chuck4golf

I have last year's Yam tour cb's and have lusted over this year's. Best cb's I played. They beat out Miura cb-2007 and epon 502. Great feel, playability and decent forgiveness.

I seem to have discovered a whole new realm of pleasure in playing irons with the re-discovery of blades (accompanied by a much more solid swing). I have a set of Recoil 95s in a set of MacGregor 1025M. Incredible feel, dwarfs every CB I played. Assuming they don't add to the tally at the end of the round, I am never turning back. I love the feel and it is a huge part of the emotional reward of the game. Now I am wondering about shafts. Not just MCI in the $500 range, but then there are all these pretty pricey shafts... Roddio, Bangvoo, and several others in the $1000+ range. I am sure there are differences between price points. But what are they? I have sort of come to the conclusion that you get the shafts and then try this or that head on them (within reason, but if you do it right, you can change a shaft out a few times without damage). So I am thinking next step is 'anchor' shafts for blades. Any insight into graphite shafts and what differentiates price points, brands? Thx,.... PS: driver swing low 90's. 8 index on < 6500 yards. < 95 G is right for me.

So far, this combo has the best feel on a good strike of anything I've played. My last 3 sets were Yamaha tour cb, miura cb-2007 and epon 502. This is sweeter feel than any of these. The main thing is if blades don't injure scoring too dramatically, then there's a whole world of fantastic options to consider.

I put some Recoils I had lying around in these Mac heads. Mainly just practiced with them. Will start playing them this week. In a word, wow. What a delight to hit. I see a little drop off on my miss which is thin. But well struck balls are awesome in every way. Long, high, with incredible feel. If I can take them to the course successfully, this changes everything. I will focus entirely on blades. And there are so many SWEET JDM blades.

RLL, the head clearly deserves a shaft that sets it off. I think with the deep hosel, when you don't insert it fully (I set the Touale at the same depth as I had it in with the Wishon) then it plays a little more tip flexy. Seems like it to me, which I sort of expected and thought would be a good thing. I think it's because there is mass beneath the end of the shaft. But this is at the outer limits of my understanding of these things. I would reach out to 7 Dreamers re this - but because of Chris's comment about their perception of the 435, I assume they are fully familiar with this. But the depth of the hosel and how deep the shaft is seated is a meaningful variable, IMO. I am thinking later this year I will stop by in Japan enroute to India and go the full Monte on the shaft. Except this is already a $1000+ driver and the farm boy in me gulps at this.

OK... several practice sessions and 2 more rounds. Three clear conclusions: 1. Long. It is long. I think it's the low launch, low spin, but it is as long for me as I had hoped. 2. It's not hard to hit and mis**ts do ok, but real bad swings get hammered. I think you've to be able to play players' cb's to enjoy these. 3. Sound is satisfying on center face hits, but gets 'metallic' sounding on mis**ts, even those that launch without much performance loss (And it is a great looking head at address.)

First impression. Naturally, after a lot of thinking this through, once I had head in hand, I just put it together. Now it plays at 46.75" because of shallowing the shaft without cutting it down. That's too long for me. This is the TRPX Touale S. My swing is 90 ish. Again, being careful and diligent, I went straight to the course and walked right on. My fiirst swing of the club was at the first tee. Smoked it. Longest drive on this hole in ... wow, a long, long time. Great piercing trajectory and fast off the face. Sound - I am not sure what the issue with the sound is for people. I quite liked it. Later, when I missed a few, it was tinny, but solid hits sound rewarding to me. I don't think I will do anything to change the sound. Ok, 2nd hole. God awful. (I have only had 2 practice sessions in last 5 weeks, and not touched a club in last 3, so I had low expectations about my game). Whereas my Wishon is among the most forgiving on the planet, this isn't. And I know the shaft is too long. Center hits matter a lot on this head. I am tempted to take this shaft out and put it back in the Wishon where it is such a good match and think about the right shaft systematically with this head. And so it went. Good swings were really great. Poor ones put me in more trouble than I am used to. But given I swung at it about as bad as I ever do these days after the layoff, I was really pleased. One every hole I made a decent pass at it, I was 10-20 yards past what I am used to seeing. I really think the ball is very fast off the face and the low spin and right launch angle make for great results. 11.5* for me is not too much loft. I will post again after I have had some time with it, but first impression is solid.

This little community has a quality of kindredness and camaraderie that is very attractive to me. It's great fun. A breath of fresh air on the web where so much venom can get spewed. Hutchy, I must have come after whatever happened. Great respect for your post. I look forward to your contributions.

