IDontGiveAchuck

I don't work at any of those. But that is pretty funny. Everyone thinks the same thing. When I told my mother I was moving to Seattle back in 2012, she asked if I was going to work for Microsoft?

I would rather trade off turf interaction with real, appropriate and unbiased data. I'm a big supporter of keeping things "old school", but I love the idea of some A.I. giving me real analytics.

I can foresee this episode getting more than a few people fired up!!

All done. Good luck.

That explains why I liked my shots better when I lived in Arizona!

Couldn't agree more. When trying to recover from a back injury, the last thing you should do is push yourself that hard.

As someone who has had to deal with back injuries/issues pretty much my entire adult life, first back injury was at age 28, I can say that once that happens it doesn't take much to make that injury re-appear or worsen. So, while the argument that it's self-inflicted could be seen as valid, in my opinion its all down to the nature of the injury. Back injuries are a terrible thing to deal with.

Official review has been posted.

I was confused at first about what you were talking about because I don't ever see any ads with Chrome. Then I realized, after looking from home, that I am always getting on here while I'm on my work laptop and the ads are blocked. I have to agree that the ads are fairly annoying but at least they can be closed.

I had a little more range time over the new years break, way too much rain around here to get out on the course. The more I practice with these shafts and the more comfortable I get with them, the more I like them. I have now noticed that my spin rate has increased, along with the height of my shots which equates to less roll on after landing. My short iron shots are stopping on dimes. I think I'm going to like these!

I'll just throw this up there...

I have a longer forearm than upper arm. Which it now makes sense why my putter swing looks the way it does. I always thought this was something I needed to work on when comparing my swing with that of the pro's. Now I know that may not be what needs correcting. This is good info.

@Golfspy_CG2 kick COVID's ass! Get better soon.

I absolutely love these 2 posts. Couldn't agree more! If you want to wait until you think you have mastered your swing, you'll be waiting a really long time.

So, I finally made it out to the range over the weekend after a very long and stressful week (we had a COVID scare in the house during Christmas week! Everybody had to quarantine. We're all safe and healthy now.). I hit about 10 balls with each club 3-P. My first impression is that these shafts are really light comparatively. I found myself slowing my swing down a bit. This will take some getting used to. I have to keep in my head that I don't need to swing for the fences every time. They also feel like they have a bit more flex than a standard stiff shaft. Another reason to slow my swing down. I did notice more spin on the ball and the flight pat is more elevated than usual, with stock stiff shafts. As I said before, I was a low spin, low flight hitter to begin with so this really isn't a bad thing for me. I'll be putting some numbers together over the course of me going to the range and hopefully out on the course.

My shafts were returned to me. So if I don't like them, yes I can have my old shafts re-installed.

I haven't been in Beaufort, SC since 2005, and I only played the course on MCRD Parris Island. Because it was quiet and it only cost me $25/month to be a member and play as much as I wanted. Kinda wish I could go back and play it again!

My swing speed has always been in the mid- to high-90's. My comparison will be to stock shafts. This is my first set of aftermarket iron shafts. I haven't had much trouble with high spin, the opposite actually. I could use a little extra spin.

I received my clubs in the mail and wanted to put up a few sneak peeks...

