Blader-X

C, we need some comparative pics of them alongside the TS 905's and for good measure the 901's (should you have one laying around). Not that the 901's are leaving my bag anytime soon, but would love to see how all three compare with each other.

Glad to hear its going well. I've hit some epic shots with this club and yes its long.

Thinking the P9003x. Have that shafted up in the RC TourVS 3 wood and its damn straight and long off the tee. Performs better in a 3 wood than a driver at times. Keep us posted.

T, are the new woods heavier than the VS models.

Not so much a cavity. The DB stands for "dent back". There is a little scooped out area in back but not enough to be considered a cavity; at least I don't see it as so. This area helps to keep the trajectory lower.

"Twenty-seven clubs in the bag." You'd need this guy to carry them all! Just watch out for the club police. 27 clubs in the bag. You're a madman Stew! I'm trying to picture that in my head and how one could possibly get all that to fit into one bag.

Quite possible KBS just doesn't suit you. I myself swear by them especially after Goodsie gets done with them but the feel of a shaft is such a subjective thing. One person's nirvana is another's hell. As for the wedges, for a pure sand wedge in 58, I'd have to suggest the Royal Collection DB's. The 58 has 11 degrees of bounce. I really like the grind of this wedge in a bunker situation. Seems very easy to hit. And as a bonus it really works well on somewhat tight shots; and this is with my 56 which as 13 degrees of bounce. As for a 52 degree, the SkyDreamJump DP2010. Its a 51 but has 7 degrees of bounce so its excellence with full and 3/4 wedge shots. Feel is superb with lots of feedback. The head is on the smallish side so that may be a turnoff for some. Also, this is an excellent chipping wegde with a good deal of bite. If you wanted to stay all one line, the new Fourteen V5's deserve a strong look. IMO you can't go wrong with them.

The head is definitely heavy. I too was a little concerned at first. But after hitting it the weight actually helps the swing. I absolutely love it. Mind you, my shaft is the GD SF8x. I like the heavier weighty feeling of the head so much so that when I go to the 3 wood, it actually feels a little too light. I'm kind of wondering if the new Royal Collection woods have the heavier feeling as well. Could I possibly foresee the new 13 degree driving spoon taking the 3 wood place? Don't know but it is intriguing. As far as this utility no need to hold back. You can well hit any shot with. Go after it hard, go after it 3/4 and little tiny stinger shots. I've yet to hit a bad shot with it.

Keep us posted on how this shaft goes. I for one am very interested in the 787. I'm a little behind the times in the shaft category. At the moment Goodsie is swapping out my GD P9003 in my Epon for a Quadra proto. Really looking foward to that. The 9003 is going into the Yonex 380.

Some further thoughts on this club as I have more time to become accustomed to it. I just posted some very glowing comments about my new wedges and this post will be just as glowing. Where do I begin other than to say that this club just flat-out performs. I've only been using for a short time but I've hit some EPIC shots with it already. What I like the most about this club is its heavier head than most other utes. It allows you to be able to feel the clubhead more in the swing giving you better knowledge about where its throughout the swing. It also gives you more punch through the hitting area. Off the tee this club performs really well and its perfect for short and tight par-4's. Tee it up just ever so slightly off the ground. Fairway, rough, bunkers all no problem and I've hit from all three areas. Yes, I wrote bunkers. I've found over time that utilities are ideal from them given the right utility. I first discovered this with the cousins of this club the Sonartec TRC. The sole is what allows for this and this TRC falls right in line with its ancestry in this category. While this club is easy to hit and produces reliable results, this club can be worked. The other day I played in heavy winds and had to go with a lot of 3/4 knockdowns and stinger type shots. Needless to say this club really shined in that. I used to do this with my former TourStage X-UT and it worked well. This club is better at that. The trajectory is stronger and bores through the wind better at these 3/4 shots. I was very impressed. And this is here is what I want to point out. In another related post a few of you were pondering about what lofts to get. I agree with getting a less lofted club like this 17 and then using it for shorter shots simply by either swinging 3/4 or choking down. I believe by doing that you then have a club that you can hit over a 40 yard range. Also if you go with 2 utilities I would and say you're trying to choose between 17 and 23 or 17 and 20, go 17 and 20. For a shot where you require a 23, choke down on the 20 or swing 3/4. As for distance this club is long. I went with Goodsie's advice of going a little longer in the shaft, 41.5". This club (at times) can rival my 3 wood in distance. The 3 wood is longer mind you, but this club can get out there. I've hit this club up to 235 yards. It is much easier to hit than the 3 wood so in my opinion would be a good replacement to it for those looking for such a club. At the same time though, I can do 180 yards just as easily by going 3/4, stinger, etc. Its all about "creating" shots and when you practice at it can really be fun to do. Overall I don't believe you can wrong with this club. I find it easy to hit, easy to maneuver (should you choose to do so) and has the ultimate feel. Lastly as I've mentioned before it has one more feature that increases its versatility as well. Its hosel is .335 allowing you to place most any shaft you wish to use. I sometimes find the shafts at .370 made for most utility clubs to be too limiting.

