JayDM

Just looking at these pictures again and man are the toplines and soles of these thing's THIN, I've always felt that the Flatbacks were razors, but from above and below they look massive compared to these, might just be the pictures, but I can't think of an iron that has a topline that looks as thin as these.

The Maxima vs. the new 450? Know you've said they're close distance wise, but which do you prefer?

Looks like a solid wedge, raw wedges tend to spin quite a bit.... 14* of bounce on the 58*&60* is quite a bit.

"best way to find out yr perrfect set up is to shaft 2 diffent 56* i really recoemend trying a DG s300 and a ns950 to see the differences. u will prob find immediuatly u like one "style, weight class" over the other. then go form there. " +1

Very well could be, if not, it's the same setup with what looks to be the same level of wear.

Its up to you really, there isn't really one method that's better than others. Some people keep there iron and wedge shafts consistent for uniform feel throughout, others go for heavier wedge shafts with a slightly lighter flex for feel, others go slightly heavier and stiffer as they feel it increases consistency... It's all personal preference, I've tried almost every conceivable way to set up my iron/wedge shafts and I've found very little performance difference either way as long as the shafts in my wedges can hit my desired SW's and the clubs are built to my specs, other than that I would say I very slightly prefer to have my wedges play 1/3-1/2 flex softer than my irons.... The iron shaft you choose has a lot to do with it as well, some shafts are just horrid in wedges and that would be a pretty big deciding factor as far as weather or not I stick with the same shaft in my irons and wedges.

Best thing to do with the exotic grips is to see if there's a fitter/builder who has a shop that sells them, normally they'll have a few on some putters you can roll, or at least a few of them installed on a blank shaft just so you can get the idea of how the grip feels, you might not like them at all, you might be totally indifferent. For me personally, the exotic putter grips don't do anything at all, I just cant see any difference at all in performance or comfort vs. a standard iomic or golf pride putter grip, it just feels like I'm holding lightly to some sort of exotic leather or hide vs. holding lightly to rubber or whatever iomics or made out of.

Crazy shafts are excellent if your looking for feel and low spin.... But very few shafts perform quite like the Diamana X. Maybe one of the new Diamana Shafts the B series.

I've found that both the Crazy Target Tour's and Shimada shafts have a very particular feel(or almost lack of feel?) that takes a bit of getting used to, if your not used to it you tend to feel the need to over swing as they're both VERY smooth, they aren't dead, but they aren't lively, tough to describe. Once you get the idea with em though they're awesome shafts for just that reason, you just don't have to worry about the shaft at all, just smooth and consistent.

Thanks on the review mate, your driver reviews are some of the best I've read on here, and usually spot on as far as the way a club performs.... Think you may be the king of drivers at the moment, not sure about Stew, but I'm pretty sure you've got me beat by a few. The new one looks to hide it's size a bit better, other than that, dead on the same looking.... Stew, I asked Tario in a different topic, he said that Crazy designed it themselves, but he's not sure where it's manufactured as of yet, beyond that it is made in JPN.

Agree with Stew, if your enjoying a 9* Yamaha you could 100% go 9.5 or even stick with 9*. I believe someone asked for a comparison between the Jbeam 425 and 435, the 425 isn't very forgiving, it launches quite low, as in go a bit up in loft low, I've found the 435 to be fairly forgiving, it launches higher and gives you more carry. That said, the 425 was my absolute 1st JDM driver purchase and it's still probably my favorite driver, paired with the right shaft(s) and its an absolute monster, lots of run, extremely stable, boring flight, laughs at high winds, and again, with the right shaft(s) it can be moved around a bit, its not impossible to hit, there are more demanding drivers out there, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone who is looking for forgiveness as poorly struck shots DO fly poorly, and DONT feel wonderful. If you get the 435 with the right shaft, you're in for a treat, I highly doubt you can go wrong with the Ryoma as I've never heard anyone really say they didn't like it.

I know people who are bonkers about card points and things like that..... I've never even thought about it. I use the Ammex Centurion concierge for sports/concert tickets and hotel reservations, its a great service, they'll go pretty far above and beyond the call, but as far as getting points for purchases or hotel stays/airlines, just not something I worry about.

I hear ya, I've had similar experiences, more so with woods than irons and wedges, you step on it, flush it and your thinking to yourself "man this is going to be great" and all of a sudden you get some strange ball flight that has you shaking your head and wondering what could have possibly went wrong. I'm surprised it happened with the Target Tour iron shafts though, I have a few 120 Stiff sets and I've always felt them to be one of the truest steel shafts around, could always handle whatever I threw at them. Happy to hear you got everything sorted moving to an X.

That is an interesting story, mind if I ask how often weird shots were happening with the Stiff flex shafts?

