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

[Bigmean]

3 hours ago, Kmagnuss said:

@Bigmean ... I had a disaster of a year (last year) with my irons, and no matter what lessons I took, videos I studied, and thousands of balls I hit I couldn't get out of the funk.  What ended up doing it for me was a 6 week break to clear my head.  Sometimes we get so used to the flaws in our swings that we can't notice them, but for some reason after taking a break they become glaringly apparent the first time back out and easily fixable.

This used to work for me but the long time membership here knows that I have twice now put them down for a year or more over this.   I’m going to find a new guy, don’t even care who and get a single driver only lesson and see where that goes.  I’m finally having fun playing again and a large part of that was the driver working ok enough to have fun and score here and there, but there is something when I get my irons going well for me that opposes my driver swing.  It may be as dumb as I like too draw irons stock and want to fade a driver and I tried drawing driver at some point this summer and did ok with that before it fell apart but even I question if I ever truly commit to drawing it and it’s back to push fade/snap hook/good drive at random.

[Bigmean]

3 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

 

Makes me think driver is a club length and/or club weight issue.

 

What length are your 3w and driver?  And what shaft weight for each?

 

So, and I didn’t know this at all, but my driver is 46.5”, my 3 wood is 43.75”.

 

I’m like a super regular dude, 5’11 maybe not even and 178 currently.  I can kinda play anything is one thing I have learned.

 

So, more info.  My 3 wood has lead tape on it, I have no idea what the sw is but I can get my scale out of attic and check.   It has to be absurd, like E something.  
 

(And I wouldn’t believe me after the shots I posted with driver, but you can take to the bank that if the guy who had like 50 iron sets, 8-10 drivers and 3 sets of wedges, that has ONLY ONE non jdm club in my bag the last decade, also has a whatever the hell year that is titleist wood of all things, hasn’t had a headcover in over a decade and has a face that is wearing away from the planet has this in the bag, I promise, it is working alot different than driver.  I don’t even know what 3 woods look like since like 2010, I have eyes only for her.)
 

My driver also had weights replaced to match the “feel” and I moved the low spin heavy front to the higher spin heavy rear.  It’s a 9* and I have it set to neutral and 10*.

As to driver length, I tried a 43” at some point my last stint, and in my shaft shootout I had some shorter in there.   It doesn’t help with bigger misses but it isn’t the reason the marks on my driver face left from that session look like I can’t see the ball.  I can get my 3 wood out there 230-250, but that is 2 full irons and I just feel like that is giving up and I hate that.

[Nard_S]

5 hours ago, Bigmean said:

I have played this game (nard isn’t the only old guy here lol) I have never not been able to feel out swing changes that work for a while with the kind of reps I have put into driver

Haha, I'm older, not old. Older this way too. Have a rotator cuff injury (fell hard), may not swing a club for quite some time. Too early to tell how bad it is, x-ray negative, may need an MRI. Giving it a few more weeks before I go there. 

 

I have had the same driver issues as you where dispersion is off the charts but this year I hit on something that worked well for me. So ymmv, but I make sure to release and supinate lead arm a lot earlier. That is I rotate lead arm CCW from the top and rotate it from the shoulder socket, not the forearm. Did a bunch to help find fairways. The great thing is it's not a hard change, it's rather easy and my guess it lightens the load to square things and allows hands to work quieter nearer to impact. But big dog was more solid than other tee clubs and no, I never consciously applied same thought, so who knows might work well on shorter pokes too. I'll try it in a few months. It's an easy experiment.

 

 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

Finished my season more or less. Might get out one more time, if I can sneak out, but I don't have any plans for the foreseeable future. I am pretty satisfied with the year that I had. Managed to play in 5 events in the local prefecture calendar. Averaged just over 80 per round. The way I did it was hitting greens, finding fairways and putting like an absolute jackass. Last game I hit 14 greens, shot 80. Lag putting was embarrassing. Still made two eagles (par 5s).

 

I switched to my set-up from Canada 4-8 Tourstage 701cb 9, PW MP4. I think I'll slowly add the 4s until I find the sweetspot with the combo set. Best shot was a 6 iron from a steep downhill lie from 200 to 4 feet for Eagle. It was on the stick the hole way. The other eagle was a driver down the hill in the neighborhood of 330 and then a clunky pitching wedge to 25-30 feet.

 

My game has changed substantially in the last 3-4 years. It used to be I would go out slash it all around the course and get it up and down (or not). A lot of variability, but I was able to save a lot of games with chipping and putting. Now it feels like I'm leaving a lot out there every time. Lag putting has just become so glaringly bad - the only way I can think to fix it is to play more (because there aren't any places to work on it near me).

 

So, that leaves the improvement in the long game. I've spent a lot of time working on sequencing, the exaggerated drill that Justin Rose and the other European fellow do, where you pump the arm in the slot while pushing the right knee toward the ball, has been really good. Recently started doing a pre-set drill (I think it was Butch Harmon's) getting my right elbow set nice and a John Rahm drill with the swing only going halfway back and then powering through. I do all of the drills without a ball in the morning at a little park I go to after I drop my daughter off from school. Finally, I do a mental focus drill where I pick a target and make a swing to it, clipping whatever leaf looks appealing and my only swing thought is to turn my shoulder under my chin. I want to get my mind more target focused (I was really able to do that last game, other than 3 swings that cost me (maybe 5 shots)). I want to just feel my swing is making a motion where I am sure the ball is going to go where I want it, without using any ball - Got this idea from Hal Sutton.

 

I hit my goal for this year. I won my first event, I won another event and finished second in the last one, I'm in first place with three events to go, but I can't play until the last event in March, so it's kind of out of my control. Goal for next year is to win shooting in the 60s. If I can get out 20 times next year, I think I can do it.

 

Thank you for reading my blog post. Pics to follow.

 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

This is kind of the drill I was talking about with Rose. I just kind of do it more exaggerated trying to drive my right leg more while keeping my left hip pushing back. Basically contorting the body.

 

 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

The pre-set drill was from this:

 

 

Basically here I am focused on the right elbow staying close to the body, yet extended. If I just turn my shoulders back from here, my arms are always in a predictable position and I just need to let gravity to the rest on the down swing.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

This is Nissin Miyako CC. Built by the founder of Cup Ramen. Has the nicest practice facility I’ve ever seen in Japan. 

[Nard_S]

41 minutes ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

This is kind of the drill I was talking about with Rose. I just kind of do it more exaggerated trying to drive my right leg more while keeping my left hip pushing back. Basically contorting the body.

 

 

great drill, helped me a lot.

[Eeecc]

11 hours ago, Bigmean said:

This used to work for me but the long time membership here knows that I have twice now put them down for a year or more over this.   I’m going to find a new guy, don’t even care who and get a single driver only lesson and see where that goes.  I’m finally having fun playing again and a large part of that was the driver working ok enough to have fun and score here and there, but there is something when I get my irons going well for me that opposes my driver swing.  It may be as dumb as I like too draw irons stock and want to fade a driver and I tried drawing driver at some point this summer and did ok with that before it fell apart but even I question if I ever truly commit to drawing it and it’s back to push fade/snap hook/good drive at random.

I have been having it rough w my driver as I could hit well with all my other clubs even the supposed difficult 13.5 degree old school tiny headed fairway off the deck but I could not tame the driver. Tried to take some internet pointers from TXG and Marl Crossfield but no dice (largely because I can’t get as flexible as them).

 

Then came YouTube ads that I always ignored except one time I let Hank Haney’s One step driver ad run because I was busy and didn’t hit skip. It got me intrigued and I searched for his actual video. I followed his steps and flattened out my driver back swing and I got huge improvements. I am more confident with the driver more and more often down the line or slightly in the rough but less so lost balls. Now I am actually willing to step up to tee box with driver and not just my fairway wood or DI.

 

*not an ad for Hank Haney’s one step

[Bigmean]

Christain, that Nissan course looks amazing!   14 greens is some real ball striking.

 

I'm sure you don’t need me to tell you this, and real life is in the way, but lag putting is just straight up time on practice green.  I will share my routine as it helps me a lot when I putt for fun.  I use two balls, generally different brands to keep separate and they play against each other.  I will drop at random 15-40ft from a cup.  I get 2 shots at it and have to clean them up.  Par is 2 of course and I do this for an hour to hours.   
 

I found that this most accurately simulates real situations, I try to give myself different looks and it keeps your reading and speed game in check because like in round you are given random medium to long putts and the whole ball vs ball I do gets me competitive for a winner and makes cleaning up important.  Anyway this drill works for me and keeps me mentally in it.

 

 

[Nard_S]

5 hours ago, Bigmean said:

 I use two balls, generally different brands to keep separate and they play against each other.  I will drop at random 15-40ft from a cup.  I get 2 shots at it and have to clean them up.  Par is 2 of course and I do this for an hour to hours.   

I do something like this too, has done wonders for short game.

 

 

[PedronNiall]

Guy in an alley said these fell off a truck so he'd let me have them for a steal. Zero forgiveness just the way the ancients intended. Will probably reshaft & regrip them in the next few weeks to my preferred specs, but good times so far. 

 

The Wilson Staff Models took the ride with me for the latest outing. Performed beautifully. Will see how masochistic I'm feeling next time and maybe tote these with me since they'll be fully setup. The full Wilson bag wasn't a disappointment in the least, though, to put it mildly. 

 

[Moarbutter]

Hi all! I recently purchased my first set of blades with thanks to @Bigmean on the recommendation for what to get. I picked up a set of Kyoei KCM with DG S200s in them and I don't think I could love them any more.

 

I hadn't played golf in ~20 years, but picked it up again last year with the intention of actually getting good at it. I was more of a weekend hacker as a child, having been taught how to play by my dad and grandpa. I wanted a set of irons that was "too good for me" so that I could grow into them and play something that would let me know when I had mishit the ball and give me the feedback I needed in order to try to get better. I bought a set of Mizuno JPX 923 tours, which did the job admirably, but I wanted something even more communicative for next year. They arrived on Friday just in time for a 3 day stint of unseasonably warm weather in D.C. (high 40s - high 50s) and I immediately took them out onto the course to put them to use.

 

The most noticeable to me about my blades is the pureness of feel through contact. The Mizunos obviously feel great through contact, but the Kyoeis feel almost more... dense and solid. The Y-sole means that they are INCREDIBLY fast through the turf, and didn't once dig even in some pretty damp and mushy conditions the last couple of days. I know the reputation for blades is that they are unforgiving, and I think scare a lot of people away from playing them; but what I found was that they were unforgiving in a really enjoyable way. Whereas a big miss w/ my JPXs might be 30 yards right pin high, the same off-center contact with these clubs is like 15 yards right and 15 yards short, which is usually a more forgiving place to be on the courses I play (forced water carries notwithstanding). Another thing that I have LOVED is the workability of the blades versus what I'm used to. There were a couple of times where I was in the trees on the right without any shot at all to the green. Before, I've always just punched out and taken my medicine; but over the weekend I was just having fun, so I opened up the face on a 5 iron and just hit this massive 60 yard banana slice that rolled up near the green each time. It just makes it so much fun to play. 

 

All in, I couldn't be happier and I have definitely caught the bug to pretty much exclusively play blades. As an addendum, If anyone ever finds a stray set 4 iron floating around on the internet - please let me know. I will send you many many fake internet points. Here are a few pictures of my new beauties:

 

[craz-e]

On 12/2/2023 at 2:29 PM, Christen_The_Sloop said:

This is Nissin Miyako CC. Built by the founder of Cup Ramen. Has the nicest practice facility I’ve ever seen in Japan. 

 

 

Wow!

[Bigmean]

I know @craz-e, that Nissan course looks baller…..they sell a lot of cups of noodles for that jam right there!

 

@Moarbutter, I didn’t realize your whole story from the jdm forum, but very cool to know.  I am beyond biased but you couldn’t have gotten a better set for what you are up to or I guess I could even say in general with how I feel about them.  Welcome to the sickness, you already realized that blades are just clubs and clubs have trade offs and “better” really isn’t objective.  I can only imagine what it’s like to realize that they aren’t scary at all, generally have tight dispersion, and most preconceived ideas are marketing residue stuck in your head.   I can attest that working irons back to a chance to get up and down from crappy drives is something they are good at hahaha.

 

You kinda nailed kyeoi blades, my best description would be they are like what people on forums who haven’t hit a lot of or any jdm say about mizzy blades, but really they have a heavier softer feeling to me if direct compared.   

Edited December 5, 2023 by Bigmean

[Moarbutter]

1 hour ago, Bigmean said:

You kinda nailed kyeoi blades, my best description would be they are like what people on forums who haven’t hit a lot of or any jdm say about mizzy blades, but really they have a heavier softer feeling to me if direct compared.   

 

Oh man, this is a great way to describe it. I haven't hit Mizuno blades, but the Kyoeis feel the way that I thought my JPXs would feel. That heavy, soft, solid feel is just SO addicting. 

 

1 hour ago, Bigmean said:

 Welcome to the sickness, you already realized that blades are just clubs and clubs have trade offs and “better” really isn’t objective.  I can only imagine what it’s like to realize that they aren’t scary at all, generally have tight dispersion, and most preconceived ideas are marketing residue stuck in your head.

 

Lollllll, yeah. As a testament to that sickness I just turned a short post about P7TW into a freaking doctorate dissertation on the benefits of blades in this thread - 

 

21 minutes ago, Moarbutter said:

As a world renowned expert on blades (I got my first set 5 days ago and have played 3 rounds with them), I can confidently state (thanks to Dunning-Kruger) that an answer to the question of whether or not you should play blades based on HCP is a fundamentally wrong way to approach the question. I think that the answer to the question has a lot more to do with your mindset as a player and why you play golf than it has to do with anything else. I also think that the term Game Improvement iron could not be more misleading - they don't help you improve anything. A quick caveat before I continue, I think a really salient point has been made about clubhead speed. If you have a low clubhead speed in the 50s, 60s, maybe 70s w/ a 7 iron and you struggle to get the ball in the air AND you either don't have or don't want a path to faster clubhead speed due to injury, age, health, desire or any other factor, then you probably should not play blades. Golf can be one of the most frustrating games on the planet and not using every advantage you can get in that circumstance wouldn't make any sense. 

 

As I said, I think the question of whether or not you should play blades comes down to a question of why you play golf and what you want to get out of it. If you play golf because it is a social activity to do with friends once or twice a month; if when you're standing on the tee box at a par 3 you want to be the guy who pulls the highest numbered club out of the bag; if you have really low clubhead speed and aren't looking to change that; if you play golf because you want to card the lowest score you possibly can; if you play golf to win money or play professionally when your livelihood depends on your performance; if you don't have a lot of time to devote to honing your swing due to family, work, kids, preferences, or a myriad of circumstances; or any of a dozen other reasons; then you DEFINITELY shouldn't play blades. If however, you play golf because you love the constant self improvement; you love the process and the work that comes with trying to master an incredibly difficult skill; you love the idea of shot shaping and working the ball to an absurd amount; you want the purest hit of adrenaline from ABSOLUTELY PURING one, and want to chase that dragon forever; or most importantly you want to become a better ball striker and are willing to put in the work to get there; then I would STRONGLY encourage you to try them out.

 

The most important thing to consider is how much it matters to you to become a better ball-striker, whether you have the time and effort to dedicate yourself to it, and whether or not you are ok not scoring well during the process of trying to get better. I think it is absolutely essential to playing blades that you do not have an ego about your game and playing blades. You will miss shots, you will always be the person pulling out the lowest numbered club on a par 3, you'll hit your irons the shortest, and you HAVE to be ok with that. On the upside though, classical conditioning is a HELL of a useful tool if you want to get better at anything and you won't have to hit many mis-hits that make you feel like you just grabbed a frozen lightning bolt to make you want to not do that again, and there is no drug known to man that feels better than puring it with a blade. We're talking carrot and stick turned up to 11. This to me, is why Game Improvement is a horrible name for that category. It is EXTREMELY hard to improve your ball striking at all when playing that style of iron. How can you possibly improve without any feedback whatsoever.

 

To provide some context to my feelings about this, I started playing golf when I was like 2 or 3 years old. My dad and my grandpa taught me how to play, and some of my absolute fondest memories are from being on the course and playing golf with them. However, I never really caught the bug of truly loving golf. I had all the opportunity to take lessons, and to go play at the club my parents belonged to, but I just never really cared - mostly because I just could never tell when I was striking the ball well or what I was doing wrong. My thought standing over the ball was "I hope this goes well", and then swing away. I DIRECTLY attribute that to the clubs that I was playing. I had these giant shovel cast cavity back Callaway x-12 with about 6 miles of offset and a clubhead the size of a Toyota Camry. They were as Game Improvement as they come, and my game and my love of golf really struggled for that.

 

Flash forward 20 years of not playing, and I'm farting around with my buddy on the range with my cobweb covered set of shovels, and he lets me hit his forged set of Adams with very little cavity and it was like I saw the face of God. I could actually FEEL where the ball contacted the club - there was an actual responsiveness to it, and when I struck it well it felt like a choir of angels singing. Another couple years went by, and I picked up the game again last year, and told myself that I would get a set of clubs that were WAY too good for me to help me improve my game. I got a set of Mizuno JPX 923 Tours with a 7-iron clubhead speed of 78 MPH and a HCP of like 30. My theme for this past year was to get good at golf, and I'm really happy with the amount of progress that I was able to make. I can attribute a lot of that to the clubs that I played. While they aren't blades, they're about as close as you can get in a cavity back, and I was able to get a lot of the responsiveness and feel that I was looking for that kept me coming back and made it significantly easier to learn how to make solid contact with the ball. By the end of the season I was up to a 92 mph clubhead speed w/ my 7-iron and a HCP of 16.1.

 

I got a set of blades for this coming year with the exact same thing in mind, and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. The difference between the JPXs and my blades feels like riding a bicycle without training wheels. Hitting them is an incredibly joyous feeling. As far as forgiveness goes, I think that the notorious reputation that blades get is largely unjustified in the modern game. Is it harder to score with them - absolutely. However, I'm noticing that a maybe 30 yard miss right with my JPX will be maybe 15 right and 15 short which on the courses that I play are usually going to be really playable. It makes it punishing and gives me the room for improvement that I'm looking for, while putting me in a challenging situation that the golf course was designed for. My blades bring interesting hazards like bunkers, rough, carries over bunkers all into play and make me actually appreciate the architecture of the golf course even more. I play golf BECAUSE it is challenging, not despite it. I enjoy testing myself against myself AND against the course; and I feel like playing blades does that better than any other set of clubs you could find.

 

If this has moved you, or maybe gotten you interested in playing blades - there are a BUNCH of sets that are available on Ebay for very little money. I'm talking sub $300. I'm not going to go into every recommendation for specific blades, mostly because I have no experience or knowledge of them, but the benefit to being a hunk of metal on the end of a stick is that 10, 20, 30 year old or older clubs are still perfectly viable. Look for a set that wasn't famous(Titleist 681 and Mizuno MP-14 I'm looking at you) for who used them or what was won with them from the past couple of decades that are in pretty good condition and just give it a try. The worst thing that happens is that set of irons gets another steward, and you make your money back from the next person who wants to try them out. Who knows, though? They might just make you fall in love.

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Moarbutter

[Moarbutter]

Oh boy, what an ENORMOUS day I had today. Played 9 holes and feel like I turned a MASSIVE corner in my game. 

 

I had realized during my last few rounds that I'd had some really great swing thoughts while I was playing, but they were kinda fleeting and I would forget them later in the round. After reviewing my round after I played, I decided to make it easy for me to take notes while I played, and set something up on my phone so I could quickly swap between my writing app and my GolfLogix app so I could jot some things down to keep me from forgetting and so I could look at them as I was walking to my ball before making my swings. While on the range, I started working on a couple things that I pulled from the Justin Rose video that @Christen_The_Sloop posted on Friday, and they were really working both on the range and on the first hole. I wrote a couple of miscellaneous things down, but then step up to the second hold and BOMB my driver further than I have ever hit it on that hole and I play it ALL the time.

 

I start the LONG walk to my ball and decide to make sure that I write down what has worked for me in my pre-shot ritual, but as I'm doing it, I remember a bunch of videos that I've seen in which each person says just how important it is to have the EXACT same ritual before each shot. I decide to observe what I do on each swing, and to actually write an incredibly detailed list of every single little thing that I do in my pre-shot ritual. I kinda stop paying attention to my short game for the next few holes as I'm writing all of this down, observing what I do after each shot, then go back and add / edit what I've already written down.

 

Everything comes together on the 6th after I tug my drive into the gunch on the left. Step up to my ball, and have some short, very hard grass about 6 inches behind my ball that means there's NO way that I can get a club on it, but if I were to aim about 45 degrees across the fairway, I would be able to get my club between two similar clumps of grass and make contact with the ball. I do this new pre-shot ritual, step up to the ball, hood a 7 iron and hit a PERFECT shot out of the gunch with this massive 160 yard shot that probably peels 80 yards left and runs directly up the fairway. Get up, do the same pre-shot ritual and tag a 5 iron about 180 that just fades and lands on the wrong side of the green.

 

I spend the rest of the round hitting great shot after great shot, when I had struggled MIGHTILY with consistency for the entire year. I had found that I would be able to easily get in the groove on the range, but would really struggle to bring that to the course. Whether it was hitting it thin, fat, miss heel, miss toe, block it, pull it. It was really frustrating and I was never able to fix it. After the round, I sat down and pulled all the notes together into an extremely prescriptive set of things to do during my pre-shot ritual, then drilled it on the range stepping off after every shot.

 

Hope you all had an awesome day today!

Edited December 6, 2023 by Moarbutter
grammer

[Bigmean]

19 hours ago, Moarbutter said:

 

Oh man, this is a great way to describe it. I haven't hit Mizuno blades, but the Kyoeis feel the way that I thought my JPXs would feel. That heavy, soft, solid feel is just SO addicting. 

 

 

Lollllll, yeah. As a testament to that sickness I just turned a short post about P7TW into a freaking doctorate dissertation on the benefits of blades in this thread - 

 

 

Careful bro, that kind of talk on wrx is frowned upon greatly and used to get you a one month ban….. how do you think this thread started?😂

[Moarbutter]

2 hours ago, Bigmean said:

Careful bro, that kind of talk on wrx is frowned upon greatly and used to get you a one month ban….. how do you think this thread started?😂

 

😆😅 Heard that, my guy! I guess I probably shouldn't be encouraging people to play blades. Gotta keep those prices on used blades low so I can try a bunch of them.....

 

As an aside, have you ever been able to find any information about those Kyoeis? I cannot for the life of me find a review, specs, or anything about them. I think that you're right about them being the same as the Vega VM-01s, but I would like some confirmation on it

[Kmagnuss]

On 12/2/2023 at 3:02 PM, PedronNiall said:

Guy in an alley said these fell off a truck so he'd let me have them for a steal. Zero forgiveness just the way the ancients intended. Will probably reshaft & regrip them in the next few weeks to my preferred specs, but good times so far.

 

I play the Nike VR TW's and they're the most forgiving blades I've ever played.  I'm sure there's better out there (Wilson Staff Model blades come to mind), but compared to the others I've owned (MP33, MP20, MP18, 1986 Titleist Tour Model), the TW's are the easiest to hit.  Putting in some Steelfiber shafts was icing on the cake.  With all that said, I've been gaming the Wilson Staff CB's because they're more forgiving on toe strikes, which has been my miss lately.

[Nard_S]

1 minute ago, Moarbutter said:

have you ever been able to find any information about those Kyoeis? I cannot for the life of me find a review, specs, or anything about them.

Not positive but those look to be from K molds which is their signature MB grind. Traditional in every respect of loft, weight and offset. Tourspec has data on all that.

 

I have a set of 1964's heads incoming. They are near same looking. Been wanting these for two years and by pure chance recently found a used set of heads and just closed a deal on them. Th #5i on those is 259g w/ loft at 28* and offset of FP 5mm. Very little bounce. Pure old school. Yours might have some variation on that but it looks like the bulk of their MB's are derived from K design.

 

 

[hackinghokie]

What a goldmine of a thread. I love blades! 
 

I’ve been getting back into the game this year and I’d plateaued around 85. Knowing my ball striking needed improvement, I figured blades would be a great way to bully myself into purer shots. 
 

I rummaged through my dad’s high school bag and played a few rounds with his Wilson Staff irons from sometime in the 70s. 
 

After playing well, I picked up a set of beat up MP33s and have been having the time of my life. I’ve never had so much feedback while playing. I’ve since picked up a set of MP14s (with lead tape pulled off by the PO) and now I’m looking to explore the blade world. Thanks for all the wisdom here. 

[Moarbutter]

8 hours ago, Nard_S said:

Not positive but those look to be from K molds which is their signature MB grind. Traditional in every respect of loft, weight and offset. Tourspec has data on all that.

 

I have a set of 1964's heads incoming. They are near same looking. Been wanting these for two years and by pure chance recently found a used set of heads and just closed a deal on them. Th #5i on those is 259g w/ loft at 28* and offset of FP 5mm. Very little bounce. Pure old school. Yours might have some variation on that but it looks like the bulk of their MB's are derived from K design.

 

 

 

Thank you for that! It's been incredibly difficult for me to find anything about them. The listing said Kyoei KCM, but the only KCM that I can find is the heritage release, which this definitely isn't.

 

Oh man, those 1964's are SEXY. I love the slightly rounder, more organic looking transition from topline into the muscle back than the sharper one that I have (not complaining, mind). I can't wait to hear how they play once you get them in and built up. 

[Kingcat990]

About time you bought some equipment Nard. Been a minute for you. 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Kingcat990

[Bigmean]

10 hours ago, Nard_S said:

Not positive but those look to be from K molds which is their signature MB grind. Traditional in every respect of loft, weight and offset. Tourspec has data on all that.

 

I have a set of 1964's heads incoming. They are near same looking. Been wanting these for two years and by pure chance recently found a used set of heads and just closed a deal on them. Th #5i on those is 259g w/ loft at 28* and offset of FP 5mm. Very little bounce. Pure old school. Yours might have some variation on that but it looks like the bulk of their MB's are derived from K design.

 

 

What are 1964s?  I honestly think the KCM (I have same ones as him) are better than the Vegas I had and I’m convinced that the 7-8 transition on these is not the same on the eye from a grind standpoint.   If you got irons off this mold I think you are going to love them.

[Nard_S]

2 minutes ago, Bigmean said:

What are 1964s?  I honestly think the KCM (I have same ones as him) are better than the Vegas I had and I’m convinced that the 7-8 transition on these is not the same on the eye from a grind standpoint.   If you got irons off this mold I think you are going to love them.

 

 

They were offered in late 2021. from K1 mold and updated grooves. Re-issue of the club that they 1st put out and put them on map. Tourspec had a few sets, almost bought when they were on sale but chickened out.

Been keeping eye and lo' & behold a used set popped up. Grabbed it. Love the look and specs. Really have zero need but well you know, lol.

[PedronNiall]

11 hours ago, Kmagnuss said:

I play the Nike VR TW's and they're the most forgiving blades I've ever played.  I'm sure there's better out there (Wilson Staff Model blades come to mind), but compared to the others I've owned (MP33, MP20, MP18, 1986 Titleist Tour Model), the TW's are the easiest to hit.  Putting in some Steelfiber shafts was icing on the cake.  With all that said, I've been gaming the Wilson Staff CB's because they're more forgiving on toe strikes, which has been my miss lately.

Interestingly the Staff Models don't score nearly as well as the TWs on the MPF scale--300/Classic for the Wilsons vs 500/Conventional for the TWs. Maybe it's the steel chosen for the TWs combined with still having cord grips on them making for more noticeable harshness on slight miss hits. I'll see how much they change when I've completely redone them, but so far stock for stock they've not felt anywhere near as buttery as the Wilsons when I first grabbed them. 

 

Could be my mind playing tricks on me a little since I've had Star grips on for so long now, but everyone who's hit the Staffs raves about how smooth they are. 100% the new shafts and grips will take the TWs up a notch. Interested to see if my feelings change once that's done. 

[Christen_The_Sloop]

1 hour ago, Nard_S said:

 

 

They were offered in late 2021. from K1 mold and updated grooves. Re-issue of the club that they 1st put out and put them on map. Tourspec had a few sets, almost bought when they were on sale but chickened out.

Been keeping eye and lo' & behold a used set popped up. Grabbed it. Love the look and specs. Really have zero need but well you know, lol.

Perfect Face Progression. Of all the angles of the clubs in that pic though. Nothing looking down at them. That's all I want. 

[Nard_S]

2 hours ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

Perfect Face Progression. Of all the angles of the clubs in that pic though. Nothing looking down at them. That's all I want. 

 I'll post photos when I get them in a week or so. They won't look as good as glossy ad. From what I've seen, nothing out of ordinary. Seen faces but hard to judge. It's about proportion and these just seem rather average in that regard. 

 

 

[NRJyzr]

6 hours ago, PedronNiall said:

Interestingly the Staff Models don't score nearly as well as the TWs on the MPF scale--300/Classic for the Wilsons vs 500/Conventional for the TWs. Maybe it's the steel chosen for the TWs combined with still having cord grips on them making for more noticeable harshness on slight miss hits. I'll see how much they change when I've completely redone them, but so far stock for stock they've not felt anywhere near as buttery as the Wilsons when I first grabbed them. 

 

Could be my mind playing tricks on me a little since I've had Star grips on for so long now, but everyone who's hit the Staffs raves about how smooth they are. 100% the new shafts and grips will take the TWs up a notch. Interested to see if my feelings change once that's done. 

 

Forgiveness isn't measured by the final MPF score.  That score is little more than the C-Dimension minus the actual vertical CG.

 

MOI is the physical measure of forgiveness.

 

Then, you need to pay attention to the CG location as compared to the swing in question.  All the MOI in the world isn't useful if that cg is impossible to hit for one's swing.