Krank Formula 11... Too Hot for the USGA

[Berg Ryman]

 

 

Let's be real here, the news is Krank is going to be producing two types heads that exceed COR for USGA and R&A purposes. I'll be intrigued to see how it works, but interesting that they're just coming out and saying it.

There are going to be three heads. Formula 11 Pro, which will be confirming, Formula 11 X and XX which won't be. The difference between X and XX is swing speed, X for guys between 80-105, XX for guys below.

[StrawberryShortCake]

Interesting, I guess if you don't play in any tournaments and only play with your buddies on the weekend what does it matter if they meet USGA rules. I know guys who use weird clubs and weird balls to just have a good time because golf is friggin hard. If your not taking it seriously I say have fun with it.

[Grit Golf]

I did a Krank golf marketing survey where they were asking specifically about how golfers felt about nonconforming equipment. I guess enough people must have said they would play it outside of tournament conditions (let’s be honest, most golfers never play in a tournament), that they went ahead and made it.

I’m in the camp of whatever makes the game fun is good for the game. With my best drives rolling out to 250 total, id be interested in trying a Krank X. I would have to remove those rounds from my arccos stats to not feel like a fraud, but if it was worth 10 yards or more it could be fun to mess around with.

[Jbmullin]

I took the bait and was so intrigued by what they are claiming that I ordered the Krank 11X non conforming driver, it should be on my step waiting for me when I get home today. I don't play tournament golf and honestly unless this thing actually gets me the 20-30 more yards it claims , it will either go back or just get piled on the clubs my sons use. 

I will post some video and clips of the driving range and on course testing I do if anyone is interested.  

[Berg Ryman]

28 minutes ago, Jbmullin said:

I took the bait and was so intrigued by what they are claiming that I ordered the Krank 11X non conforming driver, it should be on my step waiting for me when I get home today. I don't play tournament golf and honestly unless this thing actually gets me the 20-30 more yards it claims , it will either go back or just get piled on the clubs my sons use. 

I will post some video and clips of the driving range and on course testing I do if anyone is interested.  

JB you are truly a jam up guy. Can't wait to see what it does or doesn't do for you.

[JohnSmalls]

1 hour ago, Jbmullin said:

I took the bait and was so intrigued by what they are claiming that I ordered the Krank 11X non conforming driver, it should be on my step waiting for me when I get home today. I don't play tournament golf and honestly unless this thing actually gets me the 20-30 more yards it claims , it will either go back or just get piled on the clubs my sons use. 

I will post some video and clips of the driving range and on course testing I do if anyone is interested.  

Thanks for taking the chance to give it a go.  Looking forward in seeing your results!

[Nolan220]

interesting .. I would use it 

[Jbmullin]

Krank driver unboxing

It’s a 9 degree head with Fujikura light tour shaft. Love the head cover. The loft sleeve is a bit different. Had to watch a video to know how to set it up.



Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[Jbmullin]

Well ... as might have been expected.. it feels more like snake oil than anything. I did not gain 20-30 yards with the illegal driver.. I lost yards from what I have been getting with my sim driver. My best two I think we’re the back to back 237 yards and they came after I adjusted the loft up to 11 degrees and adjusted more draw bias.

 

 

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Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

[Nolan220]

damn I had some hope 

[Jbmullin]

It felt awful and sounded worse. I was concerned when I was fit over the phone about the lite shaft, they offered to send me a stiffer shaft if needed so I’m reaching out asking them to swap it out.


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[Nolan220]

26 minutes ago, Jbmullin said:

It felt awful and sounded worse. I was concerned when I was fit over the phone about the lite shaft, they offered to send me a stiffer shaft if needed so I’m reaching out asking them to swap it out.


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

yeah thats good but I mean if it doesn't sound good nothing you can really do about that 

[PlaidJacket]

Perhaps if you paired the illegal ...ehem - non-conforming driver with an illegal .. nonconforming ball like a Condor, Bandit, Polara you'd get those extra yards. Maybe more!! If that doesn't work send it in and have the face shaved and put some vaseline on it. Finally... if after all that and you're still not driving greens; just move up a tee or three. 

[Jbmullin]

After feeling ignored for the last few days by Krank customer service I finally got a reply and they are sending me a stiff shaft to replace the wet noodle senior flex they sent me.


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[JohnSmalls]

On 7/22/2020 at 12:04 AM, Jbmullin said:

After feeling ignored for the last few days by Krank customer service I finally got a reply and they are sending me a stiff shaft to replace the wet noodle senior flex they sent me.


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Any news with or since the new shaft?

