sl1111

Shaft is no longer available. It was installed in another driver without me realizing it. Sorry for any inconvenience and thanks to those who wanted to give it a whirl.

My journey has come to an end as I’m back to a more traditional set up for me. I am out of town for a few days but am willing to pass on my Pro Launch Blue “A” flex once I figure out what adapters I have available. If someone wants to pay shipping and cover an adapter I’ll ship it out. Off the top of my head I believe I have Titleist, newer TaylorMade, Callaway, and PXG adapter available. Let me know if interested.

Cobra LTDx 5 through GW. KBS Tour 90 Stiff. Lamkin grips. Never hit, brand new in box with plastic and bubble wrap on heads. $500 shipped CONUS. PayPal or Venmo with protection only. No trades. Impulse buy on my part and changed my mind before hitting them.

You could absolutely hit a target swing weight with lead tape under the grip, especially if you wanted to use the weight in a setting besides neutral. This was just quick and easy for the experiment and did not change the head performance. I was also trying to stick to the theme of an overall lighter static weight, as I think that is part of the objective.

Funny you mention your driving iron. I play Project X 6.5 in my irons and I have been hunting for a driving iron style head in the 21 degree range. A friend of mine handed me a ZX4 4 iron with a random black shaft in it. He says, don’t look at the shaft, just hit a few and see if it works. It was really good and when he told to look at the shaft it was a soft stepped R flex Miyazaki. I immediately dismissed it even though I hit 10 pretty good shots with it. After this driver experiment I may reconsider. I’ve been so hung up about flex and I know the Auto Flex and Otto are not the same as an iron, but the old saying about swing the lightest flex you can controll has merit. Honestly has me considering my entire set up!

Ya man, I read your original post a few days ago and thought I would head to the opposite end of the range to use the clang!! Then all of a sudden there was silence, which turned out to be a good thing

