Arias Golf Canada TB-30 Chipper! 2024 Forum Review

[BigMacQue]

My single biggest issue with this club at this point is an easily correctable design concern: when I ordered the club I specifically left everything standard except the length, including the lie angle.  The lie angle is different than all of my other clubs, and Arias notes that this is easily adjustable.  I just forget to adjust my stance sometimes and hit heel or toe rather than in the sweet spot.

[Rob Person]

6 hours ago, BigMacQue said:

Good morning, it’s been a few days since posting for various and sundry reasons, but I did manage to get some videos yesterday.

Since last Wednesday I’ve played four rounds.  On two of those I never chipped once; I was hitting greens from anywhere inside of 150 and didn’t need to chip one time.  I did toss around Bulldog’s idea of using the chipper on the green but I was putting so well that I just used the putter. 

On one of the other two rounds I used the chipper three times with a 100% success rate, success being defined as within six feet of the pin.  Unfortunately I was by myself and couldn’t video capture any of those star-studded, stellar moments.

Yesterday my grandson and I played a new course, and I managed to capture some work with the chipper, the videos are below.  Two out of three were successful, with one of them putting the ball within a foot of the hole - even I couldn’t miss that putt.  The one that didn’t get to the green was my fault.  The video doesn’t really show the topography well and I misjudged getting over a dip in the course.

Here’s the work from yesterday:

 

 

Good videos! 

My question for the testers. Is the positions you find yourself in that you normally,  would you use the chipper, Or would you revert back to using a wedge?

[buckpillar]

6 hours ago, BigMacQue said:

Good morning, it’s been a few days since posting for various and sundry reasons, but I did manage to get some videos yesterday.

Since last Wednesday I’ve played four rounds.  On two of those I never chipped once; I was hitting greens from anywhere inside of 150 and didn’t need to chip one time.  I did toss around Bulldog’s idea of using the chipper on the green but I was putting so well that I just used the putter. 

On one of the other two rounds I used the chipper three times with a 100% success rate, success being defined as within six feet of the pin.  Unfortunately I was by myself and couldn’t video capture any of those star-studded, stellar moments.

Yesterday my grandson and I played a new course, and I managed to capture some work with the chipper, the videos are below.  Two out of three were successful, with one of them putting the ball within a foot of the hole - even I couldn’t miss that putt.  The one that didn’t get to the green was my fault.  The video doesn’t really show the topography well and I misjudged getting over a dip in the course.

Here’s the work from yesterday:

 

 

@BigMacQue Have you noticed if it is tougher to hit it off a tight lie or hard pan?

[BigMacQue]

41 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

Good videos! 

My question for the testers. Is the positions you find yourself in that you normally,  would you use the chipper, Or would you revert back to using a wedge?

I think for me at least, the jury is still out on that question.  I see a lot of value in this club the closer I am to the green, but right now I can't tell you that the value is worth dropping one of my current clubs to carry this one.  I carry a full 14 club bag, so something - the only logical choice being my Titleist 43 degree T400 - would have to go to accommodate carrying this club.  

[BigMacQue]

28 minutes ago, buckpillar said:

@BigMacQue Have you noticed if it is tougher to hit it off a tight lie or hard pan?

Honestly no more or less difficult than any other club in those situations.  I've hit this club from:  close cropped grass, taller grass, rough, sand, bunker, I've even hit it off the cart path once.  It's no different for this club than any other club I've hit in those circumstances.

[Bulldog]

1 hour ago, Rob Person said:

Good videos! 

My question for the testers. Is the positions you find yourself in that you normally,  would you use the chipper, Or would you revert back to using a wedge?

For me it's too soon to tell also.  The weather lately here in northern California has really limited my ability to get out on the course (It just started raining again a few minutes ago, and they are forecasting over 100 inches of snow over the next few days in the Sierra Nevada mountains which are not far away). Additionally, the number of chips I make in a round is low, so it will take a while before I can get a good sense of the fit of this club in my game.

[buckpillar]

5 hours ago, BigMacQue said:

Honestly no more or less difficult than any other club in those situations.  I've hit this club from:  close cropped grass, taller grass, rough, sand, bunker, I've even hit it off the cart path once.  It's no different for this club than any other club I've hit in those circumstances.

Thanks for the info,

[Bulldog]

There have been a few questions about spin on the arias Chipper. so I made a quick set of videos. The first video is with the Arias Chipper and the second is with a Takomo Pitching wedge.  Both are 44° loft.  Note the longer swing with the Takomo which resulted in a higher launch.  The ball is the Srixon Q-Star Divide.

 

Arias Chipper

 

Takomo Pitching Wedge

Edited March 3 by Bulldog

[Bulldog]

Check out Bulldog's review for the Arias TB-30 Chipper.

[Rob Person]

It has been a few weeks and I would just looking for an update on. How many are actually still playing the chipper? Or have benched it?

[Bulldog]

On 3/21/2024 at 6:50 PM, Rob Person said:

It has been a few weeks and I would just looking for an update on. How many are actually still playing the chipper? Or have benched it?

It’s still in my bag. The greens were punched and sanded last week, so I used I tried using it on the greens whenever I had a long distance putt. Distance control was a mess with all of the sand, but it was fun to try.  I plan on continuing to experiment with it.

[BigMacQue]

Posted my final review today, you should be able to see it here.

I had the chance to play a few rounds over the last week and had some friends that I wanted to try the club, so I included their feedback in my review.  All in all: this really is a good club, well built and does what it's supposed to do.

Thanks again for the opportunity to test a club, I enjoyed the process and would do it again in a heartbeat!

[GolfSpy AFG]

Just read your review. You mentioned a “success rate” of 18 out of 20?  How did you define success for the purposes of testing?  

I’m also curious as to what informs the denominator of that success rate.  In other words, at what range of shot are you finding you use it…is it truly restricted to green side chipping for you, or have you attempted 30-40 yard pitch shots?

Tell us more in the review!

[BigMacQue]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy AFG said:

Just read your review. You mentioned a “success rate” of 18 out of 20?  How did you define success for the purposes of testing?  

I’m also curious as to what informs the denominator of that success rate.  In other words, at what range of shot are you finding you use it…is it truly restricted to green side chipping for you, or have you attempted 30-40 yard pitch shots?

Tell us more in the review!

Updated it, thanks for the feedback - I appreciate it.

[Rob Person]

Great reviews, for those who chose to keep it in the bag, congrats on your new tool!

For those who decided it wasn't for them, would you consider perhaps to ask the mod who else may benefit from it and pass it forward? (Not me, as i already own a chipper)

[BigMacQue]

11 hours ago, Rob Person said:

Great reviews, for those who chose to keep it in the bag, congrats on your new tool!

For those who decided it wasn't for them, would you consider perhaps to ask the mod who else may benefit from it and pass it forward? (Not me, as i already own a chipper)

I was just thinking about that this morning Rob.  I would gladly pay the shipping to send it to someone that could benefit from it.

 

[GolfSpy SAM]

I got a chance to give the Arias chipper a quick run-through, so I thought I'd give it a brief write-up of my experience, along with a few "glamour" (if you will) shots, as I truly find the design of this club to be fascinating.  This will not, for the record, be a deep-dive into the club, as that's been covered incredibly well already by our awesome testers (see the first page of this thread for their full reviews).  This is just a "had a chance to play around with this and thought I'd add some thoughts" kind of thing

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Matt , one of the Forum Staff - the "SAM" in my name is both my initials backwards as well as a play on the name "Samsonite" (which I was prior to joining the Forum Staff), which if you've seen "Dumb & Dumber," you'll be able to figure out what my last name is  

I'm currently about a 9 (8.9 per GHIN) handicap, and find that my strengths usually are around the green, in particular lately with my wedges and my ever-trusty putter.  Anything that can help me get up and down is something I'm interested in, so this felt like a great fit.

One quick caveat that I feel like I have to get out in front of:  I do not currently have a chipper in the bag, and have never really gamed one  I did buy a VERY cheap "internet chipper" two-ish years ago, as an experiment to see if it would be useful for me around the greens, but ultimately found that I was significantly more comfortable with one of my wedges than I was with the chipper. 

Okay, so on to the review!  I won't bore you with "unboxing" photos, as mine was shipped via one of the other testers who's bag it did not make.  Other than a few very minor "usage marks," the putter was in perfect condition.

(GLAMOUR! Just LOOK at those scallops)

First Impressions - 17 out of 20

I truly didn't know what to think when I pulled the club out of the box.  I've genuinely NEVER seen a club that looks like this - and I doubt many of you had before reading these reviews.  It's genuinely unique, and that's not a bad thing, per se, but it DID take me a bit to get used to it.  Again, not being super familiar with chippers in general, a few things really stuck out to me right away:  

1) The length.  I think I was expecting a "wedge" length, so the shorter length immediately got me closer to the club (yes, I know this is purposeful. Bear with me), which at first felt...odd.

2) The shallow face depth.  Again, my comfort level with a wedge is high, so seeing something significantly smaller gave me pause.

3) Those scallops. I genuinely love them. I wasn't expecting to, but man oh man, they're just awesome to see sticking out of the bag - and it made me weirdly excited about seeing my ball nestled down in some rough, as how could those NOT deal well with that situation? 

4) This club is SOLID. There's nothing plastic, flimsy, lightweight, or "cheap" about this thing.  It's very, very well-made.

