Doc's WITB-JDM Contest Edition

[clevelaand]

WITB is like an endless search for that ultimate set of golf toys. Not much different than finding that incredible, cool, vehicle one just loves to cruise in around the neighborhood streets, or even like finding that special someone. Someone to hang out with and enjoy each day, and who makes you feel special around others. Knowing that maybe, just maybe, one has come to the end of a long search, and there is not need to look further. Except for us golf addicts, not sure we want that search for the perfect set of clubs to end.

My pictures were taken at a favorite spot of mine. A place on the golf course where I relax under a shady tree and consider my progress after practicing for a couple of hours. A place where, with my headphones on, nothing exists other than my desire to think about and enjoy the great game of golf, at least for awhile.

My WITB comes wrapped in a classy, black, red, and white Tourstage stand golf bag. This bag, considering that I am foolish enough to still walk, is extremely light and comfortable to carry. It is a dual strap system with very fast deploying legs. The many pockets are easily opened and hold all of my golf paraphernalia. Many of my playing partners are prone to ask as to where one can get a stylish bag like this one. TSG is the answer of course. I have another bag by Fourteen but it is much heavier and more difficult to get into the tight pockets. This bag also serves well as a cart bag.

This bag is exceptional but WITB is about the clubs, and so, let's focus in on the clubs beginning with the driver. And what a driver it is! Imagine the endless hours of searching, as I am sure we all can identify with, for that one pearl of a driver. A driver that feels so solid, and can be hit consistantly down the center of each fairway, no matter the expanse of the grass in front of you. To see that ball just soar on a perfect launch angle, not too high, not too low, and land at the distance from the tee that we feel we deserve. This Tourstage X-Drive 405, 9.5 degree loft is that pearl for me. I have tried two other X-Drives with larger heads, like the 460, and many other top drivers, but the solid, crisp, snap of the ball leaving the face of the 405 was what qualified this driver to find a position in my bag. Great set-up, turbo powered, and driven by a Graphie Design Tour AD, M-65, stiff shaft. This green and silver shaft cpm's out at 256 cycles and launches my Pro-V's on an optimum arc. The drive initiates each hole and this driver provides me with the security of at least a successful beginning. As for the head cover, I happened upon, a few years ago, golf shirts made by Tabasco, the company that makes those little bottles of hot sauce. Head covers were also in their line of golf accessories and this one has a green crocodile biting on a bottle of Tabasco sauce. You have heard of "Let the big dog eat," well, this croc says "Bite This!"

This driver's smaller brother (sister) fills the spot of three wood in my bag. Once again, the solid consistant feel of this Tourstage X-ST, 15 degree wood, has managed to out perform all of it's competitors. Shafted with another Graphite Design Tour AD shaft, this one's a bit heavier at 75 grams, but stiff with an orange and silver hue to it. It's closest competitor was a G-Field, 15 degree GFT wood, with a blue Graphite Design stiff shift. This X-ST is about 10 yards longer and seems to glide though the turf a bit smoother, hence its inclusion in the bag. And WHAT is that covering the head of the three wood? It looks like the rear of a rat and it is! I was always the smallest guy in my classes when growing-up, and therefore, my nickname was.....you guessed it, the RAT! A gift from my golfing buddies, too bad that this nickname does not really apply to me now.

Moving deeper into the bag brings us to the hybrids. There are two of these surrogate clubs that represent themselves as a two and three iron. And in fact, these two clubs are, along with the putter, the only domestic entities in the bag. Both are Nickent 3DX Ironwoods, one being a 17 degree loft (2 iron) and the other a 20 degree loft (3 iron.) These two hearty clubs may have faced the stiffest competition of all including Taylormade, Mizuno, Adams, and many more. However, true to their heritage and advertisements, they do propel the Pro V's the longest and STRAIGHTEST! In fact, a WOW factor always seems to creep into my mind when I hit these cannons. It might be the stiff, V2, 86 gram shafts by UST that gives them the amazing ball flight, but I believe it must be due to the two evenly spaced weights in the back of each club. I am able to hit the 17 degree club about 220 yards and not even sure I need a three wood anymore. If you have not had the pleasure of swinging one of these Nickent Ironwoods, then do yourself a favor.

Next, with great joy and elation, I get to present my newcomers, my babies, filling seven significant positions in my WITB. The search for and finding of these irons just all of a sudden happened. Not in my wildest dreams did I expect to happen upon a set of irons like these Epons, but I did and I am elated. These irons are the Epon Technity Type S, forged heads, four iron through pitching wedge. Hart to imagine that any irons could feel as soft as these when hitting a golf ball, and they are very styish also. The four, five, and six irons are cavity backs with a power slot behind the face and the seven, eight, nine, and wedge are cavity backs minus the slot for more feel. They knocked out of the bag my Gauge Design NC-1's, so you can imagine the quality of these irons. And, to make these irons even more desireable, they are shafted with champagne colored Black Gold stiff shafts. These shafts cpm'ed out at a strong stiff flex and are so responsive during the swing. The ball flight is low and boring, and consistantly right at the target, a lot like Project X. Kind of feel like I am throwing the ball at the flag. Okay, okay, so now I am a convert. Epon makes very high quality, fantastic golf equipment. I guess an Epon driver is the next club to be tried, and I doubt I will be tempted soon to replace these irons with any new and improved models (yeah, right.) Once in a while I will play my NC-1's just to keep them happy.

