ZMendle10
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Posts posted by ZMendle10
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- Popular Post
Had a range session and this shaft is for sure taking some getting used to. While there were some stretches of hitting the ball in the middle I was still seeing some high and spiny shots or just couldn't close the club face. The ball flight was very much out to the right and only went left if I pulled it or tried to hit a hook which isn't a feeling I am a fan of.
I'm not too sure if it's because of the length at 46 1/8in or the shaft itself but I am potentially thinking of cutting it down to 45.5in to gain some control back. I think the additional length is causing me to be more out to in as well and not make the most middle contact so we shall see. I might give it a few more sessions as is and one more round on the course before I make my decision.
- Vegan_Golfer_PNW, Kenny B, Syks7 and 8 others
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13 hours ago, HikingMike said:
Wow you put yourself through the wringer too!
Well it’s been thrown into the fire, and sounds like you can already see there is something there, which is awesome. Thanks for that!
It was a very long day of testing but easily the most thorough of all the products that I have tested There is for sure something to it and i have my theories but I will unfortunately save them till the final review. I will be going to Austin from Saturday thru Tuesday this week so I won't be bringing my sticks with me so I wanted to put it fully through its paces beforehand for first impressions. I will try to get to hitting some more balls today or tomorrow before I leave but only time will tell.
13 hours ago, HikingMike said:I wanted to ask how consistent your indoor sim and outdoor 18 holes experiences were with it. When on the course, was it performing similar to how it showed up on Trackman?
I will say what I was seeing during my fitting was very close to what I was seeing on the course. The good ones were high bombs and the bad ones were super spiny weak fades. That being said I had no penalties off the tee and several drives over 310 yards so when it connects boy oh boy does it connect and is it a fun ball flight to watch. As testing progress I am going to capture clubhead speed and ball speed with my PRGR launch monitor.
I have been using this thing for a while and the ball speed and club head speed are accurate to within a mph because of rounding. It's easy to setup and use so I will have it be apart of my on the course testing for the final review. Unfortunately the batteries were dead when I wanted to use it yesterday so we will have to wait till next week to try again on the course.
- Jean D, BallsLeon and HikingMike
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So today was a massive day for the AutoFlex Dream 7. It was put through the absolute ringer today with a trackman session, followed by a fitting, then a pre round range session, and finally 18 holes from tees playing about 6800 yards. I'm going on a last minute trip to Austin from Saturday to Tuesday so no golf is gonna be played those days. However, being able to do so many different situations with it was really eye opening for me and gave me a true performance for my first impressions.
Some things that I noticed so far for those who are impatient. The shaft delivers quicker swing speeds and thus higher ball speeds, shot shape is for sure consistent, and the head weight needs to be on the lighter side to get the most out of this shaft. So adhere to the swing weight recommendations for the shaft flex and get fitted for this shaft to get the most out of it.
I'm hoping to get both an outdoor range session as well as a trackman session before my trip but so far this shaft is the real deal and I'm excited to continue to the process.
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Tried to get to this earlier today but got a little caught up and the day got away from me but the Dream 7 has arrived! I have it all specked out at D2 and trimmed from 46 3/4in to 46 1/8in in length with a Golf Pride CPX grip. We are ready for our fitting tomorrow and more photos will surface in the first impressions but for now hers a bit of a sneak peak.
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5 hours ago, yungkory said:
Loved the 505x when my fitter put it in my gamer driver just to try out for fun. Obviously she was doing it so I would buy one, but I was waiting for the new driver heads to come out at the time. Maybe I'll treat myself for father's day
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2 hours ago, chisag said:
... I am old school. My Autoflex Dream 7 will get here when it gets here.
In the meantime my Ventus Red Velo knows what's coming and on the 247yd par 4 over water yesterday hit a drive 10 yds over the green. So it has a few more days to state its case before the new guy arrives.
It's called club chatter for a reason because clubs talk and they know when their number is upon them.
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5 hours ago, HikingMike said:
I really like your set of questions there, on the money.
