DaveLeeNC
New member
I build my own golf clubs. As you can see from my sig, I mostly stay with Wishon components. This isn't because I believe that there is absolutely nothing better out there anywhere. I do this because I believe Wishon makes very good stuff - as good as any that I am likely to find on other than an exception basis - and for those exception basis components I just can't afford the cost of trying them all out. Plus I can talk to the Wishon designers on their forum, so that is where I tend to limit my 'search' (usually).
I had been hitting a Wishon 949MC driver head for a couple of years with no reason to change, other than the fact that the crown suddenly/mysteriously cracked. The Wishon warranty practices are wonderful however the 949MC was long out of production, so replacing that head exactly was not possible.
So I set out on an experiment where I tried out four different heads
- Wishon 949MC (ebay - used)
- Wishon 925GRT
- Wishon 919Thi
- Alpha 830.2 (used, just for grins)
All of these clubs were in the 10-11 degree loft range and similarly shafted. I ended up with preferring the 925GRT (actually 2 of them - I have another 925GRT at 1.5* lower loft that I play on windy days).
But the Alpha was interesting since it had was very light (194 grams vs. 200+ for the other heads). This makes for an interesting "long driver" (as in driver length) option as you can build a 194'ish gram head driver with a 55 gram shaft to a reasonable swingweight. I have (twice now) tried short driver (43-44" vs. my normal 45") experiments and just don't like short drivers. I have tried to vary the flex and SW - I just don't like'em. They hit shorter, they (surprisingly) don't seem to be any straighter, and they dont' feel good to me. So if shorter is worse, maybe longer is better.
So I built the Alpha 830.2 head with a Wishon S5-SUL 55 gram shaft to 46" (D1 swingweight). Truth be told the Alpha head was "a tie" with the Wishon 525GRT head in my original driver replacement experiment. So I like this head (however it doesn't seem to be longer or shorter vs. the 525GRT when similar shafted).
I have now done direct comparisons (in my local "shag ball area") between the long Alpha my my normal 45" Wishon. Plus I have two rounds "under my belt" with the long Alpha. My conclusions are:
1) Somewhere in the 20-40% of the time range, the long driver is slightly longer (5 yards - no more) than the 45" driver. And accuracy in these circumstances is as good as (probably not better) the 'normal' 45" driver.
2) The rest of the time the long driver (on average) is no longer than the 45" driver and somewhat (not a big deal) less accurate.
So based on this it would appear that around 45" is optimum for me.
dave
I had been hitting a Wishon 949MC driver head for a couple of years with no reason to change, other than the fact that the crown suddenly/mysteriously cracked. The Wishon warranty practices are wonderful however the 949MC was long out of production, so replacing that head exactly was not possible.
So I set out on an experiment where I tried out four different heads
- Wishon 949MC (ebay - used)
- Wishon 925GRT
- Wishon 919Thi
- Alpha 830.2 (used, just for grins)
All of these clubs were in the 10-11 degree loft range and similarly shafted. I ended up with preferring the 925GRT (actually 2 of them - I have another 925GRT at 1.5* lower loft that I play on windy days).
But the Alpha was interesting since it had was very light (194 grams vs. 200+ for the other heads). This makes for an interesting "long driver" (as in driver length) option as you can build a 194'ish gram head driver with a 55 gram shaft to a reasonable swingweight. I have (twice now) tried short driver (43-44" vs. my normal 45") experiments and just don't like short drivers. I have tried to vary the flex and SW - I just don't like'em. They hit shorter, they (surprisingly) don't seem to be any straighter, and they dont' feel good to me. So if shorter is worse, maybe longer is better.
So I built the Alpha 830.2 head with a Wishon S5-SUL 55 gram shaft to 46" (D1 swingweight). Truth be told the Alpha head was "a tie" with the Wishon 525GRT head in my original driver replacement experiment. So I like this head (however it doesn't seem to be longer or shorter vs. the 525GRT when similar shafted).
I have now done direct comparisons (in my local "shag ball area") between the long Alpha my my normal 45" Wishon. Plus I have two rounds "under my belt" with the long Alpha. My conclusions are:
1) Somewhere in the 20-40% of the time range, the long driver is slightly longer (5 yards - no more) than the 45" driver. And accuracy in these circumstances is as good as (probably not better) the 'normal' 45" driver.
2) The rest of the time the long driver (on average) is no longer than the 45" driver and somewhat (not a big deal) less accurate.
So based on this it would appear that around 45" is optimum for me.
dave
