Flynn Alto vs US Kids TS

[CamasGolf]

I'm curious to hear anyone's thoughts on Flynn golf's new alto irons and woods. And if you have any comparison versus US kids tour series that would be great as well.

I've also heard a lot of people suggest getting OEM drivers three woods and hybrids for young juniors. Please comment on any of the OEM equipment that you're currently using and what shafts did you put in those clubs? (Did you buy them from Flynn golf or get them custom etc)

My son is now 54 in tall without shoes on and a wrist a floor measurement of 26. He remains a competitive golfer.

Thanks!

[Kcct82]

I wouldn’t worry too much at 54” tall and I’m assuming your kid is average in weight. I bought Flynn Alto and TS3-51 to compare when my 6 year old was 48” tall. There isn’t much of a difference between the two. I ended up using the Flynns’ because they were already cut to 48”. He’ll use the TS3-51’s when he gets taller. On the side note, I recently found out Flynn Alto Series 1 iron heads are a few grams lighter than TS3-51’s. So for those who can’t wait to “upgrade” from UltraLight series, the Alto’s should be considered since you probably need to save every gram where possible.

You can go OEM for the big sticks. The lighter heads with removable weights taken out will be light enough for a 54” tall kid. The hybrids are the hardest ones to find at a reasonable loft. I finally gave up and ordered a TS3 hybrid for my kid after a year of using an extremely overweight hybrid. A 200+g OEM hybrid head at 25-27 degree loft just isn’t available.

Flynn shafts are ok, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to fit a good adult Ladies flex shaft in there either. I tried Flynn, Recoil 440 F1, and Grand Bassara 39 in my kid’s driver. The Recoil and GB did go a tiny bit farther. They’re also lighter than Flynn’s shaft when you cut them down to the same lengths.

Ultimately, a good player will be fine using almost anything. My kid’s buddy won multiple Regionals, State, Locals, and FCG using a set of TS3-54 with a Cobra Jr F9 driver. Spend your money on lessons for the greatest ROI. Equipment doesn’t really do much at the slower swing speeds.

[cellywratt]

Currently my son (8yo) and around 51 tall plays OEM Driver, fairway and hybrid. Driver is a Callaway XR16 with a Recoil es 440 shaft, fairway is an epic heavenwood with a Flynn shaft and hybrid is a Cobra F7 with the stock L flex shaft cut to US kids specs. You can't go wrong with either the US kids or Flynn irons, they're both awesome.

[cellywratt]

[leezer99]

Have you considered the iGen clubs? Used by a few local kids but their results are amazing. Definitely check them out before decided between one of the two big manufacturers. https://www.igengolf.com/

[darter79]

The simple answer is buy both. Buy a demo of both, yes its more expensive but you can at least hit both of them. I'll say this the previous flynn vs ts3, the ts3 outperformed it in every trackman category. I also wouldn't overlook the ping prodigy line, very good set of clubs especially the hybrid, and fairway wood. The Igen on paper looks nice but the cost does not although a friend of mine have them and they say the ball speed is slower then other clubs at that price you are getting adult OEM set, hell adult OEM are cheaper.

 

In terms of OEM drivers almost all have adjustable weights that you can take the head weight to get where you want. Titlesit TS1 is super light probably the lightest driver head out there it can get down to 182 I think. But there is something as too light. Again I'm big on trying, if you like a certain brand go test it, find a cheap shaft cut and down and hit it, every kid is different here. Cobra junior are great a lot of people like them, my daughter hated them. Testing you can go down a bad rabbit hole but I would do a little. I do have a ts2 54 8i brand new, also a alto 57 9i and sw if you want a cheap set of demos to try. Send me a message if you like.

[MikekiM]

My son hit a demo club on the range and didn't think much of it. Said it felt the same as his current club. For the price they're asking for these I think it's a hard pass from us.

[darter79]

I'm shocked at the price! I think they should be 1/2 that price.

[MB19]

I will say this--going from USKG Ultralight D2 to a F9 Speedback driver is a real eye-opener as far as distance goes. Got an F9 delivered today, and let both my 6-year-old son and 8 year-old daughter test it and the difference was shocking to me. We have a Prodi G that is unavailable to us until next week, but unless my memory is foggy it seems the F9 is even noticeably longer than that.

[Kcct82]

I figured now is a good time to tinker with my 7 YO’s set of clubs again, and I did a bit more research. I found out Flynn Alto Series 1 iron heads are a few grams lighter than TS3-51’s. For those looking for the lightest possible irons without going “down” to UL series, they should look into purchasing the Flynn’s. Now here comes the catch. Flynn has one size fits all Driver/Fairway/Hybrid heads for all three of their weight series. Their hybrid will be way too heavy for someone using Series 1’s. Adult hybrid heads are also out of the question. The only option I’ve found is to use the USKG TS3-51 Hybrid, which is specifically made to go along with the TS3-51 set (15% less weight than adult heads). I bought a 4 hybrid, pulled the head, and verified that it weighs a good 10g less than Flynn’s equivalent. Catch #2, USKG used a .350 shaft for the hybrid. The .370 UST Recoil I’ve prepared for it did not wanna go in, oops. Good thing I have 2 left over Recoil .335 driver shafts from previous testing that I could use. I made my own shim out of an aluminum can and finished building the club with the .335 shaft.

 

[MB19]

That's a lot of work, and thanks for the update.

The UL 51" hybrid was too light for my son, and he's bagging the UL 54" now... but it is also light, and I'll need to get him into something else in a month or two.