Thought I would add a few more thoughts on these wedges. I know I reviewed them above but have had a little more time with them. I more impressed with them now than I was previously. When I first posted, I mentioned that I was looking for more versatility by going this route of three different brands and styles. Well I certainly have found it. The wedge game has really never been better and I feel my short game has come back into form. It seemed to have left me for awhile and I do attribute some of that to the wedges I had before. I've seen several posts of late all asking pretty much the same thing. What wedge to choose if you could only choose one. My answer is the Royal Collection DB Proto. Mine of course is the 56/13. I can really hit just about any shot with this one club. Tight lies are just fine even with 13 degrees of bounce. Fluffy rough isn't a problem either. This wedge is the most versatile of the three and has tremendous feel to go along with it. I really do highly recommend this wedge. This wedge is conforming but I don't see any loss of spin from so called "non conforming" wedges. In fact this wedge spins better than my previous TourStage X-wedges. If you're looking for a club which excels (and I mean EXCELS) from bunkers, look no further. As for the SkyDreamJump, I can really see why its been such a favorite for a lot of people over the past couple years. Its feel is super smooth. Very small head but easy to hit and I can't say its ever felt harsh. I use this club a lot on approaches anywhere from 100 to 125 yards. It does spin quite a bit. The trajectory of this wedge is what I like the most. I would describe it as "tight." Very direct, no ballooning, just a nice shape with a little flatness at the top to keep it on target to the green. The other area I seem to use this club is on chips where I need to move it some distance but I also need to the check at the same time. This club is really good on that point. Downhill chips come to mind. I don't use it for chips where I need runout on on low chips into greens with some up angle to them. For that job is better suited most of the time with 9I, 8I or PW. The Fourteen 62/6 is ideal for tight lies. It stops and stops dead. I would not say that this club has any runout and that would be expected from 62 degrees of loft and a club that has quite a lot of spin for a "conforming" wedge. Another good area is very short chips just off the fringe where you might have shortsided yourself. Most of the time here I would recommend putter but there are times when the fringe may not allow for that. This club does work well for these shots where you want a little short chip with a small degree of run; just a little delicate one if you catch what I'm saying. Feel on this club is very fine as well, but I will say its not even with the RC. It is better than my TourStage so I am happy with it. I'm glad to have gone with a 62 degree. For those who hit 60's well, if you've been thinking of going with more loft this club will be an easy transition. If you can hit a 60, you can hit this club. Full shots for this club for me I would say max out at about 90 yards. I might be able to get more but I don't really need nor want to. This club is really good around the 75-85 range. Lastly this club does work from bunkers as well just fine, its just that I prefer the DB for most bunker shots. As you can tell I'm pretty stoked with all three of these clubs. I've never had so much versatility in the wedge game before so I'm couldn't be any more pleased. Thanks for taking the time to read such a lengthy post.

Hello Mjr D my friend. You might just have to go the trial and error route until you find what works, man. I know I had to go that route myself. Now for me its two full wraps of tape the length of the grip and then three wraps of tape, 5" long from the top of the grip down. Yea, I build the top hand more than the bottom. I really couldn't tell you if its midsize, jumbo or what but its what works for me and that's about all I can say. Good luck and don't snap at 140 mph. Speed kills baby!

The new Royal Collection DB Protos. Flat out the best wedge out there at this moment for ease of use and versatility. As you can see from my sig I use three differing brands of wedges. I love each and every one but if I could only choose one, it would be the RC DB. Even with the 13 degrees of bounce, its still no problem off tight lies. Good luck. Trying to chose a wedge isn't easy.

If you want more bounce but still with a very playable wedge, Royal Collection DB Forged Proto. I use the 56 degree with 13 degrees of bounce. This is an ideal club from the sand but I'm also able to use it from tight lies, fluffy lies with ease. Opening the face poses no problem as well. I attribute the sole grind to making this one wedge so versatile. Between this and my Fourteen, the RC is the most versatile of the two.