[Jczero]

On 7/17/2020 at 11:53 AM, Jbmullin said:

Well ... as might have been expected.. it feels more like snake oil than anything. I did not gain 20-30 yards with the illegal driver.. I lost yards from what I have been getting with my sim driver. My best two I think we’re the back to back 237 yards and they came after I adjusted the loft up to 11 degrees and adjusted more draw bias.

 

 

.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

 

Hope you tried again on another launch monitor because there is no way you got exact 1.4 smash for all of those swing and with a non conforming driver the smash should be above 1.5.

[03trdblack]

3 minutes ago, Jczero said:

 

Hope you tried again on another launch monitor because there is no way you got exact 1.4 smash for all of those swing and with a non conforming driver the smash should be above 1.5.

GC2 only records ball speed and calculates swing speed based off of that and sets all shots hit as the same smash.

[link74]

Your swing data (swing speed, launch angle, side spin) seem very inconsistent.  Was this harder to control than your regular driver?  Did you get the stiff shaft and test it? Thanks.

[Buffly]

On 7/17/2020 at 9:53 AM, Jbmullin said:

Well ... as might have been expected.. it feels more like snake oil than anything. I did not gain 20-30 yards with the illegal driver.. I lost yards from what I have been getting with my sim driver. My best two I think we’re the back to back 237 yards and they came after I adjusted the loft up to 11 degrees and adjusted more draw bias.

 

 

.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

Hey @Jbmullin hope you are doing well. The launch data you sent seems like launch is a bit too high for optimum carry and total yards? If you can get the launch down to under 14° and about 2500-2700 rpm spin then you might have a better result. Also, based on those numbers, it seems regular flex might have been better than senior instead of stiff?

Good luck on the journey.

[Jbmullin]

On 1/1/2021 at 10:26 AM, Buffly said:

Hey @Jbmullin hope you are doing well. The launch data you sent seems like launch is a bit too high for optimum carry and total yards? If you can get the launch down to under 14° and about 2500-2700 rpm spin then you might have a better result. Also, based on those numbers, it seems regular flex might have been better than senior instead of stiff?

Good luck on the journey.

I gave up on this club and sold it for a pretty significant loss after maybe 10-15 shots with it.  I think I learned another valuable lesson about golf, practice and learn and dont expect an "illegal" club to fix things  

[Buffly]

1 hour ago, Jbmullin said:

I gave up on this club and sold it for a pretty significant loss after maybe 10-15 shots with it.  I think I learned another valuable lesson about golf, practice and learn and dont expect an "illegal" club to fix things  

I hear you loud and clear. 

I actually love older equipment from about 20 years ago, so I buy it and learn how to score with older tech because it's all about enjoying the round more than anything. 

My most recent purchase is a Ping ISI Tour laminated maple 1 wood driver which I am really excited about. It is the last wood driver to be used on tour as late as 1996. 

Anyways, I know a young player who had a Krank and he loved it. He wishes he didn't replace it with his TM Sim but he is sponsored now. His dad is his coach and a PGA member (not tour player). This young man is definitely getting a full ride scholarship and will be a contender for the PGA Tour someday. All this to say, the reason he loved that club so much is because he hit it out of the center every time - because of his talent. And when he did, there was nothing but awesomeness and a loud hit. I didn't like hitting next to him because it was so loud. He had no problem hitting out to 320 carry on the reg.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. I hope you find a power move that will make whatever you swing launch like a rocket .

[Chicowilbur13]

The Krank sales pitch got me late one night after a couple of pops, purchased the F11X head only for $280. The next morning I sent an email to them to cancel. Dave from Krank called to confirm my address and I asked if he had received my cancellation email. He said no, why did I cancel? Not wanting to admit I was tipsey couch surfing, I explained that I wanted a club with a shaft. He offered one for another $100, I said no thank you and he agreed to cancel. About 30 minutes later he called to offer a free shaft. At this point it was time to give it a try. Dave custom fit me adding an inch to the length and a jumbo grip, he said he knew I would love it.

Dave was so helpful it scarred me after talking, then I read the reviews on this site but it was too late. The driver came in just two days, sent Friday, received Monday. The head shape and face looks like my Rogue driver, the shaft says speeder all over it and there is a gritty matte black finish, not smooth like a fishing pole. It really looked great, but I had my doubts and considered selling it as new in plastic wrapping hoping to break even.

