Blade users thread (NO DEBATING CLUBHEADS! NO Buy Sell Trade!)

[NRJyzr]

On 2/12/2022 at 9:37 AM, Nard_S said:

Speaking of long irons:

 

My thing is I just don't practice them enough. If I'm hitting 100 balls might be 5 that I use a 4i or 3i. Need to change that. Truth, longer than #5i just don't do anywhere near enough. Even driver. So not enough. My bet is I'm not alone and most never drill on long irons all that much. It's so not fun to work on weakness, we want to have a good time, no matter, don't make me rep with #3i when my percentage is dog doo. Need to square all that and get fitted for metals because I hate working on those too. Lol, new & shiny might fix that.

 

 

Brother Nard, your post triggers a memory....

 

When I switched to my Golden Rams 21 years ago, I spent the winter hitting balls at a heated outdoor range.  Because I was relatively new, I spent quite a bit of time hitting the longer clubs, a lot of 2-4 irons.  Friend described me as someone who was more likely to hit a green with a 3i or 4i than with an 8i.  

 

All because I'd neglected my short iron practice thru all the long iron practice.  LOL

 

Ironically, I've spent more time practicing my shorter clubs and less the longer, so I've lost a fair amount of that in the last 10 years.

 

Funny how that happens

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by NRJyzr
typo

[Bigmean]

Quick question for the crew.

 

how do you all feel on getting fitted.  I know the right answer is of course, but I have played so many shafts and sets and  honestly, (I’m 5’11 190lbs so dead normalish) I think it is important but I also think depending on the player size.

 

My misses are heel in first and I am tempted to bend a set a little flat, but not sure I want to mess with it.  Maybe take a 7 iron from an odd set and play with it.  
 

As far as shafts I feel like it is more nuances than actual performance.  When practice  I use club fit mode, and between my recoils on my onoff Shingo cb, my roddios in 57 cb and nippon 1150s in small blades other than hitting the shingos/recoil higher from combo they are all same distances just different feels and slightly different flights/weight feels.  
 

hiw do you all feel about fitted?

[dan360]

Hitting balls with the Miuras this morning... too sweet.  

[Nard_S]

52 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

Ironically, I've spent more time practicing my shorter clubs and less the longer, so I've lost a fair amount of that in the last 10 years.

Right there with you,lol.  I'm good from wedge to #5i, like better than ever, from #4i, #3i, #5W, #3W, and driver I'm weaker than i should be. Need to go 2/3 of basket on those for like a month or so.

 

It's hard because this idea that you have "one swing" for all is a bit of bunk. I work on the aspect of quieter arms with shorter club and more arm leverage with longer quite a bit. I avoid long clubs more because I tend to get slash & dash with them, In a way, I have not graduated to them as of yet. But need to force issue because it's truly holding back scoring.

[MrFlipper]

53 minutes ago, Bigmean said:

...how do you all feel about fitted?

 

I was just thinking about this.

 

I agree with the "right answer" but other than a learned "better" feel for shaft weights and total weights, I'm not sure it's really needed. I'm 6-2, little longer arms maybe, never had issues with shorter shaft old sets or newer shaft longer sets. You adjust.

 

I've never had a professional loft/lie/length fitting. Gonna try my driver on a trackman this year, optimize launch and spin, but not the same as a fitting for shaft length, lie angle, etc.

 

Growing up (I'm 65), we fit our swing to the clubs, not much different than with uneven lies. If the clubs were flatter, you just addressed the ball with lower hands. Never really thought about it, don't think it hurt much, but maybe ignorance is bliss. And we were low single digits back then.

 

I guess times have changed. Things nowadays are quantified and qualified to the nth degree. Not sure it adds that much value. Will be curious what others think.

[lefthack]

3 hours ago, MrFlipper said:

 

I was just thinking about this.

 

I agree with the "right answer" but other than a learned "better" feel for shaft weights and total weights, I'm not sure it's really needed. I'm 6-2, little longer arms maybe, never had issues with shorter shaft old sets or newer shaft longer sets. You adjust.

 

I've never had a professional loft/lie/length fitting. Gonna try my driver on a trackman this year, optimize launch and spin, but not the same as a fitting for shaft length, lie angle, etc.

