deejaid

So yesterday I stopped at the Pro Shop and told my pro about the Hogan’s and the toe misses I’m having with them. I explained to him that they are same lie and length as my current irons which I have no problem finding the middle of, but the Hogan’s shafts are graphite Recoil 87g shafts while my current irons are 125g Precision Rifle steel. He agreed that the weight and deflection difference of the two shafts were causing the problem. Now as someone that is just playing graphite for the first time one of the few things I know about graphite is that most times graphite shafts come 1/2” longer from the factory to keep the swingweight similar to steel shafted clubs of the same model. What I didn’t realize is that added length might also help with toe droop. As my Pro and I were talking, he suggested adding 1/2” extensions to the clubs. The added length should move the strikes to the center of the face. If this is the case, then not only does the added length of graphite add to the swingweight, it also affects to toe droop which can be a remedy to the higher torque and deflection of the tip section of the graphite shafts. Looking at the specs of the irons on the Ben Hogan website there is no difference in lengths between graphite and steel shafted clubs. While that creates a swingweight difference of 2 points according to their graph between the two, the lack of longer shaft in the graphite doesn’t allow for the correction of toe droop. So, graphite extensions are en route and hopefully will be the answer to finding the center of the face. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh man. The two door orange Bronco with the black roof and the see-through doors? I’m in love. Plus it can be had with a 7-speed manual transmission. Oh yeah. Unfortunately I’ll be driving the minivan for a few more years and when it is time for a new vehicle it will be electric. I have solar already so my days of buying internal combustion engine vehicles are over. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well, as a storyteller I wanted to try to make the review interesting. Truth be told, most of the reviews here on MGS aren’t very interesting and don’t connect with me. Most guys get a free set of clubs custom to their specs and rave about how good the clubs are without much or any negatives. That’s not to say that the reviewers do a bad job. I think the reviewers do a great job most of the time. But there needs to be some conflict in the review. The second act of the story needs to have some struggle for the final act to resolve with a good ending. I could have got the Tour V shafts right away and been happy, but would that have helped the guy out there who like me is on the fence about whether or not they should switch to graphite for the first time? Not at all. Hopefully that guy will see the pluses and potential minuses of switching to a much lighter graphite shaft in my review without making a $800 purchase they later regret. I view these reviews not as a free set of clubs built to my specs for everyone to read how much I love them, but as a way to take some chances at no cost and note both the good and bad so that other MGS Spies can be better informed when making their purchase. I’ll try your idea of addressing the ball more towards the hosel, maybe that will work. But to me that seems to be a bandaid to use a shaft that doesn’t work instead of fixing the problem with a reshaft. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree completely. Under normal circumstances it usually takes them two weeks to fulfill an order. Well, way can’t they have accounts with multiple shaft makers? I mean Hogan doesn’t even need to keep the stock on hand. An order comes in requesting a shaft that is not in stock, Hogan orders the shaft direct from the manufacturer, and they have it within a week with still time to build the clubs in the two week window. The fact that we both are contemplating swapping out shafts out of a group of 6 testers says to me that the shaft offerings are too limited. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, I am very much thinking of swapping out the shafts. After 6 range sessions and one 9 hole round hitting the ball consistently a 1/4-1/2” inch towards the toe with the face staying open I can honestly say these shafts just don’t work for me. I said in one of my earliest post before the clubs were even delivered that if I was ordering the clubs for my current game strictly based on performance, I would have ordered the KBS Tour V. But, because of some recent elbow pain I wanted to approach the review as a guy that has played steel for 35 years and is now looking at his first set of graphite shafted irons. It just hasn’t worked. Now the heads I think are very nice. The Icons have a nice shape and the sole width is perfect with the v-sole. The PTx Pro feel solid, not like hollow head, and again, good size and shape. The UIHI I am not loving though. If I had it to do again I would order the regular PTx Pro 4-iron. I think the PTx Pro heads are forgiving enough that the UIHI isn’t really necessary. In fact, I feel like the PTx Pro 5 and 6 are easier to hit higher than the UIHI. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well I went to the range this morning and again it was toe side city. Couldn’t hit the center of the face if my life depended on it. Very frustrating. Today was the Cobra demo day at my club so after a bit of frustration with the Hogan’s I went to the Cobra tent and was talking with the rep. He asked me what I was playing and I explained to him I was testing the new Hogan’s but I wasn’t really getting on with the shaft. I told him it was my first time playing graphite and I didn’t think the Recoils at 87 grams were working for me. He then proceeded to put a KBS $ 120 shaft in a Cobra Forged Tec 7-iron for me and I was just smoking it. Back to my regular tempo and I had no problems. 