laudney

I'll have a look at MOI matching. Your posts on the topic are very informative. Thanks.

I've been following Bryson DeChambeau for a while. I wonder whether any Japanese manufacturer produces, or ever produced, a set of iron club heads with the same weight, lie angle and bounce? If so I may have a go at the same-length shaft experiment. Thanks.

Thank you so much for the precise answer!

What's the hosel size?

Thank you. My Yamada burning copper shogun is a tad softer than this one. The two share the same head design but have different types of milling. The refinished wide blade gives a crisper feeling at impact. Both provide clear feedback as to where the ball is struck, which is very important to me.

Yes, USDA put a ceiling on COR and every competent manufacturer produces a driver that's at the limit. So when you hear "this driver has a much hotter face", it's mostly marketing hype. However manufactuers can have different views on the CG location which affects launch angle, backspin and forgiveness. It's all a trade-off. Different CG location works for different players. http://www.mygolfspy.com/the-most-popular-drivers-of-2015-secret-cg-locations/

I always admire the aesthetic taste of Keita Miyoshi-san. Simple and beautiful. I've been gaming regularly the classic Yururi 2010 flatbacks and Tataki wedges which bring me such much joy.

Totally different things. A bigger offset allows a hair more time for the club head to close before impact and is mainly to prevent slice. Head progression is for optimal distance gapping and spin progression throughout the set.

The most forgiving irons in my bag are OnOff Kuro 2015. They are meaningfully larger than blades in terms of head size; very easy to launch due to tungsten insert and very soft. The face is very hot. They are in my bag whenever I play a long course. When I need control, I play blades. Kuro is extremely workable, draw or fade. Actually my biggest complaint about Kuro is that it may be a touch too hot and too workable. The ball goes miles especially with the long irons. If when it goes offline, it could be a long way.

Among all the drivers I have, Romaro 455LX Type R stands out to be exceptional. The shape of the head boosts confidence at address. I can easily work it with a draw or power fade (unlike JBeam 535 or ZY-11 which I can only bomb straight). Its shallow face makes the ball super easy to launch with the right amount of backspin at just 2000 to allow optimal carry. When you absolutely, positively, got to hit every fairway or work every dogleg, accept no substitute.

Thank you!!

I'd like to thank Chris for the meticulous work done by TSG Works on my Yamada wide blade putter. Teflon black finish with red and white paint fill looks perfect in person. I cannot be happier about it.

Any mallet putter?

Given your description of yourself as a good ball striker (smash factor 1.49 is on the same level as LPGA tour pros) with high launch and high spin looking for distance, I'd strongly suggest JBeam ZY-11. I'm currently gaming it with a 46.5-inch TRPX Air shaft. It has a very deep face and very forward and low CG which produces very low spin (around 1500 in my case). It's quite similar to Taylormade SLDR driver in this sense. You need a bit more loft (I use 11 vs 10 for my other drivers). It's also foamed so produces muted sound, just as you prefer.

The standard length of each manufacturer varies. You should really compare the absolute numbers of the spec: length and lie angle. If possible, customise any new set of irons to match your current Ping specs exactly.

Note that the same 4 degree of gap produces larger distance gap at lower lofted clubs. Why? Because the higher loft a club has the more kinetic energy of the head is translated into vertical movement ie higher launch and more spin.

The feeling of softness in a club head is decided first and foremost by sound. Plating makes relatively tiny difference. By comparison, the ball contributes about 1000x to the feeling of softness than the club head. (ref: http://www.tutelman.com/golf/design/head2.php#feel) With above said, raw finish is softer than nickel plating which is softer than chrome plating.

Just to provide some interesting context: How many strokes per round are extra 20 yards of driving distance worth? for pros: 0.75 for 80-hcap: 1.3 for 90-hcap: 1.6 for 100-cap: 2.3 for 110-cap: 2.7 source: Every Shot Counts by Mark Broadie

Not surprised. My numbers were based on theoretical perfect condition.

I agree. It's a bit ironic that the lower the SS the less the distance gain through higher COR (because it's percentage gain in transferred kinetic energy from the club head to the ball). And if SS is already decent, there is increasingly diminishing return for extra distance.

well, the important bit... https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jf3U3kbz5Io

I did a bit more research on this. At a swing speed of 100 mph, every extra 0.01 in COR leads to gain of about 4.2 yards in distance. So a LFD driver at 0.89 would give 6 * 4.2 = 25.2 yards of distance gain over the limit. That's quite a lot. Also, big golf companies are usually a bit more conservative and set their COR target at 0.82 so when the usual +/-0.1mm face thickness tolerance kicks in, that pretty much ensures the thinner faces won't result in a COR above 0.83. With the +/-0.1mm tolerance, that means the typical COR range would be between 0.812 and 0.828. So a typical LFD with COR at 0.89 is 7 * 4.2 = 29.4 yards longer than an average mass-production driver with COR at 0.82. Now that's very impressive.

Thank you Chris.

Thanks. I don't think the extra COR is worth the price but very impressive from a technological PoV.

I'm curious: which non-conforming JDM driver has the highest COR of all?