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It was a dark and stormy night .... Oh, no wait. That's a totally different story. My bad. It wasn't so much stormy as it was just rainy yesterday morning. I'd been watching the weather for the last week+ to see how it would be on the day. As we got closer and closer, the weather was not looking good. At one time, it was showing not just 🌧️, but ⛈️. I was becoming more and more disheartened about demo day actually happening. But as the day arrived, we were back to just 🌧️ with a bit lower percentage than we were the week prior. I wasn't taking the entire day off work, as the festivities weren't starting till 10am. So, I started my day like any other, angrily getting out of bed upset I still have a decade plus before I can retire and focus purely on golf (come on lottery, help a brother out). I was still watching the weather app, but more so just looking out the windows in the house at the sky or the driveway/roads for their dampness factor. The morning wasn't off to a strong start as it was raining hard enough to hear it on the roof. A light rain you can't hear, but if it's strong enough I can hear it and that's not good. As the early morning went on, the rain began to lighten up and became just a slight drizzle by about 9:30am or so. Then by 10am, it had stopped. The weather app still showed rain the rest of the day as I checked out the hourly forecast, but it wasn't showing anything heavy, luckily. So, after wandering around the house for an hour or so after logging off work for the day at 10am, I decided to get myself to the demo day and get this party started. One of my memories of my old HS football coach, who I had great respect for and who always saw the best in me, was that of a saying he gave me my freshman year. "We play how we practice." Although he gave a lot of good advice over the 4 years I played for him, this one always stuck with me. I took it to every sport I played in HS and even into college. I still use this advice today. If I'm going to the range to hit balls, I dress just like I would to play a round. If I'm going for a lesson, I dress just like I would to play a round. Yup, you guessed it. This works for something as simple as a demo day. With the threat of rain and the temps at 60* max, I dressed appropriately while still maintaining the ability to swing with full freedom. I grabbed my Taylormade Bubble Shaft golf umbrella and off I went. I had been to a single vendor demo day last summer (Titleist), but it was a different set up. We had appointments and a particular topic to cover in the meeting. It was more of a loose fitting than a demo day, but there were some people who popped in during my hour to grab a club or two that they hit next to me. This was very different. Taylormade, Callaway, Mizuno, Titleist, Cleveland/Srixon, XXIO, Cobra, and Ping (PXG cancelled), all lined up (in that order left to right) on the range. The weather certainly kept many golfers away as it wasn't overly busy, and I had no real issues getting around and hitting. Each OEM had their tents up with their names plastered on them so you wouldn't forget who you were talking to. Taylormade had 2 tents, which didn't really surprise me. I had my plan of action before I got there, as there were only a few options I wanted to try, and this was all about irons. I've researched all the options from various places (especially MGS) along with initial pricing from their websites or the Golf Galaxy customizer. Wilson wasn't there, or I'd be checking out the Dynaforged. XXIO was of no interest to me. Callaway really didn't have any irons I was interested in. Although Cobra has the Forged Tec, they are due for a refresh soon. Taylormade does have the P790/P770 that are of interest, but just not today. Ping has the i530, but they are the most expensive irons on my list, by several hundred dollars. Like the Taylormades, not today. My plan was simple - Titleist T-Series, Srixon ZX4/5 MKii, Mizuno JPX923 HMPro/Forged. Hit them, get a feel for them, and see what shakes out. My other goal was to try and look at graphite shaft options, as my plan is to go that route for new irons to help with my elbow issues and eventual hand/wrist/shoulder issues down the road. MMT's, Recoils, Steelfiber, and TGI/PGI were all on the table (MMT/Recoil being on the top of my list). LET'S DO THIS!! I started with the Titleist tent. I knew Ken from last summer and thought that would be a nice way to ease into the day. I was nervous since my swing is far from accurate/consistent at this point, especially with only a single round under my belt. We chatted for a minute and then we got to business. I started with the T350 as it's the most forgiving and I needed that for many reasons, but especially being cold and not warmed up. He gave me a pre-built option with the Mits Tensei shaft on it to get started. Not a heavy shaft, and in R-flex. But good enough to get started with. The first thing that I thought of when I put it down at address, what is Tony Covey bitching about?! These are NOT huge shovels by any stretch of the imagination. The Cleveland Zipcore XL are, but not the T350's. I've seen CB's and MB's with a thicker top line than these. I'm liking these already. After a few tops and skulls with the first swings of the day, I finally found some good strikes. Although not at full swing speed, when I struck it well it felt like the very description @ole gray gave in the forum test last year - "butter on hot toast melting in ya mouth!" This must be what @GolfSpy_BEN feels when he's hitting all those blades! I could have stopped the demo day right there and been good to go for setting up a full Titleist fitting. But there were more toys to play with. The gentleman next to me was hitting the T350 8-iron. He asked if we could switch so he could see the 7-iron flight and feel. I figured I could see the 8-iron flight as well, so we swapped. Again, it was a wonderful experience. The 8-iron