Always nice to have hobbies, always have something to do.... I'm not a tech guy at all, still have a 5 year old model phone, older laptop, only piece of tech that I really stay up to date with is the ipad... Huge nerd though, lol, comics, anime/manga, fantasy novels, antique arms and armor... Email me when you get a chance, I think its about time that I treat myself to a GF putter.

That's definitely the first time I've seen WTT clubs for a computer, may have happened sometime in the past, first time I've seen it though.

Mokume-gane translates to burl metal, it like Damascus in the modern world has nothing to do with folded metal, there are quite a few ways to create the Mokume pattern in various metals, soldering and solid bonding are most popular modern methods, but the reason that pattern becomes so apparent is because of the patination. The reason it is associated with the folding of steel you hear about in Japanese swords is because one of the Jihada(patterns) in the folded steel of Japnese swords is called Mokume, its a burl pattern, as oppsed to a straight grain(Masame) and a wood grain(Itame), the idea of Mokume as you would see it in modern metal and what might be used in putters began in Japanese sword fittings..... The reason why Damascus steel was used in swords and knives originally was because of the combination of a higher carbon steel that was harder and more brittle but held an edge and a lower carbon steel that was more flexible and durable, besides the pattern of original Damascus steel being likened to the patterns in the Japanese sword by the Spanish and Portugese who first came to Japan(the idea continues to this day), the idea of using both lower and higher carbon steels in a single blade is used in both Japanese blades and the original Damascus blades, the difference is, the Damascus steel is a single ingot, the pattern has nothing to do with folding and hammering, the Japanese blade is a laminate with the higher carbon steel wrapped around the lower carbon core and hammered into shape from there, you do not see the lower carbon steel in the pattern of the Japanese blades, the pattern you see is the oxide barriers between the original higher carbon wafers stacked together, hammered into a block, and then folded to get rid of impurities and create a more uniform carbon content. This is the reason the pattern of Damascus steels are so much more apparent than the patterns one sees in the steel of the Japanese blade, in the Damascus steels you are seeing the actual varying carbon content, in a well forged Japanese blade all you are seeing is the oxide barriers between layers of folded steel, there are some Japanese smiths who have purposely used greater variation of the carbon content of the original higher carbon wafers to create a more apparent Damascus like pattern. This is why I keep asking what exactly is the Damascus steel they are using in putters, there is no "standard" for Damascus steel, you could buy a Damascus putter, a Damascus knife, and something else where Damascus steel is used, send it in for testing and have TOTALLY different steels, it could be just about any make up. The only thing Damascus means to me is the pattern and method used to create it, a lot of people seem to be enjoying Damascus putters or Damascus inserts, but what I would like to know is what steel makes up the Damascus steels these putter maker are using, are all of the makers using Damascus of a similar makeup? Does anyone know? Tario has contact with master Sasaya at GF, I would be very interested to know what is the makeup of the Damascus he uses.

That's why I asked, "Damascus" isn't inherently any actual "type" of steel, especially modern Damascus, generally any type of steel with that distinct pattern, produced in a certain way will be considered "Damascus", there are some who will acid etch that distinct pattern into steel and erroneously call it Damascus, there are modern smiths forging knives out of homemade Damascus ingots generally using 1086 carbon steel as a base material with a lesser content of lower carbon steel, this obviously isn't the makeup of the Damascus steel they are using in putters, That's really what I would like to know, what exactly is the makeup of the steel putter makers are using as Damascus.

Gold's does a Damascus insert. Honestly, a Damascus steel doesn't really appeal to me very much in a putter, it can be pretty if done right with high quality materials, but I'm still kinda hazy on why they use it at all, what's the claim as to what it does to the putter? Multiple makers are using it and I highly doubt they're all getting ingots from the same place, so the composition will generally be different from one maker to another, can anyone who has been using the Damascus putter fill me in on what exactly using this material changes vs. standard carbon steel(s20c, s25c), and Stainless Steel(GSS, SUS303)??

Want to try the German silver insert myself, with original PZ milling. I prefer quite a soft feel for my putters, but with a "solid" sound, lower pitched.

Maybe an insert T?

Who manufactures the new CRZ450?

The Proto UT is mighty fine as well, I have it in Stiff and it goes a bit high, might have been better off with an X but the Stiff does handle my swing quite admirably.

The proto works great for me, but only in 75SX, my favorite FEX, seems tailor made for me, totally neutral and predictable.... Every single other flex/weight in the proto though gets a bit inconsistent. The FEX works pretty well in different weights and flexes but not quite as well as the 75SX proto. Want to give the WBQ a go, I'm just hung up on the Diamana Stinger and X at the moment, haven't wanted to try that much else since hitting these.

Only one set of blades bagged this year mate? Cant really get much better than the sets your bagging though.