170 yards and right at the target. I was a bit discouraged to say the least. I did have the rep hit my Louisville Smart driver I refinished with a Fujikura shaft and he seemed to really enjoy it. [emoji16] Anyway, decided even with the discouraging range session I’d still go out for an evening 9. First hole is a 460 yard uphill Par 5 and after a perfect tee shot I had exactly 200 yards to go. I hit the UIHI 4-iron perfect and ended up on the front edge of the green, two putting for birdie. OK, nice start. 2nd hole is a 230 yard carry of a creek so playing persimmon I decided to lay up. It’s 219 to the creek but the tee box is elevated so I hit the PTx Pro 6-iron. I hit it perfect and ended up about 10 yards from the creek. Great! Another perfect shot with Hogan’s. Maybe things will be better than this morning. Well, that’s when it began to fall apart. I only had 150 yards to the green so I pulled the 8-iron and proceeded to hit it off the toe and it ended up pin high but missed the green to the right. A perfect flop over the bunker and I saved par. #3, Par 5. Same thing. Good drive, UIHI 4-iron that I hit toe side but still got about 200 yards out of it leaving 125 yards to the pin. PW this time but again, toe strike leaving me missing the green to the right. Once again though a perfect chip, this time to within 3 inches and I saved par. I should mention, these wedge shots were with another new club, a Tour Edge Rally wedge which is a Callaway PM Grind style wedge. This is the first round with this wedge and it really saved me today. Great wedge. So here I was at -1 after 3 holes and it felt like the least satisfying three holes I’ve played in a long time. #4, missed GIR, bogey. #5 Par 3 170 into the wind and actually hit a green, though a bit short. Good lag and a Par. #6 Long drive but ended up in a fairway bunker. After hitting everything toe side I aimed further left and clubbed up and of course ended up in a green side bunker on the left, ended up bogeying. #7 short Par 3 of 133 yards. Again, PW toe side ended up missing the green 15 yards right. Again I had to flop it over a bunker and again rolled it right next to the cup for a par save. #8 Par 4 perfect drive but again 7-iron to right. This time I wasn’t so lucky as I was under some trees. Had no shot to the green so a punch out chip on and 2-putt for my first double bogey of the round. #9 Par 4, probably my best drive of the day, dead straight carrying the fairway bunker that sticks out from the left hand side. Again, 8-iron misses right, ends up in bunker. Now the Tour Edge Rally wedge didn’t save me as the bunker shot went long and I scrambled for bogey. So I ended up with a +4 40 for 9 with one of the worst iron days I’ve had in a long time. Again, the Hogan’s are the same length and lie as my Pedersen’s and I hit the Cobra Forged Tec 7-iron with the KBS $ 120 shaft perfect at the range. The variable to me seems to be the Recoil graphite shaft. I mentioned before the testing started that I was concerned about going from a 127g shaft to an 87g shaft with a more active tip section. I’m thinking a shaft swap might be in order. On the other hand, that Tour Edge Rally wedge is money. It saved my hide today on so many holes. And the Cobra rep and another guy at the range loved my persimmons and both said they’d like to send some clubs my way for a refinish, so I got that going for me, which is nice. [emoji16] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cobra was having a demo day at my club today so got to see the entire line in person. The Vessel bag is choice. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I see guys at the 17th at my club playing the tips, about 200 yard par 3 hitting driver. [emoji849] For me, I look at the score card and check out the par 3 lengths. Whatever tees give me 130-180 yard par 3’s is perfect as I want to hit an iron and have a chance to be relatively close, at least on the green. 190,200,210 yard par 3’s, forget about it. Don’t want to have to be hitting a wood into a par 3 especially because at those distances the rest of those tees probably measure 7000 yards. Playing persimmon woods 6500 yards is the perfect length for me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Glad you liked the video Nunfa0. I appreciate it! I am getting used to the distances of the Hogan’s. Hitting a PW 130-135 yards does necessitate a change in my wedge set up though. Right now I have a 51* gap and a 56* sand wedge in the bag with the Hogan’s. With the Pedersen’s I know that choked down an inch on the PW is my 100 yard shot and I have all my distances covered with my irons up to 200 yards where I then use a persimmon 4 or 5 wood. Add in a single 54* sand wedge and I am confident I can play any shot. It’s just the familiarity of the clubs and the simplicity of the old school 3-PW, SW layout I grew up with. Like I said in my video, I consider myself a traditional golfer. I use persimmon woods and don’t want hot faces. Technology is great, but I’m not the kind of guy that is going to pour over launch monitor numbers trying 10 different shaft and head combinations to eek out 5 more yards. The PTx Pro’s while allowing some modern tech don’t seem to be hot faces. I’d attribute most of my distance gains to the 40 gram difference in shaft weight. The shaft of the Hogan’s is what will end up being the deciding factor in whether or not I keep playing them. I am 44 years old and am starting to have more aches and pains lately. While the KBS Tour V would have been a more comparable shaft to what I have