Do you play a little fade with driver, or roughly straight? Your path/angle numbers look like tiny fade, but I also see most of your drives are on the left half of the fairway on that one Trackman screen. Oh this Arccos graphic shows slightly more right misses than left. Anyway, nice hitting!
If I'm not trying to hit a specific shot shape I want to see something relatively straight or a slight fade and the days where I have the fade working are by far my best days off the tee. However I was struggling with a hook a few months ago because I was shutting the face in my takeaway and keeping it shut. It's gotten much better however those large misses to the left still show up every now and then and usually what follows is a few open club faces to the right producing a slice on a neutral path.
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Out of 20 shots only 2 shots you could make the argument that the path got away from me relative to how neutral it was the prior ones. Something to see if the AutoFlex Dream 7 gives me more control over the clubface while not effecting path because if that is the case we will be in business.
- KC Golf, HikingMike, ejgaudette and 2 others
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Introduction has been posted and we are officially underway with the review!
- BallsLeon, William P, HikingMike and 2 others
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Fitting is also booked for Thursday morning at 10:30 to truly dial in the shaft and head combination before taking it out on the course. So assuming the shaft is delivered on time Wednesday we will be ready to go on Saturday.
- Golfspy_CG2, BallsLeon, William P and 2 others
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13 hours ago, HikingMike said:
Proud of you guys picking the crazy bright ones
Went the more subtle route myself and went with the black and green one as I am always a fan of subtle detailing that the black background provides for the green. It was an honest toss up between this one and the white one but after seeing some sneak peaks of the shafts I'm very happy with my decision.
13 hours ago, Autoflexusa said:Ok, guys….all 8 shafts have been built, packed and shipped out today!!! All “testers” should recieve an email with tracking numbers!!!
Enjoy and hit away…I’ll sit here with my coffee (I spelled beer wrong) and enjoy the next few weeks!!!
Got the official shipping notification yesterday as well as an expected delivery date this morning. Shaft is expected to be delivered on Wednesday and I already have a Saturday tee time set for 10:40 in the morning! Can't wait to absolutely grip it an rip it on the course!
Also I will be testing the 505X for the speedy members of this forum.
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If someone purchased a LAB putter off the shelf and love it would they still be able to do a virtual fitting to see if the length and lie angle are correct and if not would they be able to send in the putter to have it adjusted?
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So honored to be included in this group of testers and I can't wait to get things started!!
35 minutes ago, Autoflexusa said:Congrats to all the testers that have been chosen. The shafts are currently being built with your individual adapters and grips and should be ready to ship in the next few days!!
Looking forward to this review and an honest assessment of the shaft.
(Don’t mind the $5 cash inside the box, not trying to bribe anyone)
A huge thank you to all that participated in the sign up stage, it was greatly appreciated!!
This has got to be a record turnaround time for testing and don't worry $5 isn't a bribe but merely a friendly gesture as a thank you. But $6.00 now we are getting into bribery territory.
- Golfspy_CG2, Jean D, William P and 3 others
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21 hours ago, Byrnzee said:
Prices have absolutely gotten too high for a round of golf. It's one thing if you're paying for a luxury stay-and-play experience, but if you're just going out for a weekend round, I don't think any standard public course should be more than $100.
Couldn't agree more. My buddies and I go to PA occasionally to make a day out of it and there the courses are all well under $100 and have some of the most unique layouts because of the terrain.
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12 hours ago, JCole said:
Do you think the price of a round of golf has gotten to pricey?
Here in NJ it can vastly change from $30 to in county walking rate to upwards of over $200 if you go all the way up north to Ballyowen. I'm fortunate enough to be in somerset county so a $75 season long county card gets you $32 walking rounds on the weekends for all but Neshanic and Neshanic is $72 to ride on the weekends. I would say this is pretty cheap compared to other county courses. You can also find reasonable private memberships as well as expensive ones too.
