Hogan's on fire!

[Porker]

Played in my fist comp yesterday and stole 45 points on a 19 handicap to finish 2nd. I have played about 15 rounds (2 per month) leading up to this ... Having only now handed in 10 cards accumulated through frustration during a torred wet windy winter and lots of tinkering with the clubs to get them to work with my cack-hand grip. Come Saturday and beautiful sunshine and I could not go wrong. Shot my lowest round breaking 90 for the first time with an 85. As I could go no further flattening lie angle at -4, I cut my half inch longer shafts down a quarter inch and boy did they fly straight! Set now is combo Apex Edge Pro (3-5) and FTX (6-E) checked handicap on line this morning and I'm cut to 11... So me looting days are over. Now looking at building a back up set and very excited about it as I have learned from my mistakes on the Hogan's. Any suggestions welcome ... Need cavity backs in the long irons and blades from 6 down. Would really like something sexy in stainless .. any pics welcome!

[Chris122]

Yes,your Ned Kelly days are over now you're off a proper handicap!

 

But why change when you have a set-up that works?

 

I do it because I have too many clubs but have resisted this season and come down 2 strokes by virtue of playing the same bag.

 

Well done,you must be pleased!

[rex235]

Porker-

 

"Would really like something sexy in stainless." ..

 

MacGregor? Spalding? Slazenger?

 

You might need some luck bending any of those sexy stainless irons.

[Porker]

Yip.... I was called a burglar! That seems to be the term in Australia, back in South Africa your called a ringer! Not sure what the yanks call you?? Rex... That's disappointing to hear... So you can't bend stainless clubs as far as carbon steel 1020? Or 1025 for that matter...

 

Chris... I love tinkering and with a cross handed grip your basically on your own... Just the fun of starting a new build with what ever I can find used, this time I want to cut my own lengths and slowly learn to do it myself... Was thinking a summer and winter set to play with. The other reason is to one day send my Hogan's to the iron factory as no one really does what they do here in Oz... Then i will have a 2nd set to play as I believe I'll wait at least 3 months being an international client

[baloo]

My irons are stainless and they bent very easily. I play them 3 flat and a bit weak. The gentleman who did the work even commented on how easy they were to adjust.

[Porker]

Thanks for that Baloo... Hopefully all stainless clubs are from the same recipe book.

[birly-shirly]

It depends. I have some ss Slazenger blades that bend easily. Pings, not so much. If you’re looking for cavity back long irons, then I suspect that cast ss is going to be tough to adjust more than 1 or 2 degrees.

 

Hogan Ftx seem like a good fit, but you have them already. Macgregor jnp or CB92 are good vintage choices for forged cavities. Maxfli TourLtd maybe?

[Porker]

Thanks... I'll check em out!

[sdandrea]

The yanks use the term "sandbagger". Well done!

[baloo]

Ah didn't realize that pings were stainless, which are very hard to bend. But ping can do it up to 3 or 4 degrees if you send them the clubs. My only experience with stainless are my 54' Spaldings and a UK set of Hogan's. Both were easy to bend.

[Porker]

Interesting... you can bend pings if you send them to the factory?

[dcopp7]

Interesting... you can bend pings if you send them to the factory?

that's the rumor

[rex235]

Porker...

 

..and it's TRUE.

 

Was there in 2011, and brought two putters with me, one was a BeCu.

 

PING did the work.

[birly-shirly]

Bending a putter isn’t remotely the same issue as bending ping’s irons. But both can be done at the factory, and both can be done in your nearest loft and lie machine. There are limits on how far you can go, regardless of who does the work. A lot of “classic “ irons, even ping will only move a couple of degrees, and some I believe they won’t touch at all.

 

If you want pings at 4* flat, I think you’d want to find orange dot or flatter to start with.

[Chris122]

The other 'rumour' is that having been bent Pings can return to their original form....?

[birly-shirly]

Yes, the infamous metal memory.

 

What I do know is this. If your bending machine doesn't clamp your ping iron VERY firmly, then it is very easy for the club to slip an imperceptible amount. You feel some give though the bending bar, and the dial registers that the hosel has moved. But if you slacken the clamp, then replace and reclamp the club - then it does appear that the club has "sprung" back to its original spec...

[Porker]

Maybe Ping uses a heating process? Not that I know much about metallurgy, but that sort of makes sense to me, if I do go Ping, I'll go 3 flat and fine tune by adjusting the shaft lengths

[rex235]

Birly-

 

What is the Color Code for the flattest lie PING irons- Gold?

 

.

[rkristopheranderson]

The yanks use the term "sandbagger". Well done!

 

Or, more often, "F-in Sandbagger" :taunt:

[birly-shirly]

Birly-

 

What is the Color Code for the flattest lie PING irons- Gold?

 

.

 

Rex - I think you're right. Ping's colour-coding changes from time to time, but red, orange, brown and gold are increasingly flat, with at times a purple code sandwiched between red and orange.

