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ULTIMATE FAIRWAY REVIEW (video added)


Tony Covey MGS

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I've hit the XCG5. Used it a lot actually, on the course, range and simulator. Extremely long, at least for me. Others that tried were either very long or didn't hit it well at all. It's not a club that I get average numbers with, it's long or nothing.

 

And - great review :D Love to read stuff like this. An inspiration.

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Great read so far, can't wait to see how the rest of the article turns out.

 

I'll put up a 2nd vote for see specs of all the clubs that were actually tested. I'm guessing maybe that comes at the end?

 

Also maybe I just missed it, but where were the testers hitting off of? Mats, grass, tee's?

 

Specs are a little hairy in some cases. We work within time windows, so there was quite a bit of try this and try that, and we found the fit we rolled with it, and weren't necessarily concerned about every specification we ended up with (at least to the this guy hit exactly this degree). In hindsight I should probably have written down each spec, but man...we were up against it in every possible way.

 

 

I can tell you for example that for the TaylorMade clubs we leveraged 13, 14.5 and 15.5 degree heads. Cobra and Callaway clubs were ultimately hit in each of the 3 positions by somebody. There was quite a bit of mix and match with the Titleist, and interesting (from a fitting standpoint) we found that for loft anyway, we came very close to matching up with what the guys hit in the RBZs.

 

Companies sent a variety of shafts. Some mid-range, some higher-end, and some stock. In one case, the tester actually got his best results with the stock shaft in the RAZR Fit (go figure). Callaway also provided Fuji Blur and GD Tour AD-DI shafts. The UST Prforce VTS line (different flexes and torques) was used in Bridgestone and TourEdge heads (we also had some stock in the TE). We also tried a ATTAS 3 in one of the Bridgestone 5 woods (but it didn't prove to be the best fit for anyone). TaylorMade relied heavily on Matrix. Nike sent a mix of Oban Devotion, 'Ahina, and Fubuki. Titleist sent us each of their stock offerings. Mizuno, and Cobra sent stock only.

 

What some may find surprising is that even with sometimes a healthy variety to choose from, very often (not always) we saw very little appreciable difference in the numbers from shaft to shaft, and often when the numbers were similar we deferred to the feel component.

 

 

Most clubs were sent stock length, and the TaylorMade clubs actually measured about 1/4" below spec. I could do some measuring, but I think we're talking about 1/4" across the board, and at no point did I ever become concerned that one company was trying to rig the outcome by sending us anything outside of spec (and yes...even I was probably most suspicious of TM).

 

3 woods were hit off tees (which is why spin rates are not dissimilar from drivers). Our testers hit 5 woods off the mats (very nice mats, not typical range quality), but for reasons I'll touch on tomorrow we didn't gather data for 5 woods like we normally would.

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Specs are a little hairy in some cases. We work within time windows, so there was quite a bit of try this and try that, and we found the fit we rolled with it, and weren't necessarily concerned about every specification we ended up with (at least to the this guy hit exactly this degree). In hindsight I should probably have written down each spec, but man...we were up against it in every possible way.

 

 

I can tell you for example that for the TaylorMade clubs we leveraged 13, 14.5 and 15.5 degree heads. Cobra and Callaway clubs were ultimately hit in each of the 3 positions by somebody. There was quite a bit of mix and match with the Titleist, and interesting (from a fitting standpoint) we found that for loft anyway, we came very close to matching up with what the guys hit in the RBZs.

 

Companies sent a variety of shafts. Some mid-range, some higher-end, and some stock. In one case, the tester actually got his best results with the stock shaft in the RAZR Fit (go figure). Callaway also provided Fuji Blur and GD Tour AD-DI shafts. The UST Prforce VTS line (different flexes and torques) was used in Bridgestone and TourEdge heads (we also had some stock in the TE). We also tried a ATTAS 3 in one of the Bridgestone 5 woods (but it didn't prove to be the best fit for anyone). TaylorMade relied heavily on Matrix. Nike sent a mix of Oban Devotion, 'Ahina, and Fubuki. Titleist sent us each of their stock offerings. Mizuno, and Cobra sent stock only.

 

What some may find surprising is that even with sometimes a healthy variety to choose from, very often (not always) we saw very little appreciable difference in the numbers from shaft to shaft, and often when the numbers were similar we deferred to the feel component.

