2020 Official Member Review: Ben Hogan Golf ComPany-VKTR+, UiHi and GS53 FW

[ChitownM2]

After 2 hellish weeks of work and other commitments around the house I finally got over to the simulator to get some numbers & more work in on the hybrid. Overall, I did not have a good session with the hybrid, but that may have more to do with me personally than the club. The place was crazy busy and running behind schedule so I had a hard time finding someone to get me setup and it kind of put me in an irritated mood and it went downhill from there. Plus I hate being rushed and the 30 min time limit I was allotted didn't help anything.

I had a hard time making good contact consistently and the numbers reflected that. On my well struck shots I was seeing a lot of spin ~ 3800 and a rather short carry distance of ~175 which is not a lot better than my 5-iron. Dispersion was all over the board with some hard pulls as well as a few weak pushes. My ball flights were also much lower than I typically see on the course with a peak height of ~ 60ft. 

I'm not sure if it was the layoff or something else, but it definitely wasn't a great session and even my own irons I used to warm up and get some numbers on were also way off so as I mentioned before I think a lot had to do with me just not swinging well that day.  I've got another simulator session scheduled for this weekend and it's suppose to hit 45° next Monday so I've got a round booked to give the club one last go in 2020. More to report soon!

[Nolan220]

On 12/13/2020 at 2:40 PM, Nolan220 said:

Used the app shot vision that was just reviewed by mgs .. ending get some numbers for the BH they were pretty close to the my TM hybrid and I think the shot vision numbers were pretty close to my normal numbers so was happy about that .. I have to upload the data later today 

Here is the data I had from shot vision, I wasn't feeling it but the total numbers seem low for my 3h numbers the I usually hit around 220 but I don't know sometimes I think I hit further then I do, but anyway I was wacking a bunch and these are the 4 best shots I ended up pulling from the shot vision app and put into an excel spread sheet and add the "TM" for Taylormade and "BH" for Ben Hogan..  I was only using these numbers to see how they compare because I feel like I am biased with my TM since I had it for like 10 years but the numbers are close and might just need to get used to the BH and spend some time with it .. anyway here some numbers .. shot vision seems to be okay for a $6/month app .. not sure I will always use it but will give it a try 

 

[ChitownM2]

Heading back to the simulator tomorrow so hopefully will have another update with some more data by Sunday night.

Also looking like my round for Monday is not going to happen as instead of being 45 & sunny it's now supposed to snow

[josmi15]

Little more research done today.


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[josmi15]

Love The Golf Garage in Fort Wayne, IN.


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[goaliewales14]

3 Wood Review Continued

With my recent tests showing that the Hogan 3W wouldn't be a contender for my bag, or against the Taylormade SIM, I wanted to try and find the best market for this club.  I wanted to look at 3W that would be set up to go into greens rather than off the tee.  I went to my PGA SS and had them help me set up some stock 3W that they had in a ~75g X-flex to see if we could find a comparable club within the major OEMs.

I hit multiple clubs, but the ones I decided were the closest were the Mavrik Max, Cobra Big Tour, and Ping G410.  I'm looking at the very high spin/very forgiving clubs.  With the Hogan being as high spin as we've seen in the past few tests, these were the only category of clubs that could compare.  I took the one of the best shots with each club to compare.

Looking at the data, you can see that the Hogan is last in distance.  The main distance killer for this club is the massive amount of spin that we've seen throughout my testing.  The ball speed with the Mavrik and Hogan are significantly behind the rest of the pack, but Marvik has a lower spin giving it the edge in distance.  I do realize that there are shots up there that are offline to the left.  The shots could all be dialed in with the adjustability in the hosel to open up the face a bit more.

While I'm hitting all of these clubs, I also wanted to make note of sound and feel.  The Hogan by far felt the heaviest with the Cobra feeling the lightest.  The Ping and Cobra had a nice "POP" off the face with a well struck ball.  Mavrik was good on sound.  I definitely wouldn't say it had a "POP", but you knew when you struck it well.  With the Hogan I struggled to find any type of real sounds with the Hogan on a well struck ball.  

Looking down on each club, you can see similar finishes with the Hogan, Cobra, and Mavrik.  The one commonality that all of the clubs have besides Hogan is a small alignment mark.  Something to draw your eyes to the middle of the club. 

With hitting all of these clubs sided-by-side, I'm struggling to find the correct market for this 3W.  I would put it in the same category as Mavrik Max, but the forgiveness isn't the same with that smaller head.  Plus, a lot of people that are looking for that help, won't be able to swing a D4 weighted club.  They will be looking for something light that still helps launch the ball.

[golfish!]

12 hours ago, goaliewales14 said:

3 Wood Review Continued

With my recent tests showing that the Hogan 3W wouldn't be a contender for my bag, or against the Taylormade SIM, I wanted to try and find the best market for this club.  I wanted to look at 3W that would be set up to go into greens rather than off the tee.  I went to my PGA SS and had them help me set up some stock 3W that they had in a ~75g X-flex to see if we could find a comparable club within the major OEMs.

I hit multiple clubs, but the ones I decided were the closest were the Mavrik Max, Cobra Big Tour, and Ping G410.  I'm looking at the very high spin/very forgiving clubs.  With the Hogan being as high spin as we've seen in the past few tests, these were the only category of clubs that could compare.  I took the one of the best shots with each club to compare.

Looking at the data, you can see that the Hogan is last in distance.  The main distance killer for this club is the massive amount of spin that we've seen throughout my testing.  The ball speed with the Mavrik and Hogan are significantly behind the rest of the pack, but Marvik has a lower spin giving it the edge in distance.  I do realize that there are shots up there that are offline to the left.  The shots could all be dialed in with the adjustability in the hosel to open up the face a bit more.

While I'm hitting all of these clubs, I also wanted to make note of sound and feel.  The Hogan by far felt the heaviest with the Cobra feeling the lightest.  The Ping and Cobra had a nice "POP" off the face with a well struck ball.  Mavrik was good on sound.  I definitely wouldn't say it had a "POP", but you knew when you struck it well.  With the Hogan I struggled to find any type of real sounds with the Hogan on a well struck ball.  

Looking down on each club, you can see similar finishes with the Hogan, Cobra, and Mavrik.  The one commonality that all of the clubs have besides Hogan is a small alignment mark.  Something to draw your eyes to the middle of the club. 

With hitting all of these clubs sided-by-side, I'm struggling to find the correct market for this 3W.  I would put it in the same category as Mavrik Max, but the forgiveness isn't the same with that smaller head.  Plus, a lot of people that are looking for that help, won't be able to swing a D4 weighted club.  They will be looking for something light that still helps launch the ball.

Interesting data. Looks like consistently across the board between all the 3W testers we aren't getting the expected distance with the BH 3W. I don't have much to compare to since I did not play a 3W previously, but when compared to my 3H, now that I have tested the club more, I do find that I am getting about the same yardage with both clubs. I was expecting the 3W to carry a bit more and though I am striking it better on the range, still not getting that same performance off the deck on the course. Most likely I will set aside some range time soon and just hit shots with the 3H and the 3W and take measurements with my launch monitor to compare the data. I do agree with you that it would have been nice to have some kind of alignment mark on the head to line up with the ball at address. As for the sound of the club, I personally am starting to like it. On good strikes it has a clean sharp sound for me at least compared to my Callaway XR 3H. 

[goaliewales14]

I just posted my final review!  I would love to get everyone's thoughts!

[heavygolffeels]

On 12/21/2020 at 7:48 PM, goaliewales14 said:

I just posted my final review!  I would love to get everyone's thoughts!

Appreciate the honesty, and saw most of the coming with your updates throughout the thread. Still surprised that the smaller head would spin that much. Obviously not a good fit for you. 

[goaliewales14]

2 minutes ago, scooterhd2 said:

Appreciate the honesty, and saw most of the coming with your updates throughout the thread. Still surprised that the smaller head would spin that much. Obviously not a good fit for you. 

The spin numbers absolutely shocked me.  I had some hits above 5k!  After I figured out it wasn't going to work for me, I tried my best to find out who it would work for.  That's why I looked so hard at swing weights, but was shocked that a players type head would be at D4.  The only thing I can think of would be to put a counter balanced shaft in there and then MAYBE it could go to people needing that extra spin.  They just wouldn't have the forgiveness though.

