JRDuck40

Another league night in the books. I do have to say that my yardages are getting dialed in quite nicely on the @Toura Golf CB 4-PW. Pretty much locked for the following yardages now. 4 iron - 185 carry / 192-194 tot 5 iron - 175 carry / 180-182 tot 6 iron - 167 carry / 170-172 tot 7 iron - 155 carry / 159-161 tot 8 iron - 148 carry / 151-153 tot 9 iron - 136 carry / 140-141 tot PW - 120 carry / 122-123 tot I am very much digging the stopping power on each iron. I'm sure that will change when conditions finally start drying out at some point this summer. Not sure when that will be in WI, but for now, we press on. A few highlights from last evening. Outside of the massive shoulder pain that I've been experiencing, was able to swing well for the majority of the round. . 10th hole- ended up missing FW right and needed to go with my 18* hyb. Missed the U/D putt. 11th - Ended up clipping a tree on the left side of FW and knocked me down with roughly 205 left. Again, 18* hyb and missed the U/D for par. 12th - Missed the green just left. Hit 6 i pin high. Was able to get U/D. 13th - FW off the drive, 3 wood just short and was able to get U/D for bird. 14th - FW to 125 y to pin. Hit PW to 10 feet with a lovely little two bounce check and stop. I do love the feel on the Toura 7 through PW and the stopping power. Lipped out the bird and settled for par. 15th - 5 iron pin high just missed green to the right. Missed the U/D for par. 16th - Drive to 95 to pin. Chunky 52* and missed the U/D for par. 17th - Drive to ~45 yd to pin. Punch 52* to 10 feet and two putt par. 18th - Let's just say trees are not 90% air and no, you cannot go through, around, below or above them. Best to avoid them altogether. Overall, I am really liking the consistency with my distances on the irons. The patina is easily manageable and the heads clean up very nicely after each shot / round. Will attempt to sneak in another rounds this weekend at some point... Hopefully. Yes, there is MORE rain predicted for the greater MKE area. Onward.

Funny thing was that my group was sponsored by a vendor and we didn't pay a dime. Haha.... .But yeah. It was insane. Never played in rain like that before. The crazy thing was any other course would've been shut down for the entire day. Kudos to the course management team at Kohler. The fairways / green complexes all drained very, very well. Bunkers, not so much, but what are you going to do about that? If you ever find yourself in WI and want a top notch track to test you, I cannot say enough good things about any of the Kohler properties in and around Sheboygan.

So the round on Saturday at Blackwolf Run - Meadows Valley course was.... Miserable. No joking, it rained like I have never seen before. There was ponding on the fairways, greens. Bunkers were turned into concrete messes. Anything that was elevated had a river running down it. The event organizers said, "As long as there is no lightening, we are playing." Sooooo ok... FUN! A few highlights for the @Toura Golf CBs. 3/4 Par 3 Greens hit with a big WIN on the closet to the pin challenge. Hole 15, Par 3 - 153. VERY much playing into the wind so hit a choke down 7 iron and stuck it to 10 feet. Wanted to keep it below the hole, but ended up hitting slightly above the pin, but was able to make bird. Hole 3 - Par 3 - 148 yards. The rain was POURING down at this point. When I say pouring, think of the scene in Forest Gump where the troops are walking through the jungle and he is narrating the monsoon season in Vietnam, it was like that, but worse. There was ponding on any low lying area and 2 out of the first 3 holes were under water. Like the cup was filled with water and the area around the cup was under at least 1 inch, if not more standing / pooling water. But yet, we were told to press on. Back to the shot, ended up hitting 8 iron into the green and left our team around 15 feet for birdie. My 3 partners ended up missing short. I decided to hit my putt much more firm and the ball, I kid you not, floated over the cup. Alas, it did not go in, so no bird for us. UGH! The only GIR on the par 3s that I did not make was on the 17th. Nasty little Par 3 - 185, with a ton of cross winds. All of my partners ended up hitting their tee shots either short or nowhere near the green. Wish I would've taken a photo of this hole, but here it is from their website. The pin was damn near illegal, just 3 paces off the left side of the green with wind coming in hot blowing right to left. Ended up hitting a 5 iron over the tree shown on the right / front of the green. Was hoping the wind would bring it back but I just stayed straight and ended up missing pin high just off the green. At this point of the day, it was finally drying out a little and we were able to remove any and all rain gear. My phone was still acting up a little so I was not chancing taking it out / snapping more photos as my Bushnell GPS Watch was a glorified ball mark at this point. We finished in 8th place at -4. The winning team was at -12. But didn't walk away with nothing. Ended up winning $50 for the closest to the pin contest. Woo hoo! The irons held up very well. But man oh man, the rain made the petina on the heads accelerate like crazy! I have raw heads on Cleveland Zip Core RTX wedges and they did rust a little. The Touras took this to a whole new level. But with a little soap and warm water, along with a little bit of steel wool, they did clean up quite nicely sitting next to the fire for 2 hours to dry out my grips. FYI - SuperStroke grips are a sponge. My Scotty was soaking wet and it took all day Sunday for it to dry out properly. League night it tonight. Will have more testing to report on soon. Onward.