I’m in on the Otto experiment. For reference in case someone is searching, I am 50 years old, in good physical shape minus a back injury last year and play to a 5 index. I am a high spin; descending blow driver of the golf ball and any fitting I end up in a low spin/low lofted shaft/head combo. Current driver is a TaylorMade Stealth+ 9 degree in the second lower setting. HZRDUS Green PDV Small Batch Tour Stiff tipped 1 inch. 106 mph swing speed at D5 swing weight, 45 inches, 60 grams. Ball flight is a slight fade with my miss being high right if I quit on this shaft at all. Had a credit at the local club builder so I picked up a Pro Launch Blue A flex at 45 grams. I’m a hobbyist club builder with a swing weight scale and I blow my mid-size grips on a and off, so adjustments are easy. Epoxied the shaft in the adapter un-tipped and cut to 46.5 inches in the standard 9-degree loft setting to get a baseline. Swing weight was in the F range, so I started trimming at half inch increments to get it down to an acceptable level. I didn’t want to go too short as I wanted to stay with the theme of the experiment. At 45.5 inches I was at D3 and didn’t want to go any shorter, so I removed the10 gram slider weight from the head and landed at D1 with a standard grip. Blew on a mid-size and hit D0 on the button. No big loss as I played the slider in the neutral position. I thought removing the slider might have a negative effect on the feel of the head but was glad to find out it did not change in my opinion. I tested today at my local driving range with yellow limited flight balls. I am very familiar with the range and can judge ball flights and distances for all of my clubs. The resort I practice at is remodeling hotel rooms, so they have metal sea containers for storage placed at the end of the range. My current driver lands just short of the sea containers and bounces into them and occasionally I am rewarded with the loud clang from landing on top of the containers. The grass members range is to the right of the containers, and I usually practice there, but today I wanted to hit toward the containers as I know where my current set up lands. I warmed up and then hit my current set up. 20 or so drives into or on top of the sea containers. Switched to the PLB Otto and removed the sliding weight to start the experiment. Set up for my first swing and did the mandatory “waggle test” and thought there is no way it will hold up or this will be “spray and pray.” First swing was probably 80% and the flight appeared at least 20 feet higher than normal and landed dead center of the sea containers, “clang.” I did not feel uncomfortable with the set up at all after the just a few swings, in fact they felt easy, and the flight was still penetrating with a slight fade, just higher. I feared the left miss and it did not develop. After about 20 drives I stopped hearing the clang and seeing the huge bounce off of the sea containers and assumed the experiment was over because I was now landing short of the containers and not bouncing into them or on them. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and I assumed the experiment was landing well short and not reaching where my current driver was landing. I decided to take a break and put my HZRDUS back in the driver and go on with my day. Just as I stopped the head professional who was teaching on the other end of the range pulled up in his golf cart. He looked pissed and was waving at me and then smiled as he saw it was me, as we are friends. He said, “What the “F” are you doing?” I told him I was testing an experimental shaft, it felt easy to hit, but wasn’t as long as my HZRDUS. He laughed and said, “does your HZRDUS fly the sea containers by 10 yards?” I said no, it hits or bounces into them or maybe on top of the first one.” He said “don’t switch back then because your first two balls scared us when they hit the containers and the rest flew over them. You quit hitting just when I jumped in the cart to come over tell whoever it was to stop hitting into the fitness center!” What I presumed as being short of reaching the containers was flying them, so I didn’t get the clang. Here's where it got weird. I put my HZRDUS and weight back in the driver and it felt totally foreign to me. It was heavy, stiff, and suddenly felt like work. I didn’t even want to hit it anymore. I hit 20 drives taking note of peak height (which now seemed very low) and dispersion. The dispersion looked pretty normal for me until I put the PLB back in. I immediately noticed the PLB had a tighter dispersion pattern and appeared to be much higher on the horizon. As soon as I put the PLB back in I noticed my swing was much smoother as I didn’t have to work as hard to move it. I then decided to conduct two tests. I have been working on not overswinging or going 100% full send with every club in my bag. I want to have and 80% swing and the occasional full send. So, I first swung the PLB at a perceived 80% fairway finder for 10 drives. Everyone of them hit the top of the sea containers and was dead straight. I usually aim up the left side and leak a fade into the left middle. I found with the PLB I could pick a target and hit it straight at an 80% effort and be as long as my fitted HZRDUS when I swing hard. Test two was the exact opposite. Swing as hard as possible while maintain balance and see if the PLB A flex would spray the yard or be a hook machine. I giggled as the slight fade returned but the dispersion was tight. It held up. Now I was intrigued and had to have more answers in the absence of launch monitor. Decided I had to hit real golf balls on the course, so I ventured to the first tee on a course I have played three times a week for 10 years and know where my shots land. There is a bunker on the right that I can comfortably be next to with roll after a good drive. Told the starter I needed to hit five drives as a test and proceeded to hit them quickly before the next group showed up. First two were the 80% swing aiming dead center. Next two were my normal full swing with a fade and the last one was the full send that I don’t want to make more than once or twice around. All of them were way higher than my normal ball flight, but all looked as if they were in play. If I played here 5 times, I would miss the fairway right two to three times, all five of these were in play. When I got to my balls, I found the 80% group to be where my current set up usually ended. The two normal swings were 10 yards past the bunker and the full send was 15 yards past the bunker. If you have read all of this, I commend you as I knew this was going to be long. Especially since I have no launch monitor data yet to back any of this up. I will get to the monitor ASAP and update, and I need to play an actual round of golf under pressure to see if it stands up. I am hoping this was not all honeymoon or driving range placebo, but I am here for it!

Fitter used impact tape on a driver head for a few swings at a fitting I did last week. He told me to ignore my launch monitor numbers for a few swings because he sees a 300 to 500 rpm decrease with the tape.

96P, I deleted this response and link after reviewing the classified rules. I sent you a message with the info..... Apologies to the admins here!

Thanks for the update. I never hit checkout so I didn’t see the final part. I didn’t want to checkout without more info. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you explain the trade in program? I am demoing Sub70 stuff now and working with them on an order. I have loaded all my trade in stuff on the trade page, but it is lacking info on how it works. Thanks for your time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

New to this forum and I am glad to see the positive attitudes of the members. Currently a hobbyist club maker and 9 HCP from SoCal......