J13's WITB: Update- FUJIKURA AXIOM

hayzooos · February 19, 2016

Testing has begun, Going to do another session but today I narrowed somethings down and have to make a few tweaks with shafts. :) I will say the King LTD had a great day.

I know you bought it used, so at least the guy who had it before made some pretty good contact. How did you hit it :busted_cop: ?

J13 · February 20, 2016

Testing has begun, Going to do another session but today I narrowed somethings down and have to make a few tweaks with shafts. :) I will say the King LTD had a great day.

I know you bought it used, so at least the guy who had it before made some pretty good contact. How did you hit it :busted_cop: ?

haha notice i'm not showing the crown. I was dropping world class sky marks on it all day ;)

J13 · February 24, 2016

Ok so heres where I stand. The M1 is going, going, going, gone. After testing it against the Cobra LTD and Ping the spin variance is too much and mishits are really costing me yards so I just can't move forward with it. Both the King LTD and Ping run in the range of 2000ish to 2700 on mishits, the M1 was 1900 ish to 3300. I understand why guys are moving to the m2 on tour. Center strikes are great with the M1 but forgiveness is still not where I want it to be come tourney season. So with that said its' adios. Plus I was having crown issues with the seam and laminate, not dealing with it.

Now I am down to the Cobra King LTD and Ping G LS. I got my King LTD with a Diamana ilima 70X and was intrigued so I hit it the other day. Surprisingly it did well and felt great, now i'm not going to be moving to it because it was a little wild for me but honestly surprised.

Working on a high fade so that's what these are.

King LTD for both

Diamana ilima 70X tipped 1".

13.4* Launch

2296 Total Spin

319R Side Spin

Xphlexxx Agera 74X tipped 3/4" 270CPM

14.5* Launch

2135 total spin

180R side spin

As for the Ping I am making some tweaks to the shafts I have for it and have the Cobra pretty dialed in so now I can do a head to head with both dialed in to see what works best. In the next week or so I should be able to get this done and have some numbers.

scratchswinger · February 24, 2016

Have you hit the Kuro Kage XT 70TX? What are your thoughts?

QMany · February 24, 2016

Those numbers with the Xphlexxx Agera are stellar.

J13 · February 24, 2016

Have you hit the Kuro Kage XT 70TX? What are your thoughts?

Yes and really liked it. Gave me great numbers and could easily play it. Love the KK Black Tini in my 3 wood.

Those numbers with the Xphlexxx Agera are stellar.

They are and I love the feel of the shaft. It's been tough to beat and have another that i'm going to put in the Ping G LS to compare apples to apples

Also on a side note I gave the numbers that I felt are relevant and not swing speed, distance and ball speed which tend to distract from the purpose of the testing. Some people get too fixated on them and go ape so lets just say i'm in the range from 90-150mph :) :) Besides i think most here know the range i'm in so I hope that makes sense.

knudson81 · February 24, 2016

TOLD YOU J!!!!! Told you the Cobra was that darn good!

J13 · February 25, 2016

TOLD YOU J!!!!! Told you the Cobra was that darn good!

haha I loved it at the PGA show and then having "the beards" signature of approval was all i needed ;)

Beastmode Broker · February 25, 2016

TOLD YOU J!!!!! Told you the Cobra was that darn good!

haha I loved it at the PGA show and then having "the beards" signature of approval was all i needed ;)

beards are right 100% of the time

J13 · February 25, 2016

Also had some people ask. The Cobra LTD was set at 9.5D. Seemed to be the best fit for me and I asked the Beard and he approved so i'm good to go ;)

J13 · March 1, 2016

Well my driver hunt is over after 3 days of on the course testing which if anyone knows me is the end all be all. The LM helped me narrow down the field and the course makes the final decision. I'll post a more in depth review after work but I'm happy to say my driver spot is filled. :)

Beastmode Broker · March 1, 2016

it wasn't the KING ...... so what was it!!!!!!

I can't wait all day you know

cota0429 · March 1, 2016

Saw something on BST. The Cobra yeah?

J13 · March 1, 2016

Cobra is in the BST waiting for some low ball offers so i can then turn around and dump it on the bay. :)

J13 · March 1, 2016

Okay short and sweet. The winner is the Ping G LS 9* w/ Xphlexxx Agera. You can take a look at the one pic of the Cobra and Ping face and figure out why i chose the Ping. For some reason I had a hard time finding the sweetspot of the Cobra which was odd because I had the Agera in it as well except I had it playing at 44.5" as opposed to the Ping G setup which was 45". Normally a shorter setup is easier to square up but that wasn't the case here.

