WITB? mat562...

[mshills]

Thanks for your kind wishes, but I was actually set about with a scalpel by a bow tie-wearing, Ping playing mid-handicapper of a surgeon back in January.

 

To be fair, I've done quite well out of the shoulder after injuring it about fifteen years or so back and can't really complain. I've been told that surgery was going to be a necessity for years, but managed a decade and a half with the thing with no real limitations other than needing the odd tablet and a helping or two or cortisone on the odd occasions that it played up. It's only in the last six months that it got to the point where it was giving me any real problems. Prior to that I've played golf, climbed and been able to do my job without any real drama. It's apparently healing nicely and I'm hoping to be back to normal by the summer. I'm carpet putting at the moment and will start giving the practice green and the chipping green some hammer in the next week or two.

 

Sounds like you're in good hands. A man who wears a bow tie and plays Pings is a man you can trust.

 

(I am biased since I wear bow ties when I must wear a tie and I play Pings, but I'm no surgeon!)

 

Best wishes on the recovery.

[mat562]

New 3 wood for me. Sort of.

Still a Nike T60, but now in the shape of the back-up head that I shafted up a week or so ago with one of several freebie shafts I was lucky enough to be given a couple of weeks back. It's a horrid looking thing, particularly colour-wise where it looks as though Rapunzel has been at it with some of her tartiest red nail polish, but the Accra XE80 is a little beauty. It's not a shaft I've ever tried before, but it's one with which I was immediately pretty comfortable - despite only recently having gotten back to hitting balls after January's shoulder surgery and months of rehab.

It's a bit softer than the 757 I've been playing for the last five years, and certainly a bit livelier in the tip section, but it's not so tip-soft that I'm hitting upshooters all day. I'm still able to turn it over with a flat draw for maximum distance but I'm also able to hit it a bit higher a bit more easily when I need to hoist one up. It's a very solid-feeling shaft and, despite being a stout thing (Accra's 'M5' flex) and having a somewhat low torque figure (just over 2 degrees according to the blurb) it's not at all boardy and it feels very responsive. It's also a similar weight to my faithful old Fuji and so immediately had a familiar heft to it.

I've been taking it out for practice nines and side-by-side trial runs with my old faithful and hit half a bagful of balls with it on the field of dreams last week. On my last 18 I took it out for its first solo flight and didn't miss a shot with it; despite being half asleep due to my having being raped by the shift rota at work over the last fortnight with a set of duties that would have suited paid up members of the vampire community.

I can't change my WITB/signature as my listing seems to have been created pre-[i]rejigging of the signature function [/i]and there's no way (at least that I can fathom) to get in and change what's listed as my current WITB. You'll just have to take my word for it.

p.s. It's not really [i]in[/i] the bag - more [i]on the feet[/i] - but a rather nice pair of all black, plain toe, saddle FootJoy Classics (to match my faithful 14 year-old white ones) were tracked down last week, and a pair of all white, tumbled leather saddle Icons are getting picked up tomorrow afternoon, both courtesy of a joint effort between Phil Mickelson's Masters win and my local bookmaker. Happy days.

[S.A. OSO]

Glad to hear you are back to playing and wanted to say that your "Whats in the Bag" thread is a very interesting and informative read. I enjoy reading your perspective and opinions about golf equipment. Your descriptions on why you like/dislike something are easy to follow. I have found some of your logic can be applied to my own bag/game when making an evaluation about equipment. Thanks for providing these updates.

[jorgesgolf1]

Mat,

A bit off topic - but would you care to enlighten me on what a "county spot" is? You referred to it in a previous post. Does each county form a golf team and they play matches with neighboring counties?

[Relaxxx]

[quote name='mat562' date='08 April 2008 - 01:59 PM' timestamp='1207677584' post='1010306']
I've always preferred my clubs to be a [i]bit [/i]on the heavier side. No idea why, it just seems to suit me better and I tend to swing smoother when I can feel the headweight more effectively. I also play 1/2" over standard (38" 5 iron etc) despite being about average height (6'00"). A slightly heavier swingweight thus pretty much comes as the norm at that length.

These Nikes (my second set) are absolutely spot on out of the box with the headweights, and were all bang on swingweight-wise. They're the first set of irons in a long time that aren't plastered in lead tape. I had a very early set of Nike blades previously that were all over the place.
[/quote]

I'm 5'9" and use 1/2" over standard. I feel like I have very short arms now. Haha. Very nice bag.