I'm late to this topic but the Fourteen V5 is absolute winner. Easy to hit, tons of spin even though its conforming. Can do the sand, rough, tight lies you name it. If you don't like that the new Royal Collection DB Forged is on the same level as the Fourteen just with more bounce, but it has unreal spin as well, is very easy to use, very easy to open up. Either wedge is extremely versatile. Feel of both is off the charts as well.

Updated review: Having had some time now to really get to know this club I must say that its a definite winner. Had Goodsie put in the Graphite Design SF8 I had in my EGG into this new hybrid. Cut length is 41.5". First off, this club is very confident looking from the address position. Face is high enough that you don't feel at all like you'll scoop right under it. Club sets up square. From a feel standpoint, head is heavy but not overly so. For those looking for a bit more weight in the hybrid, this club is the way to go. Impact is just pure and the ball melds with the clubhead nicely. No harshness and not overly soft. Feels very close to the what my RC TourVS 3 wood feels like upon impact. Sound goes hand in hand with the feel. Performance wise, this hybrid shines. Easy to hit, trajectory is of medium height. Can be worked either left or right but it does go straight fairly easily. Shots out of rough work well due to weighty head as well as the sole design. Compared to the older model TourStage X-UT which this club replaced I do like this RC better in terms of feel. I hit a lot of really great shots with the old X-UT and so that club is not so easily replaced. I do believe this RC can do it as I've already hit four shots along the caliber of the many that I pulled off with the X-UT. I do believe this RC is easier to hit than my old X-UT and better out of the rough due to the head design. I cannot speak about how it stacks up to the new X-UT as I've yet to hit that and the new X-UT has a different head shape that I believe would help its performance out of the rough in comparison to the older model. As for this RC its 17 degrees and off the tee I'm hitting it right around 235 yards. It is excellent off the tee so it can be used as a replacement for a fairway wood if one desires. Off the fairway its just as easy to use and I've been using it anywhere from 210 up to 225 yards just depending upon the conditions of the day. For the lower yardage I do grip down a little because I find that the yardage for this club given a full swing is right around the 225 mark. All in all this is an excellent hybrid club which would suit a player looking for a hybrid that is a perfect combo of an iron-like set up (square face) in a wood-like body. The good thing about this hybrid is that you can put most any fairway wood shaft in it due to its hosel being .335. This is to date the best "feeling" hybrid I've hit. Trajectory and flight off the face is strong. One hybrid that's a must to consider if looking for a new one.

So true. I was a big Sonartec guy back in its heyday. Had quite a few different clubs. They licensed the design concept from Royal Collection but those two companies had always been separate. The problem at Sonartec was due to greed and deception. Sonartec soon became defunct and a very good product went the way of the dinosaurs which was really quite sad. At the time it reminded me a little of the problems which occurred shortly before that time with Gauge Design. Stick with Royal Collection and I don't believe you can go wrong. I'm now bagging three clubs from them and they are all simply fantastic. Excellent feel, excellent trajectories from the wedge, the utility and 3wood I'm bagging.

Gauge Design was all the rage and soon to become a battle point, MR23 and of course the G-Field Zone Putters. In addition I remember old posters who don't seem to be lurking around much or have moved on to other interests. Guys like Plus1 and Shoe.