The Review 11 January 2021 Nippon N.S. Pro Zelos 8 – Official MGS Forum Review by IDontGiveAchuck Intro Hello everyone. First let me express my appreciation for being given the opportunity to be involved in this test and review. I am a self-taught golfer who was sucked into the hobby during my military days. What started out as a way to hang out with my buddies and have a few beers has evolved into a way to hang out with buddies and drink a few beers. I take the game seriously but not to the point of high blood pressure; I get enough of that trying to figure out my swing. I have an average score in the mid-80’s, most of the time. I have a fairly smooth, medium paced swing that averages in the high-80’s to low-90’s. On a side note, since September when I had an auto accident, my swing speed has decreased into the low- to mid-70’s due to a back/shoulder injury. My doctor has stated that my golf swing may never recover. Well we’ll just see about that!! I’m in the PNW, so soggy conditions are not unusual, and the season is shorter than I like. More on that later! I normally have a slight to moderate fade of about 10 yards on average and my typical miss is a fat chunk to the right. The strength of my game has been in my short game. I need a strong short game to make up for my driver/woods. This is my first experience with changing shafts on any of my clubs. I have always been an off-the-rack golfer. My review will be on the replacement of the original Ping shafts in my Ping Eye2 3-P irons. First Impressions According to the Nippon website, the Zelos 8 target market is: • Players that would like to use steel shaft, but do not have enough power (swing speed) • Current graphite shaft players • Golfers not satisfied with graphite shafts (I currently fall into this slower swing speed category due to the aforementioned injury.) Nippon also claims that this shaft is “designed with a low kick point and evenly distributed rigidity which delivers more than ample flexibility from tip to butt.” I had hopes of it having a good feel and being a bit of an improvement over my stock shafts as far as ball flight is concerned. I was intrigued by the claim of the low kick point in the hopes of it helping my low ball flight with the stock shafts. For my testing, I was limited to range time only as the weather around the PNW during the winter months is not friendly to golfers. I was able to get some launch monitor data on a Trackman and TopTracer. Grading Looks (9 out of 10 points) When I received my clubs from Nippon and took them out of the box, I wasn’t stunned at the look of them. They didn’t look any different from any other steel shaft. No flashy graphics. Nothing that jumped out and said, “HEY LOOK AT ME!”. There is only the simple blue sticker. With that being said these are some good-looking shafts. I appreciate the simplicity of them. Nothing distracting and they were installed with the name facing down so there is nothing in the line of sight at address. Feel (9 out of 10 points) Upon pulling each one of my clubs out of the box and feeling them, even without a grip yet, I could feel a difference. The first thing I noticed about the feel was how much more I could feel the club head. There is a good balance between rigidity and sensitivity to them especially towards the tip. I got a really good feeling during my downswing of how the clubhead felt. It felt as if the club were loading up right before impact and then a decent amount of kick on impact. All in all, it felt like I was more aware of my clubhead during the swing, especially in the downswing and impact. Basic Characteristics (18 out of 20 points) I’ll get the one negative out of the way first; I took off a couple of points in this category only because these shafts are thinner than standard, and it took some extra tape to fit the grips. I had to put a total of 3 wraps of tape on to get a proper fit. I was able to get plenty of range time in both with and without a launch monitor. I have a couple of options for ranges besides what is available at the local courses, one is covered and heated (very important in the winter months) with mats and TopTracer available, the other has both mats and natural grass with Trackman monitors available. I was able to get around 100 shots with each club and compiled some good numbers which I averaged out and put in the table below. I didn’t notice a big change in ball speed or club speed. I do have to throw in a caveat that due to my injury from the auto accident my swing speed has slowed by about 15 – 20 mph. So even though at this time I don’t see a marked improvement in distance, I believe there will be when I am back to 100%. The one major difference in my shots that I noticed with the change in shafts was that I went from having a fade/push to more of a draw shaped shot. The other game changer, the big one, for me was the increase in the height of my shots. This was a dramatic increase compared to the shape of my shots with my old setup. I’m getting a good height which increases the land angle which equates to less roll on of my shots. I am absolutely loving that. The stopping power of my ball is Italian sports car like! On-Course / LM Performance (30 out of 30 points) I am basing this score on my launch monitor performance. I gave a perfect score because my shots showed a major improvement over my old shafts. I have a much tighter dispersion and the shape of the shots is more desirable. I have no problem saying that these will absolutely improve my game. Considering the improved accuracy and the way my ball stops on a dime now, how can that not improve my game? Even though I was unable to get on course with them, I can say with a certainty that the performance will not diminish by taking them into a game time situation. I’m hoping that my handicap will go down by quite a few points once I can get some game time with them. Overall, I have no complaints with these shafts. I don’t have any suggestions on improvement. Granted, I’m not an expert on golf clubs or the manufacturing of shafts. So, I won’t attempt to impart any “wisdom” on what Nippon should do next. What I will say is how much I love the feel of these shafts. It’s a feel (sensitivity) of graphite without it being graphite! Nippon hit the mark with their claim in that regard. Miscellaneous (8 out of 10 points) The customer service when dealing with Nippon was fantastic. Had a great call with Mark who fit my shafts. We had about a 45-minute discussion about the particulars of my swing, what weight he thought would be best and the length I required. It was a great intro into the aftermarket shaft world. There is nothing to complain about in that area. I was a little disappointed in the packaging of my clubs upon return. There was just a bit of bubble wrap around the heads and rubber bands holding the clubs together with some packaging paper thrown in the gaps. Maybe this is not that unusual, but I thought it would be better. It just left a little to be desired. Play it or Trade it? (20 out of 20 points) Play it! 20 out of 20 because my shots have improved dramatically with these shafts and it’s going to take a lot to get them away from me! I think they are fairly priced for the market. At about $35/shaft, I would consider that a decent price and one that I would pay for considering the improvement they provided. Conclusion If you happen to fall into the not-so-fast swing speed category, then these are the shafts for you. They have provided me with the shot characteristics of a higher speed swing while not having the higher speed swing. If you have ever wanted to try graphite shafts but had reservations because of the stigma that graphite has, these are the cure. You get good looking steel shafts that have very similar characteristics to graphite shafts. No, you can’t have mine. I’m keeping them. Final Score: (94 out of 100 points)

Welcome aboard Cashuss, from the North end of Seattle!

Moving to Phoenix?! Lucky you, I'm jealous. Great golf in AZ! I'm a Seattle guy now but home will always be Yuma, AZ.

I'm intrigued, to be honest. I might have to look at getting a set of these. I have to get new grips for the Zelos shaft testing anyway...

by expiration date??? deals ending soonest have highest priority? Just my $0.02!!