looked and felt just like the 7. I was in heaven and knew my Takomo's days were numbered. Next, I had Ken build me up a T200 with the Recoil 95 shaft. Again, these looked great. A bit smaller than the T350, but the blending potential becomes obvious the minute you put it down after hitting the T350. It took a few swings to adjust to the new shaft and head, but when I connected on one it was magical. Again, that buttery soft feel on good strikes. Bullet straight flights. I just couldn't stop swinging these clubs. I kept having to go to the ball bucket to grab more and more. But then I remembered I was there for more than just Titleist. Although I didn't hit the T150, when I go for my formal vendor neutral fitting, those will be on my list to at least try along with the T200 and T350. After thanking Ken for his time, I moved next door to the Mizuno booth. Even Ken told me that if he didn't work for Titleist, he'd be playing Mizuno. So that was a positive vibe along with all the good reviews I'd seen/read about their various options. I was warmed up now too, so going to Mizuno next was perfect timing. But my stay with Mizuno was going to take me on a bit of wild twist. After checking out the various heads in the Mizuno tent, I settled on the JPX923 HM Pro to start with. Standard settings and such, and with the MMT105 shaft. This was one I really thought would fit the bill well for me. After a few swings, even with good contact, I realized I was wrong. So I had Brett swap out the shaft for the Recoil 95. I seem to do better with the Recoil than others, at least to this point. I had hit the JPX921 HM/HM Pro a few years ago and wasn't really that impressed with it. It wasn't harsh or overly hard, but it wasn't very smooth or buttery either. The JPX923 version is very different than its predecessor. I was making better contact all around with the JPX, and I was finding it to feel just as buttery as the Titleist was. Now I had a proper competition going. Like the Titleist, I was hit strong 🏹 down the range with little to any movement. For me, straight is good! As fun as it is to see that baby draw I have come to recognize, it can on rare occasion get away from me. More so with the driver than anything else, but it does occasionally with the irons. So I'm perfectly happy with straight. I wasn't hitting 💣s or anything, but then again, I wasn't swinging as hard as I could as I was trying to hit quality, focused shots. Plus, with range balls I wasn't going to get the proper distance anyway. After enjoying my rounds with the HM Pro, I asked Brett to swap me out for the Forged head. This was one I was really looking forward to hitting from their lineup. I'd been eyeing the JPX921 Forged for some time, and these are supposedly a lot more forgiving and longer than the 921 model. I'm glad I waited. As great as the HMPro felt, the Forged was that much better. Again, straight, piercing flights down the range. It was like listening to a favorite song on repeat. Enjoyment, over and over again. Then, things went for a bit of an unexpected turn. I heard Brett mention to another golfer that he did have the Shaft Optimizer with him. I had used this back when I tried the 921's and it did give me the outcome I expected from a couple previous fittings. So I thought it would be a good idea to run through it again with Brett with the new line of heads. So he grabbed the shaft with the Optimizer and through on the HMPro head, got me all situated, and asked me to give him 3 good swings. Now as many of you probably have experienced, providing quality, accurate, and normal swings on demand isn't exactly easy. I was a bit nervous that I'd skull it or fat it or something just as horrible. Not today. I hit probably the 3 best swings of the day, back to back to back. Divots in front of the ball and everything! I looked back at him and joked that I needed a full set of shafts with the Optimizer on them. 🤣 Although he did laugh at my joke while mentioning the $2500 per shaft upcharge, his facial expression wasn't what I expected. Neither what he said next. "You're not going to like the results." Needless to say, I was a little perplexed at that comment. My mind raced trying to figure out what he meant. What he told me wasn't even close to where my mind went. When I did the optimizer a few years ago, it gave me pretty much what I expected - DG120 S300, DGS300, PX LZ 6.0, among a few others. Pretty typical for my swing at that time. Well, swings change. Even with my speed at only about 82.5mph (again, not full speed, but accurate to my actual swing motion), it gave some interesting results. I know very well that every swing is unique, and depending on how we swing a shaft we can fit into any type of shaft with any weight or any flex. I also know that flex is a pretty useless term these days. There are no standards around flex throughout the industry, so there's no point being attached to one flex over another. EI profiles are different between shafts, showing where it loads and unloads, where it's stiff and not, etc. But these results were still not remotely what I expected. They were all over the place in terms of what make, model, flex, and one even had a soft step mentioned. Weights were pretty consistent at least, around the DG120S I play now. I received these two screenshots this morning. He showed them both to me yesterday, but we really didn't go into the swing stats. Speed, Shaft Lean, and AoA I understand. But I'm trying to find information around Kick Angle and Release Factor. I wouldn't mind hearing their explanation for Tempo as well. It looked like I sped up as I went, which is probably why my Shaft Lean also started going down. At least my AoA is right where I want it. I found this doing a little research this morning. Tempo:  1 = Slowest, 9 = Fastest Toe Down:  1 = Slowest Transition, 9 = Fastest Transition Kick Angle:  1 = Less Forward Bend, 9 = More Forward Bend Release Factor:  1 = Late Release, 9 = Early Release