bellairemi

I did try the fingernail test on the edge of a demo Stealth face. You could say it left a mark but definitely not an identation. In fact I was able to buff out the mark pretty easily.

You will not see mine in the used market - have played 12 rounds with it and have been stunned at how long and forgiving it is. I did not like the sound inside but I do not notice it outside.

You might consider getting him fit locally and then ordering irons from Golfworks. They will be cheaper, better built and comparable to the major companies.

I play with TE Forged but built a set of the TS-1s for my son's graduation present. We have the same specs so I have played quite a bit with his irons. Neither he nor I have seen any gapping issues between the pitching and gap wedges and they generate plenty of spin ( we both play the OnCore Elixir balls). I paired his irons with the new TSW DRM wedges which are very nice. The sole grind works well for our varied conditions (we go from hardpan to very soft quickly) and the feel is very nice. I will be replacing my Tricepts with the DRM wedges this week.

Winter finally arrived here. About 8" inches here in the last 24 hours with the wind chills starting to dip under zero. With everything closed due to Covid, we have had to transform the overnight homeless shelter I manage into a 24 hour a day shelter - nowhere for our people to go during the day.

I wish they made the 16th into an interesting hole at least - really an insipid hole to surround with stands.

I have been demoing all the new drivers in the Trackman 4 simulator so I can a little better replicate how the driver might play on the course. While I can get better numbers just hitting balls, none of the new ones show a Strokes Gained advantage over my old one once I take them out on the "course". I'm pretty happy I decided to go this route as just from the standard hit balls down the range testing I would have purchased a new driver. This route saves both money and disappointment.

Yep, I am in the hate camp but have some playing partners who love them.

My experience was that Sterlings gapping was better and they were equally forgiving with the F7s. My brother has the set of Sterlings I built and will no doubt play them until they fall apart.

I've been testing the new drivers in the launch monitor/simulator against my 7-8 year old model. While I can see some small and consistent improvements in some measures (ball speed and launch/spin) on the launch monitor, I do not see any advantage when I actually take them to the simulator and play them on the course. My strokes gained driving have shown minimal gains at best (.3 strokes a round) and actually had a few end up in negative numbers against mine.

Maybe you could send some of that snow up north? You now have more on the ground than we do in TC.

I don't think that would be the case for Ping as their manufacturing standards for their shaft partners are tight (as is their overall QC), I did have instances where stock graphites were disappointing versus what I hit at the fitting. For me it was Steelfibers that allowed me to ultimately make the shift because they reacted in my hands just like a steel shaft.

Big fan of the OnCore as it feels softer without giving much, if any, distance up to the harder balls. Spin is good, holds its line pretty well in the wind. I never finish a round wishing my ball performed differently (most definitely cannot say that for my clubs).

I understand that Callaway's aggressive marketing appeals to some but I will not have any of their products in my bag because of it.

I just wanted to thank all the testers for their work on these reviews. Unfortunately I found some of the same issues that you all did. Because I had a good experience with the VKTR hybrid (except that it launched a little low but it was definitely anti-left and felt nice), I called Ben Hogan about the new version. They assured me that it would launch higher than the original while still retaining the attributes I liked. Sold! While talking to them, I mentioned that I was looking to replace my 5 wood which is 13-14 years old. My concern with many of the newer ones is that, while longer, they do not spin very well which leads to some inconsistent results for me. I was assured their 5 wood would maintain spin and would be longer than my old one due to the flex face. So I also bought that - I am a big supporter of the more off the beaten path companies. There was some truth in advertising. Yes, the VKTR+ was still anti-left and felt nice. It did not however launch any higher than the original (I had Trackman numbers for both). The 5 wood looked and felt great and did spin plenty. It was, however, shorter than my 2007 Burner 7 wood and only marginally longer than my 22* hybrid. Turned out to be an expensive lesson - lost $150 on resale even though the clubs were almost brand new.