Sonartec MD

Let's hear it...

any other feedback on this?

I am thinking of getting one, but haven't heard much about it. How is the irod shaft too?

Tough to get up in the air off of tight lies. BUT, overall A GREAT club and the best hybrid I have ever hit.

:vava: I love this club. The Banzai shaft is a plus too. I get it up in the air fine. you just play it like a 5 iron or 4 iron on most lies. You do really have to know how to play it.

I am on my second MD now. The first was the 21* w/ NV-85S hybrid shaft. It gave me a low boring trajectory off the deck, and was so-so off the tee. I could hit my Wishon 321LI better, so dumped the MD. I am now using a 21* MD w/NVS-85R hybrid shaft, and it is great. Gives me a high, but not ballooning ballflight, and is excellent off the deck and tee. It is also great to use around the green on chips and bump & run shots. This is one club that I don't see coming out of my bag for some time. In fact, I am planning on buying some new Ping irons before the end of the year, and am putting the set together around my Sonartec MD.

I have one in 23* and it is very easy to hit high and long. I also like the Irod shaft but am thinking of trying a different shaft. Overall great club for the money.

 

Let's hear it...

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I'm playing two MD's right now -- a 17* and a 21*, both shafted with the Aldila NVS-85 Hybrid Shaft. Over the past season, they have become my favorite clubs. I can make them dance off the tee OR deck, and they are easy from just about any lie imaginable.

In my experience, the NVS-85 Hybrid brings out the very best in this particular club head... I've heard several folks complain about the performance of the club with the IROD installed, but with the NVS installed it has been magic for me.

Right now I'm even thinking about picking up the 15*, 19*, and 23* with the same shaft just so that I can change my set up for varying course conditions. They're that good.

  I love this club. The Banzai shaft is a plus too. I get it up in the air fine. you just play it like a 5 iron or 4 iron on most lies. You do really have to know how to play it.

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I have to agree with Golfin4Weezer. This club plays like a dream, but like any club you must know how to play it. Can you imagine trying to hit a modern big headed driver off a low tee peg...... :cheesy: similar analogy, unless the ball position is correct, you will struggle. Great for round the greens also. I swear the first time I ever used this club, I chipped in from off the green on the stroke index one...... :cheesy:

Personally really like the Irod shaft, gives a great trajectory. :cheesy:

If you try one, experiment with ball position and you'll get some great results..

I have a 17 and a 21 with the stock shafts.

The 21 replaced a ping G2HL in the same loft (which I mishit all the time). It is far more forgiving than the G2HL. Ballflight is good, too - puts the ball up in the air.

I bought the 17 to replace a steelhead 5 wood because the 5 wood was useless to me into the wind - it threw the ball so far up in the air that it'd fall 25 yards short (I'd hit the 3 iron/21 Sonartec as far).

The 17 hits the ball lower than the like lofted steelhead, but it's not as forgiving.

dislike it VERY much..not good at setup and needs to be rethought..just cuz hamilton won the open with it does not mean its market worthy!!

my second fav hybrid behind my tm dual tp

Best hybrids I have hit. When the hybrid craze started tried the Taylor made rescue...hated it. Too much offset and upright lie caused high shots to the left. I have the Sonartec MD in both the 21 and 23 degree which has replaced my 3 and 4 iron. I love these things. I can hit them high and low for the shot I need. They bore right trough the wind and land softly on the green.

I have the Royal Collection TD, which is the Japanese version. I have the 21 degree and has become a irreplaceable part of my set. The shaft is a stcok RC stiff, but they are now being offered with Graphite Design Tour AD UT85 or Adila NV85. I can play it from almost any kind of lie and it has performed just fine. This was my first hybrid purchase and could not be happier.

I just got this club back from Joe Kwok who put a 904hb in it and all I can say is this club can do anything you want. From any lie fairway, rough, sand, etc. it really gets the job done well and the shaft in this one is really nice. It keeps the ball flight out of the ballooning area like most hybrids. This one is definitely a winner.

I have a Sonartec MD 21* and have tried most of the other major brand hybrids. Once you get used to the MD, it's fantastic and really flies like the 3 iron that it replaced. The other hybrids went a little too high. The feel is very solid, nothing compares in my opinion. My second choice is the Cobra Baffler.

i have a 17 with the irod shaft lying somewhere around my house.

