My Demo Day Experience

phillypete · April 29, 2006

One of the local driving ranges had their annual demo day. All the major OEMs were represented.

I am in the market for a driver and a hybrid so I concentrated my efforts on hitting a selection of those clubs.

I started my day at the Taylor Made tent. They by far had the best set-up, they had every driver head with every shaft there for the taking. All of their reps had pockets full of weights and were armed with cordless drills ready to help you find your set-up. After trying a few different shafts I found I that the Proforce V2 was my favorite... I have no clue about the shafts specs but it just works for me. I feel I can give the shaft everything I've got without it getting weird. So that was the shaft I used to compare the drivers.

I hit the R7 with the v2 without looking at the weights and had a fantastic results. I hit a good medium height ball with nice little draw on the finish. I can't say that I looked to see if it was a TP or not but I didn't feel it was closed at all. I really liked the deep face behind ball. This driver really set up comfortable for me. I really liked it.

I also hit the Dual Hybrid TP. Very nice... finally a hybrid without a hook face!

The next tent was Callaway. Their setup was not anywhere near as impressive as TM's. I think this was due to their really really cool interchangeble shaft system. So they only have one Ft-3 head in each loft and weighting and then had one of each shaft. Its a neat idea, but I think it lends itself to a less than impressive presentation.

Anyhow I hit the Ft-3 at 9* with a neutral weighting. I hit it every bit as good as I hit the R7, but the sound... uh the sound was awful! I have to say that I never found the loud cobra aluminum bat sound to be a bad thing. It made me feel like I was crushing the thing. The Ft-3 is the polar oposite of the cobra. It sounds dead, frustratingly dead. Although I was getting great distance out of it I kept swinging harder to try to make the thing sound good, but I just ended up swinging out of my shoes. The sweat spot on the Ft-3 sounds like the dead spot on every other club. On a launch monitor if would probably be a contender, but I am just no sure I can get used to that sound.

I also tried the Ft-3 hybrid, the Heavenwood, and the Hogan hybrid. The two callaway clubs had nasty hook faces. The hogan also sat closed but not as bad. I had the best results with e Ft-3 but like the driver it felt dead. The Hogan was alright, I just wasn't hitting it well.

Next was the Titleist/Cobra tent. Actually unless you really looked around you wouldn't know Titleist was there. The tent and all the promotional stuff was cobra. The only Titleist items there were stuffed into a staff bag and a stand bag. Its like they were trying not to sell clubs... I used to like Titleist but for the Achusnet flagship brand they did a horrible job of promoting it. Heck Callaway had more Hogan gear around than they had Titleist. They only had a couple of random irons, random wedges and some 905Rs.

I tried the 905R in a 9.5. The ball flight was higher than the other drivers. The alignment mark on the head was distracting. I was not able to put good swings on this club. When it was good it was as good as the rest, but I just didn't feel comfortable over the top of it. do have a history with Titleist drivers but this dirver just wasn't a winner for me.

The last tent I stopped at was the Nike tent to hit the SQ. They had an average set up, bunch of staff bags full of clubs. all of the Nike colors are really bright so it helped them.

They didn't have the Sq with the v2 so I tried it with the NV. First off this is one ugly driver! but the thing works. It went just as far as the rest without much fight. As odd as it looks it feels really good through the swing.

If I had to buy a driver just from what i experienced I'd have to say that the R7 425 would beat out the SQ only because I am not a fan of Nike. To me the performance was identical. I feel like the 905R wasn't even in the same league as these other drivers. It was a real disappointment because I was hoping to like it.

All that being said, before I plunk down the bucks for a good driver I'm going to get on a launch monitor to confirm what I saw and felt.

Hybrids are a no brainer... the Dual TP was the only club that setup right for me.

My overall thoughts on the demo...

This was the first demo I have been to where they have had multiple companies on site at one time. The other demo's I've been to have been one manufacturer at a time. It was a great opertunity to try all the products side by side. Although I didn't have time to try them all.