[Nolan220]

On 10/30/2020 at 9:20 AM, goaliewales14 said:

Ben Hogan GS53 Fairway Wood – Official MGS Forum Review by Goaliewales14 (Mike Wales)

Intro

Hey fellow spies!  Goalie here with another review!

I’d like to start off by thanking MGS and Ben Hogan to allow me to take part in this review!  For those who don’t know me, my name is Mike and I’ve been golfing for 6 years.  In those 6 years, I’ve dropped to a 14 handicap and shot my first 80 this year.  I also had a 9-hole round of +1 in an outing!

This review is my first ever experience with any Ben Hogan clubs.  When signing up for this I chose the utility iron and 3 wood as my top 2.  I don’t use hybrids anymore as I typically hook them and I’m not able to move them like I want.  For the courses I play, a 3 wood is a position club off the tee.  I rarely will use it to go for a green as I’m looking for about 260-270 yards out of it.  My 20* driving iron goes about 240 and my driver about 290-300.  I would want this club to fill that gap.  I’m also looking for accuracy.  I’m using this club to find fairways when it’s too tight or to layup to a number on the shorter par 4’s. 

First Impressions

When I first unboxed this club, I was very pleasantly surprised.  I purposefully stayed off all reviews before the club arrived to make sure it was a true first impression.  The only picture I saw was the one on the Ben Hogan website.

The headcover is a beautiful white leather with a small red line running diagonally across it.  It is a very light headcover when I compare it to the leather that I have with my PXG, but it will protect the club and look good doing it as long as you can keep that white clean. 

The Ben Hogan website describes the look as classic, and I will definitely agree with that.  Their direct quote is, “Even the classic, elegant crown is free from any cosmetic distractions and the sole has been kept clean to ensure clean turf interaction.”  I will disagree with Ben Hogan that cosmetics on the crown distract the player.  If you look at most woods, there is something drawing your eye to the center of the club to help with alignment and strike.  I believe the GS53 could benefit from something like that.  I will also state most consumers look for some sort of visual technology as a reason why this club is better than the rest.  That can even be as simple as a carbon crown.  Hogan wants clean turf interaction, but if you look at Cobra, they have the baffler technology that helps that interaction.

If you’d like to see the complete unboxing video, you view it below.

https://youtu.be/T5zUSXmVSkE

 

Grading

Looks (6 out of 10 points)

As I mentioned above, I’m really missing some visible technology, or even something as simple as an alignment mark on the crown.  You can see below that a lot of clubs in the GS53’s category all have that mark. 

The GS53 is also smaller compared to the others in its category.  I do love that look as long as the forgiveness is there.  A lot of consumers would like a larger head to inspire that confidence.  It’s like when you look down at an iron that’s a blade vs. super game improvement.

 

Sound & Feel (4 out of 10 points)

Throughout this review I’ve mentioned that this club has no “pop” off the face.  You can hit a solid shot and have it sounds very very dull.  It almost sounds like something is wrong with the club.  One of the employees at the PGA SS hit it and wondered if the face was cracked because of how weird the sound is hitting this club.

As I mentioned in the unboxing, the GS53 felt heavier than my Taylormade SIM.  Looking up that specifications for the GS53, it comes in standard at a D4 swing weight.  Taylormade comes it at D3, Ping at D1, and Marvik Max at D3.  This is the heaviest club I’ve hit in a fairway wood.  I would wonder if using a counter-balanced shaft to help offset that swing weight would be the way to go.  I really like the stock, Tensei shaft, but D4 seemed heavy.

 

Basic Characteristics (8 out of 20 points)

When I first heard I was going to be testing the GS53 3 wood I was very curious how this club would stack up against my Taylormade SIM.  I would argue that the SIM is the #1 3 wood on the market right now.  I did dial back my SIM to match lofts with the Hogan as I wanted a fair comparison.

In that comparison, the SIM beat the Hogan by 20 yards on average.  Top distance vs top distance, the SIM won by 30 yards!  Then when I put my SIM at its fitted setting, I gain a few more yards and accuracy.

