J13's WITB: Update- FUJIKURA AXIOM

[drbonesvt]

2 hours ago, J13 said:

 

What about the Blue 9X?

I don’t think that exist 

 

ventus tipped red 2” , was told it plays like Rombax P95x (which I loved 🥰), ventus black 9x was tempting but I was unsure if that wouldn’t have turned my 3w into another driver ??

 

current gamer is Ad di 9x tipped 2” cpm around 290ish - If the red is more stable Ad di that will be money.  Like the ventus line 

 

Have an old fit on pro 95xx in a 5 wood , r15

 

 

[J13]

3 hours ago, drbonesvt said:

I don’t think that exist 

 

ventus tipped red 2” , was told it plays like Rombax P95x (which I loved 🥰), ventus black 9x was tempting but I was unsure if that wouldn’t have turned my 3w into another driver ??

 

current gamer is Ad di 9x tipped 2” cpm around 290ish - If the red is more stable Ad di that will be money.  Like the ventus line 

 

Have an old fit on pro 95xx in a 5 wood , r15

 

 

 

Rombax P95 was a great shaft.  Speaking of Red, i was surprised to see Adam Scott using it in driver.  Tour AD Di for me is an awful shaft.   I tried it years ago and could hit the ocean if I was standing on a beach haha.  

 

Do you have the Red?

[drbonesvt]

35 minutes ago, J13 said:

 

Rombax P95 was a great shaft.  Speaking of Red, i was surprised to see Adam Scott using it in driver.  Tour AD Di for me is an awful shaft.   I tried it years ago and could hit the ocean if I was standing on a beach haha.  

 

Do you have the Red?

Just bought one ☝️ 

[J13]

18 hours ago, drbonesvt said:

Just bought one ☝️ 

 

 

Look forward to hearing how that goes. Red has an interesting profile

[drbonesvt]

3 hours ago, J13 said:

 

 

Look forward to hearing how that goes. Red has an interesting profile

Gamble for sure , 90g shaft weight is what I wanted for the build.   9x ad di tipped 2 is my gamer , was afraid of 9x blk 

 

what have you heard of the red ?

 

 

 

[Holy Moses]

On 9/11/2020 at 12:18 PM, J13 said:

For reference this is one of the main reasons I’m switching.  I would easily say this happens to 6 or more per dozen.  I’m 100% done with this ball.

 

This ball had 3 holes under it’s belt before I had to scrap it.  It also happened to another XV today.  It can be hard to tell but the cover is coming off the ball with this gouge.  And I’m not skulling shots, please remember I’m a +1 hcp.

 

 

I don’t care if it’s just a cosmetic issue, I wouldn’t play the XV if that happened 

 

 

 

[bcflyguy1]

Wish the lie angle wasn't quite so flat, but the Mav SZ 3+ is nasty!

[J13]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:49 PM, drbonesvt said:

Gamble for sure , 90g shaft weight is what I wanted for the build.   9x ad di tipped 2 is my gamer , was afraid of 9x blk 

 

what have you heard of the red ?

 

 

 

Heard the red is good but has to be tipped 1.5-2”

[J13]

4 hours ago, bcflyguy1 said:

Wish the lie angle wasn't quite so flat, but the Mav SZ 3+ is nasty!

 It’s a good 3 wood for sure. Only downside to the glued hosel but there are places that can bend them. 

[J13]

@Holy Moses thanks for posting that. I spoke to others about the seam before. The process they use needs to be fixed for sure. I’ve also seen they are having off center core issues on the xv. Overall they have some issues and I hope they fix them.

 

with that said I’m very happy with the tm tp5x.  Amazing in the wind and durability is great. It’s also a little softer than the xv without feeling mushy.  

[J13]

So its turkey time which means a lot of us are moving into silly season.  With that said my first winter experiment is underway. I'll drop some pics tonight when I get home but this should be interesting 

[Cruisin1966]

🍿

[J13]

So I figured no better time to try the arm lock method. Grabbed an Odyssey double wide arm lock with the Jumbo max grip with the flat part of the grip facing forward. 
 

Specs

43.75”

75” lie angle

Loft 8* (was 6.5)

 

 

My plan is to mess with this all winter and see if I can get the hang of it.  In theory it should reduce some variables to putting but will solving one problem create another? 

 

Loft - So I’ve been rolling some (not on course yet) and where I think I’m going to play it makes me need a little more loft.  I have wider shoulders so it felt like I was delofting the putter a lot.  Anyway I can make tweaks as I go.  