 

 

Most clubs were sent stock length, and the TaylorMade clubs actually measured about 1/4" below spec. I could do some measuring, but I think we're talking about 1/4" across the board, and at no point did I ever become concerned that one company was trying to rig the outcome by sending us anything outside of spec (and yes...even I was probably most suspicious of TM).

 

3 woods were hit off tees (which is why spin rates are not dissimilar from drivers). Our testers hit 5 woods off the mats (very nice mats, not typical range quality), but for reasons I'll touch on tomorrow we didn't gather data for 5 woods like we normally would.

 

Thanks for the quick response T. Sometimes I forget how much work actually goes into these things and how easy it is for me to sit in my office chair and ask why this? or why not that?

 

I'm not trying to second guess anything you guys did. I really really appreciate all the reviews, write-ups and hard work that you guys put into this site. Keep it up!!

Driver: :taylormade-small: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black

3w: :taylormade-small:'16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82

5w: :cleveland-small: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow

Hybrid: :cleveland-small: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black

Irons: :cleveland-small: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Wedges: :cleveland-small: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Putter: :odyssey-small: Red 7s

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Thanks for the quick response T. Sometimes I forget how much work actually goes into these things and how easy it is for me to sit in my office chair and ask why this? or why not that?

 

I'm not trying to second guess anything you guys did. I really really appreciate all the reviews, write-ups and hard work that you guys put into this site. Keep it up!!

 

No worries. Every review has always been imperfect, which is why we're never short for ideas, and why we can continuously make it better.

 

Sometimes the comments can get frustrating, but once we learned to accept that everyone will read from a unique perspective, and that we can't be all things to all people it gets easier.

 

There's always going to be why this and not that...I do it myself sometimes. To answer all of our own questions would take more testing time than we can reasonably allot to any single project...and then the write-up... If X didn't keep my under control I could probably do 20K words per day for 3 days.

 

It's sometimes hard to give you the numbers without getting bogged down in them myself.

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I hate to ask but am curious if T or anyone else has a sense on the yardage difference between a 3 wood hit off the turf and off a tee?

 

I was pretty disappointed when I read the yardage averages per club - I don't hit a three wood anywhere near that long - that is off the turf. Off of a tee I'm not going to average any 250 but I could be in the low 230's.

Taylor Made Stealth 2 10.5 Diamana S plus 60  Aldila  R flex   - 42.25 inches 

SMT 4 wood bassara R flex, four wood head, 3 wood shaft

Ping G410 7, 9 wood  Alta 65 R flex

Srixon ZX5 MK II  5-GW - UST recoil Dart 65 R flex

India 52,56 (60 pending)  UST recoil 75's R flex  

Evon roll ER 5 32 inches

It's our offseason so auditioning candidates - looking for that right mix of low spin long, more spin around the greens - TBD   

 

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I hate to ask but am curious if T or anyone else has a sense on the yardage difference between a 3 wood hit off the turf and off a tee?

 

I was pretty disappointed when I read the yardage averages per club - I don't hit a three wood anywhere near that long - that is off the turf. Off of a tee I'm not going to average any 250 but I could be in the low 230's.

 

Hey Rev - Not sure if it helps, but instead of looking at how far they hit all the clubs, I just looked at the comparison between them. Think of the RBZ as 0 and then everything else is -2, -3, -11 etc...

 

Actually maybe that should be the new review standard for distance. Everything is either + or - RBZ distance. I just cranked that one RBZ +13yds!!

Driver: :taylormade-small: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black

3w: :taylormade-small:'16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82

5w: :cleveland-small: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow

Hybrid: :cleveland-small: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black

Irons: :cleveland-small: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Wedges: :cleveland-small: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Putter: :odyssey-small: Red 7s

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I do appreciate the point HM - I'm not so concerned about the yardage either and was being tongue and cheeck as much as anything else in regards to the distance. I'm used to not being as long as the better players that I play with or sometimes even that not so good better players that I play with. I'm long enough though and sometimes I can be rather sneaky.

 

However I can't get anywhere near 250 with a 3 wood off the turf - I was hitting it over 230 off the turf when I tested my new 3 wood at tpc Sawgrass but that was off a mat with some help from the wind - I'm able to hit it over 220 off the real turf which is much longer than before and I'm hitting it 230 plus off the tee so that's great.

