Tom, For some strange reason, all your e-mails are going directly to my Deleted Items. Don't know why, because you aren't on my blocked sender list. All the other in-coming Shoptalk e-mail goes to my Shoptalk folder in my Inbox.
Bernie [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Flanagan To: shoptalk Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 1:44 PM Subject: RE: ShopTalk: Long driver Howdy Bub; I built about a dozen versions of long drivers since you started this topic - how long ago? And before, too. But "before" I was using steel shafts at 44.5" on wood heads. I had one laminated head in which i drilled a honeycomb under the sold plate to remove weight. I never got it to a usable SW except for if King Kong was swinging it. That aside, I've built drivers to 48" and down. Found that the most comfortable for me was at about 46" max. My choppy lurch didn't accommodate the longer or better timed swing. I simply could not hit them. The last one I made was a "Bangenstein" HiLoft on a Penley something. 47". Couldn't hit it at all. Sold it to a guy who killed it. So I've been reluctant to go to the extra long driver. And I was reluctant to hit the Cleveland, too, as i mentioned, based upon prior experience. For what ever reason - age, slower swing, more sweep than hit, don't know - I killed it. 46.5" super light worked for me. So in answer to your question "Why mess around with the short clubs . . . etc", I guess it's because this particular one worked. I don't intend to buy one - yet, even though the heavily discounted price comes close to what I'd eventually end up paying to build one. And this may seem scurrilous to all here, but frankly, I'm getting tired of screwing around with building clubs. After 50 years of it I'm thinking I'll pretty much stick with regripping, bending and reshafting. I have too damn many "experiments" in my pile of stuff as it is. Gotta get rid of them Junior golf, here I come. TFlan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Long driver Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:11:41 -0400 Tom, Why mess around with the short clubs when you can go to 48" club length? A 193 gram BOM plugged to 1½" bore depth with a 58 gram Pure Energy A (about 55 trimmed) and 43 gram Winn Excel midsize comes in at about 296 grams and D9. If I can swing that at 75, so can you. It's worth 25 to 30 yards beyond what I get with a 45" driver and I seldom miss a fairway with it. (Of course, I'm seldom over 260 yards with it anymore.) I've made 47" drivers at D4 for some senior women...plenty of components around to get a driver in the low D's if you want one there. For the Rescues (if .370 and low price is needed), take a look at Monarch Golf's Neon hybrid shafts. On my NF4, I get the about the same flex numbers as a typical A...at most, a low R. Have one on a 4-iron hybrid at 1" overlength and it plays, looks and feels great. Seems like a very good shaft for $9.80, or something like that. Wanted to make a set with which I could make better contact with the ball on our dead dry, flat bermuda this time of year, so just made a normal length 3-7 set of Hireko's XP905 hybrids to go with the set of XP905 Pro irons I sometimes used. Tried some of Unitech's $8 Prestige 75 A-flex iron shafts in these, matched on FLO to my favorite set's shafts from Tour Golf (TSLW 300 sheet wrapped A's no longer available). The Prestige shafts weren't the most consistent that I've had, but matched up OK and seem to play very well at the range...second time out with them tomorrow. Ugly gray with yellow graphics, though. :-) Bernie [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Flanagan To: shoptalk Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 6:07 PM Subject: RE: ShopTalk: Long driver I looked at the full force shaft - it's 49 gram uncut. Hell, I have some 50 and 55 gram shafts here. That 40 gram from Cleveland is actually 40 gm uncut, a weight I find amazing. The head is a redesigned Launcher made specifically for the Asian (Japanese) market. The club's been marketed there for a few months and is selling like crazy. So they (Cleveland) is trying the U.S. market. The club comes in one style only, 46.5", 12 deg, 40 gram, A flex. If it goes here they'll start offering different lofts. That's according to the Cleveland rep. The club isn't in the online catalog yet. I have a 12 deg Cobra head on a 55 gram shaft now, at 45". It's D4. I could plug it to 46.5" and add nine SW points, then reduce that with a jumbo 50 - 54 gram grip, but it's still going to be in the E range. Guess I'll wait a while to see what comes down the pike. One thing I am looking for is a set of 3 A flex light weight shafts for Taylor Rescues. I saw some Graftechs for about $14.00 online. Got a guy who has 3,4,5 Rescues with S flexes in them. He wants to go to A flex based on clubs he hit on demo day. I haven't measured the O.D. of the tips yet so I'm not sure if they're .370's. I suspect they are though. TFlan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [email protected] Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:17:39 -0400 Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Long driver To: [email protected] Greetings TFlan, How about a nice component head with the 3 wt screws, and then remove them, http://thegolfcoastonline.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=644 and pair that up with a Fierce Full Force shaft, http://thegolfcoastonline.com/Fierce_Full_Force.asp or Bang shaft, http://thegolfcoastonline.com/item.asp?cID=58&PID=1041 I even know a guy that could probably get you wholesale pricing on those components :-) David In a message dated 3/22/2009 1:47:31 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Naturally I started looking for components - 40 gram shafts and 180 deg heads. Couldn't find any. So back to the pro. "How much for that driver?" $300.00 but for you $250, no tax, no shipping. If you want one get it now cuz there's very limited stock. Ugh! A dilemma. Great, surprising club though. TFlan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Express your personality in color! Preview and select themes for Hotmail®. See how. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. Find out more.