 

Updates to follow:

 

 

 

[Deuce78]

Welcome to the club! I can say that looks great for an armlock.  Having been an arm locker since 2012 I have seen and made many armlock putters for myself.  It takes some getting used to but really should feel pretty good if your angles and specs are matching up with your natural tendencies.  The correct length lie angle loft and head weight are critical.  The more bent your arms are, the more loft you need.  I have found that too straight of arms takes away feel for distance control and having some arm bend feels more like regular putting.  I still have short putters but I am confident I putt better overall with the armlock.  Looking forward to your thoughts.   I just ordered a Sik armlock myself and we have very similar specs.  Dont get hung up thinking you have too much loft.  My gamer for years was like 10.5 loft...

[PureDivots]

One thing I can say is as someone who typically hates inserts the firmer microhinge in the SL black series is pretty nice. 

[J13]

10 hours ago, Deuce78 said:

Welcome to the club! I can say that looks great for an armlock.  Having been an arm locker since 2012 I have seen and made many armlock putters for myself.  It takes some getting used to but really should feel pretty good if your angles and specs are matching up with your natural tendencies.  The correct length lie angle loft and head weight are critical.  The more bent your arms are, the more loft you need.  I have found that too straight of arms takes away feel for distance control and having some arm bend feels more like regular putting.  I still have short putters but I am confident I putt better overall with the armlock.  Looking forward to your thoughts.   I just ordered a Sik armlock myself and we have very similar specs.  Dont get hung up thinking you have too much loft.  My gamer for years was like 10.5 loft...

 

Thanks for chiming in Deuce.  I can tell it's going to be a learning curve but i've been working with the putter at home and slowly dialing it in.  Should be on course this week at some point. Biggest thing at the moment is figuring out where in my stance feels best.  Right now i'm using my normal stance and spine angle as a short putter so we shall see.  

 

 

 

10 hours ago, DaltonSTL said:

One thing I can say is as someone who typically hates inserts the firmer microhinge in the SL black series is pretty nice. 

Gotcha, yeah i wasn't a fan of the first insert but the star insert on the black series is much better.  I'm a big white hot insert fan so it makes sense as to why i like the star insert better.  They have same ball speed and sound characteristics.

[drbonesvt]

On 11/11/2020 at 4:25 PM, J13 said:

 

Rombax P95 was a great shaft.  Speaking of Red, i was surprised to see Adam Scott using it in driver.  Tour AD Di for me is an awful shaft.   I tried it years ago and could hit the ocean if I was standing on a beach haha.  

 

Do you have the Red?

[J13]

8 hours ago, drbonesvt said:

 

 

Nice, how are you setting it up?

[J13]

Small update: Getting on course later today but did make it to the course once for a practice session.  Putted for about 45min and I might need to add a little more loft.  I seem to prefer a lot of shaft lean and feel like i'm delofting the putter too much.  Looking forward to getting on course today and seeing how she does in the wild.  

 

I will say the stroke is very repeatable with the arm lock.  There's no doubt it reduced the some variables but my question is does it solve one problem and create another?  Only one way to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drbonesvt]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:15 AM, J13 said:

 

 

Look forward to hearing how that goes. Red has an interesting profile

J13 , I Shot you a DM , I like it but I most likely turned it into a purple with tipping 

[drbonesvt]

1 hour ago, J13 said:

Small update: Getting on course later today but did make it to the course once for a practice session.  Putted for about 45min and I might need to add a little more loft.  I seem to prefer a lot of shaft lean and feel like i'm delofting the putter too much.  Looking forward to getting on course today and seeing how she does in the wild.  

 

I will say the stroke is very repeatable with the arm lock.  There's no doubt it reduced the some variables but my question is does it solve one problem and create another?  Only one way to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue on longer lags ??

[J13]

51 minutes ago, drbonesvt said:

Issue on longer lags ??

 

Speed is the big question mark right now.  I'm struggling in that department but that's to be expected considering it's a completely new way to putt for me.  Today we will see how it does on course.

[Golfingfanatic]

I dabbled with an Armlock in the beginning of 2019 and I went away from it after about half a year. I could never get the distance control dialed in. Especially when the greens were slow, I was struggling big time.

[J13]

 

First Round Update:

 

After a week of virtual school (3 kids) and trying to get my own work done I finally made it to the course.  Good news is it turned out to be a perfect testing day for 2 reasons: 1. Great weather 2. I've been hitting the ball extremely well so i'm hitting fairways and greens.  Only downside is I ended up getting to my club a little later than expected thanks to a lengthy "honey do" list but beggars can't be choosers 🙄  Anyway, I practiced for an hour then played 9 with a friend before darkness forced us to the 19th hole for a beverage. This view from the patio never gets old.