 

Interestingly it was supposed to be a RocketBlz with an R11 shaft but somehow it came as an R11 and I just couldn't bother T another time - it's a 3 wood, it's better than my old 3 wood and so I'm going to live with it - in fact I'm rather fond of it - today - we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow because I have to hit it 3 or 4 times at TPC Tampa Bay - at least 3 tee shots and one second shot on a par 5 if the tees are back - that's just to give me a short enough iron into the green to have some sort of a shot at putting my 3rd shot on - even the pros have trouble holding that stupid green when they're here for the Champion's tour event.

Taylor Made Stealth 2 10.5 Diamana S plus 60  Aldila  R flex   - 42.25 inches 

SMT 4 wood bassara R flex, four wood head, 3 wood shaft

Ping G410 7, 9 wood  Alta 65 R flex

Srixon ZX5 MK II  5-GW - UST recoil Dart 65 R flex

India 52,56 (60 pending)  UST recoil 75's R flex  

Evon roll ER 5 32 inches

It's our offseason so auditioning candidates - looking for that right mix of low spin long, more spin around the greens - TBD   

 

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On day 3 we're going to cover the aesthetic qualities of the clubs. It's something we decided not to score...that is to say the results of our subjective surveys do not factor into the overall score, but we are going to briefly discuss some of the things our testers liked and didn't like about the clubs.

 

I can see not factoring the aesthetics into the final score. But all things equal (or near equal as it comes to distance and accuracy), I'll choose the better looking club every time!

Driver: Callaway Optiforce 440 9.5* with Diamama Blue S+ 62g Stiff shaft

3 and 5 wood: Callaway Big Bertha with Fubuki Z65 Stiff

Hybrid: Wilson FG Tour 4 hybrid

Irons: 5 iron: Cleveland Altitude Stiff; 6 -PW Callaway Apex Pro, KBS Tour-V Stff

Wedges: 51*, 55* and 58* SCORE with Genius Stiff

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I think this is the absolutely best review I have seen. It's so relevant to my needs as I am in the market for a 3 wood, not just any 3 wood, but the longest I can find. I almost bought the Exotics because of it's prior reputation for being the longest. But thankfully this review came in and made me rethink my options.

Now in my bag:

TM SLDR 10.5 Deg with Matrix Ozik 6Q3 S flex

TM VSteel 15 deg 3 wood

Cleveland Launcher Hybrid 18 deg Diamana Red Board Stiff

Titleist ZB Forged Iron 3-PW DG S200 Steel Shaft

Cleveland CG15 46, 52, 56, 60 Wedges

Scotty Cameron California Del Mar

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Specs are a little hairy in some cases. We work within time windows, so there was quite a bit of try this and try that, and we found the fit we rolled with it, and weren't necessarily concerned about every specification we ended up with (at least to the this guy hit exactly this degree). In hindsight I should probably have written down each spec, but man...we were up against it in every possible way.

 

 

I can tell you for example that for the TaylorMade clubs we leveraged 13, 14.5 and 15.5 degree heads. Cobra and Callaway clubs were ultimately hit in each of the 3 positions by somebody. There was quite a bit of mix and match with the Titleist, and interesting (from a fitting standpoint) we found that for loft anyway, we came very close to matching up with what the guys hit in the RBZs.

 

Companies sent a variety of shafts. Some mid-range, some higher-end, and some stock. In one case, the tester actually got his best results with the stock shaft in the RAZR Fit (go figure). Callaway also provided Fuji Blur and GD Tour AD-DI shafts. The UST Prforce VTS line (different flexes and torques) was used in Bridgestone and TourEdge heads (we also had some stock in the TE). We also tried a ATTAS 3 in one of the Bridgestone 5 woods (but it didn't prove to be the best fit for anyone). TaylorMade relied heavily on Matrix. Nike sent a mix of Oban Devotion, 'Ahina, and Fubuki. Titleist sent us each of their stock offerings. Mizuno, and Cobra sent stock only.

 

What some may find surprising is that even with sometimes a healthy variety to choose from, very often (not always) we saw very little appreciable difference in the numbers from shaft to shaft, and often when the numbers were similar we deferred to the feel component.