 

If I had to guess, I'd say that I see more upright than flat Pings - and orange and flatter not all that common. I might be atypical - but on Ping's static fitting chart, I measure up blue/green - whereas tested while hitting balls, I'm in red/orange territory.

[NRJyzr]

Re: adjusting L&L with Ping irons....

 

Ping isn't doing anything magical to bend their irons. They've always maintained a ready supply of replacement clubheads, in case of breakage during adjustment. This is why you need to sign a waiver to have older clubs, like Eye2, Zing/Zing2, ISI, etc, adjusted by them; they no longer have that supply of clubheads. A couple years ago, the repair page on the Ping site indicated you could still get 4* or 4 color codes of movement for even S59s, but anything older required that waiver (they obviously still had S59 heads in reserve).

 

It's also a portion of the reason behind their refusal to bend BeCu or BeNi irons. The rumors also fly about those becoming more brittle as time goes on, have no idea if that's true or more along the lines of the "metal memory" myth. :)

 

Many years ago, Dana Upshaw apparently bent a set of Pings some 5* or 6* different than the color code they were. He went the extreme torch method, heating them to the point they would be more bendable. They may even have been BeCu irons. Such a course requires the shafts being removed as part of the process, obviously. It was also described as somewhat labor intensive, and as you might guess, not inexpensive. :)

[Porker]

Sandbagger?!! I’m trying to compute how that relates! MeAning he carries more sand with him?

[DrRob1963]

Played in my fist comp yesterday and stole 45 points on a 19 handicap to finish 2nd. I have played about 15 rounds (2 per month) leading up to this ... Having only now handed in 10 cards accumulated through frustration during a torred wet windy winter and lots of tinkering with the clubs to get them to work with my cack-hand grip. Come Saturday and beautiful sunshine and I could not go wrong. Shot my lowest round breaking 90 for the first time with an 85. As I could go no further flattening lie angle at -4, I cut my half inch longer shafts down a quarter inch and boy did they fly straight! Set now is combo Apex Edge Pro (3-5) and FTX (6-E) checked handicap on line this morning and I'm cut to 11... So me looting days are over. Now looking at building a back up set and very excited about it as I have learned from my mistakes on the Hogan's. Any suggestions welcome ... Need cavity backs in the long irons and blades from 6 down. Would really like something sexy in stainless .. any pics welcome!

Hi Porker - welcome to A-grade! You seem to have skipped B-grade all together!

 

Cavity-back long irons with blades from 6-iron down?

One option is a mixed set of Mizuno MP-18 blades and MP-18 SC (or MMC) irons. Hard to buy better.

Try https://golf.mizunoeurope.com/golf-clubs/mp-series/mp-18/ for some of the best looking irons ever!

[SteveNZ]

It depends. I have some ss Slazenger blades that bend easily. Pings, not so much. If youre looking for cavity back long irons, then I suspect that cast ss is going to be tough to adjust more than 1 or 2 degrees.

 

Hogan Ftx seem like a good fit, but you have them already. Macgregor jnp or CB92 are good vintage choices for forged cavities. Maxfli TourLtd maybe?

 

There are 2-3 sets of Maxfli Tour Ltds on EBay at the moment.

 

And two in my shed :-)

[rkristopheranderson]

Sandbagger?!! I’m trying to compute how that relates! MeAning he carries more sand with him?

 

Yeah, I've thought about that before as well. I have one friend who argues that it has something to do with building up a fake wall (as in using sandbags to protect yourself against floooding). But I've also heard it used as a boxing term -- reporters used it a lot in boxing coverage at one point -- as in to "load" your gloves with something like sand to give your punches more effect, which sounds like the more likely source to me (as in making your score worth more than it really is my loading your handicap with fake shots).

 

Out of curiosity I googled it and one of the dictionary results that popped up was "hit or fell with or as if with a blow from a sandbag.

• 
  
  
   
  
  
  NORTH AMERICAN
  
  
  coerce; bully."
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
  

something Google does that is interesting (if you expand the dictionary tab on the search down it shows) is it tabulates the usage of the word using full text seaerches from its database - - - this includes digitized periodicals. The term appeared in print starting around 1900 and increased in use up through the 1940s, dipped and then grew again in the 1950s forward. Just speculation, but it could be that the initial use was tied to the emergence of boxing reporting (the 1920s and 1930s was a sort of golden age of boxing writing in the US) and that its resurgence was a combination of reporting on boxing in the 1950s/1960s combined with its usage during the post-WWII growth in Americans' interest in golf.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=sanbagging&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS752US752&oq=sanbagging&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1875j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[smashdn]

@Porker

 

Old thread but I am attempting to build a similar set up as your Hogan's.  I have the Apex Plus's in the bag now but want to get some blades in the short irons to create a combo set.  Not against a full FTX set but was thinking I might be able to lay my hands upon some 99 Apex's and also do the job.

 

Are you still playing that combo set?  Do you ever switch out which of your longest irons is a blade and CB?

Edited September 9, 2020 by smashdn