revkev

Played the member guest at my club the last three days. Had a great time. Played some good golf and some terrible golf. We never threatened winning our flight but we did have the high score in our flight today so we made a few bucks. As you can see we encountered a wide range of wildlife. We missed the manatee. It was in the Bayou on the back nine while we were playing a match on the front.

I agree that there is a big lack of information that makes it very hard to help out. I'll start with one that hasn't been touched upon. Is this based on simulator numbers of on course observations? If its simulator are you sure the machine you are using is accurate? Could something have happened to recalibrate it? I don't mean to imply anything by this but could you have switched from yards to meters? (I've accidentally switched from golf to baseball mode on my swing speed monitor before.) If its on the course I don't know where you live but season of the year can make a significant difference. I loose 10 to 15 yards in the summer in Florida because it's so wet. When I lived up North the opposite was the case. Like others I'm wondering why you didn't just go with a new SIM2. Also since the head cracked did you reach out to Taylor Made to see if they'd do anything for you? Just lots of questions to answer first. Good luck

Interesting but there are other factors in play starting with shaft length and perimeter weighting of modern iron heads, Leigh tee overall club weight, etc. Do lofts get jacked for marketing purposes? Not entirely they were adjusted to hit certain windows. Additionally certain swing types may benefit from more loft rather than less. Modern fitters are able to identify that because they have greater available data to work with. Bottom line I think the actual performance difference between the irons lies in-between your two charts. What we aren’t seen is the most important aspect of iron play, dispersion. Cool test - thanks for sharing

I know, I know. Even their Florida choice in that mess was a joke. The article is out of step and insulting.

Warning this is a full out vent - I apologize in advance for it but I needed to let it fly. I get Golf Digest's electronic edition in my email daily it seems. I never knowingly asked for it that I recall BTW. Today's edition had an article entitled: "Where's the Best Golf in the US?" Those who know me or who have been around the forums long enough know that I never begrudge people their success or their income. I'm happy for them and applaud them. This article though was as elitist as it gets. I had no easy way to comment on it or I would have for certain. They based the rankings solely on their 100 or 200 best courses in the US. Except for Wisconsin and Northern Michigan the areas listed are among the most expensive places in the country to live. Most of the areas listed are cold places. The courses in those areas are extremely exclusive (I know, I grew up in Fairfield County CT - for 5 percent of the people there the golf is great for the rest its 5 hour rounds at outrageous prices) with waiting lists and extremely high buy ins or $400 plus resort greens fees. Wisconsin and Northern Michigan have 6 month seasons and that's being generous - I wouldn't want to be paying out $600 for Whistling in late April that's for certain. I have a very nice, what would classify as upper middle, income that affords me lots more stuff than I deserve. I couldn't get a sniff of golf in those places other than as a guest because people are nice to me or because I saved up money for that once in a while trip to the resorts. I have one question for Golf Digest: If these places are so great for golf why are there no clusters of Touring Pros living there? They live in Arizona and Florida - if you want to play golf, those are the best places to live - along of course with the other warm weather parts of our country - Texas, Hawaii or if you are able a place in Wisconsin and one in Florida or Arizona - that would be the best of all worlds and it's affordable for way, way more people. (Or Viginia - you know a Northern State where you can head South for three months in the winter)

Thanks! And I so know that 4 left shot with the hybrid, When I first made the move to one about 20 years ago I was way stronger than I am now - I had that shot down. Had only they put the green 30 yards left of my target I could have played on tour!

Florida is very similar to the Phoenix area in this regard - it's more a time thing for me - My club has had a Callaway fitting day with a TMag and Titlelist one coming up soon. I know where I can get a Ping one if I wanted but I've never seen a free Cobra one either or at least its been a long time. The low spin is what is intriguing me there. I hope that I get to hit one in my upcoming fitting.