How I do my testing:

On Flightscope I narrowed down the heads using my preferred shaft (Agera).

Step 1- Looks: The heads that caught my eye were the M1, Cobra King ltd. and the Ping G LS. All heads gave me spin between 1900-2200 on center strikes with a launch angle of 13-14*.

Step 2 - Mishits/Forgivness - Next for me is looking at mishits off the toe (my miss nowadays). M1 got the boot at this stage as spin got up and over 3000rpm which was a killer. Cobra King and Ping G LS both gave me acceptable spin on mishits never really going above 2700.

Step 3 / Final stage - On Course REAL WORLD- At this stage I usually have it narrowed down to 2 heads and have them setup the same so i get an apples to apples comparison. In this case I had both heads play at 9* of loft with the Xphlexxx Agera. Both about the same cpm only the King LTD was setup 1/2" shorter. In this stage I usually play/practice on course hitting multiple tee shots off certain holes at my club that are good for testing carry and total distance. Being in the middle of a big thaw from Jack Frost the course is very very soft so total distance is out which is fine.

Winner on course is the Ping G LS by a landslide. I played 3 rounds and the Ping G LS had an embarrasingly high fwy's hit percentage while I struggled with the Cobra bigtime. For example on Sunday I hit 2 fwys with the Cobra in a money game, then yesterday I played 9 hitting two tee shots on each hole. 1 Ball with the Ping the other with the Cobra. The Cobra hit 1 of 6 fwys while the Ping hit 6 of 6. I don't know what it is but the Ping just looks great to my eye and i'm really really comfortable with it. So game over. Total distance is probably better with the Cobra as it has a little bit more of a boring trajectory but carry with both is about the same. Sound and feel is great with the Cobra while the Ping is a little louder as Pings usually are. Hotmelt can change that so i'm not worried about it.

So that's it folks, Ping G LS 9* with Xphlexxx Agera for this guy. Next up Putters :)

Deuce78 · March 1, 2016

Fantastic job. Ping looks much flatter on the sole v. Ltd. I'm still trying both as well. Nicely done!

cota0429 · March 1, 2016

Congrats on finding the winning combo. Is much difference in distance between the two?

J13 · March 1, 2016

Fantastic job. Ping looks much flatter on the sole v. Ltd. I'm still trying both as well. Nicely done!

Not sure of the lie angle off the top of my head. But thanks, it's always fun testing new toys and I've figured out a system that works well for me.

Congrats on finding the winning combo. Is much difference in distance between the two?

Thanks Cota. Here's a pic that shows you what i saw all day from the two drivers. This pic is horizontal to the actual hole so the left side of the pic is the tee and if you were to look right the green is about 200yds away. The 3 balls closest and in the rough (right of the fairway) are the Cobra. The 3 balls in the middle of the fairway are the ping. Distance wise for Carry I'd maybe give the slide edge to the Ping because launch seems to be a bit higher but overall distance on a firmer fairway I'd say the cobra is probably the longer of the two. Hope that makes sense

Pure745 · March 1, 2016

Damn.. Did you try the PXG? The damn Agera is tempting me.. Ugh.

bcflyguy1 · March 2, 2016

J, have you test driven the Apex hybrid yet at all?

swizbeatz · March 2, 2016

You play a cut? I haven't tested it but by the eye test assumed toe misses actually spun less.

J13 · March 2, 2016

Damn.. Did you try the PXG? The damn Agera is tempting me.. Ugh.

Yes tried the PXG when i had a fitting in the fall. Nice looking head but I could get the same numbers with a half dozen other heads at half the cost. If it was in the $500 range I would have tested it further.

You play a cut? I haven't tested it but by the eye test assumed toe misses actually spun less.

My natural shot is a draw but I've been working on a high cut shot. Toe misses with an open or closed face does different things lol. For some reason with the Cobra setup I was hitting higher on the face and toe but with an open club face. So they started right and went more right. Not a good combo. Again it's a great head and I'm sure I could have dialed it in with more testing but honestly why bother? Ping was crushing it and I don't have ulimited time to test golf clubs being that i have a job and 3 kids that constantly suck the life force from my soul :) In fact they also suck club head speed, i use to be 120mph but now around 114-115 lol. Little SOB's!!

drbonesvt · March 2, 2016

Damn.. Did you try the PXG? The damn Agera is tempting me.. Ugh.

Yes tried the PXG when i had a fitting in the fall. Nice looking head but I could get the same numbers with a half dozen other heads at half the cost. If it was in the $500 range I would have tested it further.

You play a cut? I haven't tested it but by the eye test assumed toe misses actually spun less.