Yesterday I took it out to the course, what the hell, I bought it to hit. The added inch made it looser than my normal length stiff shaft. First tee, shank left. I was so focused on whether it would work I made a bad swing. Second hole made better contact with a leak to the right. Third drive, nutted it as far as I have ever hit a drive. My playing partner who is usually about 10 yards shorter than me was now 40 yards behind. For the rest of the round my good swings were monsters and bad swings were still long and not as errant as with my Rogue. On the first par 5 I got on in two, this has not happened for 20 years when I was much stronger. Unfortunately missed the eagle put but was happy with the bird.

Summary of my review, the Krank F11X is exactly what it says it is, not snake oil. If others did not experience greater distance they did not give themselves a chance to get used to the club. Regardless of how people feel about hicor drivers, this driver is longer than my Rogue and my Sim max by a lot. The hicor added probably 20 yards and the longer shaft another 10. The build quality is like Callaway or TM. The sound is a high pitched "ting!", didn't bother me but some may care? The Krank driver reminds me of when Taylormade came out with the crazy big 320 cc head  (1997), driving the golf ball became fun for everyone, not just the pro's. By the way, Dave was right, I love it! 

 

About me, 48 yo, 18 handicap, 100-105 SS. Play the same club most every Saturday, the change in distance lets me play different shots on the same track. This driver will not be used in PGA sanctioned events or scores recorded that would impact my handicap, it's only to have more fun playing golf. This is consistent with how the club is marketed.

 

[BIG STU]

On 7/14/2020 at 6:37 PM, StrawberryShortCake said:

Interesting, I guess if you don't play in any tournaments and only play with your buddies on the weekend what does it matter if they meet USGA rules. I know guys who use weird clubs and weird balls to just have a good time because golf is friggin hard. If your not taking it seriously I say have fun with it.

Agree none of the groups or members I play with give 2 hoots what anyone plays equipment wise. And none of them keeps a stipulated USGA legal handicap. Technically half the stuff or all of the stuff in my signature set is non conforming. My 588 is 20 years old and the KZG irons if submitted and checked would probably be legal . They are not on the Conforming list but they were made around 06 or so. 

Now I have been studying up on the Krank drivers some' My conjecture the ones made for senior players as far as speed and cor etc would be legal in the hands of someone like me with a 95 MPH or so SS now a younger guy in the 110 or more range no. Plus I think the faces on those are so thin that they would crack in no time with a 110 or so swinger. Just my .02 FWIW

[BIG STU]

18 minutes ago, Chicowilbur13 said:

The Krank sales pitch got me late one night after a couple of pops, purchased the F11X head only for $280. The next morning I sent an email to them to cancel. Dave from Krank called to confirm my address and I asked if he had received my cancellation email. He said no, why did I cancel? Not wanting to admit I was tipsey couch surfing, I explained that I wanted a club with a shaft. He offered one for another $100, I said no thank you and he agreed to cancel. About 30 minutes later he called to offer a free shaft. At this point it was time to give it a try. Dave custom fit me adding an inch to the length and a jumbo grip, he said he knew I would love it.

Dave was so helpful it scarred me after talking, then I read the reviews on this site but it was too late. The driver came in just two days, sent Friday, received Monday. The head shape and face looks like my Rogue driver, the shaft says speeder all over it and there is a gritty matte black finish, not smooth like a fishing pole. It really looked great, but I had my doubts and considered selling it as new in plastic wrapping hoping to break even.

Yesterday I took it out to the course, what the hell, I bought it to hit. The added inch made it looser than my normal length stiff shaft. First tee, shank left. I was so focused on whether it would work I made a bad swing. Second hole made better contact with a leak to the right. Third drive, nutted it as far as I have ever hit a drive. My playing partner who is usually about 10 yards shorter than me was now 40 yards behind. For the rest of the round my good swings were monsters and bad swings were still long and not as errant as with my Rogue. On the first par 5 I got on in two, this has not happened for 20 years when I was much stronger. Unfortunately missed the eagle put but was happy with the bird.

Summary of my review, the Krank F11X is exactly what it says it is, not snake oil. If others did not experience greater distance they did not give themselves a chance to get used to the club. Regardless of how people feel about hicor drivers, this driver is longer than my Rogue and my Sim max by a lot. The hicor added probably 20 yards and the longer shaft another 10. The build quality is like Callaway or TM. The sound is a high pitched "ting!", didn't bother me but some may care? The Krank driver reminds me of when Taylormade came out with the crazy big 320 cc head  (1997), driving the golf ball became fun for everyone, not just the pro's. By the way, Dave was right, I love it! 