UPDATE: THE REVIEWS ARE IN!! Every once in awhile I hit a homerun and with these three wedges I not only went yard, I won the derby. These three wedges are all simply outstanding and I couldn't be any more thrilled. My short game as so much more versatility to it than ever before. I'll get into each wedge: SkyDreamJump DP 2010 51°/7° - The perfect gap wedge. Shots from 115 and in and can get a little more if I jump on it. This club is very easy to hit and very easy to line up. Its the smallest of the three with a very thin topline which I like on full shots as far as the setup. At 51° you still notice the topline. The other two not so much due to the higher loft. Trajectory is pretty tight on this one, not at all high with plenty of spin. The other place this wedge is really good is on chip shots and run ups. Also if need be, due to the grind on this wedge it can be opened up for finesse pitch shots in which you want a bit more carry than the 56 could provide but still want that low trajectory allowing for a bit of run. This wedge is very easy to use. With the KBS shaft at 1" over the swingweight came out to E2 which for wedges is right in my wheelhouse. Royal Collection DB Forged Proto 56°/13° - This is an ideal sand wedge which is probably the most versatile of the three. This club is my first choice in the bunker for sure. Grind and bounce combo make sand shots much easier for me than they had in the past. Also, from heavy rough this club cuts through very well and gets the ball up quickly. However what has surprised me the most about this wedge is how easy one can open it up and hit from tight lies as well. No joke, this baby can hit out of tight lies with the best of them. As for the spin, this club spins the most out of the three for sure as well. Full shots I'm hitting right at about 95 yards. I thought it would be a little more and I may get it to 105 once I really have it dialed in but 95 is the comfortable distance at the moment. Swingweight on this club came out to E2.5. The only bad thing if you could say is that the finish (black) will not last past one giant range session. Now this is basically a raw club with a black finish which will wear but most all the finish is off the lower two-thirds of the face. When I get time later I'll post pics. If this is a problem for you I would suggest the satin finish. That is the only drawback to a very, very good wedge. I would highly suggest this one. Fourteen MT28 V5 Tour Limited 62°/6° - I didn't know how much I missed a low bounce wedge until I started hitting this puppy. Tight lies; no problema!! In a practice session today I was hitting high lobs off of tight lies with the face opened up on this club. Very easy to club to hit, good deal of spin. Club came out at D3.25 swingweight and hits full shots right at about 80-85 yards. However I can hit up to 95 easily by manipulating face angle a bit. In fact its easier to get this club to that distance than getting the DB up to 105. But given that, this club really isn't for full shots as it is for flops, chips and pitches around the greens which this club does very easily. In comparing spin while it does spin well, the DB Proto has the best spin of the three. What this Fourteen doesn't do as well is fluffy lies but I would attribute that to the 62° of loft and not so much to the design of the club. It does a little rough but heavier, fluffier stuff is best left to the DB. As for this club its a similar black finish and it seems to be holding only a little better than the DB. Its wear mark is all in the middle of the face where ball meets club. This actually looks really cool and I'm finding is really helpful in alignment. The DB well, the whole face is worn and I know I haven't hit all over the face so that finish is wearing more than the Fourteen. Well that's about it for the review. I welcome all questions should anyone have any. Oh, one last thing. Feel is paramount to me when it comes to clubs and all three have these have far exceeded my old TourStage X-blades in terms of feel. Just a supreme joy to hit and because of that I do believe it adds to their usefulness. I would highly recommended any of these wedges to anyone looking for new ones this year.

Saw these or rather most likely conforming ones in his bag last year when he came to LA. Its a really nice looking club, fairly simple and really clean look to it.

Can we say "demo set"!

Ahh yes . . . TourStage blade irons. They make THE best looking blades in my eyes. I'd most likely give these some serious looks if I weren't still crazy about my 901's. I would like to hear though how these new 905's compare to the 901's from anyone who has hit both. While these do look very, very sexy, I still give the nod to the 901's in terms of looks though. Still, these babies are no slouch.

I went to flattening my wedges by 2-3 degrees a few years back and have had much improved results for basically all the reasons discussed above. At the time the ball striking wasn't as consistent on short shots with them. I had either read or heard about the pros/low-handi's flattening wedges to help with the very same thing I was experiencing. I did do some lie board and impact tape results and everything pointed to my strikes being a little more to the toe side. This most likely was because the heel was getting in the way and "flipping" ever so slightly the head around. Once I had the lies flattened, it was ideal. In fact you can see this in my "JDM wedge triumvirate" post. Look at the SDJ wedge. On one of the pics I posted you'll notice on the face how the impacts are slighty away from center out towards the toe. This was from only one range session and you may not notice but because I know what to look for in my swing it really stands out for me. Of course I did expect to see this and once the club comes back with my specific specs I expect that pattern to not only tighten up but move back towards ever so slighty inside center. Stew take one of your wedges and have it bent 2 degrees flat. Then go out and hit a variety of short, medium, full even open face shots and see how it goes. I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

One thing to note with the new Royal Collection TRC clubs, the hosel size is .335 so you can put any wood shaft you would like in their as opposed to most utilities being .370. In fact all TRC clubs whether they're the new RC's or old Sonartecs are .335. Goodsie confirmed that for me and he's putting in my old Graphite Design SF8 which I previously had in my EGG. The SF line is what the '09 TRC came with.

