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Getting New Clubs! Am I missing anything?

SuperStroke
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TwoSolitudes

Swingin' for the fences
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So as some may know I have a new job in Bangkok and to reward myself, my wife is allowing me to get new irons and new fairway woods. How about that? The Xli's have been great to me, but lately I find I am hitting them really really high and I would like to go back to a more traditional iron. The XLS fairway woods have also been great and in fact the sole of the 7 wood is almost worn out but I would love to find a model with a 3/4 wood I can hit from the deck.

So I have set up a fitting session at Golftown in Canada (where I am going for a week). I am no pro, so I am looking for point and shoot irons. Easy to swing easy to hit with a bit more distance than the XLi's. Probably a 5-PW set as I have hybrids from 3-5 that I love. They have suggested the following to test

Adams Tech V3
Nike Machspeed
Callaway Diablo Edge
Cobra S3
Ping G15
TM Superlaunch

Any other models I should be looking at. Don't want to be overwhelmed with choices, but I do want to ensure I have a good selection of easy irons to choose from.

For the fairway woods, I want a low profile model. The 7 is my workhorse but I would love to have a 4 or HL 3 I can get off the deck with confidence. They have suggested these:

Cleveland FL
Ping G15
Ping K15
Adams F11 Slotline
TM Superfast 2.0

Anything missing here- other than that super low profile Maruman JB was testing which goes for over 1000 bucks!
 
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TS, I know you are a big Cleveland guy like myself yet you do not mention the Mashie? C'mon man!! Get on the Mashie train. As for irons for you, it sounds like our games are similar, I have really liked the Cobra s3 irons recently and there is always the HB3 irons from Cleveland. The Burner 2.0 irons are nice but they are a little pricier that the other two. I also liked the Ping g15 irons and hybrids.
 
White Rhino said:
TS, I know you are a big Cleveland guy like myself yet you do not mention the Mashie? C'mon man!! Get on the Mashie train. As for irons for you, it sounds like our games are similar, I have really liked the Cobra s3 irons recently and there is always the HB3 irons from Cleveland. The Burner 2.0 irons are nice but they are a little pricier that the other two. I also liked the Ping g15 irons and hybrids.
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Oh I'll swing a few Mashies while I am there, but the Bobby Jones hybrids I have are working great for me now- don't want to mess with what's working well! The HB3's were pretty similar to the XLi's for me and in fact the longer shafts were not great for my swing.
 
even if one doesn't like cleveland, there is nothing that beats the mashie. And it sounds like you even like Cleveland so the Mashie is a MUST TRY at least.
I guess by cleveland diablo edge you mean the callaway diablo edge irons which are very nice. other than that i would take a look at the cobra s3.

TwoSolitudes said:
Oh I'll swing a few Mashies while I am there, but the Bobby Jones hybrids I have are working great for me now- don't want to mess with what's working well! The HB3's were pretty similar to the XLi's for me and in fact the longer shafts were not great for my swing.
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GG16 irons

Cobra rail f fairway

Tapatalk keeps me sane.
 
Iron Testing Results!

For each one I tested the 8 iron and the 4 iron. My 8 iron is really dialed in on the Xli’s so this is an excellent club to compare. I don’t usually use anything higher than a 5 iron so if I can hit a 4 successfully I know I have some really forgiving clubs. Ok here we go.

:callaway:Callaway Diablo Edge’s: I have to say these are great irons and a great way to start. The distance and dispersion with the 8 iron was similar to my Xli’s and the 4 iron was decent. They looked sharp, sounded good, and felt good during the swing. They did feel a little flat when hit, which I guess is to be expected from SGI irons. But coming from the Xli’s (which really feel like they are flying off the face when hit correctly), the Edges were a bit of a let down. So good, but not really much of an upgrade over the Xli’s.

:nike:Nike Machspeed: I had tried these before and liked them, and it was no different this time. BUT they were a slight step below the Edge’s in almost every category. In particular I found I was hitting these even higher than the Xli’s. They performed best with a very measured swing, anything quick produced unpredictable results. Great irons but just not for me.

:cobra:Cobra S3: These were the equal of the Edge’s in most categories and had better distance, a higher trajectory and a better sound. The face felt pretty hot which was nice, but the overall feel of the swing was not as good as the Edges and shots towards the toe were a bit harsh on the hands. The set came with hybrids at 3-4. I didn’t like these at all- but I was only looking at getting the 5-PW anyway. These were the equal of the Xli’s in ease of use and they were longer.

:taylormade:TM Burner Superlaunch: These were strange. I hit the 8 iron high and straight, but simply could not get a handle on direction. I was all over the place. The 4 iron had the same performance as the 8. Easy to hit high and straight but I was left and right. Just terrible dispersion numbers. It was too bad because I thought they felt pretty good and I was getting great distance. With some time I bet these would be very solid irons for me, but I am lazy and I want my new irons to work with my swing.

