07/13/2024
A follow-up on a post I made a couple of months ago. This is all technical golf equipment stuff so most of you can just scroll on. But some people wanted me to follow up after I threatened to give up my forged blade irons in favor of something easier to hit. I’ve tested clubs and this is what I’ve some up with.
To recap, I announced I was (probably) going to give up my Titleist muscleback irons with the DG x100 shafts for a set more befitting my, er, experience and the more casual brand of golf I play now. I don’t have the swing speed I had 20 years ago (my driver swing speed still tops 100 mph but not by much), and while I have enough speed to play blades — I played blades for decades — I finally figured I might be happier hitting clubs that were actually easy to hit, rather than tuning forks that harshed the vibe whenever i missed the center of the clubface.
I’d been thinking about going to easier-to-hit irons for quite a while; I hurt my right arm pretty badly a couple of years ago and this injury effected my swing. (Not in an entirely bad way — it shortened and tightened me up. I lost a little distance but probably gained a little accuracy. The downside is I still want to revert to my old, longer swing when I feel a little pressure but I can’t quiyte make that move anymore so I end up doing something goofy — usually blocking it right.)
I will admit that what ultimately convinced me is that I hit a Ping G730 seven iron on a whim and — according to the launch monitor — effortlessly carried it 190 yards. I hit my Titleist seven iron about 165 for comparison. But also for comparision, note that my Titleist 7-iron of 36 degrees; while the Ping has a lot of about 29 degrees, which makes it more like my old five iron than my seven iron. Still, it is intoxicating to hit a club 190 yards when it has a “7” on its sole. I can’t really explain why.
But what was really intriguing about the Ping G730 was how easy it was to hit. It felt like cheating. Point and swing. Boom. The ball went straight, in the general direction I meant it to. And at least 20 yards further than my old irons. With a set of G730s, I could miss greens with seven irons that I’d normally have to miss with five irons.
The only drawback of the 730s was — for me, anyway — the fact that they looked like the clubs the robo golfers of 2525 would use. They were chunky. Not unhandsome exactly, and to anyone who didn’t start playing golf in the early 1970s with a set of Ben Hogan Directors, they probably just look like golf clubs. But I’m a snob.
So I started testing a lot of so-called “game improvement” and “player’s distance” irons, with an emphasis on the ones I found aesthetically pleasing. I tried everything, but there were two sets I really liked — the new Cobra Darkspeed irons and the Callaway AI Smoke irons. And I eventually wound up with the Callaways because I liked their looks a little better.
I do not hit my Callaway AI Smoke seven iron 190 yards in the air. But I can hit it 185 yards in the air if I really step on it and it looks, to me, like a golf club. Like the Pings (and every other club in its category) the lofts are really strong (I think the seven iron loft is 29 degrees; I know the so-called pitching wedge in the set is really more like an eight iron) but I am a natural high ball hitter and the softer shafts — I went from an extra stiff (True Temper Dynamic Gold x100) to a gentleman’s stiff in True Temper Elevate 95s (which has some sort of vibration dampening technology I really like ) — help put back some of the green-holding spin that the lower lofts take out.
I also adjusted my woods and added a 46-degree Vokey SM-9 to my wedge assortment. So here’s the new bag, with notes:
Driver: Titleist TSR2, with the Autoflex 505x (pink) shaft.
Now the driver is new — I switched from the super-low spin Titleists TSR4 head with a VA Composites Drago shaft — and the shaft is a story unto itself. I was an Autoflex skeptic until I tried it. I don’t know if this buggy whip gives me any more distance (I am as long as I was with the old set-up, maybe a touch longer, but the club feels so good that I’m resisting subbing in the back-up, a Ping 430 10k Max with a five dot Newton shaft that is probably eight to 10 yards longer (and a little straighter) than the Titleist in general. I don’t care. It’s just more fun to hit my gamer.
And while this isn’t about distance — I don’t know how far I hit an average drive, I do know that 20 years ago I was pretty long and have a few hit-and-giggle “longest drive” victories to my credit — I am a threat to be on any par five that’s less than say 575 yards in two.
Three woods: I carry two. The first is a Titleist TSR 2+ , with a Tensei Blue stiff shaft, a 13.5 degree model knocked all the way down to as low as it will go, which I believe is 12.25 degrees. This is an off-the-tee club only, my version of a mini driver and I love it. It gives me a little draw and I can get it out there. I never hit it off the deck, not because it wouldn’t work, but because I also carry a Callaway AI Smoke Triple Diamond, a 15 degree model cranked up to 17 degrees. This is a monster off the fairway, essentailly a four wood with a three wood shaft. (A Project X Cypher Fifty, in stiff.)
The 2+ replaces an old (10 or 12 years) Taylor Made RBZ Tour Spoon and the Triple Diamond replaces a Cleveland Halo XL “hy-wood” which, while it sounds like a club a chop would use, is actually a really effective gap filler, more like a five-wood than a hybrid. (I could see putting the Cleveland back in the bag under certain circumstances.)
I’ve already discussed the irons; my highest club has a five on the sole, but I regularly hit it off the tee on a 210-yard par three I play. A good strike will fly it to the back of the green, a poor one will usually end up near the front edge. I have debated getting the four iron for this set but that would mean I have to lose either a wedge or a wood.
I’m carrying four wedges: a Vokey SM 9 at 46 degrees, a Vokey TVD 50 degree, a Vokey SM10 54 degree and an Edel 60 degree. All of them except the SM10 have the old DG “Spinner” shaft, which I guess they don’t make anymore; the SM10 has whatever stock wedge Titleist puts in them, I think it’s a “wedge” flex. (I’m too lazy to walk downstairs and look.)
The only thing interesting about my wedges is that the 50 degree is an inch longer than standard because it’s my primary chipping club (when I started playing this game, pitching wedges were 50 degrees and were what I chipped with exclusively) and I sometime want a little extra shaft and that the Edel is stamped “Chineserolex” in honor of a music project I completed seven years ago. I only put it in play this year because someone stole my Vokey 58 degree (and it was intentionally stolen, I didn’t leave it behind of the course, I know the circumstances of how it disappeared).
If you see anyone with a black Vokey M-grind 58 degree with “PM” snowflake-stamped all over the back, ask them how they came to acquire it.
Finally, I’m rotating putters depending on how I feel. The three on call right now are the old standby Scottie Cameron Newport center-shaftered protype; a Tour-built Cameron Golo Select 5 that is rumored to have once belonged to Glen Day and a lightweight Acushnet Bullseye from the ’70s that is identical to the one I used in high school. (But it is not the one I used in high school because a teammate threw that putter in a lake.)