I pull it out on really windy days (cape cod) as a 1 iron stays low and really good on chips. Other than that it stays around the house as a decoration.

I have a 19 degree with the stock IROD shaft and I love it. That said, I've not yet tried it in all the situations it's supposedly designed for, such as from around the fringe and longish chips. But as a driving club on tighter or shorter holes and instead of a 5 wood on long approaches, it is excellent. I tested it against TM dual, Callaway Heavenwood, Miz CLK and Cobra Baffler. The latter was the surprise runner-up but the ball flight, solid feel and consistency of the Sonartec won for me. Have not regretted it for a second and very likely to get the 3iron replacement too - but after other reviews I plan to try a Halo as well before committing.

19deg with irod is a dream. Off a low tee it's sooooo straight and pretty long. Not too bad out of bad stuff but it's great from light rough, fairway and tee. I would call this more of a position club rather than a rescue club. When I don't want to hit the driver off a tee I actually go to this ahead of my 3 wood becuase it's a guaranteed positional club to get me on the fairway.

This club rocks, provided you play the right loft/shaft combination.

My weapon of choice is 21* w/I-rod stiff.

Nice neutral balance, neither draw biased nor open.

Off the tee its 100% deadly. Taller face than most hybrids inspires confidence to rip it. Generally boring launch trajectory, but I have no problem hitting higher or lower shots as circumstances dictate.

Soft fairway lies are a breeze.

Off of tight lies its all about ball position at address. Just gotta hit it more like an iron. Shots are reasonably high and stick greens with little trouble, even from big distances, e.g. 200+ yards out.

Out of light rough its a monster, but deep rough is deffintely its nemesis. Leading edge tends to get hung up. (But still worlds better than my 3-iron which it replaces)

From fairway bunkers and other miscellaneous junk lies this outperforms both my 3-iron and all other hybrids I've hit. Truly a utility club in that sense. I don't use it to chip around the greens, so no comment there.

Super hot face yields booming distance. But more importantly, since I play it more like an iron than a faiway wood I should note that distance control is key...7-iron-like consistency from 3-iron range.

Conclusion: "Its so choice...If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up" (F. Bueller) Best hybrid around. Even picked up a 23* over the winter to replace my 4-iron.

Use it well,

Edit 11/16/06:

By way of follow up I no longer carry the Sonartec hybrids. While two years ago they were the class of the category, I feel that newer models are easier to hit yet still provide the players' characteristics which up until not so long ago you could only find in the Sonartecs.

I had tried the dual TP and G5 hybrids in an effort to fill the gap between my 13* 3 and 3 iron. Well my search stopped at the 17* MD. It is head and shoulders above the others. I wasn't sure about the iRod as it felt too soft at first but even when I step on it, I get the results I'm looking for. I realized after playing around with it at the range and hitting from different lies (ie. rough, hard pan, sand, etc) that I can also do things with this that I can't with a long iron and I was hitting it so pure....so I picked up a 21* and dropped my 3 iron. I can't believe I'm now carrying two hybrids but wihen thay are as good as the MD's....Hey, I'm a strong player with a ss over 110 and a hc of 7 but I have to say these just makes the game easier.

I like it so much I have just added another one to the bag to replace my 3 iron. Have had the 19deg, with stock Irod (r flex) for 8 months now and just love the trajectory and versatility. I'm no longer convinced that the shaft is the right flex however, as it can go very right (I'm a lefty). Nevetheless, it is great as an ultra-safe driving club, for long approaches (much easier than a fairway wood for me), for bump and runs and for getting it back out on to the fairway from the trees (when it should have been on the fairway from the tees, but my driver isn't quite so reliable).

Added the 21 deg, this time with a stiff stock shaft, and in due course I will probably replace both shafts and perhaps tweak the lofts a degree or two. Overall a great club, if not particularly good to look at. :)

This club is the best hybrid out in my opinion my bid is almost done on ebay and then it is mine. :cheesy:

This club is awesome. I bought the 19* brand new on ebay with a regular irod shaft, and this combo works wonders for me. This is the best hybrid I've ever hit (other than possibly the Ping G5- I got this one for cheaper than a G5 though). This club is an absolute bullet when it comes off the face- a nice medium penetrating trajectory that cuts through the air. Cosmetically, this thing is gorgeous.