 

Growing up (I'm 65), we fit our swing to the clubs, not much different than with uneven lies. If the clubs were flatter, you just addressed the ball with lower hands. Never really thought about it, don't think it hurt much, but maybe ignorance is bliss. And we were low single digits back then.

 

I guess times have changed. Things nowadays are quantified and qualified to the nth degree. Not sure it adds that much value. Will be curious what others think.

 

I still haven't been fitted but when my swing gets a little more consistent I would like to be fitted into my existing irons if lie or length need adjustment. Or maybe a different shaft, but same heads. 

[Nard_S]

23 hours ago, Bigmean said:

Quick question for the crew.

 

how do you all feel on getting fitted.

Good idea but I think it's a ballpark answer when you do that. It's a window to work in, not Final Jeopardy. Biggest perk of hoe life is lots of clubs, lots of shafts to test. I'm pretty solid with irons when it comes to weight & flex. On metals I'm a bit lost and need to do a "fitting".  Weight is a huge component. Flex is more about tempo & rhythm and "load". SW, length & lie matter but you need to get the 1st two nailed. Those determine impact cluster in a more significant way. To the idea of lie and heel impact, have no idea. Always felt lie is about ball flight and intent vs reality. Never correlated impact tendency to lie angle but that might be a real thing. Know flatter lie leans to fade bias but that's about it. Read your divot, read your face tilt (at impact) to get a greater handle on lie fit. WRX Tech has solid advice on that stuff.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Nard_S

[sergizmo]

I have a set off Accuform PTM blades with stiff Apollo shafts (AP44S). They are quite short, 37-1/4" five iron. Over the winter I'll re-shaft to Aldila NV 85g stiff with the 5 iron at 38". This will drop overall weight 40 grams or so, let me feel the head more and allow for a more upright posture. The shaft should also play a bit softer than the stiff, short Apollos. Looking forward to it.

 

 

 

[Kingcat990]

Unpopular opinion; I'm not an advocate for being fitted if you have good self awareness and you know what good looks and feels like. What questions are you trying to answer with a fitting that you can't answer yourself? 

[vmann]

4 minutes ago, Kingcat990 said:

Unpopular opinion; I'm not an advocate for being fitted if you have good self awareness and you know what good looks and feels like. What questions are you trying to answer with a fitting that you can't answer yourself? 

Heretic!!!

[PeanutsDaddy]

I believe a player should be ‘fit’ for a set of clubs. That said, how one stumbles into the correct ‘fit’ may vary.

 

Also, I believe optimization is an ongoing process.  A ‘fit’ one year may need tweaking the next, depending on a range of factors.

 

I own a fair number of sets (20+) and have rolled through many other clubs. Almost all have been self-fit through trial and errors and tested in the real world. Over the past decade I have worked with a few different ‘fitters’ and they have all validated my own findings. I could write down my specs from memory and every set is built around those parameters. I know what I like and what performs in my hands. 
 

All this said, I am not the norm. Many reading this are outliers as well.  A professional set of eyes and hands can set a player on an optimal path, given their particular characteristics. 

If you subscribe to the camp that the majority can play just fine with standard specs then I’m cool with that too. 

Tldr . . . Whatever brings you joy : )

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

21 hours ago, Nard_S said:

Speaking of long irons:

 

My thing is I just don't practice them enough. If I'm hitting 100 balls might be 5 that I use a 4i or 3i. Need to change that. Truth, longer than #5i just don't do anywhere near enough. Even driver. So not enough. My bet is I'm not alone and most never drill on long irons all that much. It's so not fun to work on weakness, we want to have a good time, no matter, don't make me rep with #3i when my percentage is dog doo. Need to square all that and get fitted for metals because I hate working on those too. Lol, new & shiny might fix that.

 

 

Long irons and practice. Where to begin....?

 

First, I think it's better to practice more with the wedges and short irons anyway, because they're the clubs that get more use in a round. However, by this logic, I should also be practising the driver a lot more, but I don't.

 

There's a reason for this, which is the same reason why I don't practice long irons as much as I should. The balls at my usual range are some sort of "low-flight" range ball. I think this means they are low spin. Anyway, hitting long irons--and driver--with them is not very productive because the ball tends to fly low and then drop out of the sky. A 4i goes the same distance in the air as a 6i.

