Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Time for some new irons

I currently play with circa 1984 Dunlop Maxfli John Jacobs System irons with Rifle 5.5 shafts and Golf Pride Dual Durometer grips. These were my dads clubs and I play them for both nostalgia and because they are the most solid irons I've ever hit. But I'm starting to worry that I might break or otherwise loose one and I really want to keep these clubs since they were my dads. Also, since I don't get to play as much these days and these are blades, they are very difficult to hit unless my swing is really grooved.

So, I'm looking at building myself a set of either Golfsmith P2, Golfsmith G40, or Magique M1 irons. Still haven't decided. I'll probably be using the Rifle Project X 5.5 shafts and Golf Pride DD2 grips.

Golfsmith Opens in Portland

Portland now has it's own Golfsmith and I am very happy. I love going and spending a day down there just checking out all the new stuff. The grand opening was last weekend, but I wasn't able to make it since I was out of town. But I will be there this Saturday.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Snake Eyes Z9 - UST Proforce V2 - Winn Excel Black

The Snake Eyes Z9 is a new club head line from Golfsmith. The Z9 consists of a 460cc, 15-3-3-3 Beta Titanium Face and Crown. The crown is a thin .5mm thick. Esthetically, this a great looking club head with a simple black crown and a footprint that gives confidence but doesn't look huge. Overall the club head performed great, shots were consistent and the ball practically jumps off the club face. The club head felt light yet responsive throughout the swing, and the sound was solid yet not over powering. The only negative would be the lack of an alignment aid on the top of the crown, the side dimples help some, but the lack of the normal Snake Eyes emblem was very noticeable. Overall, I give this an 8.5 out of 10.

The UST Proforce V2 has become the defacto high end standard of the UST line of shafts. This is the shaft used by many touring pros. I've tried UST shafts in the past, with varying success. Usually, the tips are to responsive for my swing which causes the dreaded high, power fade. The Proforce V2 however produced a very tight shot disbursement with only a few shots slightly fading to the edge of the rough. Torque was very good with no noticeable twisting with the large 460cc club head (see Z9 above). Overall, this shaft performed remarkably well, and while I won't say it's as good as my current favorite shaft, the Accuflex Evolution, it's pretty close. Overall, I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Since Golf Pride has seemingly decided to stop making my favorite grip for woods, the Whisper grip, I decided to put a Winn Excel Black grip on this driver combination. Overall the Winn Excel was very similar to the Whisper and will now become my new woods grip. 8.5 out of 10.

About This Blog

There is a misnomer about what are golf club components. The components themselves consist of club heads, shafts, and grips. The club head is the most misunderstood of all components, since most people think the component industry consists of mostly clone makers. This is completely untrue. Companies like Golfsmith, Golfworks, Bang, Alpha, SMT just to name a few spend lots of money on R&D to come up with very unique and innovative designs. These designs are definitely not clones.

While these companies are much smaller than the pro-line makers, that does not mean these companies do not build components just as good, and sometimes even better than their pro-line counterparts.

There isn't much information on the web about what's happening in the component world, and more specifically information about new designs, reviews, etc... I plan to change that with this blog.

I've been building custom clubs for about 5 years now. In the grand scheme of the component world, I am considered a newbie. But I've been playing golf for over 20 years, have had a handicap as low as 11 and and high as 20+ (my current handicap). I spend a lot of time exploring the various club makers websites and in some cases catalogs. And I have become very familiar with each of their offerings. I hope people will find this information informative.