Ko Olina Demo Day Debrief

[Aotearoa_Brad]

 

Around this time every year, Ko Olina Golf Club holds its annual Demo Day. I'm quite fond of this one in particular, because it was on the first weekend I moved to Hawaii last year and was the first thing that I'd put on my calendar to attend as a ‘local'. I'm the first to admit that my intentions for this event were really to look and hit the new equipment – not necessarily to buy anything.

 

I'm not sure whether it was the time of day I got there (9:30am) but it wasn't overly busy at all. As Jay Baker wrote recently on the Blog, I can imagine this type of event is pretty hit and miss – though mostly miss – in terms of sales for the guys staffing these events from the OEM side of things.

 

I got a message from MBP just as I was leaving the house to say that our very own forum member Jonathan (@MorikawaTMaG) was staffing the TMaG tent, so I made my way there first. I chatted with Jonathan for quite a while and he is a top bloke – still in school but clearly very knowledgeable and with a keen interest in the equipment side of the industry.

 

 

TMaG equipment in the lineup is extremely impressive. I hit both the RSi1 and RSi2 irons. The RSi1 irons are not actually as big as I thought they might be, and definitely easy to hit. The RSi2 irons, however, were the big winner for me – super long and consistent.

 

I also hit both the R15 and AeroBurner drivers. Chalk and cheese. Loved the R15, couldn't stand the AeroBurner. A lot of it had to do with the impact sound, I'm sure of it – AeroBurner just didn't feel solid at all. I didn't play around with the weight system on the R15 at all, but it is a bomber and was the longest driver for me all day. I did hit the SLDR alongside it, and can say that for me the R15 was more forgiving. As good as it was, the R15 would not have made my ‘demo day bag'.

 

 

Next up – Nike Golf. To say I was disappointed that the Vapor drivers were not available to hit is an understatement. I had geared myself up to hit them and completely forgot that they haven't been released into the wild as yet. Anyway, Nike reps were very knowledgeable and willing to offer any insights they could. I hit the Vapor Pro, ProCombo and Speed 6i alternating in short bursts and my preference was definitely for the ProCombo – super consistent. Slightly shorter for me than the RSi2, but all of my shots were on a string and I love the look of them.

 

This was a great chance for me to hit the Nike wedges as well. I hadn't hit the ToeSweep wedge before, but it was great (even from the tightly mown hitting area) and I can see a 58deg ToeSweep making a permanent home in my bag very shortly.

 

 

Surprise of the day for me was my brief visit with Titleist. I have never been remotely interested in Titleist, not for any good reason, maybe its because ‘Titleist' and ‘elitist' are such similar looking words… In any case, I was blown away by the 915 D2 driver. It's a beautiful driver, sleek even with the alignment aid (which still reminds me of one of the playstation controller symbols…). This driver just works – I have never hit a quite a series of consistently long, straight drives in a row as I did with this driver. The stock Diamana M+ Blue (61gm) shaft was a really good fit for my swing as well. If money were no object (or even just a smaller one) then this would already be in my bag.

 

 

Based just on the demo day equipment, my bag would look like this:

 

Driver: Titleist 915D2 10.5deg, Stiff Mitsubishi Diamana M+ Blue

4W: (own) Tour Edge Exotics XCG6, Stiff Matrix Ozik HD6.1

7W: Titleist 915F (21deg), Stiff Mitsubishi Diamana M+ Blue

4-PW: TMaG RSi2 (2deg flat), Stiff KBS Tour

Wedges: Nike VR Forged 50,54 ; Nike X3X ToeSweep 58

Putter: (own) SeeMore M3 

 

I'm not sure how many balls I hit on Saturday morning, but it was a lot. I was stuffed - fortunately though, I was at Ko Olina Resort so trundled on down to the lagoon for a swim... just saying

 

[GolfSpy Barbajo]

I was l loving your write-up Brad right up until that last picture.  You just had to rub my Minnesota-snow-bound-single-digit temp nose in it, didn't you?  

[JBones]

Very nice, Brad, looks like a blast.  I had the 915D2 in my hands this weekend and it does look sexy; didn't have time to hit it though.

[WScott]

Thanks, Brad.  God, I love demo days.  We just have far too few of them where I live in the western foothills of North Carolina.  I wish manufacturers would spend more on demo days than on any other form of advertising to reach serious golfers.  I picked up a new 915D2 yesterday and was impressed  --   but I could not hit it in the shop!  And your comments about the TM irons are very interesting as I may be looking for new irons next year. I'd be happy to read all the demo day reports I can find, especially ones from various levels of golfers.  The information in the magazines from such testing does not seem detailed enough.  Thanks, again.  Scott

[fozcycle]

Very good review.......I was wondering why there was no Cobra equipment available.

[MorikawaTMaG]

great write up! Was nice talking to you and fitting you to the new stuff.

[Aotearoa_Brad]

Very good review.......I was wondering why there was no Cobra equipment available.

 

You know Foz - that was the biggest disappointment for me... last year CobraPUMA was there in full force with all their new gear, but they were not there this year at all. Maybe they're waiting until they have more of the new line out before heading along to these things - I'll definitely be looking for any demo days they have scheduled around here.

[Hula Rock]

Will be there next week for the Holidays....

[Aotearoa_Brad]

Will be there next week for the Holidays....

Sweet - bringing clubs? Keen for a round?