I would say that the course that are over $175 are not worth the price though as they are nice courses but they are not so much nicer where the price is justified.
- Northern Monkey, Josh Parker, ZJeb67 and 1 other
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- Popular Post
AutoFlex Dream 7 505X Shaft Review: A Dream Turned Reality or Too Good to be True?
Introduction:
Before I go on and on about myself and my game, we need to acknowledge this opportunity provided by both AutoFlex and My Golf Spy. Thank you to both for providing eight everyday golfers this incredible opportunity as well as a platform where we can all connect and share our experiences. AutoFlex has been as big of a mystery as it has been viral and for them to provide their newest driver shaft the Dream 7 for eight forum members to test and review is insanely exciting. This is the first time I am fortunate enough to test a driver shaft and what a driver shaft this is to test.
About Me:
Quick info on me is I live in Somerset County, New Jersey with my fiancé and our two dogs.
I’m a 29-year-old engineer who is slowly getting into club building. My fiancé completely understands my obsession with this game and fully supports it on the conditions that my tee times go on our shared google calendar and I get housework done prior. So those tik-toks of guys cleaning frantically in order to go play 18 is me. Our two dogs are Tucker and Hudson where Tucker is a chihuahua mix that’s 10 years old and Hudson is our 3.5 year old black lab mix.
Aside from golf I love to cook, travel, snowboard, and play poker with some friends every now and then.
Prior AutoFlex Knowledge:
The first time I heard about AutoFlex was when it made its first appearance on the former TXG YouTube channel (now Club Champion) with Ian Fraser and Matt Blois 3 years ago. Back then all they knew about it was that it utilized Korean Hidden Technology and that’s still pretty much all I know about it to this day. Unlike a lot of other shaft companies boast about their materials and technology such as Ventus and Velocore, Mitsubishi and 1K carbon fiber, or HZRDUS and Hex Tow AutoFlex shrouds itself in mystery. To me that is the biggest allure of this shaft especially considering I have never personally seen this shaft used or know of anyone who has used it.
Me and My Golf:
Being in Somerset County I tend to stick to the county courses in my area with my favorite being Quail Brook with the occasional round at Neshanic Valley when I want to treat myself. My handicap hovers around a 12 with my best career round being an 80 at spooky brook earlier this year. For those of you looking for a review on the 505X model I am your guy with a Swing Speed of about 115+ on trackman 505X is my best option for this shaft. While I do swing hard at the ball I know I'm not swinging as hard as I can because I have found that doesn't give me any extra output other than being more exhausted.
My current gamer is a TSR3 with an RDX Blue PVD shaft in TX Flex which I really do love and has been a great addition to the bag. I go into the why and how this shaft got into the bag in my Unofficial TSR3 Review and yes Titleist did replace my cracked driver face with no issues. As a fun farewell for now to the RDX Blue I did a longest drive test on Trackman and man oh man did this combo know it was on its way out the bag.
I took a video of the session and didn't even get to the 5th shot since time ran out but all four of those shots were basically on top of one another. I will try to upload the video but so far it doesn't seem to be cooperating.
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The specs of my driver are as follows. Length: 45 5/8”, Swing Weight: D3.5ish, and Club Head Weight 199g. To get the most out of AutoFlex some of these might change so it will be interesting to see what and by how much.
What’s being Tested
During testing I usually like to focus on direct comparisons between club A and Club B. For example when testing my TAIII wedges from Sub 70 I was able to compare to my SM8’s but with this one and the builds themselves being so different I am not too sure if that is the best route until I have the shaft in hand. I was able to do a nice session on Trackman to get a really solid baseline for my current setup of good to great to ugly. The full report for anyone to view is here but below are some snapshots of that session.
The big questions that I will be looking to answer are the following:
Do I gain speed with it in the driver? If so can I break 180mph for a new personal best
How does it hold up for quicker club head speeds over the recommended 115mph.
What happens if there is an incorrect swing weight that’s too high or to low?
Can this improve my on course driving for me from a strokes gained perspective?