There's a hybrid my son and daughter both prefer, and that's the Wilson Jr Ultra I picked up from Academy. It's a cheap club ($25), but for whatever reason they hit it better than the USKG UL, Ping Pal, and Prodi g.

I suspect my daughter will grow into the Prodi g by summer, and that she will pass the Ultra down to my son. But as of right now they both hit that Ultra well and prefer it to any hybrid they have tried over the past almost-year.

[Tux]

On 3/17/2020 at 7:07 AM, darter79 said:

The simple answer is buy both. Buy a demo of both, yes its more expensive but you can at least hit both of them. I'll say this the previous flynn vs ts3, the ts3 outperformed it in every trackman category. I also wouldn't overlook the ping prodigy line, very good set of clubs especially the hybrid, and fairway wood. The Igen on paper looks nice but the cost does not although a friend of mine have them and they say the ball speed is slower then other clubs at that price you are getting adult OEM set, hell adult OEM are cheaper.

 

In terms of OEM drivers almost all have adjustable weights that you can take the head weight to get where you want. Titlesit TS1 is super light probably the lightest driver head out there it can get down to 182 I think. But there is something as too light. Again I'm big on trying, if you like a certain brand go test it, find a cheap shaft cut and down and hit it, every kid is different here. Cobra junior are great a lot of people like them, my daughter hated them. Testing you can go down a bad rabbit hole but I would do a little. I do have a ts2 54 8i brand new, also a alto 57 9i and sw if you want a cheap set of demos to try. Send me a message if you like.

Thank you for the detailed information.  When you mention ts3 outperformed the Flynn, do you mean woods? or irons? if irons, the velocity or alto? and which weight series did you use from Flynn? S1, S2, or S3? I believe the S1 are slightly lighter than TS3, which may explain the difference, but Im curious if you were testing S2 or S3s.  

[TheGriftKings]

10 hours ago, Tux said:

Thank you for the detailed information.  When you mention ts3 outperformed the Flynn, do you mean woods? or irons? if irons, the velocity or alto? and which weight series did you use from Flynn? S1, S2, or S3? I believe the S1 are slightly lighter than TS3, which may explain the difference, but Im curious if you were testing S2 or S3s.  

I’m not the person who made that comment, but for what it’s worth, my junior’s Trackman testing showed the Flynn Alto+ S2 irons outperformed the TS3 irons. We also had the same True Temper junior steel shafts in both sets. Finished Top 20 at world’s the last two years and twice tried the TS3 in between growth spurts but both times we got better data and feel from the Alto+ series. 
 

Now we’re moving up to adult heads and that will be the real challenge. We went and did a full fitting with a very reputable fitter and walked away with the Ping i59’s. I’m nervous to see how it shakes out. However, compared to the Alto+ irons, I can see the similarities in the i59. Smaller shape, thin sole and top line.

Overall, the Alto+ seems more comparable to an adult player sized head vs the TS3 being a bit more game improvement given the weight and thicker sole. 

[darter79]

On 10/3/2022 at 9:56 PM, Tux said:

Thank you for the detailed information.  When you mention ts3 outperformed the Flynn, do you mean woods? or irons? if irons, the velocity or alto? and which weight series did you use from Flynn? S1, S2, or S3? I believe the S1 are slightly lighter than TS3, which may explain the difference, but Im curious if you were testing S2 or S3s.  

I've never really used USKG woods. They just never worked well for my daughter. Please keep one thing in mind one everyone miles will be different and this was in 2017/2018. Same ts3 line but much different flynn alto line. This was before the alto much less the newest version he has out. So I can't speak on those but only my experience. If my memory is correct ts3 had just launched that year flynn were a couple of years old so you expect some differences in better performance by the newer model. 

[Kcct82]

Flynn does not offer different weight series for their hybrids (at least I don’t see it on their website). Perhaps they use adjustable bottom weights? 

[Leftychamp]

I’ve found Flynn shafts to be too stiff for 8U. We’ve tried their shafts, ts3 and ultralight. We’ve settled on ts3 woods, although the driver uses only the shaft with an OEM adapter. Irons are all ultralight. I strongly feel the ultralight will be correct for most kids, unless they have outlier swing speeds. My son took the ts3 irons back to the cart and grabbed his ultralights. He’s in the top 5 percentile I’d guess for swing speed and has won many national events. Don’t go too stiff or too heavy. Just my .02 cents

[MB19]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:50 PM, Leftychamp said:

I’ve found Flynn shafts to be too stiff for 8U. We’ve tried their shafts, ts3 and ultralight. We’ve settled on ts3 woods, although the driver uses only the shaft with an OEM adapter. Irons are all ultralight. I strongly feel the ultralight will be correct for most kids, unless they have outlier swing speeds. My son took the ts3 irons back to the cart and grabbed his ultralights. He’s in the top 5 percentile I’d guess for swing speed and has won many national events. Don’t go too stiff or too heavy. Just my .02 cents

I think, as far as driver shafts go, it is very much YMMV.  My son, who was 7 at the time (decent sized kid, probably 90th percentile in ht and wt for age) was swinging in the low 60s was using a Flynn shaft on his F9 junior driver.  He moved out of that shaft  just after turning 8, and I ended up putting that shaft on my (just turned, at the time) 10yo daughter's TS3 60" 7i (whose driver SS was about 70 back then).

 

My kids haven't won any national, state or regional events--but my daughter does have a bit of a fast transition which makes her play a stronger shaft than most with her SS.  My son's SS was above average at the time, but nothing you wouldn't see at a USKG local or DCP sub-regional here in FL.  He is 9 and has been playing mostly steel-shafted irons for about two years.

 

I really think shafts are to be judged, at times, on a kid-by-kid basis.