And of course the rain train is scheduled to stop in WI yet again. Of course it's not for a round at the local dog track, but a tourney I have tomorrow am at Blackwolf Run. If anyone needs rain in their neck of the woods, please let me know and I'll pack some up for you and send it UPS NDA.

Final review Holy COW! It’s been almost two months since this test launched and it feels quite a bit longer than that. Kids + Summer Vacay = Dad sweeping the dew yet again to sneak in a round or two. If you are just joining us, I was one of the very lucky testers to be running with the Toura 4 – PW Japan Forged CBs. Below is a quick rundown of a H2H I ran on the Toura CB vs my current iron set, Takomo 101T. Toura in Red, Takomo in Green. Initial Thoughts / Review (18.5 / 20) Only deductions I do have against the Toura, is that we you are not able to have heads bent to our specifications (-1 point). This did set me back an additional $40 and change to have heads set to 2 degrees upright and 1 degree stronger for my setup. Also, the ½ point deduction was for shipping. Not a huge fan of USPS or Canada Post as I do buy and sell quite a few clubs / components online and I have had nothing but horrid luck with both. All that aside, the heads, shafts, grips and other components were packaged immaculately. Each head was packaged with, a plug on the hosel, wrapped in a plastic bag, which was inside of bubble wrap sealed bag then inside of yet another Toura labeled velour bag. (talk about an Inception themed flashback!) Wow. Not a chance these were getting damaged by anything in transit. Hence why they used government funded shipping. Lol. They also turned out pretty darn nice if I say so myself. The CBs performed very well on the sim test and initial range sessions. The dispersion was very tight compared to the 101Ts. Yardage was a little better as well. (I did have each head bent to 1 degree stronger). Also my mishits still travel well and do not fade hard, which does occur with the 101Ts. Feel off the face, ground interaction, overall look and feel were all on par if not better than what I currently have. On Course Review My first actual round with the Toura CBs was at one of the highest rated venues in all of Wisconsin, let alone in the Midwest. Lawsonia Golf – The Links. This course has hosted quite a few amateur events over the years and is always in the top rated courses in WI. The one thing that is NOT highly rated here is their driving range. Or as I call it, the sand pit. I did hit the Toura 7i a few times, along with the 5i and PW for warm ups. I did use a club brush after each shot to remove excess sand / dirt from the faces, but the balls and sand pit did do some wear to the faces. Mind you, I did the same with my other gamer set (Takomo 101T), and the Takomo finish held up quite a bit better than the Toura. Mind you the Takomo has a chrome finish where as the Toura has a minimal coating / finish on the raw heads. Which I do appreciate from an anti-glare prospective. The Toura did perform quite admirably for the test. Unfortunately, because of my handicap and this particular event and the way things were set up, I was tossed to the back tees at nearly 7K yards which meant not a ton of iron shots for me. It was driver – hybrid or at best, driver 5i almost all day. Which I have no issues with. The long irons 4 thru 6 performed great. I had little to no issue getting the ball in the air and landing softly. The one thing that I will need to get used to is the check / backspin I receive from the Toura VS Takomo. Because of the higher launch angle and spin rate, I am finding myself needing to go after a lower launch angle or clubbing up because of the backspin on some shots. For instance, on the par 4 - 9th on our 3rd day (Lawsonia – Woodlands course) I had 155 yd, uphill to the pin. I decided on the 6 iron because of the spin I was generating on prior shots. This shot is a typical 7 iron for me. The 6 landed just past the pin, roughly 12-15 feet long, stuck and sucked back about 10 feet. Yes, I missed the bird. Haha. One other forgiveness example was from the same round, on the Par 3 13th, playing around 140 that day. I hit a very easy 8 iron, again landing just past the pin off to the right and ended up missing the green just right because of, you guessed it, spin. Mind you, we did get rained on all day Saturday, and the greens were quite receptive and soft. My final shot that really knocks this home was at a league night, final approach on the 9th hole, Par 4 playing 340 yd this night – New Berlin Hills GC. Hit 4 iron with around 125 left to the pin. Uphill shot with a breeze into the green. Ended up hitting 9 iron pin high and again sucked it back below the hole. Mind you, again the rain deluge that is Wisconsin 2024, but 20 feet of spin is crazy. Especially with how furry / slow the greens were that particular day. But I do have to say that with the CBs, I do feel that I have the ability to go after more greens than before. They have a silky smooth feel when you strike the ball. Even better with turf interaction VS my Takomo 101Ts. The blade like leading edge promotes more of a ball strikers feel. The top line either bodes confidence or gives you the shakes. One of my competitors even asked if these were beginner blades. I thought that was a great comparison. The top line does not give off confidence. It’s thin, blade like look, makes you think on your shot. Which I like. I need to reign in the mindset and hone in about what I’d like to do. Also, the lack of bounce on the irons does promote more of a ball strikers look and feel. This is good for full shots. Not around the greens where I typically like to use a 8i through all of my wedges 52 thru 60 depending on the lie / pin placement / runout, etc. This is where my Takomo set did out perform the Toura for the time being. With the more rounded edge and higher bounce on the sole, the Takomo 8i through PW does perform better chipping at this point than the Toura. But I’m sure a few 3 hour sessions at my home track will knock that out… Just need to ask permission from the ‘better half’ on that one. Haha. I am loving the fact that each club is easy to hit. My shot shape is straight with a slight fade. On miss-hits, it still goes and the overall forgiveness of the irons is fantastic. Much easier to hit and keep online than my 101Ts. On Course Score – (18/20) Only 2 point reductions. The raw face is getting a little beaten up. But nothing I cannot live with (-1). The overall feel around the greens for chipping. The lack of bounce does bring up a little issue for me. But I am starting to get used to the 9i and PW. Have not tested the 8i all that much for chipping. Will be sure to keep that in mind for the ongoing review / test. (-1). The Good / The