 

 

Most clubs were sent stock length, and the TaylorMade clubs actually measured about 1/4" below spec. I could do some measuring, but I think we're talking about 1/4" across the board, and at no point did I ever become concerned that one company was trying to rig the outcome by sending us anything outside of spec (and yes...even I was probably most suspicious of TM).

 

3 woods were hit off tees (which is why spin rates are not dissimilar from drivers). Our testers hit 5 woods off the mats (very nice mats, not typical range quality), but for reasons I'll touch on tomorrow we didn't gather data for 5 woods like we normally would.

Wow, very interesting. I was under the impression that on the RBZ there were slightly longer shafts than normal to increase swing speed. Thanks for the great review so far, looking forward to tomorrow's.


  1.  
    In my Adams Hercules cart bag...
    DriverPing I15 9.5* TFC stiff
    Hook MachineTaylormade Burner Superfast Rescue 18*
    3 HybridAdams ProA12 20* stiff matrix Ozik Altus
    IronsCleveland CG16 Tour Black Pearl 4-PW True Temper Dynamic Gold S300
    Birdie-MakerMizuno JPX 50*-10*
    Piece of CrapOrlimar 56*
    On the wayCleveland 588 forged 62*-10*
    Mid-Round FuelSnickers bars
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Good review, love the specs at the end where you can select and de select specific items....and I am not surprise at either the Rzr or the Mizuno final #s. TM got everyone with their 17yrds longer ploy. Didnt let everyone know "compared to what?'. scratch golfer, 10 hdcp, 40hdcp. I work in a golf store and EVERYONE expected to gain 17 yrds, actually kinda funny considering....Out of the grouping, what 3 wood was found more workable? Did we find out what is better of the deck? Highest flying longest etc...?

R11s 9 Open ASP w/Aerotech Powercoil 65X tipped 1"

Cally XHot 15 w/ Powercoil 65S

Mizuno MP Fli-Hi 18 w/Player Spec Stiff HS 1X

Miura 501s 3-P w/Player Spec Stiff HS 1x

TM XFT 54/60 w/Steelfiber i125s

PING Nome TR SS Ultra Thin Red

ALL Irons/Woods PURE Isle of Capri Pure Pro std w/2 wraps

Srixon XV Yellow

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Initial post updated with notes on the accuracy portion of the test.

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It's total distance divided by yards offline. What this tells you is how many yards up the fairway (good distance) did the ball traveled for every yard it traveled offline (bad distance).

Very, very, smart. I think that might be why some folks believe their 3 wood is more accurate than their driver. In the "truAccuracy" sense, it isn't....but in the on/off the fairway....it can be.

MENTOR, L4 COACH & TRAINER  FIRST TEE GREATER HOUSTON
HDCP: 8.3  (GHIN: 3143312)
In my bag, April 2023
:titelist-small: TS3 Driver & 4 Wood Hzrdous Smoke Shaft (Stiff Flex)
:titelist-small: TS2 Hybrids  Mitsubishi Tensei Shaft (Stiff Flex)
:mizuno-small:  MP-59 5-PW; KBS Tour (Regular Flex)
:titelist-small: SM8 Wedges

EVNROLL ER2  Putter
SRIXON Z-STAR DIAMOND BALL
Sun Mountain Cart Bag
:Clicgear: 4.0 Push Cart (I'm walking 9 outta 10 rounds!!)

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Very, very, smart. I think that might be why some folks believe their 3 wood is more accurate than their driver. In the "truAccuracy" sense, it isn't....but in the on/off the fairway....it can be.

 

Do slices/hooks will go further offline exponentially the farther the ball travels? Intuitively it seems so, but I've never read any mathematical analysis on it. Another interesting look at accuracy would be to take a distance (say 230 yards) and measure how far offline each club is at that point, but that's probably a lot of work :).

 

That said, I definitely think distance/yards offline is much more useful than pure yards offline. Great review as always. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

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I mentioned in another thread on this topic that I own the Mizuno MP650 fairway wood. I can attest that the distance is truly remarkable. I am hitting it off the tee near my driver. I picked up 25 yards compared to the R9 TP I was previously gaming. A couple of comments:

*** I am very interested to hear about the accuracy comments and results that will be posted tomorrow. This wood has an open face and fade weighting , so I would not be surprised to see the accuracy numbers off. Also, the stock shaft is a beast (to me) - very stiff to flex and boardy. I replaced it with an Excaliber fairway wood shaft, and the difference in ball flight, feel, and accuracy is staggering. I went from hitting push slices with the stock shaft to nice tight draws with the Excaliber.