 

With the driver, I used to contort my swing to try and get the same sort of flight I'd get with a proper ball, and that led to all  sorts of problems, so I don't hit the driver there any more.

 

Recently, as my swing speed has returned, I have been doing some long iron practice there, but I have to force myself to not look at carry and just the quality of strike.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

And that leads on to the fitting question. I'm not convinced that any fitting in which you hit range balls off a mat can provide enough quality data to determine the right set of clubs for you.

 

Driver fittings are a little better (at least you can hit off a tee like you normally would), but unless you're hitting a decent ball, i.e. one close enough to your actual regular ball, any spin and ball speed data is going to be iffy. 

 

You might get some feedback on whether the shaft suits your timing or not, whether you like it's weight and flex, whether the shaft length is right for you or not etc., but all of that I can decide myself because it mostly comes down to personal feel. Also, with a bit of knowledge and experience, you should be able to tell if the lie angle is right for you.

 

So, unless the fitting is off grass with decent balls, then I don't think fittings are great. I certainly wouldn't pay for any iron or wedge fitting that is done off mats with crappy balls. Wedges especially, I want to be outside and hitting off the turf (and out of a bunker) on to a green.

[lefthack]

11 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

Unpopular opinion; I'm not an advocate for being fitted if you have good self awareness and you know what good looks and feels like. What questions are you trying to answer with a fitting that you can't answer yourself? 

 

For me the question is about my length and lie angle. It might not be an issue or doesn't seem to be, but I'm also no expert. I did a driver lesson and learned what I was doing to cause my slice. But the PXG "fitting" was really just about trying different setups. It's just the first setup was banging out of the box, so I only tried one other head on the same shaft  

 

But because my results were so good with the PXG setup, I bought the same shaft to try on the M6 to see if maybe it's a he shaft. 

[Nard_S]

3 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

First, I think it's better to practice more with the wedges and short irons anyway, because they're the clubs that get more use in a round. However, by this logic, I should also be practising the driver a lot more, but I don't.

My own stats indicate that if my tee game was more solid, my index would drop like a rock. The 225-yard bullet proof poke would be a real asset. My practice emphasizes 125-to-190-yard ball striking too much. I'm looking to get swing back to form a bit, add more long iron reps and then go pay for a fitting and buy a premium set of woods. The Tsi line, the ST line from Mizuno and maybe Stealth, all are on my radar.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

20 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

Unpopular opinion; I'm not an advocate for being fitted if you have good self awareness and you know what good looks and feels like. What questions are you trying to answer with a fitting that you can't answer yourself? 

 

If you have money to burn and you don`t want to put in the effort. It`s great, I guess. I`ve never been fit. I can see where it might have helped back in the day, but the clubs I was using were never really the problem. It wasn`t as easy to find a set with different shafts to try out, no ebay, no yahoo auction etc. Now, for example, I can find a decent set with x100 and but them for under $50. Now, I can see that I would`ve been able to play them, where before I thought they would be too much. My dispersion would have improved a hair. Maybe that would have given me more confidence. I still see folks get fit and come away dissatisfied. I am sure there are great fitters out there, but few who know better than me.

 

 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

As for long irons, I love them to death. The first blade I ever carried regularly was a Ben Hogan, pre-Apex I found busted in half in a deep ravine. Had it reshafted with a nice TTDGs300. Used it for a long time. It was perfect 225-230 club. And it kept me bloody honest.

 

The 1i Still does it. By the end of my range session - 12 or so balls with it, I felt like I could hit 4/5 right where I needed to. And, that`s after not touching it for a couple years. I`d like to get it to 8/10. I`ve got my eye on another older 2-iron that should be a little more forgiving, but The Seve is going to get some game time this year. Just needs a little lead tape.

 

[R5Two]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:40 AM, Nard_S said:

I think they look fantastic and tempting and I'm not even all that attracted to Mizuno's MB's. Good luck and keep us posted.

Swear to God mine are in iron covers right now... IRON COVERS! 221s what have you done to me....