 

 

 

 

 

On Course

 

Stats for the day:

Fairways Hit : 7/7

Greens hit: 8/9

1 Putts: 2

2 Putts: 6

3 Putts: 1

Total putts: 17

 

After dialing in the putter during practice sessions I'm no longer leaving putts short in fact I'm now doing the opposite and rolling putts 1-2ft by.  The loft changed helped my contact and made speed more consistent.  I'm finding that loft is VITAL and dependent on ball position, grip, and how a person is built.  For example, I have wider shoulders and as a result have more shaft lean, hence I needed more loft. Before i was striking putter with virtually negative loft so the speed/roll was very inconsistent.

 

So without going on and on here's the day in a nutshell:

 

1 Putts - 1 was a result of a missed green, the other was a beautiful 25ft'er downhill with a left edge aimpoint.  I literally looked at the putt and told my buddy "this is going in".  Sure enough it was dead in the heart and I looked like i knew what i was doing 😂  He called me a cheater for using the arm lock and we moved to the next tee hahaha.

 

2 putts - Pretty standard 2 putts, most putts rolled 1-2ft by and i made the come back putt.  Nothing unusual pretty standard for me

 

3 putts - I will say i'm not the best 1 putt player but I pride myself on rarely 3 putting.  I might have a 3 putt every 2-3 rounds.  I practice a lot on speed to avoid this very thing.  Anyway the 3 putt i had was a result of running a putt by the hole 4ft and not feeling confident on the come back putt.  Have to be honest I HATE seeing this 😡

 

 

Positive takeaways:

Speed is getting better and figuring out ball position

 

Negatives:

So far putting with it on the practice green is very promising but i'm putting ball after ball and getting into a groove.  On course you don't have that luxury so it's not translating for me just yet. 

 

 

 

Plan moving forward is to work on taking the practice green stroke to the course.  If i can do that I'm in business, if not then back to the short putter I go.  

 

Overall it was a good debut. 

 

 

[oldhamer25]

I have always enjoyed your posts when you are testing something out.  They have great deatail on what you are doing and what you are thinking.  Oh, that view from you patio is killer.

[J13]

8 hours ago, oldhamer25 said:

I have always enjoyed your posts when you are testing something out.  They have great deatail on what you are doing and what you are thinking.  Oh, that view from you patio is killer.

 

 

Appreciate the kind words and glad you enjoy the info. The view is killer and a great place to have dinner or some drinks.  There are 2 fire pits (not pictured) that make it the best seats in the house.

[FAbb]

18 hours ago, oldhamer25 said:

I have always enjoyed your posts when you are testing something out.  They have great deatail on what you are doing and what you are thinking.  Oh, that view from you patio is killer.

 

I totally agree!  I'm not really the target player for the type of launch conditions J is looking for, but I always enjoy reading his testing threads anyways.  He's very thoughtful and methodical about it.  Most importantly, he does his testing on the course, where it really matters.  There's a time and place for launch monitor numbers, but at the end of the day we've got to be able to trust things to perform the way we expect on the course.

 

Is there anything in particular that drove you to experiment with the arm lock, or more of a general offseason experiment?

[J13]

3 hours ago, FAbb said:

 

I totally agree!  I'm not really the target player for the type of launch conditions J is looking for, but I always enjoy reading his testing threads anyways.  He's very thoughtful and methodical about it.  Most importantly, he does his testing on the course, where it really matters.  There's a time and place for launch monitor numbers, but at the end of the day we've got to be able to trust things to perform the way we expect on the course.

 

Is there anything in particular that drove you to experiment with the arm lock, or more of a general offseason experiment?

 

 

Appreciate it, I learn a ton from golfwrx so the least I can do contribute to the pot.   

 

Reasons why arm lock - It was a stone unturned in my pursuit to improve.  And....add in a sprinkle of ho'ing.😉

[FAbb]

 

2 minutes ago, J13 said:

And....add in a sprinkle of ho'ing.😉

 

 

I hear ya!  Score posting season has been over for all of a week in MD, and I've already got a G410 LST I'm putting together to test against my G400 LST, contemplating the top end of my bag for next season, and trying to figure out wedge setup with my 56 needing replaced 😆

[J13]

9 minutes ago, FAbb said:

 

 

 

I hear ya!  Score posting season has been over for all of a week in MD, and I've already got a G410 LST I'm putting together to test against my G400 LST, contemplating the top end of my bag for next season, and trying to figure out wedge setup with my 56 needing replaced 😆

 

 

haha i'm with ya.  G410LST replaced my G400LST for one reason.  It was a smidge higher in spin but love the moveable weight as i play it in the fade setting.