NiftyNiblick

911s are lovely machines. no question. They came out when I was in college. Boston was lousy with 356s at the time. They were everywhere, and they were nice machines in their own right.

We’ve got a beautiful 1955 BelAir restomod on a Roadster Shop chassis with a custom made version of the GM RamJet 350 crate engine. It’s painted the burgundy color of the fortieth anniversary edition 1993 Corvette and has a black leather interior. Every piece of chrome trim was repaired and re-dipped. As far as specs go, the RamJet 350 met all our requirements for a street rod, but it was assembled from very mediocre components—2-bolt mains, cast crank, iron heads, stamped rocker arms, just a lot of junk in general. There was too much into the car to go with an engine like that so we had the same essential motor done right—Brodix block, Wiseco rotating assembly, Edelbrock heads, Comp Cams valvetrain, etc. One nice touch is the intake rig itself. GM put the throttle body on the front of the plenum, this substantially reducing the similarity in appearance to the original Rochester RamJet from the fifties. An outfit in Arizona makes essentially the same rig, but with the throttle body on the driver’s side, just as on the original. It looks much more retro. Another unusual thing, perhaps, was our choice to restomod a four-door pillared sedan. I personally don’t like coupes unless they’re two-seaters. To me, if it’s going to be a four-seater, than every seat must have a door. We went with four individual seats instead of the original two benches, but they’re made to look period correct with their upholstery pattern and the absence of head restraints. Other nice touches include Vintage Air, electric windows and locks with modern remote control keyless entry, Classic Instruments gauges in the original style instrument pod, a reproduction of the original steering wheel scaled down to a more modern fifteen inches, and more practically speaking, a 3.70:1 Detroit Locker in back. The car does not have an elaborate audio system, however. It’s got a period correct looking radio with just the one speaker on the passenger side of the dashboard. I never listen to music when I drive, but my wife mildly disagreed with this decision. I’d already agreed to a 4L65E instead of a Tremec 5-speed, however, so I held my ground against a lot of watts of noise. We’ve got six figures into the car, but it would not have that value on the collector market. If we were looking to flip the car to a collector, then an accurate, concours restoration would have been in order. People won’t pay big bucks for a restomod, because for big bucks, they can commission a restomod build done with their own ideas. One commissions a restomod to enjoy it oneself.

Depends on one's perspective. To me, only terrorists and child molesters are the moral equivalent of scabs. It's a class warfare thing, I guess.

Not very classy. Belichick told one of them to "go back to high school" last night. I really love "the hoodie."

Well, you did a very nice job. I could never have done it.

I play graphite from top to bottom, and I have their old "Vista Pro" shafts in my retired set of Kenneth-Smith Royal Signets, the last true blades that I ever played. I wouldn't have minded trying them with a more forgiving clubhead.

It's important to email the clubmaker (if necessary) for bounce specs before bending for loft. High bounce clubs (most Japanese models) should be bent strong to get the lofts you want.. Low bounce clubs (like my 870Ti models) should be bent weak. My 5-iron is spot on at 27°. My 6-iron is 1° weak at 31°. My 7-iron is 1° weak at 35°. My 8-iron is 2° weak at 40°. My 9-iron is 2° weak at 45°. This lets me skip the matching PW and go straight to my wedge set.

I can only say that it's not true for me. For me, blades are shorter in distance, less consistent for distance/club selection, take on more unintended sidespin, have a lower trajectory, and since virtually all of them have steel shafts, make my hands swell. Only the last three clubs in my bag--my sand iron, E-club, and putter-- have steel shafts, and that's enough for me.

If you'd rather write a check than do the work, then both The Iron Factory and The GolfWorks do a great job of this as well. I once saw a set of Ping EyeTwos with the rough tumble finish converted to a polish finish by the GolfWorks. Not quite the same as satinizing a plated finish, but very interesting nonetheless.

I don't get pure, cavity-less blades. The sweetspot must be smaller than the diameter of a pencil eraser, and it must be too close to the hosel. Somebody please explain the attraction. What can they do that my 870Tis can't? Mind you, having taken up the game in 1959, I have plenty of experience with blades, albeit long ago. I can't think of anything that would tempt me to go back.

I'm only on my third putter this season. I played an April round or two with my Yes! Victoria II before switching to a Louisville HB, the latter a replica of an early 20th Century Spalding hickory shafted model. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I switched to a Rife Trinidad which is going ok right now. I was never more than an average putter at best, but for 65, my putting stroke is actually pretty good, and this always with a conventional length putter. I've been putting the straight ones into the hole. Really, not bad at all. Unfortunately, most putts aren't straight. I've seen every single putt one can get at my club multiple times over, but even there, at my own club, I'm still not matching speed and line very well. I don't think that most models of putters have that skill. They depend on me to do that, and I've been falling short for fifty years.

My present rotation includes a Rife Trinidad, a Louisville HB, and one mallet--a Yes! Victoria II. The Victoria II is, I suppose, as good as anything else. It's my opinion, however, that the next good putter made will be the very first. I've hated all putters for fifty years as that has been the one aspect of the game with which I've never significantly improved. All of which makes my opinion on putters especially useful; sorry.

I've got a grand total of one obscenely expensive Epon golf club, but it's the best club I own. Whatever this thing costs, I'm personally in no position to say that it isn't worth it. My driving iron hits like a Weatherby Magnum.

