Tour Paul Casey - WITB - 2022 The Open Championship @ St Andrews Old Course

[GolfWRX_Spotted]

[getair23]

Did hey grind the 3 off the first iron pictured?

[QuigleyDU]

Every time I see MP5s I cringe as I had a set and wish I still had a set.. 

[akap4surf]

Paul Casey always has a clean setup! I wonder what are some of the perks being sponsored by Porsche?!

[hwwong]

5 hours ago, getair23 said:

Did hey grind the 3 off the first iron pictured?

 

I don't know that they ever made a 3, it may be a 4 ground down.  But either way...I want that.

[gticlay]

6 hours ago, hwwong said:

 

I don't know that they ever made a 3, it may be a 4 ground down.  But either way...I want that.

How are you liking your 223 irons? I have a set with the $-Taper 130 waiting for me when I get home next week... haven't hit them yet. 

[Valtiel]

7 hours ago, hwwong said:

 

I don't know that they ever made a 3, it may be a 4 ground down.  But either way...I want that.

I always wondered about his gapping there, because his next iron down being a more traditionally lofted 5i would leave a MASSIVE gap between that and the 19-20* stock Hot Metal Pro 4-iron, so i'd assume they have to be bent weak. The 3i has always seemed like a custom one-off for him that was maybe built to gap with this weakened 4i. if his 5i is 27* like the stock MP5 and he obviously has a 16.5 4w, then those Hot Metals being around 23* and 19* makes sense. 

[hwwong]

7 hours ago, gticlay said:

How are you liking your 223 irons? I have a set with the $-Taper 130 waiting for me when I get home next week... haven't hit them yet. 

 

They've been amazing.  Love the built in blend with a little more help/speed from the 4-7.  They're a great size/shape - confidence inspiring and very forgiving.   And the $ Taper is a great shaft.  I had been playing C Taper but they lacked in feel and smoothness.  The $ Taper fixed that - very similar ball flight but much better feeling.  

 

[hwwong]

6 hours ago, Valtiel said:

I always wondered about his gapping there, because his next iron down being a more traditionally lofted 5i would leave a MASSIVE gap between that and the 19-20* stock Hot Metal Pro 4-iron, so i'd assume they have to be bent weak. The 3i has always seemed like a custom one-off for him that was maybe built to gap with this weakened 4i. if his 5i is 27* like the stock MP5 and he obviously has a 16.5 4w, then those Hot Metals being around 23* and 19* makes sense. 

 

Yea between the bladed 5 and the HMP 4, that's a very large discrepancy to cover - in all aspects -feel, size, yardage, etc.  But the proto 3 iron makes more sense...man if they made a utility build of the HMP like they do the T200 it'd be a winner.  The Fli Hi is just way too fat...

[Valtiel]

7 hours ago, hwwong said:

 

Yea between the bladed 5 and the HMP 4, that's a very large discrepancy to cover - in all aspects -feel, size, yardage, etc.  But the proto 3 iron makes more sense...man if they made a utility build of the HMP like they do the T200 it'd be a winner.  The Fli Hi is just way too fat...

Agreed. Weighting is the only concern with something like that though since all these modern utility irons are hollow with hotmelt ports for the tour guys to fine tune, and the HMBs (aside from the MP20) have had open cavities. I picked up a 919 HMB Pro to build up as a utility iron and adding weight is a bit of a pain. You either have to slap lead tape awkwardly across the giant badge, or remove the badge to get access to the undercut parts of the cavity and stash weight in there. That undercut cavity also seems to give the club a weird low pitch whooshing sound when you swing it, kind of a turn off hah. 

[hwwong]

38 minutes ago, Valtiel said:

Agreed. Weighting is the only concern with something like that though since all these modern utility irons are hollow with hotmelt ports for the tour guys to fine tune, and the HMBs (aside from the MP20) have had open cavities. I picked up a 919 HMB Pro to build up as a utility iron and adding weight is a bit of a pain. You either have to slap lead tape awkwardly across the giant badge, or remove the badge to get access to the undercut parts of the cavity and stash weight in there. That undercut cavity also seems to give the club a weird low pitch whooshing sound when you swing it, kind of a turn off hah. 

