chemclub

chemclub, May, 2019 It took a little while to get enough reps with this club to give a thorough review, mostly because our early May weather was atrocious. Thankfully, the golf gods have smiled on Iowa for the last month or so which gave me a chance to put it through the ringer. DISCLAIMER: Grips are admittedly such a feel category of equipment that you cannot really make credible claims about performance increases that would seamlessly transfer to another player. Looks ( 9 out of 10 points) This is likely not a huge player in the grip category. I can’t say I am a huge fan of the bright yellow but I also don’t really care. Feel (25 out of 30 points) Like I said in my Stage 1, I absolutely love the texture and firmness of this grip. It has just the right amount of give in all the right places. One thing to consider is that the grip has more taper towards the bottom than a SuperStroke, which obviously has no taper. This taper took a little to get used to and I was not a fan at first. @BigtazzGolf seems to acknowledge this fact as well. Another thing to point out is that the grip feels short. Even the way it fits in my hand, it feels like the grip could be a little longer. You can see it in some of the photos below. The shortness of the grip really becomes apparent because of the grip taper you feel in whatever hand you place lower on the grip (right in my case). It is something to consider, given the contour and taper of the grip itself, that certain hand sizes might not fit as comfortably on this grip. This is in contrast to the constant-width philosophy of SuperStroke, in which any hand size will more or less feel the same. Over time, the natural contours of the grip were quite comfortable and I became used to it. I greatly prefer the rubber grip feel to whatever is on the SuperStroke grips (some kind of plastic bag-like material?) Performance Characteristics ( 20 out of 20 points) For me, successful putting is about relaxing and this grip does just that. When your hands can comfortably grasp the club, that sensation feeds back to help me feel like I can get into a comfortable position. For that reason, I think this grip is exactly what I would look for and might not have considered leaving my SuperStroke or similar constant-width grips were it not for this test. Durability (10 out of 10 points) Not sure if this could ever be a huge problem with a putter grip. I will say that I have not noticed any drop off in the tackiness and texture to the grip, but I haven’t had if for 100 rounds yet. For the cost of this grip, I think the durability is an appropriate 10/10. Miscellaneous ( 10 out of 10 points) It might be the way I re-gripped my putter, but that little bit of give I showed in my stage 1 photos is really pronounced on the butt-end of the club. Sometimes kind of strange feeling when you are manipulating the putter by just holding the butt-end of the grip. Is that even scorable? Sure – 10 points for weird and fun. Play it or Regrip it? (20 out of 20 points) Don’t plan on changing any time soon. My decision to keep the grip is mostly because I putted insanely good my last round. Making par-saving bombs all over the course to shoot a 74 (which for a weekend warror like myself is a great round). That great round paints over some other rounds in which I putted horribly. But I can’t blame the grip in those cases. The grip makes me feel comfortable holding the club so I can focus on other things and that is what is important to me. FINAL SCORE = 94

Tour SNSR Contour Pro A huge thank you to MGS for letting me review the grip and being patient while I get things going on this review. I’m a 36 year old golfer living in central Iowa. There are a lot of great public courses in this area with greens ranging from fast and undulating to burly and basic. I’ve been playing all my life but took about 12 years off for school and grad school. I have two kids so I can really only get out on weekends. I would say 3/month is a good number for me right now which should increase as the kids get older. As for my skills as a putter of the ball... I and the epitome of average. I would say I have a good stroke (see video below) and I am a decent green reader. You can get more details about my game here Like in all sports there are certain people that have IT. They are goal scorers, play makers, able to make the right move at the right time. Yeah, that ain’t me. I’m an over thinker/analyzer/choker. So let's get on with the initial impressions of this grip. The basic shape and profile fits very comfortably and naturally in your hand. The all rubber grip has excellent tack and feel in your hand. I should clarify that I was pushing pretty hard on the grip to deform it in that way. In reality the grip doesn't nearly compress like that, but your fingers and hand are sensitive enough to feel just the tiniest bit of give as you hold it which is really comfortable and gives great feedback. I'll get into other performance features stage 2 so stay tuned.

Martin Kaymer -13

I was a Lampkin Crossline devotee back in the early aughts. The price to quality ratio was fantastic. Recently switched to the GP aligns and for some reason they really don't feel right so I want to go back to a round grip. Potentially back to some kind of Lampkin but... There was some controversy a while back that Lamkin changed the crossline so it didn't feel the same. Does anyone know anything about this? Can anyone recommend a Lamkin they like? I wanted to get assorted colors in the R.E.L. ACE but it looks like they cut back on the colors available. Justin Rose plays the Sonars I think and he and I pretty much have the same game.

As an organic chemist, carbon putters just speak to me Love the look of the kid model!

Love the screen name. I played The Highlands once when I was in St Louis. Was a fun little course actually.

Another vote for mggolf.com Value and quality can't be beat. You think you don't want a fancy laser with slope but for $100 you might consider it. Hat tip to @fozcycle for telling me about them.

The Toulon has an aluminum face as opposed to steel, might be responsible for the sound difference to traditional putters. When you say some golf balls, do you mean urethane versus serlyn cover?

Thanks! Definitely looking forward to testing it out. I am a little worried it might be a little too small/narrow. Was a little concerned about the 140cc being too big and too heavy. Testers anxiety.

