Tag: LS-TEC

WITB – November 2015

Back in September I posted my first “What’s In The Bag” segment that detailed the clubs I play with. WITB posts are pretty popular on other sites when they post pictures of PGA Tour players and their preferred equipment. It’s always interesting to see what the best players in the world play with, and the market for “tour van” or hard to find equipment – especially putters – is huge. Forget that most people couldn’t possibly hit the clubs that tour players use, they still want them for the exclusivity and cool factor. I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that love being unique and having things that nobody else has.

It’s for good reason that people are curious about the golf bags of PGA Tour players, but not many people care about what a lowly golf blogger plays with. It’s a shame too, because I think my fellow bloggers and golf media people are in a much better position to help others when it comes to getting the right equipment.

While the average touring pro is well paid to endorse a company’s golf clubs, golf writers and bloggers aren’t. That’s not to say we don’t get our share of sweetheart deals or eek out a tiny profit from online affiliate sales, but nobody I know that runs a golf blog is making much more than enough to keep the site going and pay for the occasional round of golf.

Golf writers and bloggers do however have access to and get to play with a ton of different clubs, and the ones that go in our golf bags as “gamers” have cut through the marketing hype and passed the test. Just like my buddy Tony from hookedongolfblog.com, in my golf bag on any given weekend sits a who’s who of golf manufacturers you may or may not have heard of. If we’re playing them, you can be pretty confident that they are a good buy.

Since the end of September all but 3 of the clubs in my bag have changed. No less than 6 different golf equipment companies are represented in my bag.

What’s in the bag?

Driver: Ping G30 LS-TEC (9° w/ Ping Tour 80x)
Fairway: Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour (14° w/ Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana S+ 70x)
Hybrid: Srixon Z H45 (16° w/ Aerotech hls880 x-flex)
Utility Irons: Srixon Z U45 (20° & 23° w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
Irons: Srixon Z745 5-PW (w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i110cw x-flex)
Wedges: Ben Hogan TK15 50° & 54° (w/ KBS Tour-V 120X)
Lob Wedge: Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° (Custom channel grind w/ Dynamic Gold X-100)
Putter: Cure RX3F Putter
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

What’s New?

The clubs that didn’t change? My Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour three wood, which gets a fresh new grip, my trusty Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° wedge and the ugly-duckling-but-impossible-to-mis-hit Cure RX3F putter.

The biggest changes are the replacement of my aging Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept irons with the fantastic new Srixon Z745 irons. These irons are currently in play by most of Cleveland/Srixon’s tour staff including Graeme McDowell, Keegan Bradley, Russell Knox and many others. I also replaced the 3 and 4 irons with the Srixon ZU45 utility clubs which are much easier to hit, and the old Cleveland hybrid is replaced by a new Srixon ZH45 hybrid. All the new clubs get Aerotech Steelfiber shafts. The Srixon irons and utilities are made of forged 1020 steel and look as good as they perform.

I changed drivers this month also. I switched out the Ping G30 driver for the Ping G30 LS-TEC. There’s not much difference between the two as they look identical, but the LS-TEC spins a little less according to Ping.

I also have some new wedges in the bag. Gone (but not forgotten) are the SCOR 50° and 54° wedges I was so fond of. Fortunately they’ve been upgraded to Ben Hogan TK15 wedges. For those who aren’t familiar with SCOR and Ben Hogan, they are run by the same brilliant golf mind – Terry Koehler. SCOR Golf became Ben Hogan when he resurrected the iconic Ben Hogan brand from the ashes of golf equipment history. His amazing v-sole wedges live on in the Ban Hogan brand however. The new TK15 wedges perform the same as the older SCOR wedges and look fantastic in the new Hogan design. They are also a perfect match for the Hogan Fort Worth 15 irons, which players can customize to their liking. The Ben Hogan TK15 wedges are available from 48° to 63° and every loft in between. The HoganFit fitting process is designed to customize a set of wedges that will compliment your current irons and offer consistent distance gaps to help you score better inside 125 yards, where almost 65% of shots are taken.

Finally, new in my golf bag this month is the golf bag itself! My special WAGT “Team USA” golf bag recently arrived from Burton and it looks fantastic. The amazing Last Bag travel bag I got from Club Glove is going to be protecting my clubs while traveling. I’m one of the few fortunate souls to be proudly representing the US in the World Amateur Golfers Championship in December in Antalya, Turkey.

Antalya is one of the ten most frequented tourist destinations in the world, and is in the southwestern part of Turkey in a region called the Turkish Riviera. We’ll be at the all-inclusive Gloria Golf Resort competing over 54 holes in a team format with 40 other countries. I’ll be posting photos and updates on the event when we get there!

November 17, 2015
WITB – September 2015

As a golf blogger, I get to handle many different golf clubs and try many products over the course of a year. As a result, I always get asked about what’s in my bag. Most amateur golfers like me aren’t sponsored by club companies, so our bags tend to be a mix of clubs from different manufacturers.

While I have had opportunities to officially endorse products in the past, doing so might violate the rules of amateur status as outlined by the USGA in rule 6.2, and that would be a no-no since I sometimes compete in FSGA and USGA events. Therefore, I must disclose that none of the companies shown here paid me to represent their brands.

After years of testing hundreds of drivers, fairways, hybrids, irons, wedges, putters and assorted golf gadgets, these are the ones that have found a place in my bag as “gamers.” I’m always tinkering with and testing new clubs, but my gamers remain pretty consistent. The only part of my bag that changes constantly is the putter, because I’m a mess on the putting green and always looking for the BBD – bigger better deal.

What’s In The Bag?

Driver: Ping G30 (9° w/ Ping Tour 80x)
Fairway: Tour Edge Exotics E8 Tour (14° w/ Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana S+ 70x)
Hybrid: Cleveland Launcher DST (18° w/ Miyazaki C.Kua 83x)
Irons: Cleveland CG16 Tour Concept 3-PW (w/ Aerotech Steelfiber i95cw x-flex)
Wedges: SCOR Golf 50° & 54° (w/ True Temper Dynamic Gold X100)
Lob Wedge: Hopkins Golf CJ-1 60° (Custom channel grind w/ Dynamic Gold X-100)
Putter: Cure RX3F Putter
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

My current setup has been in place for over a year, except the 3-wood and putter. I recently started testing the Cure RX3F putter and after some work on the putting green and one round of golf, I decided to bring it to the WAGT National Championship at Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort. The Cure putter will be featured in a review article soon. The Exotics E8 Tour replaced my trusty old Adams RPM LP back in May. After years of searching, I finally found a fairway wood that out performed the Adams. You may notice I listed 15 clubs. That’s because I usually swap the 3-iron for the 50° gap wedge depending on the course setup where I am playing.

Coming Soon…

I’m long overdue for a new set of irons. The CG16 Tour Concept irons that came from Cleveland’s Tour Van have been awesome, but they are almost five years old and ready to be demoted to a backup role. The Aerotech Steelfiber i95cw shafts are amazing. I’ve said it for years – I think they are the best iron shafts you can get, and their popularity on the professional tours all around the world backs up that claim.

I’m currently testing the Srixon Z745 irons, Z U45 3 & 4 Utilities and a Z H45 2 Hybrid. The Z745 irons are a forged cavity back club that looks sharp and performs similar to my CG16s. The clubs I’m really excited about are the Z U45 3-iron and 4-iron. They are called utilities because they have the looks and workability of an iron with the forgiveness of a hybrid. I love hitting long irons, and these things make it even easier to hit them. The Z H45 16° hybrid will fill the distance gap nicely between the 3-iron and 3-wood. I was looking for 5-10 more yards out of my hybrid and this guy will do the trick nicely. I have a strong feeling that this fantastic 2-PW set will soon be my gamers.

Ping’s awesome G30 driver has been in my bag since last fall, but I’ve started experimenting with the G30 LS-TEC driver which is the same as the regular G30 but spins slightly less. According to Ping, 400 rpm less. Combining the LS-TEC with my switch from the softer, higher-spin Srixon Z-Star back to the lower spin and firmer feeling Z-Star XV, I should see a measurable decrease in spin off the tee which means more distance.