*** I assume part of the review will cover looks. This is where I think this fairway wood will shine compared to the RBZ. It is a classic, simple, pleasing design.

 

I can't wait for the rest of the review - great stuff.

 

Quoting myself, I was way off! The Mizuno rated 2nd on accuracy - I would have never guessed! Great to hear.

Driver: Callaway Optiforce 440 9.5* with Diamama Blue S+ 62g Stiff shaft

3 and 5 wood: Callaway Big Bertha with Fubuki Z65 Stiff

Hybrid: Wilson FG Tour 4 hybrid

Irons: 5 iron: Cleveland Altitude Stiff; 6 -PW Callaway Apex Pro, KBS Tour-V Stff

Wedges: 51*, 55* and 58* SCORE with Genius Stiff

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Does the truaccuracy number take into account how good someone is at playing their draw or fade? Or did everybody have to aim straight down the center to begin with?

 

If someone with a 20yd fade starts it 15yds left they end up 5yds off center instead of 20yds off center.

Driver: :taylormade-small: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black

3w: :taylormade-small:'16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82

5w: :cleveland-small: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow

Hybrid: :cleveland-small: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black

Irons: :cleveland-small: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Wedges: :cleveland-small: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Putter: :odyssey-small: Red 7s

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Does the truaccuracy number take into account how good someone is at playing their draw or fade? Or did everybody have to aim straight down the center to begin with?

 

If someone with a 20yd fade starts it 15yds left they end up 5yds off center instead of 20yds off center.

 

truAccuracy, like the standard offline number, only looks at how close to the centerline the ball ended up. The goal was always to find the middle of the fairway. Some guys did that with fades, others (Sid for example) with big sweeping draws. The shot shape is inconsequential, it's simply about looking at how far the ball traveled in relation to how close to the target line it landed.

 

If hit a draw that goes 250 yards and ends up 10 yards offline, it's the same as a fade that goes 250 and end up 10 yards offline, and the same as a ball that was hit without curvature that ended up 10 yards offline.

 

When everything is said and done, each shot traveled exactly the same distance, and finished the same distance from the centerline. Whether you hit it straight, or hit a draw or a fade, the goal...I think...is always to hit your target (in this case as far down the middle of the fairway as you can).

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truAccuracy, like the standard offline number, only looks at how close to the centerline the ball ended up. The goal was always to find the middle of the fairway. Some guys did that with fades, others (Sid for example) with big sweeping draws. The shot shape is inconsequential, it's simply about looking at how far the ball traveled in relation to how close to the target line it landed.

 

If hit a draw that goes 250 yards and ends up 10 yards offline, it's the same as a fade that goes 250 and end up 10 yards offline, and the same as a ball that was hit without curvature that ended up 10 yards offline.

 

When everything is said and done, each shot traveled exactly the same distance, and finished the same distance from the centerline. Whether you hit it straight, or hit a draw or a fade, the goal...I think...is always to hit your target (in this case as far down the middle of the fairway as you can).

 

Hey T, just wondering ... it's Wednesday in New Zealand now, does that mean I can get a sneak peek of which FM won? (picture little kid at 4am on Christmas morning) :P

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truAccuracy, like the standard offline number, only looks at how close to the centerline the ball ended up. The goal was always to find the middle of the fairway. Some guys did that with fades, others (Sid for example) with big sweeping draws. The shot shape is inconsequential, it's simply about looking at how far the ball traveled in relation to how close to the target line it landed.

 

If hit a draw that goes 250 yards and ends up 10 yards offline, it's the same as a fade that goes 250 and end up 10 yards offline, and the same as a ball that was hit without curvature that ended up 10 yards offline.

 

When everything is said and done, each shot traveled exactly the same distance, and finished the same distance from the centerline. Whether you hit it straight, or hit a draw or a fade, the goal...I think...is always to hit your target (in this case as far down the middle of the fairway as you can).

 

Thanks T, makes a lot of sense.