My natural shot is a draw but I've been working on a high cut shot. Toe misses with an open or closed face does different things lol. For some reason with the Cobra setup I was hitting higher on the face and toe but with an open club face. So they started right and went more right. Not a good combo. Again it's a great head and I'm sure I could have dialed it in with more testing but honestly why bother? Ping was crushing it and I don't have ulimited time to test golf clubs being that i have a job and 3 kids that constantly suck the life force from my soul :) In fact they also suck club head speed, i use to be 120mph but now around 114-115 lol. Little SOB's!!

Ping WRX order / with Spec's or OTR?

cota0429 · March 2, 2016

Damn.. Did you try the PXG? The damn Agera is tempting me.. Ugh.

Yes tried the PXG when i had a fitting in the fall. Nice looking head but I could get the same numbers with a half dozen other heads at half the cost. If it was in the $500 range I would have tested it further.

You play a cut? I haven't tested it but by the eye test assumed toe misses actually spun less.

My natural shot is a draw but I've been working on a high cut shot. Toe misses with an open or closed face does different things lol. For some reason with the Cobra setup I was hitting higher on the face and toe but with an open club face. So they started right and went more right. Not a good combo. Again it's a great head and I'm sure I could have dialed it in with more testing but honestly why bother? Ping was crushing it and I don't have ulimited time to test golf clubs being that i have a job and 3 kids that constantly suck the life force from my soul :) In fact they also suck club head speed, i use to be 120mph but now around 114-115 lol. Little SOB's!!

Welcome to the club! Lol

J13 · March 2, 2016

drbon - I bought it off the rack nothing special. Actually from my local Golf Galaxy. I looked at all the 9* LS heads they had and chose the one that looked neutral and lower lofted. Again this was by eye nothing special.

Cota- haha yep. I've gotta stop eating Chick Fila chicken nuggets ;)

Deuce78 · March 2, 2016

Man I've got 4 of them, try having to take them with you if you want to play golf....

Man if I have the same results as you I will be very pleased, I just tried my LTD today and was so impressed. Best driver I have hit in a while for the whole package. So if the g ls is better for me, double Wow! Thanks for the info.

hayzooos · March 2, 2016

Damn.. Did you try the PXG? The damn Agera is tempting me.. Ugh.

In my humble, but very accurate opinion (like that?), I honestly think it would be worth your time to test it out.

J, glad to see you got something you know works. I'm sure playing the G30 last year gave you a bit more of a familiar feeling with the G. Based on what you're seeing on course, I think you'd be crazy to mess with anything else. Those shots from the Ping are about as good as it's going to get consistency wise. Distance looks like it's always pretty close, and the accuracy is something I'd knock over a grandmother for ;)

J13 · March 2, 2016

Man I've got 4 of them, try having to take them with you if you want to play golf....

Man if I have the same results as you I will be very pleased, I just tried my LTD today and was so impressed. Best driver I have hit in a while for the whole package. So if the g ls is better for me, double Wow! Thanks for the info.

My 2 oldes I take (9 and 5 years old). I barely play but they love driving the cart and chasing birds. They both have sets and are usually good for 2-3 holes beforee they lose focus. It's tough though.

The G LS has been great for me and i think a big part of me liking it is me playing the G30 last year. I like the head shape and Ping drivers work well for me. Not sure why they just do. Cobra on the other hand crushed it this year with the King LTD. Awesome head that produces great numbers for a wide array of players.

Hayzoos- exactly. Honestly from the pic it looks like the Cobra is longer but it's the camera angle and it's a dogleg right. So numbers wise the Ping tee shots are longer then those cobra shots. But i would say both are so close it would be hard to say one was longer then the other.

drbonesvt · March 2, 2016

drbon - I bought it off the rack nothing special. Actually from my local Golf Galaxy. I looked at all the 9* LS heads they had and chose the one that looked neutral and lower lofted. Again this was by eye nothing special.

Cota- haha yep. I've gotta stop eating Chick Fila chicken nuggets ;)

I'm familiar with that process of lining up many pieces of equipment for the visual inspection and the human caliber test

J13 · March 2, 2016

drbon - I bought it off the rack nothing special. Actually from my local Golf Galaxy. I looked at all the 9* LS heads they had and chose the one that looked neutral and lower lofted. Again this was by eye nothing special.

Cota- haha yep. I've gotta stop eating Chick Fila chicken nuggets ;)

I'm familiar with that process of lining up many pieces of equipment for the visual inspection and the human caliber test

Sometimes thats the best way to do it. At least you have some type of control and have a selection to choose from.