:ping:Ping G15: These were really nice. A bit longer than the Xli’s and nice high straight shots. Swinging them felt a bit like swinging the Cleveland Niblick’s, I could feel the weight of the head all the way through the shot and knew when I had made solid contact- which was petty much every shot. Even the 4 iron was great. The only drawback was the feel off the face, which seemed pretty dead and flat. Still hard to argue with the performance. I mentioned this to the sales guy who suggested I try the K15’s.

:ping:Ping K15: The titanium face made these feel very hot, the ball leapt off the face with each swing. Sweet. By far the best feeling of the irons I hit. They also had the same solid feeling throughout the swing as the G15’s and were the longest of the irons I hit to this point. But… I could not keep from hooking these things. They are built to eliminate the slice and they sure do that… Every shot was left or way left. I actually had better control over the 4 iron than the 8 iron. Like the Machspeed they performed best with a slow measured swing. Damn.

I told the sales guy it was too bad I couldn’t take the faces off the K15’s and drop them in the G15’s- that would be a perfect iron set. ‘Hold on a sec’, the sales guy says, ‘I have something for you to try.’

Mystery Irons: The first hit with this one and I knew I was swinging something special. They swung like the G15’s nice and solid. I could feel the club head all the way through. At impact they rocketed off the face with a great sound and they appeared to be a full club longer than the Xli’s without any loss of accuracy. It really was like having the hot K15 faces on the solid straight G15 irons. Long, straight medium-high shots.

Still can’t be too hasty. So I asked to take a few irons from the mystery set and the S3’s (which I decided was my 2nd choice) and take them to an indoor driving range called the ‘dome’ the next day. The results were the same. The S3’s were nice and actually performed better at the range than on the simulator- but they were simply not in the same class as the Mystery Irons. I went back and bought a set of 3-PW. And what were the mystery irons?

Spoiler
Ping Rapture V2’s!
ping-rapture-v2-51.jpg

Yep, released two years ago, for me these outshine the K15 and G15 by a large margin and they actually cost less! Longer than the XLi’s, just as easy to hit, more accurate and they sound better. A true upgrade.


Up next, Fairway wood testing...
 
Outstanding find! I've never hit those irons but I often see them on the used rack one day and gone the next, must be something special about them. Glad you found a set that works well for you and saved a few coin to boot!

I was tinkering with some fairway woods recently and the new Cleveland was a winner to me, especially the weak 3 wood.
 
Glad you found a set that works for you. Cool that they were on sale too.
 
clam fist said:
Glad you found a set that works for you. Cool that they were on sale too.
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The sales guy told me they stopped making them, so the stock they have is all there is left internationally- which is why I had to get the 3-PW instead of 5-PW. And with the new groove rules the next version that comes out will not be the same. They were close to 2K a set when they come out, so I think they are a fantastic value right now.
 
Looks like you put a lot of time finding your irons. Congrats on finding a set!
 
Many people just go try a club because a PGA player plays them. If they hit them well a couple times at the store they just buy them. They don't try other clubs that might feel and play better. You did the smart thing by trying a bunch of sets and finding what works best for your game. Wouldn't it be awesome if a golf store just had a bunch of unmarked clubs for people to try out just so they wouldn't know what they were trying. Then they'd buy clubs based off of how they felt and not for the brand. Hmmm...maybe a new business idea? Lol
 
I really liked your review. Even though what you are looking at has nothing to do with what I am looking at, I read both your iron and fairway reviews because of how you did them.

Kudos on writing the best reviews I've seen yet comparing clubs.
 
Hey TS. This is amazing. I just picked up a set of Rapture V2 last week at a fantastic price. Traded in some sticks that were just setting around and walked away with a steal. You are so right, I play the G15's and love them, but when I was trying out the 15's last year I really wanted the V2's but I could not justify the cost (about $1400). I was in my favorite Edwin Wattts and someone had just traded an expectionally well taken care of set of V2's which were in my color code. I snatched them babies up and played one round with them and could not be more pleased. I had said my G15 were awesome, but the V2's....I have not come up with the exact description yet but they are even better for me than my G15's.

Great distance. One of my challenges thus far is when chipping I have to get the swing right because of the Ti face the ball jumps off much more than on G15's. I will be keeping these for quite some time. Glad I was in the store when I was to snag these babies.

Best of luck with your new sticks.
 
Just a little update to this- I have been to the range a few times with these now and the one thing that really stands out is how much better the 8-PW are over my previous set. On the range at least I am getting Niblick type performance. Point shoot and watch the ball land at the same distance almost every time.

So what this means is that my 37* and 42* Niblicks are now at risk for relegation to the back-up bag. I may now go to a 6-PW set up on the irons, bring back my 49* and 56* Niblicks and round out with the CG 15 60* for the sand.

Amazing how much a different set of irons can change the bag.
 
Ya, those V2s are spectacular irons! My dad actually tried to find some with his specs all over the place, but ended up with K15s just because he couldn't find what he needed...too bad!

Nice, predictable shots though for sure...enjoy them!!
 
Terrific review, congrats on the new clubs!
 
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