DukeStKing

What do you think of the theory that heavier shafts activate the bigger muscles and can help increase swing speed? Do you notice a difference when you go from 64 to 72?

So I committed fully to the “Otto Phlex” journey last year and part of this year with my driver and 3 wood. I still play an Otto Phlex shaft in my 3 wood, but since I got a Paradym driver I’ve gone back to a convention shaft- albeit lighter than shafts I’ve played in the past (it’s the Hzrdus Silver 50 gram). I’ve been in a real slump with it lately after having tremendous success in the beginning of the season. Part of the problem was that I played most of August with a defective screw and the head kept coming loose- Callaway sent me a new one no questions asked. So now I’m hitting it solid again, but my dispersion stinks, which of course is my fault, not the driver. My issues spraying the ball are related to tempo- when I keep it in check (slower) I have success. I have the best days when I hit my Otto Phlex shaft at the range to slow my tempo and then use the Hzrdus on the course- going from light to heavier seems to help. All of that as an intro to the topic I want to discuss. I’ve been reading and watching videos about how a heavier shaft will engage your big muscles more and could help keeping your temp in check. So now I’m thinking of experimenting in the opposite direction- going from a 50 gram to a 60 or 70 gram shaft. Some of the videos and data show that a heavier shaft can increase club head speed because you’re engaging the bigger muscles. But of course at some point there is the law of diminishing returns and too heavy could slow my swing speed down. My driver SS is around 100mph. How many people have had success going heavier? Did it help with tempo? Does anyone have a suggestion for a heavier shaft that doesn’t have super low torque and thus feel less boardy? I would like to try a heavier shaft that doesn’t feel like ribar- a Goldilocks shaft that is just the right weight but not too stiff. Looking forward to reading about other people’s experiences with equipment- not responses on how I need to take lessons or practice more…

If that includes the adapter, it’s a good price for sure. Good luck.

I got a Graphite Design HD AD 5S for my Paradym (got the Hzrdus Silver 50 gram when I bought the club). I like the lighter weight and the stiffer tip of the GD- lets me keep my faster tempo with a light weight shaft. I tried the Grafalloy (Otto Phlex) in the Paradym and it launched way too high- the GD gives me a more penetrating flight. The nice part about the 50 gram stiff shafts is that they still have some play in them- they don’t feel like wooden boards- my swing speed is 97-103 so I like a shaft I can feel load and release. I may try and trim the tip in the Grafalloy and try it again in the Paradym. That’s what I did with my 3 wood, which is an Otto Phlex Project X Riptide shaft. But that won’t be until the driver misbehaves with the GD…

It worked great for me for a while- you really have to keep your tempo relaxed, which I have a problem doing. If you get changeable weights for the head of your driver head it will make getting to D0 or D1 easier. The experiment didn’t translate one I got my Paradym, but it made me realize that I like and do better with lighter stiff shafts. Good luck.

Looks like Callaway is jumping on the same wagon as PING with a super lightweight version of their Paradym driver. https://www.callawaygolf.com/golf-clubs/drivers/drivers-2023-paradym-star.html The exception being that the PING G430 is the same Max head with a lighter weight in the head. Reminds me of the “Otto Phlex” journey @azstu324 but without the counterweighting to get the swing weight to D0 or D1. Congrats Stu- you should be designing clubs for the big boys!

Thank you. It was my fist review, so I appreciate your kind words Blended sets make so much sense. Takomo offers it, but I’ll see how it goes blending my Callaway Apex Pros- I may end up having gapping issues. I’m got to head over to read your Titleist review now- I bet the blended set is sweet.

I just posted my Final Review with scores after playing 7 rounds, a couple of driving range sessions and stint in the simulator with the Takomo 101T's. Thank you to Takomo and My Golf Spy for this wonderful opportunity- I really enjoyed it and I'll keep you posted.