Driver: :taylormade-small: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black

3w: :taylormade-small:'16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82

5w: :cleveland-small: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow

Hybrid: :cleveland-small: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black

Irons: :cleveland-small: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Wedges: :cleveland-small: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Putter: :odyssey-small: Red 7s

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Hey T, just wondering ... it's Wednesday in New Zealand now, does that mean I can get a sneak peek of which FM won? (picture little kid at 4am on Christmas morning) :P

 

Nobody cares what day it is in Mordor, so NO PREVIEW FOR YOU.

 

Actually, even if I wanted to share, I couldn't. I'm still writing it up now.

 

File this under too much information, but...

 

The plan was to work a good bit of the weekend and be two days ahead of publishing by Monday, but Thanksgiving didn't sit well for neither my wife or I, and I lost two days to a suspect stomach situation.

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Great overall review of each club. I agree that the VR Pro Limited may have been a better review candidate. Something with the VRS fairways never suited me. I guess it was a combination if the larger head and a lack of control. Look forward to the final results post.

Ping G410 Plus Oban Kiyoshi Tour Limited
Ping G410 LST 3 Wood Oban Tour Prototype V430
Titleist U500 3 & 4 Oban Kiyoshi Purple Tour Reserve
Titleist 620 MB 5-9 Oban CT 125
Titleist Vokey 47* Oban CT 125, 51*, 55*, and 59* Shimada Tour Wedge Black
Bettinardi Studio Stock SS28

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Makes me want to try out that Cobra. I'd have never considered it otherwise.

MENTOR, L4 COACH & TRAINER  FIRST TEE GREATER HOUSTON
HDCP: 8.3  (GHIN: 3143312)
In my bag, April 2023
:titelist-small: TS3 Driver & 4 Wood Hzrdous Smoke Shaft (Stiff Flex)
:titelist-small: TS2 Hybrids  Mitsubishi Tensei Shaft (Stiff Flex)
:mizuno-small:  MP-59 5-PW; KBS Tour (Regular Flex)
:titelist-small: SM8 Wedges

EVNROLL ER2  Putter
SRIXON Z-STAR DIAMOND BALL
Sun Mountain Cart Bag
:Clicgear: 4.0 Push Cart (I'm walking 9 outta 10 rounds!!)

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I'm also amazed at the price difference's between the clubs. Especially when considering the performance gaps that are appearing.

 

Not sure how the final breakdown is going to occur yet tomorrow, but maybe there should be a "best bang for the buck" category? Seems like the Cobra and Cally offering would run away with it.

Driver: :taylormade-small: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black

3w: :taylormade-small:'16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82

5w: :cleveland-small: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow

Hybrid: :cleveland-small: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black

Irons: :cleveland-small: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Wedges: :cleveland-small: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125

Putter: :odyssey-small: Red 7s

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I am surprised by the results so far especially the comparative inaccuracy of the TM and Nike and equally surprised at the Mizuno.

 

AJ

WITB

Driver: Ping G25

FW: TM RBZ

Irons: Miura 57 Series w/KBS C-Taper

Wedges: Vokey SM4 52-08,56-12,60-04

Putter: Watch This Space

Ball: SRixon Z Star

Other: Tourstriker 7i

 

"Go Hard or Go Home"

 

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I'm seriously confused about the accuracy scoring here. By having humans hit balls at a target, it seems to me you are more testing the accuracy of the human, not the club. By the end of the round of testing testers may not be producing as good of swings. SOmeone may just hate the white look of the RBZ and therefore not hit as well with it. Someone may change their swing mid-testing to compensate for bad hits they are making. Humans screw up and don't repeat their swings every time save for the top .01% of golfers. (The dreaded word) makes a 100% repeatable swing every time and will make the same swing every single time with every club. I know (the dreaded word)s don't play golf and people do so you believe in using people. The distance test works great with people, for the most part. The accuracy, not quite.

What's In The Bag:

 

Adams 9064LS

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TaylorMade ATV 50* 54*

Mizuno Bettinardi BC3 Tour Issue

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I'm seriously confused about the accuracy scoring here. By having humans hit balls at a target, it seems to me you are more testing the accuracy of the human, not the club. By the end of the round of testing testers may not be producing as good of swings. SOmeone may just hate the white look of the RBZ and therefore not hit as well with it. Someone may change their swing mid-testing to compensate for bad hits they are making. Humans screw up and don't repeat their swings every time save for the top .01% of golfers. (The dreaded word) makes a 100% repeatable swing every time and will make the same swing every single time with every club. I know (the dreaded word)s don't play golf and people do so you believe in using people. The distance test works great with people, for the most part. The accuracy, not quite.