A lot of the guys were out there hitting like 20-30 balls with each club they tried. It made it real tough to get spot on the line to hit. I felt it was real inconsiderate of these "gentlemen". One guy was trying out FWs and would proceed to hit a small bucket of balls with each club. It takes me two maybe three balls with each club. If I really don't like a club I can tell by the first ball. I just can't understand what their logic is for taking up a spot and a piece of equipment for such a long time. It really irriated me and because of this I skipped over a few companies (touredge, cobra, mizuno, ping, MacG., Cleveland) for the sake of time.

Even with those inconviences I thought it was an excellent event. As we were leaving they were firing up the grill. Next year I'll have to plan to spend some more time!

kmrev · April 29, 2006

Thanks for the review. Interesting info. Demo Days are so great. See if you can get to another one soon and try the things you missed out on because Mizuno, Ping and Cleveland really make some quality products.

kblakeney35 · April 29, 2006

I agree, I love demo days. The last time I tried out a 905R, I also noticed that it had a very high ballflight compared to the other titleist heads. Granted I hit the ball high with most every driver, but there you go.

-Kyle

Konklifer · April 29, 2006

If you plan on going to the launch monitor take the results with a grain of salt. My launch monitor results were no where near real world ones.

mantan · April 29, 2006

Nice report.

I agree about the jackazzes who confuse a demo day with a personal fitting session. The goal it to let everyone get a taste of what's out there, not sit there and give each club a complete and thorough workout while the line stretches out behind you....

Titleist87 · April 29, 2006

I went to a demo day today, too. Could we have been at the same one? Titleist did not have much here, either. The lines at the Nike and TM tent were the longest so I did not even hit any of their clubs. What I did hit:

Callaway X driver - stock stiff Fuji shaft. Long and straight

Callaway X fairway - stock fuji regular and stiff. Again, long and straight with better flight with the regular shaft.

Hogan Apex blade - Very nice, very nice.

Birdgstone J33 irons - not too impressed.

Mizuno MP60 - I'll get flamed for this but, it felt dead.

Hogan Edge CFT Ti 2h - Way long and straight. Now I see why golfers are droppng their long irons - why not?

Sonartec - A few woods and a hybrid - not memorable.

Adams RPM dual driver - Long, long, long. I could be tempted to buy one of these.

phillypete · April 30, 2006

I went to a demo day today, too. Could we have been at the same one? Titleist did not have much here, either. The lines at the Nike and TM tent were the longest so I did not even hit any of their clubs. What I did hit:
Callaway X driver - stock stiff Fuji shaft. Long and straight
Callaway X fairway - stock fuji regular and stiff. Again, long and straight with better flight with the regular shaft.
Hogan Apex blade - Very nice, very nice.
Birdgstone J33 irons - not too impressed.
Mizuno MP60 - I'll get flamed for this but, it felt dead.
Hogan Edge CFT Ti 2h - Way long and straight. Now I see why golfers are droppng their long irons - why not?
Sonartec - A few woods and a hybrid - not memorable.
Adams RPM dual driver - Long, long, long. I could be tempted to buy one of these.

I doubt it was the same one... I am in PA and Bridgestone and Sonartec weren't there.

I didn't mention but I tried the X driver and the RPM. It was weird... I couldn't put a good swing on either driver for the liffe of me, but I'd move on and it the next product great... It could have been the swing weight or something throughing me off, but anyhow I don't feel like I can give an opinion on either.

The main take away that I found was that all the major OEMS offer fantasic drivers that are even better than their last iteration, but between manufactures it all comes down to personal taste.

easyyy · April 30, 2006

I hear the same thing about the Nike SQ specifically. I have heard from a lot of people here ont he board it is a so-so driver. But the golfers I know locally that have tried it are talking about playing it. Good bal strickers to.

Thanks for the post. Report back after the launch monitor, I would like to hear the result of the R7 & SQ.