After seeing this discrepancy, I sought out to find a better comparison among the major OEMs.

The GS53, again, is the bottom of the leader board when it comes to distance due to extremely high spin numbers.  To be fair, Hogan’s website states, “They were engineered to provide incredible, dependable accuracy first and foremost.”  While you can see some of the hits above are offline to the left, all of those clubs offer adjustability to help that.  You can turn it down a few degrees while opening the face.  With the GS53 there is NO adjustability.  You can see in the first chart, I struggled getting close to the target line.  Every shot kept going left.  On mishits, I did not find the GS53 near as forgiving as the others I tested against it.  If you look at the Cobra Big Tour and Mavrik Max, those clubs have the extra CC’s to help max out that forgiveness.  The GS53 still maintains that players profile.

 

On-Course / LM Performance (N/A out of 30 points)

After seeing the performance on the launch monitors, I could not take this club to the course.

 

Miscellaneous (10 out of 10 points)

The speed of the shipment was great!  It took about 2 weeks, which most manufacturers are having supply issues due to COVID, that was an extremely quick turnaround.  The box was also probably in the best shape of any golf package I’ve received.

 

Play it or Trade it? (0 out of 20 points)

I would trade it.  As I mentioned, I couldn’t even take this club to the course due to the launch monitor performance.  I’m honestly struggling to find the category of player that this club fits.  I have spoken to multiple fitters regarding this club, and they are evening struggling to find the market.  If it were to compete in the game improvement/super game improvement category, majority of those consumers will be wanting a lighter weight club.  If you go to the players category, with this club reaching 4,000+ spin, that makes this club unplayable for that category.  Without adjustability, Ben Hogan is reducing that consumer base even further.

 

Conclusion

I was very excited to try this club since I’ve never had an experience with any Ben Hogan clubs.  After hitting the GS53, I would leave it on the shelf.  I struggled with consistency due to no adjustability.  The spin numbers were off the charts for a 3 wood being above 4,000.  Those spin numbers are also keeping the GS53 from getting close to any other 3 wood in terms of distance.  I wish I could say that this club doesn’t fit me, but if you’re XYZ type of player, it would be great!  Even after seeking insight from multiple fitters, everyone seems at a lose for whom this club would be best suited for on the course.

Final Score: (28 out of 70 points)

Good Job man, really like the data testing you did compared to the other clubs. Sucks it didn't work out but that is how it goes sometimes. 

[fixyurdivot]

Great reviews thus far testers... you're doing a bang up job!  I can't believe how far behind I have gotten on this review and a couple of others.  Do you suppose that is reason for MGS to turn down the firehose of product testing.... NOT!!  

@goaliewales14, if your not yet bagging the G410, what are you waiting for? 

[kardboard.kid]

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. My father was laid to rest last friday. After the Christmas holidays I will begin working with the review. I did finish the frame and netting on my indoor range.

KK—Sorry to hear the news of your dad.  Spend every moment you can with him.  The review doesn’t even need to be in your thoughts.  
 
 

Sent from my SM-A102U using MyGolfSpy mobile app

[Nolan220]

21 minutes ago, kardboard.kid said:

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. My father was laid to rest last friday. After the Christmas holidays I will begin working with the review. I did finish the frame and netting on my indoor range.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using MyGolfSpy mobile app
 

 

Sorry for you loss 

[goaliewales14]

19 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

@goaliewales14, if your not yet bagging the G410, what are you waiting for? 

I was honestly shocked when I hit it!  I'd love to give that a good compare to my SIM since I'm getting about the same distance out of them!

[AGutierrez7]

Little update on how my 3W testing is going:

I have been struggling with my swing a little bit as of late so it has been hard to give this club a fair test but when I strike it well, it has performed well. The sound off the club face sounds good to me, a very clean "pop" sound. I am also getting consistent distance with it so that's nice to note. I will try to get some numbers with it to see if my eye matches the quantitative data. So far so good when my swing is on, and a bit of a struggle with it when I am off. I'll keep you guys posted!