[Mizunolover97]

You should really post a swing video! I bet everyone here wonders what you swing looks like.

[mat562]

Just finished fettling my 2-9 iron set a degree weaker with the old gentleman's persuader. No nip marks; you'd never know. A masterful bit of tweaking if I say so myself. The idea is to raise the flight slightly, more akin to my old set of Nikes. I've noticed that the flight's very slightly lower than I want to see, so an experimental tweak of the irons is in order.

Video? Hmm. I'll need to buy a camera before that idea gets off the ground. Other than the odd swish captured on my mate John's iPhone, the last time I did any serious filming of my swing was back in the days of those little miniature tapes that you slotted into a motorised full-sized cassette/cradle-thing that you could then slot into the VCR. Ages ago. Billy Joel had hair...

[boots]

Very interested to hear how it goes Matt! My Orka blades are set up with a 48 degree pitching wedge and 21 degree 3 iron. Unfortunately I feel this produces long irons that flight a touch on the low side and short irons / wedge that go too far... I also prefer traditional sand / lob wedge lofts so a 48* wedge poses yardage gap problems. Presumably a couple of degrees weaker wouldn't have too much of a detrimental effect on the way the irons would play in terms of their bounce angles? I understand that weaker lofts would increase launch angle and spin so interested in what your take on this issue is? Hope you're well anyway mate!

[Mizunolover97]

hey mat,

Have you ever tried the old mp-11s in my signature?

[chRisJ87]

Love the bag Matt, and I enjoy reading what you have to say. This thread has made me drop all the new stuff craziness and Ive already started to change the bag!

Managed to get a r510 tp in mint cond. from the UK with a 757 shaft - should be here tomorrow! Ive never tried the 757, but if I don't like it Im gonna try out a pershing as I absolutely love that shaft in my 4w!

Btw, I don't think you have ever mentioned what ball you play?

Cheers from Denmark
-Chris

[mat562]

Chris,

I'm still working my way through the last of the supply of Nike One Platinums I picked up a couple of years ago. I picked up a bumper stock for an agreeable price. I love the ball, love how it's nice and soft and spins and, although it's not the best ball for me off the driver, I like the performance around the greens and with the irons; particularly the longer ones. 

I've still got enough left to see me through the last part of the season and for a bit of winter play since I don't change them willy nilly and I eke 18 or 27 holes out of a ball. Around the time the Masters clicks around - or certainly the U.S. Open - I'll need to go ball shopping.

Skål!

[chRisJ87]

Skål Mat, have you been to Denmark before ?

Ive only had the chance to try out some of the Nike One Platinums a couple of times, but I like it a lot - maybe I should search the uk bay for some. Everything golf related is so unreal expensive in DK - its hard for me to understand how they can actually make money on it when you can buy from one of the many UK shops or ebay.co.uk. As an example; a standard FJ all the weather glove would be $30 and a dozen of Titleist Pro V1 was easily $80, most drivers (even the ones who are 1-2 years old) range from $4-600.

Ive never been to England before, but my girlfriend is moving there for 4 months starting from mid january - hopefully that should give me an oppotunity to play some great courses there How is the weather for the first 4 months of the year ?

[mat562]

I have been to Denmark, although it's a few years ago now, back when I was a youngster. I won a prize at Legoland for making a dog's head out of 100 or less bricks (or maybe 200?) as I remember. The prize, when I opened it, proved to be some more Lego...

As far as language goes, I'm pretty fluent in Bokmål as a result of having a mother who originally hails from the northern part of Norway, Tromsø, although I'm 100% English (or 50%, I suppose), being born in Yorkshire and having an English father.

I know what you mean about prices in the Nordic countries. I visit Norway every year and, whilst there's not much golf equipment bought and sold up in Troms and Nordland, the price of pretty much everything else is startling for a Brit. If you can find a UK seller who's willing to send the box over to Denmark it's got to be a good move versus buying your kit at home.

As far as the weather in England goes, it largely depends upon where you are. The south west generally sees fairly mild conditions in the winter and early part of spring, but northern England is generally a few degrees colder all-round and the north-west sees a lot of rain. Light snow is fairly common throughout the country in January, particularly on higher ground. Weather permitting, there are lots of good courses to try out. Where is she/are you going to be staying? 