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

On 2/14/2022 at 1:57 AM, Nard_S said:

My own stats indicate that if my tee game was more solid, my index would drop like a rock. The 225-yard bullet proof poke would be a real asset. My practice emphasizes 125-to-190-yard ball striking too much. I'm looking to get swing back to form a bit, add more long iron reps and then go pay for a fitting and buy a premium set of woods. The Tsi line, the ST line from Mizuno and maybe Stealth, all are on my radar.

 

It's hard to score well if you're hacking out of the rough every hole, isn't it?

My practice priorities are wedges and 150 and 180 yard shots (because they are the only targets over 120 yards to go for), but I'm starting think I've been emphasising wedges a little too much. Or rather, as I'm hitting off mats, I needn't prioritise wedges so much. 

I have been hitting the 4w off the tee more at the range recently, and I think it's paying off. Yesterday, I was hitting it really well and putting myself in good positions off the tee.

[ewaldbeukes]

On 2/7/2022 at 9:40 PM, Port and Starboard said:

Who is playing the Hogan Icon irons on here?  I hit them a few times out of my friend's bag out on the course and they are about as nice as it gets as far as feel and looks go.

 

I set a goal and a promise to myself for 2022. 

 

My goal is to get back to single digits, and if succeed, I will reward myself with a set of Icon irons 4-PW

I am also in the market - Icon 4-P and Equalizer 2 TX Grind Wedges... will let you know if I get them before you... hoping to order in the coming months.. shaping is beautiful (and I grew up playing Hogans)

[R5Two]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:45 AM, Bigmean said:

 

hiw do you all feel about fitted?

Getting fitted is cool, just understand that most folks are represented by a specific brand and want to sell. I go in and let them get me in a pocket and choose base on feel and flight. Contrary to *most* youtube videos you will get typically two to three shaft/head combos that are almost the same. 

 

I always get recommended to move away from x100s but I am too used to them. They always want me to go lighter, but I just hate the feel. If you can hit them outside all the better. You do you boo! 

[ALIF]

15 hours ago, R5Two said:

Swear to God mine are in iron covers right now... IRON COVERS! 221s what have you done to me....

Iron covers are allowed on Golf WRX for brand new Mizuno irons. You will not have to turn in your card. Lol.

[PeanutsDaddy]

First progress pics are in . . . 
 

a few irons were pulled for re-plating . . . 
 

hints of black to come. 

[Tupperwolf]

11 hours ago, ewaldbeukes said:

I am also in the market - Icon 4-P and Equalizer 2 TX Grind Wedges... will let you know if I get them before you... hoping to order in the coming months.. shaping is beautiful (and I grew up playing Hogans)

 

There's a nice looking set of 4-P Icon Blacks on 2nd Swing right now 🙂

https://www.2ndswing.com/pv-1961381801-ben-hogan-icon-black-iron-set-4-pw-fst-kbs-tour-v-110-steel-stiff-right-handed-390in.aspx

[ALIF]

4 hours ago, PeanutsDaddy said:

First progress pics are in . . . 
 

a few irons were pulled for re-plating . . . 
 

hints of black to come. 

I got one word for this porn: DAMN!!!!

[Kingcat990]

That first pass looks really really good PD. 

[PeanutsDaddy]

18 minutes ago, Kingcat990 said:

That first pass looks really really good PD. 

Thank you KC. 
 

Really looking forward to seeing the end product. We discussed the final appearance today. Should be set by next week. 

[AdExec]

Put together a vintage set with tour model blades and persimmons. It’s a different game hitting these with old balatas/professionals  but they feel amazing when you find the center. 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

5 hours ago, AdExec said:

Put together a vintage set with tour model blades and persimmons. It’s a different game hitting these with old balatas/professionals  but they feel amazing when you find the center. 

 

Nice setup there. I bought a set of the original Tour Models ('79~80 model) in the late Eighties as a Junior, and played them for years. I still have them back in the UK, and play them whenever I get over. Do you know what year yours are?

 

I'd quite like to get some Titleist persimmons to match, but they don't come up often for auction here, and the last one's I saw were priced pretty steeply.

 

Love the2i, as well👍

[PeanutsDaddy]

That bag as well . . . Handsome.