[twyatt700]

The UiHi is going to get a lot of work on the next two weeks, will be playing Thursday to tune up before the Bandon Marathon that will be all 5 courses in 4 days. Should be able to get a good sense of the club. So far I’m not really feeling it though. I’m guessing it’s the shaft, but I haven’t really had the time/cash to get a new one in there. I don’t seem to be getting to low trajectory with it on the range. Despite being an 18* club it’s been going very high, could be my swing also could be that I was gaming OL iron for the last two years... but I tested out some other utility irons last week (granted I don’t have the same launch monitor resources) and I definitely felt more comfortable with the Ping Crossover and TaylorMade utility. Both of those had a lower trajectory and more distance.
I’m going to hit it a bunch on Thursday to see if a proper ball and one course I will see some different results, but I’m not holding my breathe. I’ll be getting my review up after the new year.


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[josmi15]

Good reading so far on these reviews.  I just entered my data from Trackman #3 (unfortunately i didn't get my 2nd attempt at them transferred over to excel, so we'll just say, it's definitely interesting with the results that i've gotten so far. My goal is to have the review up by 1/4 if not sooner. 

[Crowev01]

I'll be finishing up my review this week, but the testing on this club has been a real shock to say the least. I haven't had as much time at the course, but I've managed to log 10 rounds and two dedicated range sessions with this club and I'm feeling confident in my opinions of its performance at this point.  

I will outline this further, but I have been bagging a 21 year old 3 wood for a while with a factory shaft. I would imagine the performance would be in entirely different realms, but the Hogan has actually performed pretty comparably. This isn't a matter of hitting one way better; I have smoked the Hogan and come up equal or short a few yards and vice versa. I'm a Hogan lover and like the club for what it is, but an equipment junkie might view this as a step back. Interesting to see the other reviews, I haven't made it on here as much because of the busy holiday season and trying to get the testing in, but it looks like the other 3 wood guys have been experiencing similar results.   

[Crowev01]

When they say a 3 wood can offer you control off of the tee, this is what they were talking about. I rarely group the big dog this tight with 4 balls. 

[golfish!]

On 12/23/2020 at 1:25 PM, kardboard.kid said:

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. My father was laid to rest last friday. After the Christmas holidays I will begin working with the review. I did finish the frame and netting on my indoor range.

 

Sent from my SM-A102U using MyGolfSpy mobile app
 

 

Sorry for your loss. Looks like you were able to spend precious moments with him before his passing.

On 12/24/2020 at 8:58 AM, AGutierrez7 said:

Little update on how my 3W testing is going:

I have been struggling with my swing a little bit as of late so it has been hard to give this club a fair test but when I strike it well, it has performed well. The sound off the club face sounds good to me, a very clean "pop" sound. I am also getting consistent distance with it so that's nice to note. I will try to get some numbers with it to see if my eye matches the quantitative data. So far so good when my swing is on, and a bit of a struggle with it when I am off. I'll keep you guys posted!

Same. I agree with the sound it has a nice pop off the face on well struck hits.

[golfish!]

As the testing comes to a close, just wanted to provide a quick update. Definitely hitting it much better off the tee and off the deck (at least off a range mat). 

Downhill tee shot with 260 to the creek. Hit a great 3W to leave me with a gap wedge into the green. Came up short and 3 putted for a double xP. Putting was definitely off this day. Also the weather was relatively cold for SoCal (50F BRRR lol) and raining so balls were definitely not going as far. I think normally I hit a 3H to this distance here.

Tried to go for this par 5 in two. Again I think the colder air and rain reduced distance as I remember I hit this shot as pure as I think I could. At least I saved par.

Next day, different course, much better weather. Downhill tee shot and I chunked it a bit. Still got good distance leaving a gap wedge into the green. 3 putted for a bogey xP.

Before writing up the final review, I will be taking a range session and recording club head speed and ball speed with calculated carry using my launch monitor (a JDM unit from a company called Yupiteru) to get some hard data to include in the test data. 

 

[heavygolffeels]

Finishing up my review now. Should be up in the next few days. I've got two more rounds coming up. One tomorrow at Southern Dunes and one on Sunday at Dinosaur Mountain. Looking forward to getting a few more shots with the UiHi on some beautiful designs. 