Bad / The In Between…. So the good – The look. Wow these irons scream SMOKESHOW. I cannot tell you how many people came up and asked about the irons, where I got them, how they can they purchase, if I would build them a set. Almost everyone was shocked that the shafts were not graphite. When I said they were painted True Temper they flipped. The heads are holding up well. Also they’re now getting a little patina, especially on the stampings which I love. The turf interaction and the ability to launch the ball is nothing like I have ever played with previously. With prior sets, I did have issues from time to time with getting the ball to launch, especially with 4 and 5 irons. With the @Toura Golf CBs, zero issue. They are rockets. Love that. The bad – because they are a raw iron, they do have a tendency to wear out…. And I mean quickly. As previously mentioned, the range session did wear in my 7i pretty quickly. It’s a new club, and yes it interacts with dirt, sand, mud, etc… I know it’s not going to be new for all that long, but 7 rounds and it looks worse than my normal gamers? Really? All of that being said, the grooves do clean up very easily, the face has some very ‘light wear’, the sole of the head also has a tendency to scuff up, but this is something I can easily live with. The other bad, at the moment, is the greenside play with 8 thru PW. I do use more than just my wedges for chipping and the leading edge and lack of bounce on the 8 thru PW on the Toura set does lead to some issues on quite a few of the courses I play. Not too many tight lies in and around SE Wisconsin. Typically light rough or thick grass greenside here. Not a deal breaker, just need some time to dial them in for my short game. The In-Between…… Long irons / 8 through PW. With my 101Ts, I am a surgeon from 145 in. They have just enough spin to hold greens, check or back up when needed. I can work shots and my yardage is dialed. With the CBs, I am still finding my yardages with a few shots and having troubles with the spin rate with the center of gravity on the heads so low. Again, it is a cheat code to get the ball in the air. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this. But on windy days, it is a problem. The last few rounds I have seen quite a bit of improvement with the CBs and have little to no issues with the 9i and PW. Just need a little more time with the 8i. On the other hand, the Toura 4i thru 6i are so forgiving / launch the ball, it should be illegal and the USGA should seriously look into these cheaters… Haha, I kid of course. But in all seriousness, Toura vs Takomo 4 thru 6, I give the full edge to Toura. Well done Toura. Very well done indeed. G/B/IBT – (17/20) Play it / Trade it. They are in the bag. Zero question about it. The ability to hit a solid long iron, improved launch, soft landing and dialed back side spin rates vs my Takomo 101Ts, I would be stupid not to make the Toura CBs my daily gamer. The plan for the remainder of the 24 season, I am going to play the Toura CBs to give them a fair shake. Blanks that I got to customize? Yes please! I mean, who gets to say that every day? Also, the long irons are just a pleasure to hit. Lastly, to speak to the cost of the clubs themselves, for a fully customizable, DIY set of clubs, you cannot beat what Toura has to offer. If you truly want to stand out, make it your own, this is your one and only option IMO. They are a clubmakers dream set. That all being said, heads only option for $800 can seem a little steep for some. But if you look at what you will get, blank heads, forged from Japanese steel, it is as good as it gets. Also, if you do order the heads only, you get 8 sweet little Toura “money pouches” for each of the heads. I’m currently using them as tee pouches. Love it! I will be playing it! (20/20) In summery, I was shocked that the @Toura Golf CBs did this well. I thought I was locked in on my 101Ts and I was dead wrong. The CBs look and feel great. I am coming around on the short game after a few practice sessions over the past few weeks and very much have my yardages dialed in. Very excited to play Blackwolf Run this coming weekend and will for sure have some additional photos and updates for the thread. I am really not trying to be overly positive for the review, but the CB 4 thru PW are cheat codes. They are quite easy to launch. The long irons land soft and stick. They look phenomenal and perform just as well. I love the crisp interaction and the feel with the turf is a hot knife through butter. They did a great job engineering this set and I would highly recommend these to anyone looking at either building a set themselves or purchasing them built from Toura. If you are looking for something that isn’t from the big 4 and you want that top quality, you need to put Toura on your short list of DTC. www.touragolf.com Overall Score (91.5 / 100) Lastly, I would just like to say a BIG thank you to @Toura Golf and MyGolfSpy.com for this opportunity. It was a blast to build these from the ground up and I hope you run this test again and again. The interaction with all the fellow spies and readers was a treat. It was great to learn a few new things from the other testers and to see what everyone was up to. Club-making is an artform and I think that all of us, @azstu324 @ctg44 and @David Leighton Reid really brought their A game for this test. It was an honor to participate. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Played the @Toura Golf irons again last night. Hot hot hot in MKE. 90+ degrees and humid. Did not have a ton of iron shots as we played the front 9 at New Berlin Hills, which is quite short. But, did have some nice shots. One thing that I am noticing quite a bit is that any shot out of the rough has zero spin on the ball. This was not the case with my prior iron sets. Case in point, on the 6th, Par 4 - 410 yd. I ended up hitting my drive just off the left side of the fairway. Had 160 to the pin and ended up hitting my 7i. Ball flight was normal but the ball ended up rolling thru the green and left me a nasty downhill chip short-sided. Outside of that particular shot, I will have to say that the CBs performed very well. Final hole of the evening was the Par 4 9th, playing 315 yd last night. There is water to carry, roughly 240 to cover, as there was a significant breeze, I decided to go with 4 iron off the tee and left myself 130 to the pin. Hit an easy 9 iron into the green and stuck it to 10 feet. FINALLY made bird, missed the 4 prior tries. (Might be time to address the putter. hahaha). All in all, I love the thin top line look. The feel and turf interaction is ideal. I will have the full review up later this week but all indicators point to @Toura Golf CBs in the bag and my Takomo 101Ts out. Onward.

On course testing!!! Below is a video of each and every shot from my league night round this past Tuesday, 6-11. Course is New Berlin Hills GC. https://www.newberlinhillsgolf.com/ Back 9 A few highlights... Or lame lights. Ended up shooting 41. One of my worst rounds on the back 9. Hole 12 - Par 3 / 170 - Hit 6 iron to roughly 10 feet. Missed bird. Hole 15 - Par 3 / 181. 5 iron to pin high, missed left. But it felt great coming off the face. This hole is a beast and is always a difficult par because of the turtle back style green. Hole 18 - Par 4 / 410. Carry over creek is 245. Ended up giving myself a flyer lie on the transition between the Lower and Upper fairways. Yes I did carry the water. Ended up hitting 9 iron long. This is shot that can be difficult at time depending on where you leave your drive. Green is very much elevated and slopes severely back to front. I was surprised to not hold the green. Ended up with bogey, lipped out my chip. Again, the irons are not going anywhere. I have 18 scheduled for tomorrow am at one of my favorite 18s in my area. Kettle Hills GC. Playing Valley 18 - 6 am sharp. https://kettlehills.com/ Excited to have my yardages a little more honed in, my shot shape and feel is really coming along. I'm not going to go out tomorrow with any expectations for a score, but my confidence in the @Toura Golf CBs is growing with each round played. Really liking them so far. Onward!

UPDATE So I was able to sneak in a little sim session at my local Indoor Sim, Stix Golf - Germantown. Check them out if you are in the MKE area! www.stixgolfbar.com @Toura Golf CBs VS my current gamers Takomo 101Ts. The simulators at the facility are Full Swing. My testing was based off of the PW, 7i and 4i. Ball used was a ProV1X. All Toura shots are in RED, Takomo are in GREEN. First up, Pitching Wedge. Edge to Toura. My dispersion, outside of the one 'thin' shot was much tighter with less side spin than the Takomo. I'm also getting slightly more yardage out of the Toura. Mainly because I did have them bent 1 degree strong from standard lofts. I also have the clubs built slightly longer than standard, 1/2" long on each iron. I may drop down to 3/8" or 1/4" if I feel like tinkering more. But for now, I'm going to keep them as is. Next up, 7 iron. Same as the PW, the 7 iron has a tighter dispersion and less side spin than the Takomo 7 iron. Also, more distance as well. The one fault I will say is that I am aiming square at the screen and the majority of shots are going slightly left and my misses are no longer a cut / fade. It will take some getting used to, but I'm willing to make this sacrifice. Haha. Last but not least, 4 iron. Data does not lie. Again the Toura is more consistent, tighter dispersion and less side spin vs the Takomos. Like I said in my prior reviews, the @Toura Golf long irons are so much easier to launch than any other set I have hit. Hint hint, I'd love a driving iron head. If you're planning on making one. I'm game! I did have time to play a full 18 on the sim and did give each iron set a fair shake. Hit the Toura on the front 9. Takomo on the back 9. Ended up playing one of my favorite tracks I was lucky enough to play last year, St Andrew - Jubilee. Both 9s were relatively the same. Single bird on the front was a very nice 56 deg to 3 feet (gimmie birdie). The avg. driving distance is also lower because I did end up hitting iron shots off the tee quite a few times. Overall, I'm officially convinced to keep the Toura's in the bag for the foreseeable future. I'll have video and additional testing up later on this weekend along with some additional thoughts on the clubs. Overall, I'd have to say that I'm quite pleased with what I've seen so far from @Toura Golf CBs. They are forgiving and quite easy to launch. Miss hits still go and do NOT fade or hook for me. The only downside I can think of is the wear on the face. That's something I can live with. Onward.

Full cord =

I went full custom and purchased Lamkin UTx full cords. I almost always get sweaty hands and find it hard to keep a consistent grip with anything that isn't super tacky. Nothing against the grips provided. They look and feel great. Just wouldn't last more than a few rounds for me either.

Q2 weather has been the wettest on record for SE Wisconsin in over 50 years. My lawn looks great... My game? Not so much. We've had 3 rain outs for league night and quite a few rounds I've tried to sneak in early on the weekends were a no go because of storms. I'm ok playing in the rain. I have gear for that. Lightening / Wind / Hail is another story. Hopefully things will calm down a bit in the coming weeks. Have a scramble event at Blackwolf Run on the 22nd. Fingers VERY much crossed for good weather that day. We are playing the Meadow Valley course. BWR hosted a few LPGA events and is such a fun layout. https://www.destinationkohler.com/golf/blackwolf-run Cannot wait to get the @Toura Golf on that track!

Will have the Touras in the bag for league night tonight. They will get the full ringer as quite a few holes will require two iron shots as my Driver has recently been added to Missing Persons registry. I love how this stuff always happens when the club manufacture launches a new line. Damn you Titleist and the new GT! Initial thoughts so far, the clubs are playing well. My biggest highlight is the long irons 4 thru 6. I have been finding them very easy to launch, hold on the wanted flight path and stick yardages / greens. One particular shot comes to mind. Blackstone Creek testing, on the first par 5 on the front 9, I had around 190 to center and needed to hit a low cut. Ended up choosing my 4 iron, previously I'd hit a stinger hybrid. I was able to pull the shot off with the 4 iron, keeping it in the middle / back of my stance and was able to keep the flight low / under trees. Was able to make the green and sneak away with par. Like I mentioned, previously I'd have to use my hybrid for this particular lie / shot. Being able to use the 4i really makes this particular shot much easier to pull off. Aiming to have quite a bit of content added in the coming days. Also have an 18 planned for Saturday am. Hope to have this round locked in, but of course, Wisconsin has been temporarily deemed a Monsoon climate. Fingers crossed for dry conditions. Stay tuned spies!

Thanks to @ctg44 for mentioning the Toura testing crew. I took on the CBs for my build. They are a cheat code. I'm not just blowing smoke on that. The center of gravity for these irons is so unbelievably low that even on thin shots, they get up. Center hits launch. Off center, heel / toe hits just go as well. Also, the completely blank heads are super sexy. If you want to go completely custom, I highly suggest that route. If not, their Toura Signa is very sleek as well. If you are going to build, they do it right. @Toura Golf sends you tipped and ready to cut shafts, grips and ferrules. Outside of the norm build gear that one should have, they set you up from the get go.... For a quick list of what you will need... 1 - Grip Tape 2 - Vice 3 - Vice Club Grip (to hold shafts in place when installing heads / grips) 4 - Epoxy (I prefer JB Weld) 5 - Grip solvent / lighter fluid 6 - Miter saw / pipe cutter (to trim shafts) 7 - High grit sand paper (to sand off tips of shafts where you are installing the heads) 7.5 - Goobegone (to clean up any sticky messes) That's pretty much it. Enjoy the build and have fun with it! Feel free to DM any of us for any questions. Happy to assist.

Rob, great question. ANY iron labeled MB / Blade / Players Iron or is described as "workable" stay far, far away if you are just starting out. Anyone that is both looking to start a build and get a set of GI (game improvement) irons, I would highly suggest looking into the CBs. Much easier to hit, larger sweet spot and consistent throughout the face. The MBs that @azstu324 and @ctg44 are testing are more of a MB / Players scoring iron and have very little forgiveness. I would highly suggest the CBs for ease of build as well. They provided tipped shafts. All you need to do from there is cut to length. Also the grips provided are very nice as well. Not typical from other DTC brands. I know, my Toura 101's came standard with a not so great set of Lamkin grips. I'm just super particular. One thing I would like to point out would to be if you are looking to get into club building, here are a few items you WILL need. First and foremost - A good / clean work area. You will need a dedicated workspace. 1- Vice grip 2 - Club vice clamp 3 - Grip tape 4 - Steel bonding epoxy. I recommend JB Weld. Cheap, readily available at damn near any hardware store, works great and stores very well. 5 - Grip solvent / lighter fluid - for grip installation. 6 - Goo Be Gone (it's stupid, but works great for any sticky / messy clean up. That is pretty much it. @azstu324 @ctg44 @David Leighton Reid did I miss anything that you all would recommend for our guy to get started?

Update 6/5/24 Full H2H testing Toura CBs vs Takomo 101T This past weekend, I was invited to a Ryder Cup style event at Lawsonia / Mascutin golf courses. Perfect setting to test out the irons against one another. Sizing, both irons are relatively the same in size from heel to toe. From there, the difference is pretty much all different. The Takomo is more of a forgiving look overall. Whereas the Toura CBs have a very menacing, blade style top line leading edge. For feel, I have to give the edge to Toura. When you flush a shot, oh baby it feels like a hot knife through butter. On my 101Ts, you feel every shot, good and bad. The Toura also is crazy forgiving. I have a tendency to hit off the toe from time to time and the Toura still flies. The 101Ts will also allow this to an extent, but not to the same amount of distance. However, I am able to work the 101s a little more than the CBs, so far. Mind you, I had an entire winter / sim league and travel with the 101s and the CBs for only a few weeks now. As of Tuesday the 4th, I have decided to put the CBs in the bag for the remainder of the summer. And my Takomos will be getting a little dusty, same as my 3 wood after this weekend, haha. A few highlights, from the past weekend. #8 – Mascutin / White 9 – Par 3, 190 yd. Overcast, slight rain, but earlier in the day the rain was much more heavy. Hence why I did not hit the CBs. Wanted to keep the shafts dry to cure a little while longer. Ended up hitting the 4 iron off the tee to around 10 feet. This was quite possibly made me want to make the switch from the 101s to the CBs. The feel on the CB was flush and smooth. On the 101s, it would’ve felt more mechanical and not as fluid. Also the turf interaction was again, silky, not clunky and hard to transition. Another great example was my approach on the last hole for league this past Tuesday. Par 4, 340 yd, New Berlin Hills GC #9. Hit my 4 iron to 130 left. Front left pin location with traps pin high left and short right. Nowhere to miss essentially. Took out the 9 iron and flushed it to 15 feet. Oh, and I landed 4 feet past and sucked it back to 15 short. If you get the ball in the air, I don’t care if it’s the 4 iron, 7 iron or wedge, the CBs land soft and stick. Love it so far. One downside, and this is partially on me, but somewhat one Toura. The durability. Lawsonia has a lot of great things going on. Motorcycle Carts, yes you read that right. They are sick. Also both courses, The Links and Woodlands are in tip top shape. Greens roll like lightening. They all play at a realitivly good pace, ~4:20 minutes. Free bottled water on every 1st and 10th holes. Also, the clubhouse / restaurant has a great menu. The biggest problem. Their driving range. It is a sand pit of despair. Almost after every shot, I had my club brush working overtime. The Takomos faired much better with the range than the Toura. The Toura CBs did end up getting a little torn up. Especially the 7i and PW. The 7i, pictured alongside my 101T 7i below, is even starting to show some sweet spot wear. I know clubs will never look new for long. Heck, they are being put through a gauntlet of sand, mud, dirt and grime each and every time out. But to have this happen after 5 rounds, it is a little concerning to me. (101T top / Toura bottom) But to be 100% honest, if you have a sweet spot wear on the face, that’s usually a good thing. Onward.