Simulator Numbers: So I was able to use my friend's simulator to get some numbers with the Tacomo 101T's. These are the averages of 5 shots with the PW, 7 and 4. The 7 and PW were a bit longer than what I feel I've been hitting them outside on average, but that's to be expected considering wind and elevation changes. It's good to see the spin numbers which confirm that my first round with the Tacomos were an anomaly with regard to the lack of stopping power I was experiencing on the greens; the 3 rounds I played since confirm this as well. So after 4 rounds and a simulator session, I'm about ready to give my final thoughts and grades... just in time for the start of school.

Second Round Impressions: I took the Tacomos out for another spin today; same course, same score, different results holding greens. Right out of the gate, I had the same PW into the first green and it was one bounce and stop this time. I would still describe the trajectory as penetrating- especially for the PW. I hit one that I was able to back up 4-5 feet. Again, I loved the way the soles interact with turf. Today, I took some shallow divots and I think that’s why I was getting more backspin. The long irons were spectacular today. They are definitely easier to hit than my Callaway Apex long irons. Again, I credit the soles- they feel like they are gliding through the turf. Hit this beauty of a 4 iron to within 6 feet and made the putt on a 430 yard (uphill) par 4: The thing was like a guided missile all day for me. Hit this beauty of a 5 iron against the wind over the green on #14, a par 5: I felt so confident with the long irons today- I had to rely on them for tee shots, because my driver is being replaced by Callaway- probably a good thing as I was hitting them solid and straight… can’t say that for my driver. I hit every Tacomo iron today again so I was able to add to my Garmin data: The distances are still the same as my Callaways- again, I attribute that to the more penetrating flight I get with the KBS Lite shafts in the Tacomos. Last, but certainly not least, I hit a couple of stinkers contact wise today and one ended up on the green, which it had no business doing so. The forgiveness with the Tacomo 101T’s is impressive- I would say as good, maybe slightly better than than the Apex irons. I am very. impressed after 2 full rounds and some practice sessions. If this keeps up, the Tacomos will be staying in my bag. I’ll keep you posted.

The 6 iron was a mistake- I hit the 5 iron 205 off the tee and I mistakenly hit the 6 iron button on the Garmin. Unfortunately the Garmin doesn’t fix it in in “My Bag” when I make the correction after the round. 10 rounds and it will even out. Another 6 iron I hit went 180- a lay-up on a par 4.

First Round Impressions: I played my first round with the Tacomo 101T’s yesterday at my home course. Kudos @Old Joe for coming up with “secret sauce” sole terminology. I agree with him wholeheartedly- the interaction with the turf was wonderful. The course was soft and the rough terrain as deep and I would have to say this this the greatest strength of the Tacomos. I had a couple of tough lies in the rough and the Tacomos breezed through the tall stuff better than my Callaway Apex’s. In the soft fairways I had shallower divots that were straight as an arrow at the target line. That was the great news… now for the not so great. The trajectory was too penetrating for my tastes. On the first hole I had 120 to the middle of the green and hit a pure PW that landed in the middle and rolled off the back of the green onto the fringe. Weird for me. I’m used to backing the ball up quite a bit with my Apex irons. On the fourth hole I had a 170 yard shot from the fairway that went 180 with the 7 iron. The story was the same all day: Comparing the numbers above (it’s only one round, so it has to be taken with many grains of salt) with the Callaway Apex irons: Considering the lofts on the Tacomos are weaker, but the flight was lower and thus the distances were the same, there must be some big spin differences. So there can only be two reasons that I get less back spin with the Tacomos: 1. The shafts and 2. contact. I have the Nippon 850 neos in the Callaways and when I reviewed them I was struck by how much more backspin I produced with them over the stick Elevate shafts. I think the KBS lites play similar to the Elevates, producing more of a penetrating bal flight- I was about club longer with the Elevate shafts in the Callaways. This is the most likely explanation for the difference in backspin between the Callaways and the Takomos. A less plausible (but possible- maybe a combination of both) reason for the more penetrating ball flight of the Tacomos is the delivery of the face through the zone as a result of less digging. The sole not digging results in a shallower contact point and less backspin. Of course it’s possibly a mix of the two factors, but after one one round, the lack of back spin stood out to me. Reduced backspin may work for some, but not me. Again, I’ll reserve final judgement after playing with them a few more times. I’ll finish on a positive note: despite the reduced back spin I had a good day scoring: While the dispersion (long) was not what I wanted, the left to right misses were minimal. I pushed a shot or two, but was very happy with the left/right dispersion. I’m going to continue to look at the back spin in future rounds- using the same ball (Pro V1) to see if I can get the ball to back up for me. Stay tuned.