I had a second go on the launch monitor and some of the things that I have been working on with the UiHi have began to produce some progress. Makes for a little more interesting review, as initially I just didn't get along with the UiHi very well. 

Here's some snippets from my last round on my home course. There's 3 holes where I have hit the UiHi off the tee every round and I've yet to shoot worse than par on these holes. Not perfect strikes by any means. I dont think any of these carried more than 170 but ran out pretty good and stayed away from trouble, setting up PW, 8 iron, and 9 iron into the greens. I've been known to make a mess off these shorter par 4s trying to place the ball perfectly. Learning to love 'ugly' pars.

 

 

 

[twyatt700]

Today embarks day 1 of 6 courses in 6 days. Round 1 Pumpkin Ridge GhostCreek.


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[Nolan220]

Finishing up my review for tomorrow .. just need to get the pictures together and finish up the writing .. I kind of got used to the club just would need to make some tweets 

[josmi15]

My review is up for the GS53 3WOOD


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[ChitownM2]

My final review of the VKTR+ 3 hybrid has been posted on page 1 (link). If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask as I'd love to provide additional feedback for anyone curious. 

I'll probably be posting an update to my review towards the end of the month as I will be taking a trip to Florida in 2 weeks where I hope to get in several more rounds of golf since the timing of this test didn't work out very well with the weather here in Chicago.

[ChitownM2]

On 12/31/2020 at 9:20 AM, twyatt700 said:

Today embarks day 1 of 6 courses in 6 days. Round 1 Pumpkin Ridge GhostCreek.


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Enjoy! I'm definitely envious as I shovel my driveway here with golf being officially over for the season....

[cciciora13]

On 10/30/2020 at 8:20 AM, goaliewales14 said:

Ben Hogan GS53 Fairway Wood – Official MGS Forum Review by Goaliewales14 (Mike Wales)

Intro

Hey fellow spies!  Goalie here with another review!

I’d like to start off by thanking MGS and Ben Hogan to allow me to take part in this review!  For those who don’t know me, my name is Mike and I’ve been golfing for 6 years.  In those 6 years, I’ve dropped to a 14 handicap and shot my first 80 this year.  I also had a 9-hole round of +1 in an outing!

This review is my first ever experience with any Ben Hogan clubs.  When signing up for this I chose the utility iron and 3 wood as my top 2.  I don’t use hybrids anymore as I typically hook them and I’m not able to move them like I want.  For the courses I play, a 3 wood is a position club off the tee.  I rarely will use it to go for a green as I’m looking for about 260-270 yards out of it.  My 20* driving iron goes about 240 and my driver about 290-300.  I would want this club to fill that gap.  I’m also looking for accuracy.  I’m using this club to find fairways when it’s too tight or to layup to a number on the shorter par 4’s. 

First Impressions

When I first unboxed this club, I was very pleasantly surprised.  I purposefully stayed off all reviews before the club arrived to make sure it was a true first impression.  The only picture I saw was the one on the Ben Hogan website.

The headcover is a beautiful white leather with a small red line running diagonally across it.  It is a very light headcover when I compare it to the leather that I have with my PXG, but it will protect the club and look good doing it as long as you can keep that white clean. 

The Ben Hogan website describes the look as classic, and I will definitely agree with that.  Their direct quote is, “Even the classic, elegant crown is free from any cosmetic distractions and the sole has been kept clean to ensure clean turf interaction.”  I will disagree with Ben Hogan that cosmetics on the crown distract the player.  If you look at most woods, there is something drawing your eye to the center of the club to help with alignment and strike.  I believe the GS53 could benefit from something like that.  I will also state most consumers look for some sort of visual technology as a reason why this club is better than the rest.  That can even be as simple as a carbon crown.  Hogan wants clean turf interaction, but if you look at Cobra, they have the baffler technology that helps that interaction.

If you’d like to see the complete unboxing video, you view it below.

https://youtu.be/T5zUSXmVSkE

 

Grading

Looks (6 out of 10 points)

As I mentioned above, I’m really missing some visible technology, or even something as simple as an alignment mark on the crown.  You can see below that a lot of clubs in the GS53’s category all have that mark. 