 

About me, 48 yo, 18 handicap, 100-105 SS. Play the same club most every Saturday, the change in distance lets me play different shots on the same track. This driver will not be used in PGA sanctioned events or scores recorded that would impact my handicap, it's only to have more fun playing golf. This is consistent with how the club is marketed.

 

Yep the name of the game is to have fun. Now I will tell you with any hot faced driver your miss hits will go further in the wrong direction. But if you hit it good wola!!!!! Good example I had a hot Nakashima driver a few years back ( still have the head) had it set up with a UST 65 Stiff ( could actually hit a ball back then) That thing was hot faced as heck but legal. My problem was on off hits it went further off track. If I found the center it was bombs away. But in my case it did not fit my game and I will concurr I was still wild off the tee with any driver. 

[duckie12]

I have not hit a driver for 16 years until I bought an Formula X Extreme 1, 10.5 Degree with a speeder LT shaft. I am 60 years old now, and play to a 6 handicap and had always hit a 2 iron off the tee, or a hybrid, which would get me 220 -240 off the tee.  I have lost a lot of swing speed in the last couple years so I bought a Krank and committed to learning how to hit a driver. Problem being I had always swung it like an iron, but with the loss in distance I had to keep up with my buddies. After going to see a couple teachers, who seem to be far too wrapped up in trackman stats, I decided in frustration to push a little harder with my left side (I'm a lefty). Miracle of miracles, I hit it square and have been working with it on the range for a couple of months now. I still don't have great clubhead speed (85-92 same speed as my irons, go figure). and pull off the ball but it is getting better. I can roll it out to 250 every once in a while. I compared to my R1 that had been sitting in the closet and found when I rolled over, I found the Krank didn't  hook as much, but can't tell the difference in yardage on the range.  it feels very light in my hands and sounds great when hit properly. I let one of the guys at our course try it, who hits it well over 300 and he was hitting it 320 off the trees at the end of our range.  All I can say is that I like this driver, it feels good in my hands, and sounds great on good hits. As for comparing it too big name drivers I can't tell you that. I am quite happy with it, and I will order another head in 9 degree and see if I can grab a few more yards.

Driver: Krank Extreme 1 speeder LT

Diving Iron: Adams DHY 18 degree UST 85g stiff

Irons: Calloway X forged 2007 project x 6.0 upgrading to Mizuno SEL KBS tour 90 shafts still with step up when the backlog is over

Wedges: Calloway MAC Daddy 56 with 8 degree bounce. Vokey 50 with 8 degree bounce

 

Les Freeman

[Radix]

When your comparing two clubs you have to compare them equally. To do this you remove the outliers and have an equal number of shots. When I'm personally comparing two I will hit maybe 25-50 shots with each and take my top 10 drives from each and compare those stats. This is due to the fact that being more comfortable with one driver is going to have you hitting a little more consistently with it due to confidence. 

If you do this with these two clubs you come up with some good stats that show what the club would do if you put in the time to get used to it.

With the Callaway you only had 4 good shots that wern't outliers. So we need to compare the 4 best shots from each club.

Krank - 237 - 237 - 233 - 227 =934 (233.5 yard average)

Callaway - 230 - 227 - 220 - 218 = 895 (223.75 yard average)

So you actually hit the Krank driver 10 yards further with the incorrect shaft and launch angle. I would have given it a bit more testing with the right set up!

Also sorry I know this is an older thread but it was posted else ware and I wanted to make those comments.

 

All that being said if you cant stand the look or sound of a driver your never going to feel truly comfortable with it no matter how it performs.

[garyt1957]

Isn't the sad truth about hi COR drivers the fact that only higher swing speeds can really take advantage of the higher COR? So while a 100+ SS will pick up the advertised 20 yards the slow swinging sap (me) who really needs the yards will get maybe 5? I've hit a .900 Cor driver and got nothing extra.

Edited August 14, 2021 by garyt1957

[bassman]

Wish I'd seen this before the sales pitch...ah, well...live and learn.

[Dijit]

I’ve waterskied competitively for over 30 years and the skis run about $2,000. The pros ski on skis that are custom and extremely stiff. They really put a lot of strain running around 6 buoys. My point is, EVERYONE doesn’t have to ski on this type of setup. If your swing is less than 100, why, pray tell, can’t you use a club that benefits your game??  It makes ZERO sense to use a driver that’s designed for swings over 100 mph when you can’t make it perform to its intent. I finally tried an 11X. I played a round and wasn’t really impressed with it at first.  I rolled up to the ball and it was closer than I’ve ever been on this hole. Looked at the screen, 290 yards. Couldn’t believe it. A couple holes thought my contact was a little off, 280 yards. So. Much. Fun.