Nice to see you rolling the Indy! Have to say I love the contrast between the face and the back portion. Makes it look like you have a blade putter at the same time as a mallet. I'll be giving that same grip a whirl too so we shall see how she rolls.

If you are looking to experiment a little, the Wishon 919THI is by far the most forgiving driver I have ever hit. There is a small but faithful following that swears by this head, and you can likely find a used model online for cheap. Don't let the small name of Wishon clubs fool you. My fitter gave me a 919THI to try and I was skeptical. Ok buddy, I will give it a shot. Well, last year it slowly became my go to club. So reliable and solid all over the face. FWIW

Wow! Those VTs look fantastic. You usually see some kind of port on hollow irons that is filled with a plug or a screw of some kind. I don't see that on these. Different way of manufacturing? I always assumed they just welded a face onto the iron body and the little port was for... cleaning things up on the inside?

Vijay chips cross-handed (left hand low). Did it on 17 at the Honda. I heard a putting teaching once say the best way to correct your yips was to just change your grip. Changes your motor patterns completely.

My dad had frozen shoulder a few years ago, and he recovered well, 100%, within 1.5 years. You have to keep in mind that it is a slow recovery no matter which route you take. My cousin is a PT so worked with him off and on. From what I remember, he said you need to move the shoulder to the end of your range of motion (daily if you can). Moving to the end point of your range of motion is painful, but that is the point. You need to grit your teeth and try to push a little more each week. PT had him doing a lot of stuff with a rope and a pulley. Using his good arm to pull his bad arm every which way. Obviously, I think you should speak with a real PT before trying anything. I'm no expert but your option 1 sounds insane.

Seems to be a good representation of Iowa folks in this thread!

If you don't have time or feel like changing or analyzing your chipping motion try this... 1) Take a few practice chip swings. 2) Wherever you brushed the grass is the lowest part of your swing. 3) Make sure the ball is in that low point on the real swing. I find that mentality takes the mechanics out of chipping and makes it more about shot making.

Grab James Sieckmann's Your Short Game Solution. All the wisdom of Pelz (He even taught under Pelz) boiled down to a much simpler system that feels very natural. Short book too. Sounds like you are moving your lower body a lot on your chips.

I have to pay a visit to my fitter some time this Spring so it will give me a chance to play around with the sand wedge and putter and see what the swing weight number actually are and how close they may be. My fitter fits using MOI so I don't actually know what the swing weight is on my sand wedge.

I would go further and say that since the putter is a one-of-a-kind club/swing in the bag that the swing weight actually doesn't matter for performance in contrast to a set of irons where you would like them all to have the same swing weight (or MOI). But as you say it will change the way the putter feels and swings so lead tape might have to be the answer if I really hate it. I was actually debating adding 1" to the length anyway, which is worth about 6 swing weight points the other way. So my overall SW change would only be 3 points in the end if I went that route. Ahhh, the variables you can obsess over and still miss that shaky 3-footer!

@jlukes nice to hear your thoughts on the gravity grip. I am really interested in trying this thing out this Spring. My only concern is that it is 45g heavier than my current grip and which is worth about 9 swing weight points. I really like the way the putter swings now.

How long have you been playing golf? What’s your handicap or normal score? Probably since I was about 10. Went with my dad a few times and just got hooked. I took about 10 years off for school. Trying to play as much as possible but I have a young family which cuts into it. I'm lucky if I can play once a week (couple times a month in the summer is the norm) I'm a solid low 80's player but I can usually sneak a few 70's rounds into the mix. What do you love about golf? I like that it's a hard game with the constant pursuit of perfection. I love the feeling when you hit that one perfectly pure shot that hangs in the air all the way to the target. It's what drives me to hit 100 more shots just to get that one feeling back. What brings you to MyGolfSpy? Do you already know any other Spies? I've been around a while, though I'm not as active on here as some folks. Came originally to learn more about clubs and never left. I was definitely one of those "standard loft" guys when I first started. It's interesting how much you pick up reading around on here. Where are you from? What is your home course? Canadian, born and raised. Boston for grad school. Madison for bit. Now Ames. I play a variety of courses in the area. What are the best and worst things about golf in your region? There are a bunch of great tracks in my area that I think punch above their weight in terms of quality golf. You can play courses with a lot of elevation changes and some that are pure links. Des Moines also has some great courses as well. What do you do for a living? How’d you pick your user name? I can kind of answer both of these. I panicked when trying to come up with a user name. I'm a chemist. We swing clubs. Alliteration is always fun = chemclub.

I'm definitely giving the true originals a try this spring. I thought about holding off and maybe going for the new Majors, but after thinking it over the originals are probably a better bet for my first pair of trues.

Those CB 57's are absolute stunners! I was close to getting them but I preferred the look of the PP9003SN at address - something about the high toe just spoke to me. Noticed you made nice bag choice too!

how come you can't buy the hat off their website?

They are raw steel so they should get a nice dark rusty patina all over them - which I love the look and feel of. Some guys oil them but I prefer the tarnished look. @GolfSub70, What are the holes for on the back of the wedge? Just for looks or did you guys have a plan for them?