Re: ShopTalk: Looking for an Alternate

[Ed Reeder]

Mark, Interesting about the Cleveland loft.  I've misplaced my reference, but Ping acknowledged that they purposefully mark the soles of their drivers with stronger lofts than they actually are.  The realize that many of their male customer's egos would get in the way of getting a good fit. /Ed [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Tom, I had a similar thing happen to me a few months ago, I had a Wishon 915 CFE, 420cc, 12 degree in the bag for over 2 years, fantastic club, every new driver came out I'd try and none ever impressed me enough to consider changing. A member of my regular saturday foursome came with a new driver, this guy trys them all, he even has the "Hammer", he had gone into a local golf store and one just caught his eye, he bought it. It was a Cleveland Launcher 460 cc 8.5 degree with a graphite design 9.1 s/x flex, upon seeing it my first thought was he'll never be able to hit this thing, but he was doing pretty good with it, I picked it up and absolutely bombed the ball, longest drives in a long time, I was completely puzzled until I started asking around here and there and major manufacturers are not known for the tightest of tollerances, the head probably runs a 9.5+ and the since there are no industry standards for shafts it probably plays closer to a firm (between regular and stiff). Anyway the combo works, but its a longshot to find one. To me some heads feel "hot" and some feel "solid" both hit just as long, sounds also plays a subjective part, I've been a Wishon devotee for a couple years and always been happy with their products and service, so I can tell you in their line a 915 would probably feel "hot" like the Cobra, its available in 460cc and you can probably get one handpicked to about a 10 degree, while a 949 or 715 feels to me more "solid" like a Titleist. Shaft selection will determine a great amount of feel, I'd compare a Graffaloy Prolaunch to an Aldila NV in the same flex with the same head and see which one feels best to you. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out. Mark