I've gotten to the point where, within the constraints of a 14-club limit, I can no longer justify occupying one of those spots with a big, 460cc driver. With two or three holes on my old, New England course massively wide enough to give me confidence enough for driver, I was overusing my driving iron. The 2 -wood/ tour spoon route seemed like a better choice than driver for me, and for a while, I'd been hitting a Joe Powell Smoker. The latter is very similar to the old Titleist PTor Hogan 56 in that it's actually shaped like a wooden club. Now, everybody of a similar mindset has been lauding the distance and accuracy of the TaylorMade RocketBallz 13° club. I had a demo on loan from our pro, but long as it was, I found it uncomfortably upright and tended to hook with it. Ironically, I just recently found the answer from Adams, whose original Tight Lies fairway wood slso annoyed me with its upright lie angle. The Super XTD 13° club has all the pop of the RocketBallz, but with a more comfortable, flatter lie angle. I realize most here favor the high end Japanese fairway woods, but if you like flatter lie angles, good luck trying to find one there.

I've been ballstriking decently (for me) and putting like a complete slug for a few years now. (Fifty, actually.) The usual solutions for seniors--belly or broomstick putters--didn't bring immediate results and weirded me out too much for me to stick with them long enough to straighten things out. When you putt badly with one of them, you really feel like a buffoon. Finally, I decided that bad putting was my life now, and if I'm going to putt like a slug anyway, I can choose my putters on cool looks instead of technology. Thus I came upon the hickory shafted Louisville HB, a replica of an ancient Spalding model. Halfway through my first round with it, I started making a few putts. I've been riding it for a little bit now, and playing right to my eleven handicap which means, of course,, that my index will go down. Friday, I carded a 79, my first sub 80 round of 2012, using the 1920s-style putter. The bubble will burst, probably, but as with all good streaks, one rides them for as long as one can.

I can't ever envision putting another bulbous 460cc golf club in my bag ever again.

I keep 'em inside. My man cave looks like a bag room. Walls have either bookshelves or old boxing posters. On the walls with bookshelves, you can't get to books, music, or movies on the lower ones without making a major production out of moving old bags. Other than that, there's just room for a flatscreen, the Klipsch floorstanders, a couple of recliners and a comfortable half -sofa (loveseat?) for the beagle. The "gestapo" refuses to acknowledge the cave as a funtioning part of "her" house, but if I'm not at the track with the ponies or playing golf, I'm pretty much restricted to staying there.. I can live with that rule because why would I want to leave? The beer fridge and my personal gentleman's wash are downstairs too, so except for going up to get food, I'm happy to live there. It all starts with 1959 H&B Powerbilt Citations, my first new set. Nothing's been given up since. My only clubs not there are the present gamers in the real bag room at the club.

Are short arms an Asian trait that I've never noticed, or do they just like to have the toe of their woods pointing up in the air? Or do Japanese graphite shafts for woods droop more than the ones chosen for our domestic models? I find the upright lie angles of the woods particularly curious because their irons are often flat enough for me in stock form when I usually have American market irons models flattened a degree or so. And the premium drivers never offer higher loft options. Don't they make them, or does TourSpecGolf simply not import them?

My preference is for weak lofted drivers so that I don't have to play the ball quite as far forward in my stance, and also so I don't have to give myself a ball above feet lie in the tee box by teeing the ball up so high. It seems that 1° open or closed means less at 12 or 13° than it does at 8 or 9. I don't know if that's true, but it definitively seems that way to me. And to me, anything much more than 1° either way looks more like a manufacturing flaw than a design metric.

Presently, the Newport 2.6 is shaft-aligned rather than offset. It has only a little bit of toe hang according to Scotty. Visually, at least, I really like it, but putting is a fifty year old problem with me. For a while, I got some relief from Yes! models like the original Tracy, the Caroline, and the Victoria II, but it didn't last long. Right now I'm playing a Louisville replica of an ancient Spalding hickory shaft model. The consumately low technology doesn't do any worse than anything out now, so I may as well have a cool looking stick.

"Conforming" leaves me out of the discussion. Cover Shredders are more fun.

It could be the 983K with the 4550 shaft; maybe the HCr part doesn't have that much to do with it. But it's a smaller head driver and I still hit it longer, albeit not straighter, than I hit my new Ping.

I had never considered a non-conforming driver until the USGA came out with that groove nonsense. Once I knew that I'd be using non-conforming grooves--I went to Spin Doctors just for spite-- that opened the door for non-conforming drivers as well. I found a Titleist 983K HCr at a senior-friendly 11.5° with the stock Soft R 4550 shaft. Once I learned to time the shaft, I started flying the ball 240 for the first time since I was in my forties, so there has to be something to it.

<sigh>

Here's my take on Japanese domestic golf clubs. Quality tends to be impressive. Irons are excellent if not too strong lofted which many are. My Miuras have normal lofts for the modern era. There is a scarcity of low bounce wedges in most Japanese lines. Many of the designs are beautiful, but I wasn't able to live with the high bounce angles. Fairway woods and hybrids have beautiful design engineering, but the former in particular tend to be very upright. It's pretty routine to see Asian players at address with the toes of their woods pointing to the sky. Also, there are few high loft options. It must be some kind of machismo thing, but 12-14 ;deg. drivers are few and far between. Basically, if you like the fit metrics of Japanese clubs, you won't likely be disappointed with the other considerations.