Ah, time for, as they are called, the scoring clubs. Along with the pitching wedge, the gap wedge and the sand wedge are lifesavers in so many crucial situations during a round of golf. I like to match my gap and sand wedges in pairs, meaning that they must be 52 degree and 56 degree wedges made by the same manufacturer. I have four pairs of wedges made by Tourstage, Gauge Design, Fourteen (great spinners), and Yururi. Did not believe I would be able to find any wedges to replace my Fourteens, but the Yururi wedges have done it. They are raw and black with extremely sharp leading edges that is very beneficial for a digger like myself, and I am amazed with their feel and spin. They are shafted with Project X 6.0 shafts, and since the came in 53 and 57 degrees, I had to bend the lofts down to 52 and 56 degrees. They are definitley pinseekers at 100 yards with the 52 degree and 80 yards with the 56 degree. How important is it to find a pair of wedges that fit you personally and give you that feel of confidence on those delicate chips? These wedges provide me with that security and help keep my scores in check. They are my black Ninjas!

Finally, we come to what some (most) golfers call the most important scoring club in any bag, the flat stick, the putter. Such a simple implement with the least technology, and shortest backswing, one would imagine it would be easy to master. If that was so, then why is it that most of us have more putters in our collections than any other club? My savior, or at times, my betrayer, is a Cameron Newport TeI3. This has the teryllium insert and a wonderful soft feeling like butter. It is one of the original TeI3's and is kept in new condition with a Cameron Peace Sign cover. I do have two Gauge Design putters and a G-Field Leap putter but this Cameron is just too solid (and nice looking) to be replace.

Oh, let's not forget that it might be curious to check out what small curios and doodads are carried in my bag. In fact, that might make for one enjoyable topic in the forums but here is my collection.

* A pair of Sundog sunglasses to protect the peepers.

* Portable sunblock bottle of 30 SPF sun lotion.

* King size black permanent marker for marking the new Pro-V's.

* Three divot tools for insuring that those ball marks on the green are not neglected.

* An extra ball marker that clips on the hat. These markers seem to disappear most often.

* A Sony Walkman with and extra battery to jazz-up those daily practice sessions.

* A pressure gauge in insure the proper PSI in my pull cart.

* A small tool kit with an assortment of different tips to match the various types of screws and bolts in today's clubs.

* A GolfRound for cleaning the dirt picked-up by the golf balls along the way. Great invention, now why didn't I think of that?

* The magic tees that do not break, nor fly too far away. Another grand ideal I missed.

* A Skycaddie 2 for finding those precise distances necessary to navigate the different courses.

* And, of course, for measuring the exact distances on the practice range, there is the Bushnell Yardage Pro 1000. It was difficult to use accurately on the course but works just fine for the range.

* Two extra gloves for playing in the 100+ heat in Palm Springs.

* A Gerber E-Z Out folding knife for cleaning the grooves the manly way.

* And do not forget the extra golf balls. A sleeve of Pro-V's and a sleeve of midnight black B432's for fun and shock value.

Finally, there is the issue of fashion on the course. Should one dress to match his game? Great game, great dresser or developing game would merit more conservative clothes. I like to wear clothes that are different. All of my golfing buddies wear Nike, Ashworth, and other name brands but that is not my cup of tee (sic.) All of my golf shirts are very sporty looking and are made by Tabasco with the name on the collars and little bottles of hot sauce in each shirt design. My shoes are usually Adidas and color coordination between shirts and shoes not necessary but kind of fun when you can do it.

So there you have it, my WITB for this moment in time. By next year I will most likely have changed everything. Isn't golf a great pastime!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Doc

(Will try to take more pictures tomorrow as I play and insert them.)

Edited September 13, 2007 by The Doc

[Bat]

Very nice bag. That's a lot of accessories for walking. The best part is the Type S, of course. LOL You said that the Black Gold CPMed out at a strong stiff. Did you hard step these or just standard installation? What's the swingweight and length on these? I like the feel of my 1150 but might want to try Black Gold sometimes. Thx.

Bat

Btw, I believe the 3 wood in the pic is the X-ST not the X-Drive.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

Watch Out! This guy carries a knife on the course

Is that for rabbit or deer?...jk

Very nice write up and awesome set!

[Blader-X]

Well written, pics well thought out, a strong contender for the contest.

Beautiful bag, great clubs.

What?? Doesn't everyone carry a knife to clean out their grooves??

[clevelaand]

Oops, you are right Bat. It is a X-ST, just a late night mistake and my typing needs a lot of improvement. The Black Golds are standard length and stiff flex from the factory, no hard stepping. Not sure why they are about 3-5 cycles stiffer than a set of S300 I have, but I can definitely tell a difference. The five iron at 37.75" is around 330 cycles with an S300 but with this set of BG's, the five iron is around 333 to 335 cycles. The frequency analyzer is not exact for each reading. The swingweight of these irons is D2. Maybe the strong cycling is just a characteristic of the BG's. I am curious so will have to search it out.

Actually, lol, the knife is great for cleaning the spikes and when you play in the wild west like I do, you never know what kind of varmints you might run into on the courses. Quite a few of those little squigglers with the rattles on the end of their tails.

Edited September 13, 2007 by The Doc