About to find out more today- I’m getting ready to tee off.

You’re finding that the Takomos don’t dig as much for you? What set did you have previously?

First Impressions: Looking at the soles of the Takomos, the first thing I was struck by was the slightly wider sole than my Callaway Apex Combos. What's interesting is that the PW seems to have a wider sole but the 5 iron doesn't. Versus the 5 iron: The increased width of the Tacomos is most pronounced near the toe. This leads me to believe that the Tacomos will have a bit more bounce and dig a little less. Considering I’ve been known to take divots so large I could roll them up and sell them as sod at Home Depot, a little more bounce will do me some good. I think the smaller profile of the Tacomos will also make the Superintendent of my home course happy. Here are a couple of shots of the Tacomos compared to the Apex’s. What’s interesting is that the pitching wedge in my Apex set is the Pro version as I have the Combo set. Here are the 5 irons: At address the Tacomos look so compact, which I really like because they don't give me the sense I'll be diggin' this deep... And now a comparison of the specs: It will be interesting to see how the weaker lofted Tacomos stack up against the Callaways. I think it will be a worthwhile endeavor to take a deep dive into a comparison between the Tacomos and the Apex Combos, because Tacomo's big sell is that they provide the same quality at a fraction of the price of the big boys. Considering a set of Callaway Apex irons runs over $1,100 and the Tacomos are a little more than half that, it will be worthwhile to see how well they stack up against each other. Also, considering I really love my Callaways, it will be quite the feat if the Tacomos can kick them out of the bag. First Comparisons: I have a Garmin Approach G80 that has radar which measures clubhead speed, ball speed, smash factor, tempo and distance. I tested the 8, 7, and 5 irons of my Callaway Apex Combos and the Takomos. Here's a video of my swing: Golf Swing.MOV The reason I tested the 8 and 7 was I wanted to get a sense of the gapping. Here are the numbers with the 8 and 7 irons (again the C is for Callaway and the T is for Tacomo): And 7's: And finally the 5 irons: So the first comparison shows that the numbers are pretty identical. Since I'm not a robot, I couldn't get the smash factor or ball speed numbers exactly the same, but they're pretty close. I didn't post pictures of all the shots I took, but these were pretty consistent. Misses were also very consistent and neither the Tacomos not the Callaways were better or worse on the misses- they both lost about 10 yards. Since putting the Nippon shafts in the Callaways, I haven't gotten any really hot (long) misses and thus my yardages have been pretty dependable. The Takomos look to be the same consistency wise- I think the KBS lites are pretty similar to the Nippon NS Pro 850GH NEOs. The distance numbers don't take launch angle into consideration, so a true comparison of distance will have to wait for the on course evaluation. I have hard time believing that the KBS lites will launch any higher than the Nippons, so I bet the distances will be comparable. It is interesting to see that the data that the Garmin measures well (ball speed and clubhead speed) matches up. (I actually compared the measurements that the Gamin takes at my friends house, who has a Foresight GCQuad launch monitor, and the numbers were very accurate.) It looks as if the Tacomos are matching well in terms of performance to the Callaways. First Impressions- Hitting the Tacomo 101T's: This was not the first time hitting the Tacomo 101T's. The day I got them in the mail, I took them to the course to play 3 holes at around 7:30pm. (Can you tell I was a little excited?) My first impression was that they felt really solid, soft and smooth; solid and soft at contact and smooth to swing. The sound is crisp and I really enjoyed the way the heads moved through the turf. (Have I mentioned that I'm a bit of a digger?) The on course sample size is small but promising- I can't wait to play a full round with them. I felt the same way hitting off the the mat: solid, soft and smooth. Comparing the feel to the standard Callaway Apex's, I would have to give the edge to the Tacomos. The standard Apex irons are a bit clicky. The Apex Pros and the Tacomos felt very similar- soft, not clicky at all. The Tacomos and the Apex Pros are tied in terms of feel and sound. My final thoughts will be after playing a couple of rounds using the Garmin to record data (distances and gapping) and most importantly seeing how they interact with the turf and whether the Tacomos can help me score.