If it does go in the bag is the price worth justifying if properly fit?
Using Arccos can I improve upon my driving from a strokes gained perspective?
I will also be measuring ball and clubhead speed on the course with my PRGR launch monitor that I use for speed training.
So with all the pleasantries out of the way lets get the testing started and this dream of a testing opportunity underway.
First Impressions: Score TBD
Unboxing and Building
Around 2:00 on Wednesday May 1st UPS arrived at my doorstep with the AutoFlex Dream 7 box in hand and on my doorstep gently waiting for me to retrieve it. The box itself had zero exterior damage and was aggressively taped around so I was eager to open it up and get the build process started. Upon my eagerness I didn’t take any pictures of the unboxing however I did allow for Hudson to see if it passes the sniff test. For those who have seen my other reviews this is one of the more important tests that takes place.
Inside I find the shaft sleeve, P.O., and an envelope that I briskly take into my basement workshop for further unboxing and photos. The note from @Autoflexusa was also a very nice touch however there was no $5 to be found.
Every shaft I have purchased has come in a circular tube with some brown paper at both ends and maybe some bubble wrap on the tip section. Not AutoFlex though. While the box itself had this packaging the shaft was covered in a shaft sleeve that read autoflex on one side and netting on the other side in their iconic hot pink colorway.
To me this was a very nice touch because of the price point of this shaft.
The shaft itself is littered with details from the striking teal colorway to the flowers themselves this shaft is like an ispy picture book. The more you look at it the more there is to see. There are even Tigers on the graphics for those to notice if they look hard enough.
The Build Process:
With a fitting scheduled for 10:30 the next day it was time to get the shaft into a playable shape so I attached my TSR3 head and got it measured up coming in at 46.75in without a grip.
Cut the shaft down to play at 46in and then I threw on a Golf Pride CPX standard size as my grip of choice. This measured out to a playing length of 46 1/8in which for now is fine as we can always remove more if need be. Swing weight got dialed in by changing out the 10g TSR3 weight for a 3g weight to put us just about D2 and we were ready get fit the next morning.
Yes that is an old paint tray because I'm not fancy and I work with What I got.
First Swings:
The next morning I went to an indoor golf facility (Golfcave) where I work part time to hit some balls and get an idea of what to expect. The waggle test that I am sure the other testers are experiencing is substantial and there is a ton of movement even at the “stiffest” flex they offer. I was effortlessly seeing 119 club head speed but surprisingly nowhere near as efficient as my RDX Blue. One thing tht I also noted was that my club path shifted severely out to in and I had to really try and work towards neutralizing this. I didn’t do too much hear as I wanted to just get the first swings out of the way before the fitting and have an idea of what to expect.
The Fitting:
To get the Dream 7 dialed we went to Club Champion in Hackensack where I have been working with the same fitter for the past 3 years at this point. Once warmed up I was seeing the same things that I saw earlier in the morning. Severely out to in path and a big lack of efficiency. We were also fitting with the Pro V1x RCT ball so all the spin numbers were accurate and they were high. The misses were very weak fades with 4000+rpm’s of backspin and the best ones were hanging out at lowest 2500 but closer to 2800. We concluded that the low efficiency and high spin is most likely a path issue and while cutting the length could help it would make sense to try and fix the issue at hand and get used to the shaft first before resorting to that option.
On the plus side we saw effortless speed increases and once I was in a groove I was cruising at 121 mph club head speed and 174mph ball speed with peaks of about 178mph ball and 126mph club. Knowing that there is a ton of potential in this club and its up to me to find it to get the most out of it.
On the Course:
A few hours later I took the Dream 7 out to the course with two guys from the from Golfcave who are both great players. One plays golf in college at Drew University and the other plays off of about 2 or 3. Both long hitters but hit the ball low and Royce Brook was pretty baked out so the fairways were running. While they had low chasing drives that would run out to 300+ and taking advantage of the conditions the Dream 7 allowed me to take the high road. The ball flight was way up in the air and still penetrating for the most part. I was getting nowhere near the rollout they were seeing but was keeping pace with them each time I struck one well. Two times I out drove them both with my ball finishing in the rough.