The GS53 is also smaller compared to the others in its category.  I do love that look as long as the forgiveness is there.  A lot of consumers would like a larger head to inspire that confidence.  It’s like when you look down at an iron that’s a blade vs. super game improvement.

 

Sound & Feel (4 out of 10 points)

Throughout this review I’ve mentioned that this club has no “pop” off the face.  You can hit a solid shot and have it sounds very very dull.  It almost sounds like something is wrong with the club.  One of the employees at the PGA SS hit it and wondered if the face was cracked because of how weird the sound is hitting this club.

As I mentioned in the unboxing, the GS53 felt heavier than my Taylormade SIM.  Looking up that specifications for the GS53, it comes in standard at a D4 swing weight.  Taylormade comes it at D3, Ping at D1, and Marvik Max at D3.  This is the heaviest club I’ve hit in a fairway wood.  I would wonder if using a counter-balanced shaft to help offset that swing weight would be the way to go.  I really like the stock, Tensei shaft, but D4 seemed heavy.

 

Basic Characteristics (8 out of 20 points)

When I first heard I was going to be testing the GS53 3 wood I was very curious how this club would stack up against my Taylormade SIM.  I would argue that the SIM is the #1 3 wood on the market right now.  I did dial back my SIM to match lofts with the Hogan as I wanted a fair comparison.

In that comparison, the SIM beat the Hogan by 20 yards on average.  Top distance vs top distance, the SIM won by 30 yards!  Then when I put my SIM at its fitted setting, I gain a few more yards and accuracy.

After seeing this discrepancy, I sought out to find a better comparison among the major OEMs.

The GS53, again, is the bottom of the leader board when it comes to distance due to extremely high spin numbers.  To be fair, Hogan’s website states, “They were engineered to provide incredible, dependable accuracy first and foremost.”  While you can see some of the hits above are offline to the left, all of those clubs offer adjustability to help that.  You can turn it down a few degrees while opening the face.  With the GS53 there is NO adjustability.  You can see in the first chart, I struggled getting close to the target line.  Every shot kept going left.  On mishits, I did not find the GS53 near as forgiving as the others I tested against it.  If you look at the Cobra Big Tour and Mavrik Max, those clubs have the extra CC’s to help max out that forgiveness.  The GS53 still maintains that players profile.

 

On-Course / LM Performance (N/A out of 30 points)

After seeing the performance on the launch monitors, I could not take this club to the course.

 

Miscellaneous (10 out of 10 points)

The speed of the shipment was great!  It took about 2 weeks, which most manufacturers are having supply issues due to COVID, that was an extremely quick turnaround.  The box was also probably in the best shape of any golf package I’ve received.

 

Play it or Trade it? (0 out of 20 points)

I would trade it.  As I mentioned, I couldn’t even take this club to the course due to the launch monitor performance.  I’m honestly struggling to find the category of player that this club fits.  I have spoken to multiple fitters regarding this club, and they are evening struggling to find the market.  If it were to compete in the game improvement/super game improvement category, majority of those consumers will be wanting a lighter weight club.  If you go to the players category, with this club reaching 4,000+ spin, that makes this club unplayable for that category.  Without adjustability, Ben Hogan is reducing that consumer base even further.

 

Conclusion

I was very excited to try this club since I’ve never had an experience with any Ben Hogan clubs.  After hitting the GS53, I would leave it on the shelf.  I struggled with consistency due to no adjustability.  The spin numbers were off the charts for a 3 wood being above 4,000.  Those spin numbers are also keeping the GS53 from getting close to any other 3 wood in terms of distance.  I wish I could say that this club doesn’t fit me, but if you’re XYZ type of player, it would be great!  Even after seeking insight from multiple fitters, everyone seems at a lose for whom this club would be best suited for on the course.

Final Score: (28 out of 70 points)

Interesting. I thought this would be a nice complement to my GS53 driver. Would love to give it a test 

[Nolan220]

Final review is up .. I originally had this almost complete and I closed my browser out before I saved and ended up having to rewrite it.