So... assume the same shaft is inserted in 2 heads, one with std hosel depth and 435. They are both inserted to the same depth. (1.5" or whatever it is). The 435, having a longer hosel, will have some space between the end of the shaft and the bottom of the hosel. Then the 435 will play with a little more tip flex. That's what I am reading your post to say, and what I have read elsewhere. I would have never imagined this to be so. I struggle to think I will notice the difference. But I will build this club today so I want to make sure.

When you shallow the shaft does that soften the way the tip flexes because of the distance between the end of the tip and the ground? I read somewhere that it would play a little softer as a result. My guess is that it would have minimal impact.

Someone told me that shallowing also increases softness - bottom of the shaft to ground increases. I don't really understand this. Anyone got any insight? Chris if you're still seeing this thread, any chance you could reach out to jbeam and expand on their thinking? They probably are best at sorting fact from fiction from irrelevant in this.

The old wine cork ploy! Ok then, that should be manageable. I think I know where you can find these.

I had a Nakashima 440 htec once that was very loud but te longest driver I ever had. It just laughed at cotton balls I tried to mute it with. If this driver is anywhere near as long (and I think it will be) then softening sound will be nice but I will accept whatever sound it makes.

Just any cork stopper that will fit? I didn't see anything like this on golfsmith, for example.

I am expecting mine to arrive just about the time I get back to LA Wed. 11.5*, square. Gonna start with the Touale shaft which I have really liked in my Wishon head. I am as excited as I have ever been over a new club.... I just checked. It seems to have arrived today and is being held at to post office! PS: what do you use when you 'short shaft' as a plug in the hosel? I assume you want to use something for the shaft to seat into.

Chris, you're really a fine photographer. Those are wonderful shots. I am in India a lot as I have a business there. It is indeed an assault on the senses. And wild as a stampede. I fear for India - its population is so young and at 1.3B, where will she be in 30 years? 2B? But if you want to do something, there is enough available capital and need to do something great there. I look at all of Asia. So much poverty everywhere. While in some sense people avoid the madness of endless consumerism and marketing, and have a quality we have lost in the West, on the other, a skilled carpenter should be able to find pride and esteem in his craft, and make a living where his children can be educated and have access to clean water and medical care. How that will come to pass escapes me.

I was thinking the same thing about the service. Nice, very nice.

How do they play from the fw? I am looking for an easy to hit 5 iron...

I thought Macgregor was a house brand for Golfsmith now....guess not. Long way from the Muirfield days. I *think* I had their 1-iron. Either the Muirfield or a Staff 1-iron. Either way, that was as delusional a fantasy as I ever knew. My fingers and wrist feel a jarring just writing this. I bet I never hit one solid shot ever with that beast. Head high slices that made me want to drink heavily is my recollection.

Craig, there are just some clubs that click for you. That's what these do for me. Love the look at address. They look like tools you could use to build a house or repair a plane. Just fundamentally right. I had a set of Muirfields back in the day. Now, these were some butterknives. A sweetspot about the size of a politician's candor.

I think I am going to buy the 435 at 11*. I am hedging the bet with more loft. I had a Nakashima 440 once at 13* and sold it because it sounded like a cat in heat but it was really long and playable. Boring, high trajectory is my expectation. We'll see.

Except I play some tournaments ... cheating will get you tarred and feathered.

I have been thinking about this as carefully as I know how. Some companies get reputations for distance. Most of this is based on design approach - size, COG, etc. Some heads are more demanding, but seem to deliver longer drives when hit well. So fit remains the key element. What I have mainly concluded is I belong to a demographic that isn't very large. I have a reasonable swing, make a decent pass at the ball, but am not generating a lot of speed. 63 yrs old, not real flexible, pretty short. Most companies see a strong correlation between speed and skill. Heads for slower speeds are typically solving several other issues, too. "If slow speed, your swing is all over the place, you need help to not slice, etc" is the working assumption. So what's the optimal design for a guy like me who will find the center of the face a lot but without a ton of speed? I think it's mid to low launch, with mid spin, but with some loft. My current Wishon is 9* but I hit 80% of the balls too high with too much spin with this very deep COG//hgih MOI, and I think a driver that produces a more boring flight with 11* of loft is a better fit. So I conclude the difference is indeed not in the face, per se, but in the overall design and fit to the swing. But drivers have 'performance character' and those that produce more penetrating ball flight do so with the tradeoff of being less forgiving. Good swings are well rewarded, but poor swings will bite your scorecard. Like with most of life, everything has a tradeoff.

You can order them .355 but it looks like they tweak parallel rather than make 'em tapered from scratch.

OK.. graphite in a landslide. There's something very appealing to me about the 1025 heads. Salt of the earth kind of heads. Useable. Solid. Then matched with very nice shafts - like paying respect - feels very cool.