The bad shots were that same weak floaty fade that I was seeing during the fitting and they were rolling out to anywhere from 260 to 285 which is nothing to complain about. There were misses that I should not have gotten away with the result that I did and the stability of this shaft was put to the test. I did have two penalty shots on the same hole but falls solely on me for user error as for some reason this tee shot always gives me trouble and I have no idea why.
Overall this shaft is delivering on the fronts of club head speed which is delivering on ball speed as well as the stability that is promised. It is not by any means a magic bullet that will always make you hit long straight drives but it doesn’t hurt the cause. It takes some time to get used to and some work needs to be put in but it can be an absolute weapon if needed.
- HikingMike, BallsLeon, sirchunksalot and 7 others
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Ferrule of the adapter cracked on me recently and I'm not sure if its because of me, the install, or an aftermarket adapter. Fortunately I have seen zero issues in this perfecting performance but I am starting to think that maybe I'm the problem here.
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On 3/9/2024 at 10:56 AM, GolfSpy_KFT said:
Great to see you got it replaced!
On 3/9/2024 at 9:16 AM, Josh Parker said:Glad they replaced it for you!
It is very happy to be back in the bag as well.
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Update:
Driver head was delievered to Dicks yesterday and was also picked up. In total I was without the driver head for about 2 weeks which is really quick considering there was shipping both ways.
Titleist seems to have went the full replacement route and the specs are bang on the money. Head weight was almost exactly the same at 196g with the plastic and it is in perfect condition.
Now all that's left to do is a screw it back onto a shaft, spec it out, and give it a go.
- Josh Parker, GolfSpy_KFT and Rob Person
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14 hours ago, ChitownM2 said:
It's possible that they were both built correctly since each manufacturer measures length differently. I believe Srixon measures their clubs using the raw shaft so that the built length of the club is not affected by the butt thickness of whatever grip you choose. I believe Ping builds their clubs such that the length is measured to the line on the butt cap if you go with their standard grip, regardless of what grip you actually choose.
That would make sense. While these clubs were built by club champion and not srixon I would assume that would be the same way they went about them.
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I have to eat my hat here a bit and take back my comments on the length and build quality of the trial SMS 7i. My club ruler came in the mail a few moments ago and the first thing I did was measure the SMS and my ZX7 7 irons and the results are in.
The SMS measured out to a length of 37in even which is exactly what it was ordered to.
The ZX7 7i that was built by club champion measures out to 37 1/4in for length and was actually the incorrectly built club. I actually still have my old build "prescription" and it was supposed to be built to a length of 37.0in so the 7i is built 1/4in too long.
- ejgaudette, GolfSpy_BEN and Owengeorge13
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Also special shoutout to @Marlin Dave and @GolfSpy_KFT for the additional solutions to my predicament. Love the support that this community has for one another.
- Guest-0 and GolfSpy_KFT
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On 2/23/2024 at 8:04 PM, Marlin Dave said:
Didn't want to say much and offend anyone but the G410 was not a great offering from them and they did better with the G425 and killed it with the G430 MAX 10K I Use the G410 4,5 and 6 iron and they are decent but didn't like the driver
I'm not gonna disagree with you here and I think that Ping themselves would admit that G400-G410 was only a slight improvement if anything and not a huge leap forward. the G425 and G430 I think they seem to have fixed the ball speed issue that I am currently having but hey it's a backup driver so as long as I can hit it well and keep it in play I don't need much more from it.
AutoFlex Dream7 Driver Shafts - 2024 Forum Member Review
in Forum Testing Reviews
Posted
Speed gains are there but I am coming way out to in right now as I adjust which is probably compounding a lot of these small errors. When I get back from Austin I will dive into trackman hard to dial it all in and if it means a bit shorter length then so be it.