Also, another "off topic" item. SIGN UP FOR MASTERS TIX!!!! https://www.masters.com/index.html Application for tickets opened as of June 1st. Good luck! JRD

Morning spies! The trip was soggy, foggy and sandwiched between some amazing weather on Friday and Sunday. Irons held up great and I was surprised with the shafts on how weld the paint held. I'll have a full initial review up at some point this week. Now time to get caught up. JRD

If either of you make it up to WI, you NEED to put Lawsonia on your short list to visit. The courses are always in amazing shape and for a top tier experience, they are reasonably priced as well. Typically around $100 for greens fees with cart.... Or THIS GUY! We were lucky enough to snag the last two motor carts last time I played there. It was honestly the MOST fun I have had between shots. If you want to snag one of these for your round, you need to show up stupid early though. They only have a finite amount of them available.

*****UPDATE**** There is none. Thanks to the river system that is currently parked over the Midwest, we had to cancel our Tuesday night league. Thankfully I have 99, yes Ninety Nine holes booked for this weekend. I will be brining the Toura CBs along with my Takomo 101Ts for a full comparison test. I'm thinking I will be going with the CBs all day Friday. Takomo Saturday and then one 18 for each set on Sunday. They will be getting the FULL workout as well as we will be playing the courses of Lawsonia. https://www.lawsonia.com/ This is going to be legit amazing! Cannot wait for Friday! Onward.

Neglected to mention last night. The irons cleaned up so easy. Toura did a phenomenal job grooving these heads. They're deep and very crips. Just a small bit of soap / water and they were cleaned up very, very quickly. Also the paint fill held up very well. Each club had some sort of turf interaction yesterday and held up great. My largest concern was with the paint on the shafts and the fact it was mist / rain for the majority of the round. It held up great as well. Will 'hopefully' get out for league night tonight... but mother nature may have something to say about that. Onward.