I might even add another in my bag soon- the 23* would be a nice addition I think (if they make it in LH).

5 stars, beautiful club, and it looks beautiful in my bag- I'm playing my first round with it later today and could not be much more excited about it.

Interesting comments. I actually owned a MD Irod regular 21 and I can probably count on both hands the number of great shots I've had with the club since owning it for about a year. Proceeded to shave it down 2 inches and didn't see any improvement. I could definitely rely on it if I ever needed to hook a shot though, it was perfect for it.

My question is firstly, whether I should give it another shot, and secondly, whether a NSPro 950 Stiff reshaft would be a suitable for this club. I've got one in a Cobra Baffler that I'm considering switching out and wondering if I can make use of here.

Interesting comments. I actually owned a MD Irod regular 21 and I can probably count on both hands the number of great shots I've had with the club since owning it for about a year. Proceeded to shave it down 2 inches and didn't see any improvement. I could definitely rely on it if I ever needed to hook a shot though, it was perfect for it.

 

My question is firstly, whether I should give it another shot, and secondly, whether a NSPro 950 Stiff reshaft would be a suitable for this club. I've got one in a Cobra Baffler that I'm considering switching out and wondering if I can make use of here.

When you cut it down, did you add weight via hotmelt to spec out the swing weight? If not, it might be swinging 2-3 points lower than spec, which would be one explanation for the hook-o-matic action. But the most important thing is that this isn't the only hybrid on the market. Before paying $$$ for a reshaft I would hit some others to see, maybe this one's not the one for you.

I'm not sure arkstorm, I just gave the club to the fitters and told them to cut it down to length. Not sure if they worked out the swing weight.

Thing is I just dropped off the club at a local second hand shop to sell it off and they told me its prob worth 60 bucks or so if I'm lucky. I paid close to 200 bucks for it brand new, and another 10 bucks to mutilate it, so I'm going to be down by quite a bit. Thats really really bad 'hoing if you ask me.

I was just wondering if I should take it back and give it a new lease of life with some of the stuff I have lying around :D

I recently made the switch from the Ping G5 to the Sonartec Md 21* hybrid and what a difference. The G5 in my hands could only do one thing hit a high draw/hook unless I oped the face 5* or more which was very tough to control out of the rough. The Sonartec may be a little more demanding, but the ball goes where you want it to go and the trajectory is great too. It is my goto club off the tee on short, tight par 4s when you need to be in the fairway. Great club!

I'm not sure arkstorm, I just gave the club to the fitters and told them to cut it down to length. Not sure if they worked out the swing weight.

 

Thing is I just dropped off the club at a local second hand shop to sell it off and they told me its prob worth 60 bucks or so if I'm lucky. I paid close to 200 bucks for it brand new, and another 10 bucks to mutilate it, so I'm going to be down by quite a bit. Thats really really bad 'hoing if you ask me.

 

I was just wondering if I should take it back and give it a new lease of life with some of the stuff I have lying around :D

Well figure it this way, for every half inch off the shaft you are losing 2-3 swingweight points. If you cut 2 inches it can potentially be swinging in the A-B range. And you're just not going to be able to hit it like that. If you paid $10 for the work, chances are your club maker didn't remove the head and weight it proprly. Though all is not lost, you can add a wad of lead tape to it, but the problem is that with the shape of the head on the MD there is no really good place to put lead tape where it won't significantly raise the center of gravity of the club, which you don't really want to do. So the other option is to have it reshafted and have the head weight specd out. The latter would be my suggestion if you truly want to give the club the 'old college try' again.

I have a 15 degree . I don't hit it consistently , but when hit of the tee , this baby is almost equal to my driver 260 plus .

Very difficult to hot off the rough and fairway , maybe it is 15 degree . I have it but don;t use it often . TM DUAL rescue is way consistent and gets the ball in the air from the worst lie , annoying ballooning flight most of the times , but gets the job done .

Same as mister corcket, either i was king of the field with my Md22°, either i was rarely hitting my 19° one, and felt no comfortable with it.

I definitely got rid of it because it had anyway no room in my bag, just deco.

And finally, i removed the 22 as well to come back to the classics: Rescue Mid 19 with NV 85 hybrid stiff. If you guys don't know what confidence is, try it.

Now, i've never been able to find a club to bridge the gap between my 4 iron and that saver stick.