The main reason Brett said what he did was that not a single shaft the Optimizer recommended was graphite. Not even farther down the list. You can see why I mentioned that things went for an unexpected turn. I was expecting completely different results. Completely different results. Even without the graphite options, the results just threw me into a head spin with all those strange flexes and shaft models. I played the PX LZ in 6.0 for a short time and enjoyed them. They had very similar feeling to the DG120, at least to me. The shaft pulls I bought were just a little short for me, so I reshafted into my DG120. I've tested some Modus shafts, and they were just ok. Nothing to really write home about. I hadn't really tested the KBS shafts at all. They've always been a bit pricey in the aftermarket. Oddly enough, Brett had the KBS Tour 120 S with the soft step in his testing box. So I figured, what the hell. Let's give it a go. I'm still not sold on staying with steel shafts, but I figured I'd try out what was suggested and see what happens. It's also good to note, none of the shafts suggested have upcharges with Mizuno. A couple were for Titleist. Trying to keep an open mind on shafts, I started hitting a few KBS Tour S SS with the Forged head. I wasn't sure what to expect as I had no experience with the KBS line at all. It actually felt pretty darn good to me. Pretty smooth, with good strikes and a good ball flight while not being overly high. I believe these are supposed to be a mid launch shaft, but with the SS I saw what I might consider a more mid/high launch flight. No idea on spin numbers, but launch looked pretty good to me. I then swapped out for the Modus 120X. Nope. Not going to be my shaft. I did not like it at all. Had trouble getting it to work with me at all. I didn't try the LZ at the Demo Day, but it'll be on my list on the next Demo Day on 5/4 in Knoxville. I figured I'd hit enough with Mizuno at this point, and needed to try and save swings for my last stop of the day - Srixon. After thanking Brett for all his help and eye-opening results, I wondered down a few tents to the Srixon/Cleveland pavilion. They had a few heads on the table and just 2  bags of shafts. Not really what I was expecting and a bit disappointing. They did have the Zipcore XL iron heads there, which was good since I wanted to see them. They are in fact quite large, and HEAVY. Much heavier than I expected them to be. I knew they'd be larger than the ZX line, but they were very oversized. Knowing I didn't have a lot of swings left in me (I'd been swinging for about 1.5 hours by this point), I went right to the ZX4. He didn't have much in the way of shafts for me, so I was stuck with the Modus 120X. I knew this wasn't a shaft I was going to get along with, but I wanted to ensure I got some swings in with Srixon. So I got to work. The MKii version is much better than the original ZX4. It's smaller with a lot less front to back size. The original seemed to border on SGI due to it's thickness. The MKii is much more centered in GI-land. I limited my swings with it since I wanted to hit the ZX5 as well, and I was getting tired. So I transitioned to the 5 and got back at it. It looked great at address and was thinner than the 4 was, as expected. But there was something I didn't expect. They both felt firm on contact to me. I expected it to be much softer and buttery like the Titleist and Mizuno's. But it didn't. Perhaps it was the shaft or the fact I was tired. Regardless, they fell to the bottom of the short list at this point. I'll test them again, probably first at the next Demo Day in a few weeks to ensure it wasn't a fluke. But it was disappointing regardless. Well, I didn't start out to write a 📕 about my experience yesterday, but that's what came out. All in all, it was a very productive 2+ hours at the range. Got to hit some stuff I really wanted to. Found out some interesting things about my swing and potential shafts. And was a bit disappointed in one of the brands I had high hopes for. But that's golf, and life I suppose.

My father-in-law had one of those sit-down moments with my wife and I this morning after the kids went to school. He's been having a lot of problems with his back for the past few months but he's also the type to not really keep anyone in the loop as far as what's going on. Today he told us that they had found a small lump on his right lung back in November around the size of a dime. A recent x-ray last month showed that it has grown to about the size of a quarter. They don't know what it is, so he's waiting on approval and scheduling to have another test done for more information, but in the meantime, that lump is basically pushing on his shoulder. He basically said it feels like a broken rib that won't heal, which sounds pretty miserable to me.

Hi Hoyoumac, random one for you.   I was recently fitted into a very light Mitsubishi Vanquish PL shaft through a Callaway 30 minute fitting.  4R very light at 44.5 grams .  I've had a long wait for the club and getting cold feet about such a light weight shaft.  My driver swing speed is 87mph.  My ball speed and carry were my best ever but I did not see dispersion we were moving too fast.  Felt very smooth.  Should I be concerned about this shaft weight with my swing speed?

My fault, typed in a rush. Its in Long Island, NY just outside Queens. 

I don't have a 2.1 to have that problem lol.   I have an older used Evnroll ER2, that I started using last year. It's been a great putter but hot off the face. After seeing people switch to a mallet style and having great success, and then researching people's craze about LAB, I decided, heck with it. Take the plunge, buy one, use it for an entire season, and see if I like it or not. I rolled a few at stores, but you can't even tell a putter from a dozen rolls on a mat in a store selling putters.  So now it looks like I have a gold fish. I almost want to add a google eye to mine when it arrives.