*****UPDATE***** Was able to take the www.touragolf.com CB blanks out for a full test drive today. I will have to say, they did perform and clean up very, very well. Par 3s, ended up 3/4 GIR. The first few holes were a little touch and go, tee'd off at 6:30 a and it was all of 50 with a solid 15-20 mph wind and mist. Truly Wisconsin like weather. Hole 1 410yd Driver to the FW bunker. Hit 5i out, topped and left myself with around 90 yd left. Pin high right with 20ft left. 2 putt - Bogey Hole 2 340yd 5 wood to 145. Again, ton of wind so 7 iron, caught thin and short. Chipped to back right with a terrible attempt for U/D and ended with another BOGEY. Hole 3 140 yd 140 into the wind. Stupidly thought the 8 would make it. It was a VERY much solid 1-2 club wind. Ended up short in the aqua. Hit the 8 again, because I'm a stubborn idiot, but was able to land just short. Chip and putt = 5. Hole 4 410yd Driver - 7 iron, again thin. Ended up short in bunker. Up and lip out for a Bogey. Onward. Hole 5 365 yd Funky dogleg right. Hit hybrid to 155 /160. Went after the 7i hard and ended up short. This was 100% on my set up and thought process. Pin was in the back and hole was very much nearer 165 / 170. Needed to club up and then re-access the shot. Ended up with a double. Hole 6 415 yd Horrid tee shot, needed to punch and did so with the 7i. As it was raining, was not able to take a decent photo, but the lie was horrid and needed to punch around 75 to 90 yards to a clean lie into the fairway. THIS is there I fell in love. The Toura CBs cut through the rough like a hot knife through butter. It wasn't even an issue. I was able to get the 7i under the ball, pop it out and get it to the spot where i needed it to be. Mind you, then shot after that was trash and ended up with yet another DBL. FML.... Hole 7 515 yd Tee shot on left of FW. This gave me an opp for a HIGH PW over a massive Oak. Perfectly placed for a low cut 4 iron into the green from 195 out. Ended up around 35-40 feet away and made par. (this is where the rain FINALLY stopped). Hole 8 150 yd 155 - water short right / bunker short left / high grass long (IE - don't hit this green = FML) Hit the 8i, flush. 2 bounces and it nutted up... 18 feet to the cup. Of course, lipped out. Hole 9 495 yd. Par 5 with a tight initial shot. Ended up just left of FW around 250 out. Hit a punch 5w to 20 short with a flop 60 to get U/D for bird. Onward Hole 10 400 yd Dogleg right with a huge sloping green back to front. Driver / Hybrid as the wind VERY much picked up. Ended up with par. Hole 11 390 yd. Another dogleg right, but this time with water. My playing partners all went into the aqua. Thankfully i was dry-ish. Rain starting up yet again. Driver - 6i. Slightly 'rough' lie. The leading edge cut through this wet / thick lie with ZERO issue. And I mean ZERO. The CBs are not your true GI / CB iron. They can CUT. Shot landed around 15 ft. Ended up with par. Onward. Hole 12 315yd . Another dogleg R... And a hybrid off the box. After a horrid bounce, needed to punch out of the thickest lie i have had in the past 3 years, again sorry no photos per the rain, ended up around 60 / 70 yd in. Could not get U/D and ended up with DBL... Hole 13 130yd Par 3. Easy 8i - 130 (into the wind) Ended up around 20 ft. Yet another lipper out... but good par. Hole 14. 370 yd Par 4 STRAIGHT as an arrow. Of course, i decided to make a detour. My typical drive is a cut.... Aimed for that. Hit it straight and with the wind... ended up with the thick / rough on the left. Drop, hit an 8i to around 10/15 ft. Missed the U/D and bogey. Hole 15. Par 5 500. I megaloathe my driver at this time... More range sessions coming at this point. Hit tree = 275 out on a 500 yd par 5. 5w to just short of the green. Ended up hitting the chip a little short and caught some wet rough with no release. bogey. Hole 16. Par 4 - 350. At this point, I was like (*&&%^%&$^&^$) with my Driver (Titleist TSR2).. So why the heck not unleash the anger. Which = Middle of the FW, 102 yd out. I will have to say, the PW was a razor blade compared to my Takomo 101T. The turf interaction was again, hot knife through butter. The CBs are NOT GI irons. At this point, I wanted to give one of our foursomes input. "I cannot believe how THIN the heel of the club / top line are. How do they weight this much They look like they should be less than my Pings and they're not." Again, the turf interaction with the Toura was amazing. I am typically a light to medium divot taker with any iron shot. For a 8 to wedge, it's typically a little heavier. Withe the 8 thru 9, they cut. Oh my do they every cut through the turf with ease. My Takomo's, I definitely feel these shots. Hole 17. Par 3 - 180 Ended up hitting a 'soft 5' and should have given it the full. Short right, but on. 3 putt = bogey. Onward. AND OF COURSE AT THIS POINT - SUNSHINE with a 10 degree increase. Why the heck not! Hybrid to around 165 / 170 with a massive headwind in. Hit 5 iron (yet again into the wind) to around 15 feet. The baby cut is working. Loving this initial round with the CBs. Not my best showing at Blackstone in the past few rounds. Prior were 77, 76, 80 and then today, 84. I will be taking much more video / photos tomorrow... Hopefully. yet more rain in the forecast for MKE. Onward.

SOOOOOOOOO. Was able to take the sticks out on actual grass this am... It was as close to a true Scottish golf experience we could have asked for. Lower 50s, mist, ton of wind, straight up miserable. But did give the clubs the full go around. I do have to say, they did perform admirably. I will have my full write up posted on the main and another individual thread. Quick hint, they rip through wet / rough like a hot knife! Wow! Onward.

The range I was at only had their mats available as we’ve had a deluge of rain over the past week around MKE. Hitting the course tomorrow. Will have a full review up Monday late / Tuesday.

I’ll have more on course testing tomorrow and try and post right away / Tuesday if possible. The heads are MASSIVE. For context, I’d say closer to the size of a GI iron… think stealth, Mavrik, ping 520, etc. But, almost zero offset. Which I love. Also the leading edge is super sharp. Can’t wait to get them dirty! zero issues with any paint coming off. My biggest concern is being pulled / input back into the bag. They held up very, very well so far. believe me, I am prepared for any touch ups. Haha.

UPDATE ---- Was able to take the www.touragolf.com CBs to the range for an initial test. Here's what we got....