Know a golf shop willing to bend fixed-hosel fairway woods/hybrids flatter?

[eric61]

Anybody know a shop that’s willing to do this (and can do it competently)? I’ve gotten a lot of nos as I’ve been asking around. 

[golferdude54]

It takes a special loft/lie bending machine to bend drivers/FW's/hybrids that not many shops have. Those costs like $2k and up and the typical bending machine that bends irons and wedges will cave the crown in if you try to bend them in that.

 

I want to say there's probably like less than 50-100 of those special machines in the whole country excluding tour vans. Plus no one is gonna want to bend more than 2 degrees with the material being so brittle compared to irons and wedges.

[Pepperturbo]

50 minutes ago, eric61 said:

Anybody know a shop that’s willing to do this (and can do it competently)? I’ve gotten a lot of nos as I’ve been asking around. 

Be cautious.  It's easy to find someone willing to experiment on your clubs at your expense.  Also, due to the advent of shaft sleeves, there's a crop of club builders that have little to no experience working on older style clubs that never used sleeves.  

 

I have been using the same guy who used to work for Titleist clubs on tour.  It's that level of experience I trust to do the unusual.

[eric61]

35 minutes ago, Pepperturbo said:

I have been using the same guy who used to work for Titleist clubs on tour.  It's that level of experience I trust to do the unusual.

Is he taking new clients?

 

I’m looking for a deeper-faced, high-lofted fairway wood — one that I can get steep on and blast out of the rough when I need to. 
 

Ping’s flat-minus setting is perfect, but the face is too shallow. Titleist’s head is smaller than I’d like. Cobra’s lie angle is too upright. As a lefty, the main one that leaves is TaylorMade — which has a fixed hosel and a very upright lie angle. If I could find someone competent to bend a head about two degrees flatter, that would solve my problem.

 

I do know, as @golferdude54 noted, that doing this takes highly specialized equipment. This is why I’m asking here — I figure if anyplace is likely to know the right people to seek out to do this, it’s veteran GolfWRX club junkies. If there are 50-100 of these machines in the world, I’m trying to find the builders who a) have one, b) are excellent at what they do, and c) are taking on new clients.

 

I watched TaylorMade’s Trottie bend a 7 wood about 3 degrees flatter in a fitting video on YouTube. But I called TaylorMade and they told me they can’t do that for regular customers.

[Howard_Jones]

1 hour ago, eric61 said:

Anybody know a shop that’s willing to do this (and can do it competently)? I’ve gotten a lot of nos as I’ve been asking around. 

What is that hosel made of?
If its titanium, forget it, if its stainless steel it can be done

[Pepperturbo]

8 minutes ago, eric61 said:

Is he taking new clients?

 

I’m looking for a deeper-faced, high-lofted fairway wood — one that I can get steep on and blast out of the rough when I need to. 
 

Ping’s flat-minus setting is perfect, but the face is too shallow. Titleist’s head is smaller than I’d like. Cobra’s lie angle is too upright. As a lefty, the main one that leaves is TaylorMade — which has a fixed hosel and a very upright lie angle. If I could find someone competent to bend a head about two degrees flatter, that would solve my problem.

 

I do know, as @golferdude54 noted, that doing this takes highly specialized equipment. This is why I’m asking here — I figure if anyplace is likely to know the right people to seek out to do this, it’s veteran GolfWRX club junkies. If there are 50-100 of these machines in the world, I’m trying to find the builders who a) have one, b) are excellent at what they do, and c) are taking on new clients.

 

I watched TaylorMade’s Trottie bend a 7 wood about 3 degrees flatter in a fitting video on YouTube. But I called TaylorMade and they told me they can’t do that for regular customers.

Sorry, my guy doesn't have a website, nor will he do business with any that requires him to work with FedEx, UPS, USPS services.

 

I play a TSR2 15' 3 wood, which is deep faced and comparatively large to me.  But later this year, when Titleist introduces new woods, b switching back to 16.5' 4wd.

 

You might check out Exotics XCG 3 or 4 woods, they have fixed hosel and larger heads, and more forgiving.  

[Nessism]

Most fairway woods these days have the hosel almost inside the head.  And there is no reasonable way to bend those, this side of a Tour Van (maybe).

 

You might want to check Wishon.  He mades his woods so the hosel can be bent.  

[Howard_Jones]

9 minutes ago, Nessism said:

Most fairway woods these days have the hosel almost inside the head.  And there is no reasonable way to bend those, this side of a Tour Van (maybe).

 

You might want to check Wishon.  He mades his woods so the hosel can be bent.  

The latest models from TW, is only 31 mm on face height, it sounds like the OP want a deep face.

[Nessism]

21 minutes ago, Howard_Jones said:

The latest models from TW, is only 31 mm on face height, it sounds like the OP want a deep face.

 

True that.  Too bad...

[third-times-a-charm]

No one will do it and it doesnt make sense to. The OEMs that do it make special moulds that encompass the entire head to do the adjustment and no end fitter or builder is going to have those moulds.

[mousefoo]

A shorter playing length can help with a club that is too upright.

[eric61]

2 hours ago, Nessism said:

You might want to check Wishon.  He mades his woods so the hosel can be bent.  

 

2 hours ago, Howard_Jones said:

The latest models from TW, is only 31 mm on face height, it sounds like the OP want a deep face.

Wishon also generally doesn’t make stuff for lefties, so that won’t be an option, unfortunately.

[eric61]

3 hours ago, Howard_Jones said:

What is that hosel made of?
If its titanium, forget it, if its stainless steel it can be done

I’m looking at a TM QI10 7 wood (or anything else roughly that size that’s available for lefties). I assume that’s steel.

[AmateurAmateur]

Joe Kwok- maybe The Tour Van as well. 

[Howard_Jones]

7 hours ago, eric61 said:

I’m looking at a TM QI10 7 wood (or anything else roughly that size that’s available for lefties). I assume that’s steel.

I dont think Qi10 woods has a stainless steel hosel, since stainless steel has higher weight than titanium, and that model "brags" about a "precision COG" thats LOW. A Stainless steel hosel will pull COG higher and heel side, and they have used a carbon fiber crown to lower COG, then it becomes "very strange"if they used a stainless steel hosel, it contradict the rest of the design.

Most but not all Stainless steels is magnetic, so if anyone has one, check with a magnet on the hosel 
Titanium is NOT magnetic (yes it is magnetic but VERY weak)

Todays golfer writes that the body is Titanium, so the hosel itself is most likely Titanium too.

[TKS]

On 4/29/2024 at 4:27 PM, eric61 said:

 

Wishon also generally doesn’t make stuff for lefties, so that won’t be an option, unfortunately.

There is a good selection of lefty heads at Wishon