 

 

Yesss the whoosh sound.  Man.  I had a set of HMPs and that was definitely the worst on the long irons.  Good intel on the weight - I hadn't really considered that.  But it make sense.  I see a ton of T200 pictures from the tour with a hole/plug in them.   Are you talking about the adding weight because the head would be too light for a graphite shaft (assuming graphite is 20-30g lighter than steel)?

[Whatnogarnish]

On 7/12/2022 at 3:19 PM, QuigleyDU said:

Every time I see MP5s I cringe as I had a set and wish I still had a set.. 

 

They are great. Trying them this year and really like em. 

[joeburger]

Love me a 4 wood

[Valtiel]

8 minutes ago, hwwong said:

 

 

Yesss the whoosh sound.  Man.  I had a set of HMPs and that was definitely the worst on the long irons.  Good intel on the weight - I hadn't really considered that.  But it make sense.  I see a ton of T200 pictures from the tour with a hole/plug in them.   Are you talking about the adding weight because the head would be too light for a graphite shaft (assuming graphite is 20-30g lighter than steel)?

Correct, yeah. Not as much of an issue for the steel shafted ones (like Paul's), but from a build standpoint they are often fighting against the fact that pros tend to favor slightly more weight on average (over off the rack specs) and the heavier driving iron shafts they prefer when going graphite tend to have a noticeably higher balance point than steel, further decreasing swingweight. Tour van guys need the ability to easily add around 4-8g+ of weight to these sorts of builds and the current JPX HMP design makes that tough. I even noticed that Cam Smith's Fli-Hi has a hotmelt plug in the toe as well, first one i've seen on a fli-hi.   

[hwwong]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

Correct, yeah. Not as much of an issue for the steel shafted ones (like Paul's), but from a build standpoint they are often fighting against the fact that pros tend to favor slightly more weight on average (over off the rack specs) and the heavier driving iron shafts they prefer when going graphite tend to have a noticeably higher balance point than steel, further decreasing swingweight. Tour van guys need the ability to easily add around 4-8g+ of weight to these sorts of builds and the current JPX HMP design makes that tough. I even noticed that Cam Smith's Fli-Hi has a hotmelt plug in the toe as well, first one i've seen on a fli-hi.   

 

Gotcha.  Great info thank you.  makes me doubt I can just throw together a DI in my garage...  now to learn how to hot melt....

Edited July 13, 2022 by hwwong

[gticlay]

18 hours ago, hwwong said:

 

They've been amazing.  Love the built in blend with a little more help/speed from the 4-7.  They're a great size/shape - confidence inspiring and very forgiving.   And the $ Taper is a great shaft.  I had been playing C Taper but they lacked in feel and smoothness.  The $ Taper fixed that - very similar ball flight but much better feeling.  

 

Cool, thanks. I’m playing the PSi irons now and they have the same “help” in the longer 3-7i. The TM faces are actually thinner under 2mm but stainless so I’m not sure how that changes the “trampoline effect” vs the metal Mizuno is using. The plastic is starting to break on the faces, unfortunately, and some of them sound weird now so I think the damping rubber inside is drying up and shrinking. Long post to say I can’t wait to play the 223!! 

[hwwong]

3 hours ago, gticlay said:

Cool, thanks. I’m playing the PSi irons now and they have the same “help” in the longer 3-7i. The TM faces are actually thinner under 2mm but stainless so I’m not sure how that changes the “trampoline effect” vs the metal Mizuno is using. The plastic is starting to break on the faces, unfortunately, and some of them sound weird now so I think the damping rubber inside is drying up and shrinking. Long post to say I can’t wait to play the 223!! 

 

You can certainly tell a difference in feel in the 223s between the scoring irons and the 4-7.  If the PSi are anything like the TP UDI the mizzys are much softer feeling.  I came from HMPs and the ball doesn't launch off the face with the 223s like they did with the HMPs.  223s have been very predictable, no fliers thus far.  

 

Shame the clubs don't last!  need some full forged blades for that I suppose.  But regardless hit them well!