Search the Community

So many new drivers today, Kamuis, Ryomas, S-Yards, George Spirits, JBeam… and the list goes on and on. With each driver is marketing promise of longer drives and from the golfer, eternal hope that we can one day match Bubba’s 350 yards but down the middle each time. Such hope is what makes the golf industry tick. Such hope is what makes every golfer (or at least the ones here and reading this J ) try the “newest and greatest” each time. I am part of this league of extraordinary golfers. Always trying, always hoping. It came to a point last week when there just was not anything more for me to try, or wanted to try as incredible as it seems. I had run out of projects. Played around with multiple drivers over the year end festive season, got a few new drivers, sold a few drivers. Tried different irons, got a new set of irons. Tried different wedges, got a new set of wedges. Tried different putters, got a new putter. Tried a different FW, got a new FW. Moved to bags. Got 2 new bags with matching headcovers. What to try now? Noticed one of a few old Epon AF 101 heads lying around at my fitters.. the AF-101. A legend from Epon many will argue. I certainly will especially when you compare to almost any driver that came after from Epon. I gamed it for 4 years and tried so many different shafts in it then. Diamanas, Aldillas, Fuji, Tour Ads of most specs… while it felt great, solid, I always had back spin (YUP, BACK SPIN!) with the driver. Ball would almost always be at the pitch mark or some times even spun back a few centimeters. It’s certainly the Indian and as I have said several times here, driving is the weakest part of my game. Today however, with all the low spin JDM heads and shafts, I actually can get roll and sometimes, a lot of roll. OK. I have been working on my game and got my cap down to 7.9 as the start of this month (I’ll readily qualify and admit that a high 80s game is still very much in me though) but I thought… ok… no project. What if I tried one of today’s high modulus carbon shafts in an old style driver? I looked at the AF101 9.5 in front of me and thought, let’s go back slightly further and get perhaps an even bigger legend, one that I too had owned before… and back spun with the myriad shafts mentioned above…. Lets try the mega legend ( to me at least) Epon Technity 460 Titan! The Epon Technity 460ZR Titan as you can see below is rather traditional in shape. Pearish enough, nice deep face and nothing busy about the stamping, sole plate and color scheme. Where do I get one now? I gave my friend who still had one a buzz. Incidentally, I credit this friend (lurker here) with being the first person on my shores to play any Epon driver… me being the second J which I searched frantically online immediately after trying his Titan 460 at the range. He said ok and then I thought which of my spare shafts would be best. I have a Crazy CB46 and a Roddio M:6. Didn’t take long to decide… Titan 460 is high launch high spin in today’s context. I went with the CB-46. First session at the range beside my beloved and longest setup, JBeam 435 10 with TJ46. Jbeam was doing what it always does at the range so I know I am swing ok that day. First swing with the Crazy Titan (which is what I’ll call her henceforth) and my immediate reaction was a mixture of reminiscence and welcome to the FEEL. Sure feel is subjective but we talk about feel today from the 388 to Kamui to whatever! What the heck are we thinking?! Nothing and I mean nothing to me, beast this for feel. It was ecstasy in the hands. That soft, solid so hard to describe fantastic feel! If this feel were a woman, I’d be all over her in a heartbeat! If you guys have not tried this, just for the heck of it, once in your golf life, just get one just for the heck of it. If anything, to serve as a benchmark for what feel should or shouldn’t be. Again, for feel, to me… this is the Titan of feel! So she feels great but can Crazy Titan perform or is she all tease? Trajectory….Although a 9.5 with a lower launching shaft, Crazy Titan launched as high as Black Widow 10 with her TJ46. And bear in mind, the CB46 has also been tipped ½ an inch which should result in a lower launch and spin. At times, trajectory could even be a tad higher. Carry… This combo given the head is more about carry than roll. I would say probably carried as much as Black Widow. Dispersion. Quite good and perhaps on par with Okamoto, my safety Ryoma D1 TJ46 combo. We shall see over the coming weeks. Overall distance (wait.. what happened to roll? Below). 435 still beats Crazy Titan on average and longest drive BUT Crazy Titan is longer than Okamoto, my safety Ryoma D1 TJ46 combo. Roll… this is what surprised me pleasantly and was the key focus of this project. I used to back spin this head so will a modern day low spinning high modulus carbon shaft help to correct that despite my bad swing where at the top I’m a hybrid of John Daly and Jim Furyk? A resounding YES! At the range despite range rocks, slight head wind, damp cow grass laid out on a slightly uphill gradient, there was roll! Quite a bit actually. I was damn excited! Now for the course. On course the above pretty much repeated itself. Great carry, hit more fairways than I do with Black Widow but not as long. The roll was so great to see. Not as much roll as when I played at Moonah Links but enough. So project success but a problem lingered. The shaft was mine but not the head. Easy solution. List a WTB on TSG, Blader X responded, paypal sent and my 9.5 ZR in now en route to me. This project yielded 2 reminders: 1. The shaft the shaft the shaft!!!! It’s the engine of the club and a huge determinant of performance. In this case, a modern day shaft has transformed a super high spinning head for me into a very decent driver that for ME, even out performs one of the current rave drivers. 2. Heads are all maxed out. Unless there is a fundamental design and technical proposition like the D1 and Maxima, does buying a new head actually work or should we spend our time trying shafts to maximize our current heads to our swing. These 2 points I have always known for a long time now but I guess every once in a while, a reminder is needed. Sorry for the very long mindless waxing! The pics: