Toura Golf Irons Build Test: 2024 Forum Review

[azstu324]

1 minute ago, GolfSpy SAM said:

My guess is that's your Maltby TS1-IM 4-iron, which is 22 degrees of loft.  

  Maybe??

Definitely closer but nothing to do with Maltby. 

[GolfSpy SAM]

1 minute ago, azstu324 said:

Definitely closer but nothing to do with Maltby. 

I just figured that was the club you tested it on, just in case something went wrong

[GolfSpy SAM]

3 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Definitely closer but nothing to do with Maltby. 

Then it's the Toura 4-iron - but I think you could give me the benefit of the doubt and say I won  

[TSauer]

17 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Alright so 1 club down with  the etching. I'll be completely honest, the 4 iron is going to be my sacrificial test club for both the etching and rust oxide bluing. Innnnn the event that something doesn't quite turn out, I can live without the 4 iron. Quite frankly this one scares the hell out of me anyway . 

Also I know didn't quite center the MGS logo perfectly and that will drive my OCD up a wall. I'll definitely make sure the rest of the set is centered. There's a lot less room to work with on the 4 than the rest. 

Bonus points if you can figure out what Spy 22 is for... Hint: which iron did I use for this? 

This is a process that I picked up on the old interwebs. It uses an electrolyte solution and electrolysis to create the etch. Super cool and a great alternative to stamping. 

Here is a thread that I actually started last week. Learning this process may have been the result of me hoping that I'd get picked for this

Wedge Electro-etching project

Here is the video that I've been watching. 

 

My objective is to complete the etching on all of the clubs, have the lofts/lies check, and then lies adjusted, the. Complete the blackening process.. then begin the build. 

More to come! 

 

Looks awesome, man! I’m assuming the Spy22 refers to the loft? If so, that’s actually a great idea! 

[Michael.Sandoval33]

19 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Alright so 1 club down with  the etching. I'll be completely honest, the 4 iron is going to be my sacrificial test club for both the etching and rust oxide bluing. Innnnn the event that something doesn't quite turn out, I can live without the 4 iron. Quite frankly this one scares the hell out of me anyway . 

Also I know didn't quite center the MGS logo perfectly and that will drive my OCD up a wall. I'll definitely make sure the rest of the set is centered. There's a lot less room to work with on the 4 than the rest. 

Bonus points if you can figure out what Spy 22 is for... Hint: which iron did I use for this? 

This is a process that I picked up on the old interwebs. It uses an electrolyte solution and electrolysis to create the etch. Super cool and a great alternative to stamping. 

Here is a thread that I actually started last week. Learning this process may have been the result of me hoping that I'd get picked for this

Wedge Electro-etching project

Here is the video that I've been watching. 

 

My objective is to complete the etching on all of the clubs, have the lofts/lies check, and then lies adjusted, the. Complete the blackening process.. then begin the build. 

More to come! 

 

The etching looks great Stu!

And my guess is that the 4 iron is 22* loft?

[azstu324]

Just now, GolfSpy SAM said:

Then it's the Toura 4-iron - but I think you could give me the benefit of the doubt and say I won  

Ok you win

Yeah each club will have its respective loft etched in like this .. but kind of in code. 

[GolfSpy SAM]

1 minute ago, azstu324 said:

Ok you win

Yeah each club will have its respective loft etched in like this .. but kind of in code. 

It looks incredible.  Where'd you get the font for the stencils? Heck, where'd you get the stencils?

[azstu324]

Just now, GolfSpy SAM said:

It looks incredible.  Where'd you get the font for the stencils? Heck, where'd you get the stencils?

Oh and the font is also a nod to the old school Spy vs Spy comics. I'm old 

The stencils are from a Cricut cutting machine. They're the $h!t!!! 

 

[Josh Parker]

8 minutes ago, GolfSpy SAM said:

Then it's the Toura 4-iron - but I think you could give me the benefit of the doubt and say I won  

Haha. No soup for you!  

[GolfSpy SAM]

6 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Oh and the font is also a nod to the old school Spy vs Spy comics. I'm old 

The stencils are from a Cricut cutting machine. They're the $h!t!!! 

 

My wife has a Cricut - it's legit amazing. I may need to steal it for some...work stuff

[azstu324]

51 minutes ago, GolfSpy SAM said:

My wife has a Cricut - it's legit amazing. I may need to steal it for some...work stuff

[JRDuck40]

16 hours ago, azstu324 said:

Agenda for the next few days:

My weekend starts on Sunday and goes through Tuesday so this is when I can really hit the ground running and get some things done

1. I intend to make a video similar to Jim's ( @JRDuck40 ) walking through my must-have items for completing both the build and disassembly. 

2. As I would do with any set of clubs that I'm building or buying, I'm going to take the heads to my local guy at Hornacek's Golf to have checked for loft and lie. Additionally, I'm going to have the heads adjusted to +3° upright. Once they're adjusted, I've got some cool customizations that I plan to do with the clubs. 

3. I'd like to have my customizations done by Tuesday if possible. These techniques that I'll be using haven't been used on golf clubs as far as I know so this will be really interesting to 

4. In the upcoming week, I'd like to make a "prep" video walking through the checkpoints of the specific items and steps needed just before gluing the heads. 

5. Then my final video of the build series will be the final glue up and turning the ferrules. 

And then the testing...

And then smashing! These are like Thor’s hammer compared to my Takomo 101t. This will be a great comparison. I’m super excited. 

[TJ Hall]

2 hours ago, azstu324 said:

Alright so 1 club down with  the etching. I'll be completely honest, the 4 iron is going to be my sacrificial test club for both the etching and rust oxide bluing. Innnnn the event that something doesn't quite turn out, I can live without the 4 iron. Quite frankly this one scares the hell out of me anyway . 

Also I know didn't quite center the MGS logo perfectly and that will drive my OCD up a wall. I'll definitely make sure the rest of the set is centered. There's a lot less room to work with on the 4 than the rest. 

Bonus points if you can figure out what Spy 22 is for... Hint: which iron did I use for this? 

This is a process that I picked up on the old interwebs. It uses an electrolyte solution and electrolysis to create the etch. Super cool and a great alternative to stamping. 

Here is a thread that I actually started last week. Learning this process may have been the result of me hoping that I'd get picked for this

Wedge Electro-etching project

Here is the video that I've been watching. 

 

My objective is to complete the etching on all of the clubs, have the lofts/lies check, and then lies adjusted, the. Complete the blackening process.. then begin the build. 

More to come! 

 

Awesome work on this @azstu324!  Truly a unique touch for this test build! 

[JRDuck40]

Was able to get 18 in today. No offense to MGS and Toura, dudes gotta play when I get the green light. Very excited about improvements at MKE County courses this year. Played one of my fav tracks, Dretzka park today. New bridges and cart paths coming in for 2024! Good on you Milwaukee county! 
side note, greens were amazing today! Wow!!! 

 

[ctg44]

Here's some raw data from the 2nd half of my PW testing today.  I'll get a pic and some other data, along with a longer post about the feedback up tomorrow, but 2 things...

1:  Check out the TINY standard deviations on the Toura wedge...miniscule, and this doesn't even have a Tour Issue shaft in it, it's dead-bone stock for loft and lie, and well, I built it, not some high-end bespoke builder w/ shaft puring and a loft / lie machine...

2:  Man oh man the feel.  If you ever hit late 1990s Yonex Super ADX Tour irons, you know what soft Japanese CBs are SUPPOSED to feel like.  Well, these are that, PLUS, they go almost the right distances for a 2024 club.  With that level of accuracy, to _____ (sorry, I was litterly giddy in the practice bay with this level of dart throwing accuracy) with distance.  Distance is for people who can't aim...ok, I've never said that before today, but...

[ctg44]

9 hours ago, ctg44 said:

Here's some raw data from the 2nd half of my PW testing today.  I'll get a pic and some other data, along with a longer post about the feedback up tomorrow, but 2 things...

1:  Check out the TINY standard deviations on the Toura wedge...miniscule, and this doesn't even have a Tour Issue shaft in it, it's dead-bone stock for loft and lie, and well, I built it, not some high-end bespoke builder w/ shaft puring and a loft / lie machine...

2:  Man oh man the feel.  If you ever hit late 1990s Yonex Super ADX Tour irons, you know what soft Japanese CBs are SUPPOSED to feel like.  Well, these are that, PLUS, they go almost the right distances for a 2024 club.  With that level of accuracy, to _____ (sorry, I was litterly giddy in the practice bay with this level of dart throwing accuracy) with distance.  Distance is for people who can't aim...ok, I've never said that before today, but...

Here is the proximity to the green picture from my 1st round of testing yesterday.  Blue is the MG4 48* (X100 TI), Green is the Toura (X100), and Red is the set PW from my P7MC irons (w/ MMT125TX shaft).  The reports are below where I hit a bunch of shots with each of the P7MC, MG4 48*, and the Toura wedge during my warmup session:

Here is the 1st set of data from the 1st round of practice with the 3 different PW options yesterday.  It's on 2 pages, and because this was basically my warmup and had a lot of half shots and less than ideal swings in the mix, I edited the pool a little bit for each club.  Whereas the 2nd dataset that's listed in my post from last night is each and every shot at the end of my simulator session with the P7MC and Toura PW options, this was more of a curated set.  Still, you can see a few trends in these numbers:

1. The Toura has better ball speed by about 2 MPH than the Taylormade MG4 (94.6 average to 92.4), but doesn't have as much backspin (7897 RPM vs 8010) as the MG4.  In all, total distance of the MG4 (125.2) and Toura PW (126.7) are about the same.
2. Given the similarities in total distance, I'd then use proximity to the hole and how close each club was getting the ball to stop to its landing point as my primary metrics.  From the picture above, it's pretty clear the Toura is better at that, and when you look at both data sets (the original one I posted last night and the 2 pages of this set below), I would then consider how consistent the Toura was from my 1st set of swings when warming up (126.7 total distance) to the final set (130.3 total distance).
3. Finally, in the last set of swings, I almost holed out twice with the Toura, ending up within 5' twice and within 8' 2 more times.  I hit the green with all 13 of the 2nd round of shots, and of those shots, my worst birdie putt would have been 27'0" followed by 23'11", 22'2", 21'1", and 18'6".  After that, everything was 15'0" or less.  With my putting skills, anything inside of 30' is a virtual lock at being a 2-putt, so if the rest of the Toura irons can replicate this level of consistency, I'm seeing a high possibility they hit the bag long-term...guaranteeing a par on every par 3 goes a long way to breaking 80 regularly, which is one of my goals for this summer.

[JRDuck40]

On 5/5/2024 at 8:06 AM, David Leighton Reid said:

Excellent video!  A quick question about the JB Weld epoxy.  Are there any issues with removing a head after using this epoxy?  

I have had none. Works great. Only downfall is that it is a little thick. So a little does go a long way. 

[azstu324]

1 hour ago, JRDuck40 said:

I have had none. Works great. Only downfall is that it is a little thick. So a little does go a long way. 

IMO thicker is always better than too thin. It usually relieves the need for shafting beads or shims. I'll definitely have to check it out! 

[azstu324]

2 hours ago, ctg44 said:

Here is the proximity to the green picture from my 1st round of testing yesterday.  Blue is the MG4 48* (X100 TI), Green is the Toura (X100), and Red is the set PW from my P7MC irons (w/ MMT125TX shaft).  The reports are below where I hit a bunch of shots with each of the P7MC, MG4 48*, and the Toura wedge during my warmup session:

Here is the 1st set of data from the 1st round of practice with the 3 different PW options yesterday.  It's on 2 pages, and because this was basically my warmup and had a lot of half shots and less than ideal swings in the mix, I edited the pool a little bit for each club.  Whereas the 2nd dataset that's listed in my post from last night is each and every shot at the end of my simulator session with the P7MC and Toura PW options, this was more of a curated set.  Still, you can see a few trends in these numbers:

1. The Toura has better ball speed by about 2 MPH than the Taylormade MG4 (94.6 average to 92.4), but doesn't have as much backspin (7897 RPM vs 8010) as the MG4.  In all, total distance of the MG4 (125.2) and Toura PW (126.7) are about the same.
2. Given the similarities in total distance, I'd then use proximity to the hole and how close each club was getting the ball to stop to its landing point as my primary metrics.  From the picture above, it's pretty clear the Toura is better at that, and when you look at both data sets (the original one I posted last night and the 2 pages of this set below), I would then consider how consistent the Toura was from my 1st set of swings when warming up (126.7 total distance) to the final set (130.3 total distance).
3. Finally, in the last set of swings, I almost holed out twice with the Toura, ending up within 5' twice and within 8' 2 more times.  I hit the green with all 13 of the 2nd round of shots, and of those shots, my worst birdie putt would have been 27'0" followed by 23'11", 22'2", 21'1", and 18'6".  After that, everything was 15'0" or less.  With my putting skills, anything inside of 30' is a virtual lock at being a 2-putt, so if the rest of the Toura irons can replicate this level of consistency, I'm seeing a high possibility they hit the bag long-term...guaranteeing a par on every par 3 goes a long way to breaking 80 regularly, which is one of my goals for this summer.

Duuuude these stats look NICE!! I'm jealous that you get to hit them already. I'm still a good week or so out before I'll have the clubs built because of all my shenanigans . 

I had a set of older Mizuno T-Zoud pros that were from the Endo forging era. They were some of the best feeling irons I've ever played. I can only imagine that these feel as good as better. 

Great stuff man! 

Edited May 6 by azstu324

[ctg44]

Thank you sir.  I am beyond excited to get the rest of the clubs on the simulator tonight and really do some heavy club by club comparisons.  We'll see how many we get through, but if my son goes with, I'm hoping we can get some good numbers from both of us hitting my P7MCs, the Touras, and then him hitting his Apex TCBs (I won't bother...Nippon 130X shafts are too stiff even for me).

 

Yes, I am definitely geeking out a bit waiting for this afternoon to get here...kinda like Christmas morning.   Headed back to update my main post with some of this info in a little bit...

[JRDuck40]

On 5/4/2024 at 10:14 PM, Rob Person said:

Great tips @JRDuck40 !  Would have never thought of lighter fluid!

It works great. Just need to give it a little longer to dry than The GolfWorks grip solvent. But, if you're in a pinch, it works great.  

[JRDuck40]

1 hour ago, azstu324 said:

IMO thicker is always better than too thin. It usually relieves the need for shafting beads or shims. I'll definitely have to check it out! 

Right! 
On two of my builds a few years ago, I was using The GolfWorks epoxy and had heads come off during a round. Made the switch to JB Weld and have zero issues since. Love the stuff. Easy to find at any hardware store and it hardens pretty quickly as well. Only downfall is that it's tough to dispense just the amount you need. But the tubes are 5 oz each and it will hold up very well as long as it doesn't get too hot / cold. I typically store it in the house and not in my garage. 

[JRDuck40]

13 hours ago, ctg44 said:

Here's some raw data from the 2nd half of my PW testing today.  I'll get a pic and some other data, along with a longer post about the feedback up tomorrow, but 2 things...

1:  Check out the TINY standard deviations on the Toura wedge...miniscule, and this doesn't even have a Tour Issue shaft in it, it's dead-bone stock for loft and lie, and well, I built it, not some high-end bespoke builder w/ shaft puring and a loft / lie machine...

2:  Man oh man the feel.  If you ever hit late 1990s Yonex Super ADX Tour irons, you know what soft Japanese CBs are SUPPOSED to feel like.  Well, these are that, PLUS, they go almost the right distances for a 2024 club.  With that level of accuracy, to _____ (sorry, I was litterly giddy in the practice bay with this level of dart throwing accuracy) with distance.  Distance is for people who can't aim...ok, I've never said that before today, but...

Very jealous that you're already hitting clubs! Nicely done sir. 

[ctg44]

7 minutes ago, JRDuck40 said:

Very jealous that you're already hitting clubs! Nicely done sir. 

I definitely had a clean, simplistic build process and cannot complain about how easily all the parts went together. I didn't have to redo a single club, which is unheard of in my amateur club-building experience.  Without a belt sander, I'm unsure if I can further refine the ferrules by turning them to match those up w/ the hosels better.  Does anyone have any ideas for me?  I'll be doing some research this week to try and find some ideas. 

[Shrek74]

14 hours ago, ctg44 said:

Here's some raw data from the 2nd half of my PW testing today.  I'll get a pic and some other data, along with a longer post about the feedback up tomorrow, but 2 things...

1:  Check out the TINY standard deviations on the Toura wedge...miniscule, and this doesn't even have a Tour Issue shaft in it, it's dead-bone stock for loft and lie, and well, I built it, not some high-end bespoke builder w/ shaft puring and a loft / lie machine...

2:  Man oh man the feel.  If you ever hit late 1990s Yonex Super ADX Tour irons, you know what soft Japanese CBs are SUPPOSED to feel like.  Well, these are that, PLUS, they go almost the right distances for a 2024 club.  With that level of accuracy, to _____ (sorry, I was litterly giddy in the practice bay with this level of dart throwing accuracy) with distance.  Distance is for people who can't aim...ok, I've never said that before today, but...

I'm going to be REALLY interested to hear about the forgiveness of these CB's (assuming they have some anyway). Blades are not for me, but CB's might be if they have some level of forgiveness.

[Shrek74]

29 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

I definitely had a clean, simplistic build process and cannot complain about how easily all the parts went together. I didn't have to redo a single club, which is unheard of in my amateur club-building experience.  Without a belt sander, I'm unsure if I can further refine the ferrules by turning them to match those up w/ the hosels better.  Does anyone have any ideas for me?  I'll be doing some research this week to try and find some ideas. 

AJ at Elite Fit Golf (YT channel) has a few vids on doing the ferrules without a sander by using strips of sandpaper with the club in the vise. He works a little on one side, turns the club 90* and repeats. Being sure to use a finer grit to ensure he doesn't take too much off and just works through it slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/@EFGMC
https://www.youtube.com/@EFG2

[azstu324]

38 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

AJ at Elite Fit Golf (YT channel) has a few vids on doing the ferrules without a sander by using strips of sandpaper with the club in the vise. He works a little on one side, turns the club 90* and repeats. Being sure to use a finer grit to ensure he doesn't take too much off and just works through it slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/@EFGMC
https://www.youtube.com/@EFG2

So I've actually just been turning ferrules for years with just acetone, a blue shop paper towel, and finish with isopropyl alcohol. I think it might be a very old school practice but it works perfectly and no need for a bunch of equipment. 

I'm hoping to make a demonstration video at some point 

[ctg44]

1 hour ago, Shrek74 said:

AJ at Elite Fit Golf (YT channel) has a few vids on doing the ferrules without a sander by using strips of sandpaper with the club in the vise. He works a little on one side, turns the club 90* and repeats. Being sure to use a finer grit to ensure he doesn't take too much off and just works through it slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/@EFGMC
https://www.youtube.com/@EFG2

I will watch those and give it a try tonight.  I think I have enough extra ferrules to make that work if I screw 1 up....

32 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

So I've actually just been turning ferrules for years with just acetone, a blue shop paper towel, and finish with isopropyl alcohol. I think it might be a very old school practice but it works perfectly and no need for a bunch of equipment. 

I'm hoping to make a demonstration video at some point 

I tried this once...and melted the ferrule because my fumble-fingers worked too slowly to get the acetone off before it melted through the ferrule too far.  Maybe I'll get my wife to try it.  She's got MUCH better artistic and fine motor skills.  I tried convincing her that her complaints that she was bored and needed a hobby would be all gone if she got into club-making, as she could help me with any builds we wanted to tackle, and she just looked at me like I had 3 heads...

[azstu324]

5 minutes ago, ctg44 said:

I will watch those and give it a try tonight.  I think I have enough extra ferrules to make that work if I screw 1 up....

I tried this once...and melted the ferrule because my fumble-fingers worked too slowly to get the acetone off before it melted through the ferrule too far.  Maybe I'll get my wife to try it.  She's got MUCH better artistic and fine motor skills.  I tried convincing her that her complaints that she was bored and needed a hobby would be all gone if she got into club-making, as she could help me with any builds we wanted to tackle, and she just looked at me like I had 3 heads...

Yeah it's definitely a "technique" and almost an art form. I also think that just knowing the technique and having the right prep ahead of time helps make it so much easier. 

[ctg44]

29 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Yeah it's definitely a "technique" and almost an art form. I also think that just knowing the technique and having the right prep ahead of time helps make it so much easier. 

Well, I have enough old clubs and junk ferrules that I oughta be able to try both techniques.  Maybe I'll just hit the nearby "horror freight" store and grab their dirt cheap little belt sander and try that route...