been playing, my goal with this review was to see if the single graphite shaft option of the Recoil Smac Wrap would work for someone making their first switch into graphite shafts. So far the results have been positive as the pain in my left elbow has been greatly reduced over the last week. I’ve had 5 range sessions over the last 7 days which would have probably aggravated it more using steel shafts. The first 3 range sessions with the Hogan’s were an adjustment though. The Hogan’s and my Pedersen irons have the same length and lie angle but for some reason while I was hitting the Peterson’s dead center on the face, I was catching the Hogan’s slightly toe side. I couldn’t figure out why but assumed it had to be shaft weight related. It then dawned on me to slow my backswing tempo down with the Hogan’s and I began to immediately hit the center of the face. I’m guessing I was getting more toe droop with the graphite shafts causing a slight toe side miss. Slowing down my takeaway seemed to be the answer. I plan on going to the range this morning then a late 9 this afternoon for the first on course test. Not only will the score be an evaluation of the clubs but also how my elbow feels tomorrow. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I like a good old-fashioned white ball. I find they are easiest to see for me. Now some of the colored balls do look pretty cool though. My daughters like the colored Volviks, but a few of the colors, particularly the red and purple are very hard to see. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’m blown away by the bags Cobra sent along! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks man! You don’t know how hard that was for me because I don’t like being in front of the camera. I just wanted to try to make something entertaining. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, like I said in my last video, I was not looking for distance gains with the Players Combo set but I’ve gotten it. I have 5 range sessions with the Hogan’s now. Today was the first time I left my regular gamers at home and just took the Hogan’s. After yesterday’s session I finally felt comfortable with the Hogan’s. Previous club distances (Pedersen’s with club lofts) 3-iron (22*) 195 4-iron (26*) 185 5-iron (30*) 175 6-iron (34*) 162 7-iron (38*) 150 8-iron (42*) 138 9-iron (46*) 125 PW (50*) 110-115 Hogan Players Combo 4-iron UIHI (22*) 210 5-iron (26*) 195 6-iron (30*) 180 7-iron (34*) 170 8-iron (38*) 155-160 9-iron (42*) 145 PW (46*) 130-135 Comparable lofts the Hogan’s are flying 5-10 yards farther. Clubs are same length but the Pedersen’s have Precision Rifle 5.0 steel shafts and the Hogan’s have the Recoil F4 stiff graphite. I’d attribute it to the 40 gram or so lighter shaft increasing swing speed. I’m also not seeing any big distance gap between the Icon 8-iron and the PTx Pro 7-iron. The gaps seem consistent. I had two shots, both with the 6-iron where I seemed to catch a hot part of the face and both shots went 200 yards or about 20 yards further than expected. I am now seeing a big gap in the short end of my bag so had to go ahead and order a 50* and 54* Equalizer wedge today. [emoji16] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to hear you are on the road to recovery buddy! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Dang, that bag is hot! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Here are the specs for 1989 Wilson Staff blades. Considering they still had a 50* PW in 1989 I’d be willing to bet the 1985 specs were similar. Probably a good guess for your clubs. Club Loft Lie 1 18 56 2 20 57 3 23 58 4 26 59 5 30 60 6 34 60 7 38 61 8 42 62 9 46 62 P 50 63 S 55 64 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Digging as deep as I could I found multiple advertisements from department stores circa 1985 listing the Wilson Swinglite clubs for sale. From what I can gather the heads were 15% lighter than standard heads and they cost $199 new. I’m not sure if that was for the irons only or with woods too. If you are willing to sign up for a 1-week free trail at newspapers.com you can find the ads there (they want a CC # to Bill after the first week). Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Got some pics? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’d roll one of those. Beautiful work! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hello UIHI.... Is it hot out here or is it just you?

[emoji445] Home, home on the range......[emoji445]

When I think best clubs of all-time, I think of clubs that were the best performers of their era and are still sought after today. Macgregor M693, M43, M85 Woods In their day, the most sought after woods by the games best players. 1950’s era Macgregor persimmon woods were still in the bags of pro’s like Norman and Nicklaus well into the 1980’s. Ping Eye 2 Irons The irons that really changed everything. There were cavity backs before the Eye 2, like Ping’s own Karsten irons but the Ping Eye 2 was a complete game changing iron that ushered in the end of the forged blade irons that were little changed from the 50’s thru 80’s. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Shouldn’t it be what we are playing now? If not, why aren’t we playing them? [emoji16] But for me it was a set of Dynacraft Pro Cavity irons circa 2003. I built them when I had just started club building and they were the easiest to play irons ever. Very little offset but the perfect sole width and grind. Unfortunately vanity got me as I was playing “no name” clubs and my buddy bought a sweet new set of Mizuno MX-23’s, so I followed with my own set. Never played near as well with the Mizuno’s as the Dynacraft’s. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk