gocchin

R, I love the A25 3 Wood... I am very happy with it's trajectory and distance. It must be the shaft for you as it is indeed a soft playing, high launching stock shaft which works for me. I thought you were getting rid of the driver?

Okay here is my "current" what's in the bag for 2008. I probably have a new caddy bag on the way but for now it's still the Bridgestone Paradiso Maru bag. Moving up to a 12* driver and a 3 wood that has a high loft 17* has actually reduced the number of clubs in my bag to 12! Meaning that I have room for two more... probably a wedge and one other club.... Epon EMB 12* - Graphite Design Tour AD W-50 Mizuno JPX A25 17* 3 Wood - Mizuno Quad SYB W411v 21* 7 Wood - Roddio W5BA Epon AF-901 24* Utility - Graphite Design Tour AD UT-55 Epon AF-701 6-PW - Graphite Design Tour AD AD-65 Epon 208KGX 50* - Graphite Design Tour AD AD-75 Geotech Forged Special Grind 56* - Graphite Design Tour AD AD-75 Gold's Factory Hearts Tour Proto 002 - Mamiya FF Shaft - Weight Cartridge in Butt - Iomic Red Black Nowon No.1 48 Series Grips Kasco Kira Golf Balls Mizuno 352S Tour Balls Tourstage X-01 S3 Balls More Detail: The EMB is now shafted with a Tour AD W-50 R2 flex....yes R2!! I like the soft feel and strong kick. The W series Tour AD is one of the smoothest driver shafts from GD and is the softest tip of all Tour AD shafts... perfect for a player like myself who has problems with a push and sometimes slice. Playing this now at 45" with a Blue Graphite Design Grip (a present from Duffer19!). Some of you may wonder why I switched from the Tour AD for EMB shaft. I found I was taking the heel of the driver into the ground occasionally with the longer 46" length and I did not want to cut the shaft down so I swapped out as a test with the spare W-50. The Mizuno JPX A25 17* plays at 43" with the regular flex JPX Quad shaft. This shaft plays soft, just the way I like it. It is smooth and has a tremendous kick because of how soft it is. I rarely can hit a draw but I can with this shaft and head combo. Pentagon shaped head is super forgiving. Does have that titanium feel and sound but is very easy to hit even at 43" for a short guy like me! Still don't like the alignment mark. The magnetic head cover rocks! The newest club in the bag is SYB's W411v 7 wood. It's a 22* but measured at 21* FW with a traditional shape but reasonably large head. This thing does inspire confidence along the lines of the new Fourteen FW SF308 as they are from the same design team. This 7 wood is 173cc and has a 1.5* open face, quite an interesting combination. I shafted it with my Roddio W5BA at 41.5" and this thing feels great and I pretty much go straight with it. I decided on an AF-901 to replace my 5 iron. Yes the AF-701 is already really easy to hit but I thought the 901 would be the perfect fit in the bag. I had it bent to 24* and shafted up with my usual Tour AD UT-55 with Nowon grip. It's a great hollow forging with great feel and while it's definitely larger than the AF-701 it feels and plays like an easy iron to hit and that's what I wanted! What's there to say about the AF-701 that hasn't been said before? This is one of the best irons ever made. With all around performance and feel packed in a nice mid sized cavity. The undercut cavity and Asroll face are forgiving and long. The tungsten weights forged in the sole and blunt leading edge make this a great choice for all levels of players. There is a reason why this is TSG's number one selling iron. I've got mine shafted with Tour AD AD-65 graphite not only for the light weight but also for the smaller diameter butt end 14.80mm as I have small hands. The 48 series Nowon fit perfectly on this size butt. There is no plan to replace these unless I get Copper finished ones. (^_^) I like to play 50* approach wedge as the strong lofts of the 701 have a 45* PW. The 208KGX spins hard with it's sharp grooves and it's multiple bounce sole is very versatile. I haven't had much time with it yet but it feels wonderful and has great low stable trajectory with tons of spin! Also shafted with Tour AD AD-75 graphite. The GT Special Grind I just had to try for it's amazing budget price... forged in Japan with a grind and bounce that suits my game I grabbed one and shafted it with an Axiv 758M. I like it so far but got it the same time as the Epon wedge so it's still in test mode. Looks great though with it's teardrop shape and straight neck! New Gold's factory putter rocks... heavy 365g head with a total weight of around 566g which is very heavy. The 33" putter has a Mamiya FF shaft with 30g Balance Certified weight to balance out the heavy heavy head. Nice Iomic red and black grip. Love the soft PZ milled face!

GS will be in the pro shop any day now as we're just finalizing details and availability... (^_^)

Yes it does. (^_^)

Here are some outside pics!

Actually they are both exactly the same... just the angle of the pic makes one look taller and the other shorter. Gonna take more pics this afternoon outside.

Clothing is one of the hardest things to buy from Japan. TSG has considered carrying it but its so hard to stock as it sells out so fast so the only thing we stick to are caps.

Unfortunately the words Tour and Proto are not available normally. These were meant as Proto's for the Tour but we convinced Sasaya-san to release a few of his limited putters like these to us. idrive, haven't had a chance to play it yet. It's the most expensive putter I've ever owned so still haven't gotten over the hump to begin playing it... but I will. (^_^)

Hi there, well a 5056 is an R flex and at 46" total length it will probably be a little softer than that. It is also low kick creating the high trajectory. I'd tip it up to a half inch since you've got the driver so long.

Definitely C, they are all top quality but in every batch there are always a few perfect gems, with less impurities, best weight and balance wise.... (^_^)

Sasaya-san picks out the absolutely best heads he has that would usually go to the tour or be made as prototype or limited edition versions of his putters. So it's kind of like the way Miuraism hand picks heads for the Miuraism sets of irons.

Chris and I were able to get a couple of limited Tour Proto Hearts putters (that I helped design). (^_^) Tour Premium hand picked heads with Premium Zone milling and tungsten in the sole and face bringing the headweight up to 365g. 33" and inverse Iomic grip (black lettering). This is my gamer... probably forever... or untill my next Golds... (^_^)

The Japanese grips actually do use the same measurements ie M58 M60 and M62 meaning 0.580 0.600 0.620 inner diameter but somehow the do seem slimmer perhaps due to the thickness of the outer walls of the grips (thinner and more lightweight) as well as the material used. Also affecting the grip size that many people don't realize is the butt diameter of the shaft the grip is going on. There is a reason why I use Tour AD-65 rather than AD-75 besides the lighter weight, it has a smaller butt diameter meaning that grips seem smaller on this shaft.

Yes I have very small hands... cadet small at LEAST maybe even smaller. I use Nowon 48 series on all my clubs and while they are not exactly thinner than Iomic they do feel thinner cause they are softer. They'd probably work for you and they have lots of great colors... even lady-esque ones (^_^)

Hi T, yes there are two models in the JPX 500 iron line. The JPX E500 Forged and the JPX E500 Titanium face. Very good irons both of them... and the recommendations are well deserved. The Forged is indeed geared towards mid and even low handicappers looking for forgiveness. The Ti face is geared towards mid to higher handicappers looking for performance and forgiveness.

Still the GD's for me as well. The Fuji's are a little too new for feedback yet. There are a few who like the NGS shaft. Also heard the Ozik is good.

338 to 340g's usually. Which is adequate for those using 34-35" putters but once you go lower in length you need more head weight to bring the swing weight and feel up, which is why there are the tungsten insert options. I personally prefer 350g+ even closer to 355-360g. I play all my putters at 33".

What you looking for a back up for your back up for your back up? (^_^)

Good info! Thanks for that. Love how you guys snazzed up your 670's... As mofo mentioned and we've mentioned a few times before... the 670's are a very good head used by quite a few other companies albeit with higher prices. (^_^)

Have you tried the X-01 S3? I actually liked the S3 and 352S better than the Hyper ERC. Both had better feel for me.

Steve, the M3 Tour is heavier than the standard M3 and has a swing weight of D2.5. As for the Yamaha and RC... I'd say the Yamaha may be more forgiving just because it's bigger... Are you carrying a 5 wood too?

It's a very nice FW indeed. Compact size like the CV Pro of the past. Still a players club but boasting more forgiveness due to some design changes. A touch larger (152cc) than their professional model Pro TP (145cc) but probably just as good for playability and feel. If you like compact and have no issues hitting small FW's off the deck then it's definitely a good one. Other options albeit bigger are the popular M3 Hit TOUR (165cc) which is more shallow but easy to hit. The Yamaha iFF Tour is also very very solid and confidence inspiring at 186cc.

Yes I forgot to mention those.... they are targeting the same perfomrnace as the Pro V1 and Pro V1x. Initial feedback from testing pros has been very positive and if you like the Titelist balls the PRGR are definitely worth a try.

They should have a similar insert but it is possible that slightly different head shapes will cause the insert to produce a very subtle difference in sound and feel. The #1 if I remember correctly has a slightly taller face and sharp heel and bumpers while the #0 is the all around balanced shape with rounded heel and rounded bumpers. #2 is longer heel to toe with flat bumpers. I also found the sweetspot on the #1 to be slightly inside the sight line towards the heel.

If you're asking for the top "TOUR" JDM ball the reigning champ for years has been the Tourstage X-Series with two 4 piece balls currently on top, the X-01R4 which is harder and max spin and the X-01G4 which is softer with high spin. The Mizuno ball closest would be the 352S as it's the softer of the two Cross Eight Tours which are both 3 piece. If you like a softer ball, the new 3 piece GranZ Premium is getting raving reviews for all around play and soft feel.