Ha! That’s it- I’m putting it up for sale. (Actually, I think I will because after all that tinkering, I really miss my Evnroll face.) Everytime I play with the Odyssey, I try and try to like the White Hot face, but I just don’t). So wish I could put the Evnroll face on my Odyssey creation.

I didn’t think any more head weight would be necessary because I took the counterweight (30 grams) out, which added a total of 50 grams to the head in swingweight. When using the Midlock method of bracing the top of the grip to your forearm you wouldn’t feel the counterbalanced weight. The heavy head doesn’t feel heavy at all because of the bracing.

Look what I put together: inspired by the Jailbird phenomenon and my love of Evnroll’s Midlock idea. I lengthened my Odyssey Versa Double Wide 3 inches (the longer length of the Wristlock grip vs. the standard pistol) to 37 inches, taking the counterbalance weight out of the Strokelab shaft and adding 25 gram weights to the head (which adds 20 grams to the head over the standard 15 gram weights). The additional head weight was inspired by Fowler’s Jailbird idea and the Wristlock grip works like a Midlock putter. Additionally, the Versa DW gives the same line-up benefits of the Jailbird Versa in a blade look, which I prefer over the mallet. I thought I would share if anyone else would like to try the same thing.

Congrats to all of the testers- will be fun to follow.

I had that funk or end to the honeymoon period after gaining an average of 10 yards over my previous driver- G425 Max. Instead of shopping around for a new head, I got a cheap Graphite Design Tour AD TP off of EBay and made a slight swing adjustment and the magic seems to be back- even with the stock Hzrdus Smoke Silver. So now I have the GD that has a more penetrating ball flight than the Hzrdus, which gives me options. Anyway- for me, the Paradym has been quite the paradigm shift… yes, I went there.

I’m have an update after playing the Nippons for more than a month now. I have enough data in my Garmin to make a more accurate comparison in terms of distance between the stock TT Elevation shafts with the Nippons. For a quick reference these were my distances with the Elevation shafts: These are the distances with the Nippons: So a reevaluation with more data shows that the distances are similar, and the gapping (minus the 9 iron as an outlier) is better with the Nippons. On the course I continue to feel a lot more confident in my distances, which was true of my initial impression when I first played the Nippons in July. The reason for the 9 iron anomaly is that I just haven’t hit that many- I also just recently got it bent 1 degree stronger so that I will hit it closer to 150 yards consistently. The 6 iron average is also off because of a downhill 220 yarder, but on the course it’s a reliable 190 yard club. Otherwise, I am very happy with the gapping and the fact that I am much less likely to hit that really “hot” shot (a 184 yard 9 iron).

I went with my Paradym that has the stock Hzrdus Silver 50 gram S and it lost to the Gen 6 with a Graphite Design TD 5S- not even close to an apples to apples comparison. My numbers were marginally better with the premium shaft- enough that I didn’t get the $100. Pretty ingenious promotion to get you in the door- except it only has me thinking of getting a GD TD for my Paradym. Of course “marginally” has me thinking of spending a couple hundred bucks…

I don’t know if whatI I did would count as a “good review,” but I finally installed the shafts and posted a review of the Nippon N.S. Pro 850 GH Neos.

I really enjoy the Midlock. Like @GolfSpy MPR, I find the less I think of the Midlock, the better I putt. I was having real difficulty with it when I consciously pressed the grip into my forearm. Now, when I just putt naturally without trying to forward press, I’ve been having really good results from various distances. I have a second standard shaft (mid slant), so I can switch when things aren’t working well with the Midlock.

I once had such a frustrating season putting that I got a left handed putter. I just could get used to looking at the hole from the other side (despite being right handed and left eye dominant), so I switched back to righty but kept the grip- left hand low. A conventional grip feels so awkward, I don’t think I could ever switch back.