Okay, because I know there's interest let me delve into my thinking on this wedge setup. Mind you, they're in the process of getting spec'd out for me. That entails installing KBS shafts at basically about 1" over standard; the lies will be flattened 2-3 degrees depending upon each club; the grips are built up and pure/flo. Once I have them back I will be hitting many, many shots with them in a short time so I will definitely give lots of feedback. For now here's my thoughts. I tend to run long so forgive me if this becomes boring. First off why three different brands? Well... because there's just too much JDM out there to limit to just one company!! But lets go back a little. Several years back I used a 52/56/60 wedge system. I had the old model Epon copper wedges. They were great but they're all basically the same club. However, when the TourStage X-blade 901's came out I decided to go with X-wedge 901's in 53/59. This has served me mostly well the past couple years. However both of those wedges have 9 degrees of bounce and are basically the same wedge. I also have the TourStage X-blade PW but that club is mainly full shots and chips so I won't be discussing it here in this thread. Mind you it will stay in the bag. So jump foward to this year's Japan Golf show and I was blown away with the new wedges coming out, and, also I had been looking at the SkyDreamJumps for awhile as well. I started thinking, having every club look the same works well in a set of irons. It also works well in wedges but what if one had three different wedges of different grinds to handle many different short game shots? Irons are basically full shots. Well I do mess around with knockdowns, controls, sometimes long chips but for the most part irons are full shots. You want consistency in the set so you can deal with certain yardages. Now, the short game however has many variations. Too numerous to list but you all golf so you know what I'm talking about. For these three wedges it all started with the SDJ. My current PW is 47 bent to 46, so I wanted the SDJ at 51 degrees. This would be a perfect gap wedge as its 2 degrees stronger than the TourStage 53. Also, it has an ultra-thin topline which is perfect to look at address (for me). Secondly, when I had one range session with it, the grind on that particular wedge allows for it to be opened up so you can play high lofted shots with it as well. Its very easy to chip with. With the KBS I expect this wedge to be used on full shots at anywhere between 105-125 yards depending upon conditions. Lastly the bounce is only 7 degrees so its much better on full shots than the 9 degrees on the TourStage. And one more thought, why 51? Well its my son's jersey number in baseball which he chose because of Ichiro. The next wedge I really liked was the Fourteen, why, because I loved the 62 degree model made for Kuch. The grind looked awesome to me and I really wanted his particular wedge. However being its made only for him I had to settle for the retail product which is very close to what he's playing. I love the black look to it. This of course replaces the 59 I have. I like that the club is 62 degrees as it will allow me to take full swings at yardages of 75-85 yards. Also the increase in loft will allow me to hit higher lofted shots when I open it up. The design of the head I really like because while its 62 degrees its designed to hit the ball lower due to the higher COG. I need this as I tend to hit my wedges a little too high for my liking at times. Having a high lofted club that's design to stay lower is ideal for me. This club will hit so many variety of short game shots. It'll just depend upon what I'm thinking at that particular time as to how I will use the club. This club has 6 degrees of bounce which makes it better at super tight lies than the current 59. So now, I've got a 51 and a 62. Now I need something to bridge the gap in the middle. The decision was easy. I fell for the RC dent back right away. It too offers the higher COG just like the Fourteen. Its forged at Endo, can't get better than that. Looking at the grind, I thought that it would be perfect for bunker shots. I like my short game and practice it quite a bit. I really love to create lots of different shots. However, my sand game isn't up to the level of the rest. I'm thinking that this grind combined with the 13 degrees of bounce will suit me much better coming from the beach. Of course this remains to be seen but I'm optimistic and hopeful. I did hit this club just a little before I sent it off to be reworked. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to open the face and the bounce doesn't get in the way. I know that this club will be not only good from sand, but absolutely great from fluffy grass and soft lies. Again we'll see how it goes. Why go back from basically a two-wedge system to a three? Versatility and creativity. In my game I'm very much a feel player. While I know in general my yardages, every day varies due to feel. I like being able to create shots and play around with shots. Not only in the short game but long game too. While I've read Pelz and his clock system, I'm not that kind of player. Yes I've worked things like that to get better, but I play my best when I imagine shots and work at "creating" them. The past couple of years my wedge game had been a little uninspiring. It was okay but not what I wanted. These three wedges I'm hoping that the creativity will grow and through that my game will continue to improve. While there was a time I played competetively those days are for the most part over. Now its just about having fun and hitting shots. The score will take care of itself. I just want to hit all kinds of shots and see how much fun I can have in doing that. While I will tell you that the only way to get better is play actual rounds, I can easily spend 6-7 hours hitting balls and creating all kinds of shots. I can seemingly never get enough. I don't get to play as much as I did due to having other commitments (kids!) so I really treasure the time I can spend. I had a lot of down time last year due to injury and I coming back strong this year and I'm very excited about the game and the new clubs. I'll stop for now because I know I probably put some people to sleep but I'm hoping that I was also able to shed some light on these clubs and why I'm taking such an unorthodox approach in going with this system. Time will tell if everything I've talked about here comes to fruition but I'll be sure to report about it. Until then, makeruna Japan!