As I recall you weren't sold that they were the better option for you anyway. I think you're a younger, stronger player than their target group would be. What are you gaming currently? Wasn't it the I210's at the time of the test? I know that I'm unique when it comes to irons. When I analyze my game they are low men on the totem pole behind driver, putter (in some order), wedges and fairway woods/hybrid - I use them the least on the course that I play on and then when your drill down further and go individual iron they become almost irrelevant. Gap wedge is probably the most important one because I use it for bump and runs frequently. Last time I played I only hit 9 full iron shots in 18 holes, 3 full wedges, lots of short game wedge shots though of course, 12 drivers, 10 fairway wood/hybrid shots - you see the pattern for me. I can't see investing $1,200 in a set of irons when these work just fine for me. I'd rather spend half that on driver to be sure it's the most forgiving/longest club that I can find for my game. Do that and I may even hit a few more iron shots.

I’m following with great interest. You’re a better player than me but we are similar in age and close in swing speed, my ball speeds are in the low to mid 130’s. My AoA is up 3. But I struggle with spin. It gets up above 3,000 on me frequently. I’ve found I keep it down when I focus on smooth with my driver swing. BTW I wondered about that A flex too. It’s interesting. I went for a fitting about four years ago and the guy put me in an A flex. I was swinging great that day and got really good results with it and a Ping G410 max head. On the course though my misses were all over the place. You could see it on shot scope. Exact same number of misses left or right and I couldn’t go after a drive if I wanted more distance or to launch higher. It was maddening. I love your approach. I don’t have the time to do separate fittings like you are. But I’m going for a fitting the end of the month where I’ve told the fitter I’m not after a brand, I’m after the next head/shaft combo you can dial up for me. I want to see if it is worth it to live out of my current driver/shaft combo and if so I want the fitter to follow all the way through the clubs arrival to be sure that I get what was fit for. Im removing that bit of doubt from my kind. Curious as to why you haven’t tried Cobra or Ping as yet. Usually you’re a big Cobra fan. Did I miss it? Thanks for these threads, very helpful.

First thanks for your review of the fiberbuilt. It’s really not big enough to stand on and hit iron shots off of? That woukd be a non starter for me. I have a friend who is the assistant pro at a different club from mine. Their range is really lame, especially when you consider the buy in and dues. At any rate most of the time you are hitting off mats on their range. The mats do have a strip of simulated rough on them. IMO it’s nothing like the real thing. Real rough is much thicker and offers far greater resistance. At least than this simulated rough.

As you can see mine are holding up well.

Thank you for sharing this story. Very inspirational to read. I would say that you are blessed, not lucky, for all of the things that you've sighted. Blessed and a determined patient. Hit them straight today.

I’m sure you are russtoherb, I just wanted to be sure that anyone dropping in knew too. It remains my opinion that Wilson should have picked a different name for these irons. At any rate to the best of my knowledge you are correct that those holes are the same construction in each although I think there’s a difference in configuration and perhaps number. I’ve had no trouble with them and I play year round under differing turf conditions and hit balls off a mat into the net at home frequently, too,

I'm heading to the range later and will be glad to snap a couple of pictures and post them here then. There is a significant difference between the D7 and D7 forged. The D7 is a game improvement iron where as the D7 forged is a players/distance iron, less offset, slightly weaker lofts, thinner profile, smaller footprint, etc. I've had no issues with the power slots beyond being sure to clean them after each round or practice session. Honestly I don't even notice that they are there most of the time.

Michael Breed this said exactly that on his Sirius program - this will have a trickle down effect. I am in favor of caping the ball - BTW it is currently capped by the rules its just that the cap isn't satisfactory to the ruling bodies. I am not in favor or a roll back. I hated the anchored putter and thought it should have been banned when it came out. Allowing it for 40 years and then banning it? That's targeting IMO. Cap the ball where it is now and there's no controversy. The game is healthy, very few courses that are used for tournament play are an issue - as I mentioned earlier the only one that I can think of is the Old Course. That's a shame but it is bound to happen at some point whether it's now or later. Nothing lasts forever.