequency dampening oscillation on center shots). the steelfibers are more of a constant weight distribution and seem to be able to handle any swing. they're smooth and play like a good steel shaft minus the vibration on misses. play them at 1/2" over and they feel smooth perfect for their flex. play them at standard 38" 5 iron length or shorter without soft stepping and you better swing hard if you want them to work.

i haven't tried the thumps but i can't think of a single thing the spb's and steelfiber i125's have in common...

then the tourstage should definitely be a contender in your search. ;)

since c is already calling dibs, i call dibs on the baldo/ngs combo! ;)

c, you know i picked up tae's tourstage type t 3w in his first garage sale and i can't recommend it enough. it's the only club i've hit that can keep up with the tm rbz except this actually has a good feel! it's easy to hit off the deck (i never tee it, not even from the box) and easy to work left, right, high or low (or even straight, which is the hardest shot in golf)!

being from the u.s. i just can't get into the tm stuff much anymore with their new product release cycle bring every 3 months.