(Waiting for action)

Aesthetics:  27 out of 30

As stated above, this thing is a tank, and is clearly very well-built.  The points taken away in this category are because I actually preferred the look of this club in the bag than at address.  At address, it didn't instill confidence in me - I'll keep saying it, but my full-face wedges DWARF this thing, and instill all kinds of confidence in me.  This looked tiny by comparison, and I had a hard time getting past that when behind the ball.  That being said, I LOVED the zero offset - it 100% felt like I could aim RIGHT at my target line and the ball would go there - no worrying about closing or opening the face, or trying to manipulate it.  Just plop it down behind the ball and swing, and your ball will go wherever you had it lined up.  In terms of comparison to my previous daliance with a chipper, this thing is night-and-day better-looking.  If you're the kind of golfer that can make room for a chipper, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better-looking option. 

The Numbers: 

So, unfortunately, this is a category I can't give a "real" score.  I only had the club for about 3 rounds, and only actually had the chance to use it a handful of times over those three rounds.  I was unable to get this on a launch monitor of any kind, so it feels unfair to attempt to give it any kind of numerical score.  I will say that I brought it with me to a chipping/putting green several times, and after a bit of a learning curve, definitely could see the benefit of a club like this - pop it up over the fringe and let it roll out like a putt.  I just didn't have enough hard data to rate this appropriately.

On the Course: 14 out of 20

Unfortunately, this is where things kind of fell apart for me.  I will 100% chalk this up to Indian, and not arrow, in this case.  I could never get a feel for this club - I would either leave it 15 feet short or run it 20 feet by the hole.  One hole, a tough par-3 where I just missed the green to the right and had a tricky lie, I though this would be the perfect opportunity.  I hit the first shot and it landed 5 feet short of the hole and just kept running, leaving me 15 feet back for par.  Out of curiosity, I dropped another ball, and this one spun HARD (unexpected) the minute it hit the green and left me 12 feet uphill.  After two-putting the first ball, I went back to the same spot and hit two more balls, with only the last one actually getting anywhere near enough the hole for me to consider it a success.  While I understand the theory of how to use this club, I never felt confident that I was going to be able to action that into success.  The sad thing, to me, is that I have one regular playing partner who uses a chipper and SWEARS by it, has so much confidence in it, and swears it's his favorite club in the bag.  When he heard I was testing this out, he was so excited for me, and I felt like I was letting him down by just not being able to strike gold with it the way he has with his chipper.  But that's why golf is so great, and so maddening - what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next.  Heck, what works for me one round often doesn't translate to the next round, either.  

I really wanted to love this club.  I can see the potential, and I think with enough time and effort, I could absolutely get this to perform for me.  But, as I said in my intro, I've become VERY confident with my wedges around the green, whether getting something to hop and stop, or bump and run, or flop, etc.  Something like this is a bit of a one-trick pony, and for me, that pony kept trying to bite my fingers while I was handling it

The Good, the Bad, the In-between: 7 out of 10

The Good: people notice this club in the bag.  It's so unique, it almost demands comment; and as someone who LOVES talking (if you know me, you know that to be true), it was a great conversation piece.

The Bad: People also noticed when I couldn't seem to use it very well.  I went out of my way, in all three rounds, to let people know that my performance should not be counted against the club, but...I really hope they believed me.

The In-Between: Were I to game this, and this really did become part of the testing process, I would have to eliminate another club from my bag, and I had NO idea what club this would take the place of.  Which, when it comes down to it, is probably a good indication that it's not 100% needed.

Stays in the bag?  15 out of 20

As I'm sure you can tell by the tone of the piece, this will not be staying in the bag.  Part of me wishes it had been a homerun, so that I could play the "what club gets the boot?" game, which is weirdly fun to me.  But the truth is, it's such a specialty club, and I'm so proficient (for my taste, anyway) around the green with my set of wedges, there's not really a reason I should learn a whole new club right now.  Perhaps if I lived in a different area of the country where the lies were different, or perhaps if I was really struggling around the green, this would have been a god-send.  Ultimately, it's a club I'm really looking forward to passing on to another forum member to see if it's just what they're looking for.  

Conclusion

This was such a fun experiment.  I had no real baggage going in about using a "chipper" - I genuinely believe that any club can help a golfer, and if it's a good fit, stigmas be damned.  That being said, I just never felt like the Arias Chipper and I got on the same page.  Except for ONE day at the putting green, where I put 6 balls down just off the green, where I had enough weird rough to get through that putting would not be an option.  It was about an 8 foot shot - and I made 4 of the 6, and ran the other two 8" past.  It was amazing - and I was completely devoid of the ability to repeat that success - the next four times I ran that same experiment, no ball came closer than 4 feet. 

So I know this thing CAN work, and will probably work wonders for the right golfer.  Sadly, that golfer just isn't me.  But I do know that I'm bringing this with me to Kingsmill to be tested by a bunch of other amazing Forum Members, and we'll be doing a raffle to see who takes it home with them I'll be asking the winner for a lesson while we're there.

Final Review Score: 80 out of 100