Edited September 14, 2022 by mat562

[chRisJ87]

[quote name='mat562' timestamp='1286477673' post='2733161']
I [i]have[/i] been to Denmark, although it's a few years ago now, back when I was a youngster. I won a prize at Legoland for making a dog's head out of 100 or less bricks (or maybe 200?) as I remember. The prize, when I opened it, proved to be [i]some more Lego...[/i]

As far as language goes, I'm pretty fluent in Bokmål as a result of having a mother who originally hails from the northern part of Norway, Tromsø, although I'm 100% English (or 50%, I suppose), being born in Yorkshire and having an English father.

I know what you mean about prices in the Nordic countries. I visit Norway every year and, whilst there's not much golf equipment bought and sold up in Troms and Nordland, the price of pretty much everything else is startling for a Brit. If you can find a UK seller who's willing to send the box over to Denmark it's got to be a good move versus buying your kit at home.

As far as the weather in England goes, it largely depends upon where you are. The south west generally sees fairly mild conditions in the winter and early part of spring, but northern England is generally a few degrees colder all-round and the north-west sees a lot of rain. Light snow is fairly common throughout the country in January, particularly on higher ground. Weather permitting, there are lots of good courses to try out. Where is she/are you going to be staying?
[/quote]

Hehe Legoland was a huge deal when you were younger.

Yeah I am buying all of my stuff from the UK or sometimes from the US, but prefer UK for sure. Funny thing is that shipping from the UK to DK is almost the same as shipping inside DK - sometimes also as fast. Picking up an r510 TP with a fuji 757 shaft today(never tried it either part of that combo and it is mint, god bless ebay UK), which will be going with me for an 7 hour range/course session today.

I tend to not remember much of what the girlfriend tells me, but I am pretty sure she will be staying in London during her time in England. I hope to get out a decent amount of weekends and visit her since the tickets to london is very cheap.

[M.C.H.]

Wow I just read this thread for the first time. I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. Sweet setup! What's in your bag now?

[mat562]

What's in the bag now? Hmm. Well it's the same stuff, really, albeit I'm not hitting the things half as often as I used to. My play has dropped off markedly since the back end of last summer due to the children growing up and being ready to start school, a reignited interest in climbing and a lot more of my free time being spent in the saddle on my partner Lisa's - or someone else's - horse.

As far as the kit goes, I've tinkered with a Grafalloy Blue-shafted 910D3 in recent months, seeing a solid trajectory which garners me a few extra yards of carry with the thing but not, sadly, an accompanying ability to turn the ball over consistently with my preferred slight draw. The old faithful 905S has thus stayed put in the top slot of my little pencil bag. The only other change I've made recently is to my wedge set-up (albeit only insomuch as there having been a new one - or [i]old one[/i], really - in the bag on the last three or four occasions that I've visited the practice green and course) with an old Ping, a beryllium Eye 2, making its way into the sand wedge slot in place of the old, raw, [i]Mk I [/i]Spin Milled Vokey.

Not very exciting, I know, but there you have it.

[miuratiteleist55]

Please Update your WITB Pretty Please

[SetTheBarrHigh]

Great bag! I've been a member here for a pretty long time and have always enjoyed the thread, but never really piped up. It's really cool to see someone interested in equipment, but able to stick with what works best for you.

[Kangastu]

I've heard you have some pretty impressive sweet spot wear on your irons. I'm interested to see some pictures of the faces of your irons. Oh, and i forgot to mention, inspiring setup you got here. Cheers.

[TheDarkOne]

Mat, Can you confirm or deny that you are testing one of the pink Ping drivers like Watson used to win the Masters? The rumors are everywhere, but I would like to get it from you straight.

[chRisJ87]

Ive heard he is now bagging a set of RocketBallz woods.

[mat562]

My shaft is still a blue colour. There's not a trace of pink anywhere along its entire length.

[miuratiteleist55]

The headline in the Sun


[size="6"]MAT562 DENIES USING PINK SHAFT!!!![/size]

[boxen]

This is a great thread; sorry to see it slow down. Playing much lately, Matt?

[TheDarkOne]

A great thread and a great dude. Mat562 is the best there was, is, or ever will be.
He will always be the guy that to me sets the standard for ever poster here.

Where ever you are sir, may the force be with you...always!

[SD86]

Good, solid bag.