 

Sorry, but this is asinine. If you're going to be gay for robots (quick, someone name the movie), be gay for robots. Trying to say that people are good enough for distance but not accuracy is beyond dumb. The same things that make humans "bad" at testing accuracy makes them "bad" at testing distance.

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Sorry, but this is asinine. If you're going to be gay for robots (quick, someone name the movie), be gay for robots. Trying to say that people are good enough for distance but not accuracy is beyond dumb. The same things that make humans "bad" at testing accuracy makes them "bad" at testing distance.

 

Not necessarily. With distance, how good someone's swing is isn't relevant. If a slicer hits all 9 of them, they are all ggoing to slice, but we will find out which one slices the farthest for that person. If someone ith a 5 yard draw hit them all, we see which goes farthest for him. Regarless of the swing, distance can be measured and compared and scored easily, because it doesn't matter what direction the ball goes. But with the accuracy test, regardless of the club in hand, the person hitting the club is trying to hit the ball down the target line. Is it really measuring accuracy if a slicer is trying to slice the ball onto the center line? Or if the 5-capper who normally hits it dead straight dipped hit shoulder and pushed one, is it the clubs fault? Any bad hit during the accuracy test, even 3 yards off, is probably the guy swinging th clubs fault, not the result of the club being less accurate.

What's In The Bag:

 

Adams 9064LS

Ben Hogan Edge CFT Ti

Ben Hogan Apex Edge 4-PW

TaylorMade ATV 50* 54*

Mizuno Bettinardi BC3 Tour Issue

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I'm seriously confused about the accuracy scoring here. By having humans hit balls at a target, it seems to me you are more testing the accuracy of the human, not the club. By the end of the round of testing testers may not be producing as good of swings. SOmeone may just hate the white look of the RBZ and therefore not hit as well with it. Someone may change their swing mid-testing to compensate for bad hits they are making. Humans screw up and don't repeat their swings every time save for the top .01% of golfers. (The dreaded word) makes a 100% repeatable swing every time and will make the same swing every single time with every club. I know (the dreaded word)s don't play golf and people do so you believe in using people. The distance test works great with people, for the most part. The accuracy, not quite.

 

I'm hoping perhaps just a simple clarification is in order...

 

What we didn't do is ask our golfers to hit a series of shots and then say..."ok, those were the distance shots. Now got hit 10 more, and those will be accuracy shots". Our guys hit 1 series of shots with each club. We staggered the order such that (as a specific example), 1 guy hit the RBZ first, one last, and the other 3 guys hit it 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. We rotated. Fatigue is always a concern and so we made sure everyone went last once.

 

Neither distance nor accuracy can exist in a vacuum. Every shot travels x amount forward and x amount offline. I can hit the ball 350 yards (I can't), but if my fairway is 30 yards wide, and I'm 60 yards offline, that's not great. I can also hit the ball perfectly straight, but if it's significantly short (or when we're hitting to a specific target, significantly long), that's bad too.

 

Out on the course, we must get distance and accuracy right on every shot.

 

For the purpose of presentation we split the data up over 2 days, but the same shots were used for each piece. One does not...and cannot exist without the other. By the same token, using robots for one piece and not the other also doesn't make sense. Saying a robot hit one club 6 yards offline, while another 5, doesn't paint the full picture. You need to know how far (distance) the robot hit each shot as well. It's that idea of truAccuracy. The longer the ball travels, the more offline it's likely to be.

 

At that point you've gone to full robot testing...and while that would certainly add some value to our tests...I don't have 100K for a robot, and we still believe human testing is more valuable. It's the imperfections of the human golf swing that can draw out the biggest distinctions between clubs.

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I must have misspoke, I knew the shots were one in the same, because that would be dumb to spilt them up. But still, I refuse to believe a range of handicap golfers hitting fairway woods is a good way to distinguish the accuracy of one over the other, because the golfer makes the accuracy. It would have to be the exact same swing every time to tell the accuracy difference between clubs.

What's In The Bag:

 

Adams 9064LS

Ben Hogan Edge CFT Ti

Ben Hogan Apex Edge 4-PW

TaylorMade ATV 50* 54*

Mizuno Bettinardi BC3 Tour Issue

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