[dominic713]

What happened to Matt? When I left two years ago he was always on here, now, nothing....?

[mat562]

Not playing so much these days, but dug the bats out for a post BMW PGA knock.

 

Nothing too fancy. Lots of old faithful gear.

 

Still playing an old Nike Ignite 410 with a Grafalloy Blue. I have more Grafalloy Blue shafts in my stash than Henrik Stenson. In short, I love the things. I'm a high spin player, and in conjunction with the right head with a bit of loft on it, the tip-stiff Blue gives me both a reasonable launch and a lower-spinning flight and works well. The 10.5 degree Nike Ignite 410 it's mated to works really well for me. I like the deep face and the smaller profile, the pear shape, and I'm able to turn the ball over, which I often struggle to do with more modern drivers.

 

The 3-wood is an old Nike T60. I've only really played two 3-woods since 1991. After nigh on 15 years with an old Flex-Twist shafted TM Tour Spoon, I switched to the Nike club in 2005, I think, and never looked back. I have two clubs. One with an old Fuse shaft; the current club with an old Speeder 757. I'm not sure of the iteration. It's the early 2000s one with the red and pewter graphics and the little flex profile graphic on the side of it. I love the club. I works really well for me; essentially an extension of my arms. It's deep faced, so it takes spin off,  and at 15 degrees it's not horrendously strong, but off a tee I can turn it over and get it up with my driver, and I can also resort to my old trick of whacking it off the deck and getting a spinnier straight or slightly cut shot that finds fairways or hits greens on long holes. It's a banker of a club. A true old faithful.

 

I also have an old Titleist 913 4-wood - or whatever 19 degrees is classed as nowadays. It's set up pretty stock, A1 on the twiddly-thing, with a Diamana Blue Board 83X shaft. I've always been a long iron man, but as I get older and the balls get less spinny I'm increasingly finding a lofted wood to be useful. I still play most of my golf on English heathland courses, where a long iron is a handy bit of kit, but the 4-wood's gone from being in my bag maybe 10% of the time in my 20s and 30s to being in there 50% of the time in my late 40s. It competes for a place in the bag with my 2-iron.

 

I've replaced my long irons over the last few years. I played set-matching long irons for years, with the exception of the old Eye 2 1-iron that I retired long ago. I tried a Titleist 712U utility 2-iron a few years back, and it was like cheating next to a 681 or Nike blade. It went in the bag and, subsequently, so did the 3-iron. That said, I still like a regular 4-iron to 9-iron 681 set-up. They work well and I like the flight and the look at address. After playing DG X100 shafts in my irons for years, I'm now going the predictable softer, lighter route and bagging KBS Tours in an S flex. Frequency-wise, they're comparable to DG S400s which I've tried and liked in the past, and which I've long played in wedges. They have different feel, but I'm warming to it.

 

Wedges? I'm bagging a traditional set-up which suits the weaker lofts on my irons. Pitching wedge and sand wedge are old Vokey SM5s. Nothing fancy. Rusted up, with KBS Tour S shafts instead of the old DG X100 and S400 respectively. I'm now playing a bit less bounce on my sand wedge. For years I always stuck with a Cleveland 588 56 degree/Vokey 256.14 set-up, but I'm now into a 10 degree bounce M Grind sand wedge that's more akin to the old Mizuno TP-9 shaped sand wedges I played as a youngster. Lob wedge is a Ping Eye 2 Gorge L wedge with all the bounce ground off. It's essentially a silver-hued copy of the beryllium one which I played for over a decade when I was young. I can lay it open and hit flop shots off linoleum, which is what I want in a lofted wedge.

 

Putter? I'm curently bagging the same Anser 2 I rolled when I was 14, but I occasionally throw in my old Pal, an old Cameron Newport Teryllium or a battered old Newport Mil Spec someone gave me twenty-odd years ago. It's the one club in the bag that sees a bit of variation month to month.

 

The ball's a Pro V1X. 2019 model. I can't claim it's for any marginal performance gains versus the current model. I simply bought a load of the things a couple of years ago for a good price, and I'm still working my way through them.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by mat562

[robleighlefty89]

Such a cool bag - can we get a look under the head covers? 

[MtlJeff]

I came here to see old blades and drivers from a classy Englishman, and doggone it that's what I got. 

 

The day Mat562 plays a carbon face , is a sad day for all of us