The SCOR wedges I got a few years ago have been stalwarts in my bag ever since I first hit them. I started with SCOR’s complete short game system: 42°, 46°, 50°, 54° & 58°. Going from the 42 and up, they replace your traditional 9, PW, GW, SW & LW. SCOR wedges are forged and their unique v-sole design works amazingly well in all conditions. However, they have taken a real beating from heavy use and need to be replaced. Enter Ben Hogan Golf. SCOR’s founder Terry Koehler acquired the rights to Ben Hogan golf equipment and re-launched the brand with his already proven TK15 Wedges and the new Fort Worth 15 irons. The result is a gorgeous set of forged blades and wedges that perform on par with any of the best irons in golf. They are also much more forgiving and easy to hit than you might think for a blade. The TK15 wedges will soon be replacing the aging SCOR wedges in my bag.

I love my Hopkins 60° custom grind wedge. The Channel Grind basically gives me two wedges. With the face square it has very low bounce, making it perfect for fairway shots and tight lies. With the face open it has high bounce for deep rough and sand. This wedge has made me look like a much better bunker player than I am, so it’ll be very hard to replace it. The new Callaway Mac Daddy PM Grind wedge might just do that, however. Designed with heavy input from Phil Mickelson, this wedge has grooves all the way to the edges of the face and a very high toe to help with shots from the deep rough, along with a similar channel-type grind on the sole. My early testing so far has been very promising.

I’ll try to post another WITB early next year so we can see what’s changed and if my predictions for new gamers comes true. Until then, keep it in the short grass!

October 1, 2015
Ping G30 Driver – Get One!

Normally when writing a review of a club, I’ll start with an introductory paragraph, then tell you a bit about the design and specs of the club before describing how it plays. This time however, I feel compelled to flip the script and tell you how the story ends first. Quite simply, the Ping G30 driver is the best club I’ve hit off the tee in over a decade. Now, let me tell you why.

In the past 10 years as a blogger and golf industry insider, I’ve had the opportunity to hit many, many drivers. It’s the club golfers change the most, which is why the golf club manufacturers dedicate most of their marketing efforts to sell them. I had to think long and hard about the best drivers I’ve hit over that time and even prior, and I’m confident in saying that the Ping G30 has had a bigger impact on my golf game than all the rest. It’s not just me either. The sales figures since being introduced last July show that golfers have noticed also.

As golf club technology has evolved over the years we’ve seen golf balls that fly further and drivers that hit those balls further still. As a result, I’m hitting the ball every bit as far at age 41 as I did at age 21, despite a swing speed that has dropped from the mid 120s to the low 110s. I may swing a golf club slower than I used to, but the launch monitor data suggests that I’m still transferring as much energy to the golf ball as I used to with a metal-headed Titleist driver and Tour Balata golf balls.

Hotter club faces and more responsive golf balls have changed the game for everyone. But the USGA and R&A rules have imposed limits on the performance of golf clubs and golf balls, and I’ve seen technology hit the wall in that regard. The equipment companies may tell you otherwise, but they can’t make a club hit the ball any further than they do now. Instead, what they are doing is tweaking launch conditions and fitting clubs to individual swings using movable weights and interchangeable shafts in an effort to squeeze every last yard out of your drives.

Technology & Specifications

When it comes to the Ping G30, there aren’t any fancy moveable weights, but there are several options for fitting the club to the player. To start, Ping makes three different G30 drivers. The standard G30, the slice-fighting G30 SF-TEC and the low-spin G30 LS-TEC. All three G30 models are assembled with a T9S Titanium face and Ti 8-1-1 body. The T9S material is light and thin and allows more face deflection for greater ball speeds, up to the USGA limit that is. All three models have built-in aerodynamic features on the crown that Ping calls “Turbulators” to (theoretically) help generate greater clubhead speed. Also included is an adjustable hosel to tune the face angle, which will change the dynamic loft of the driver, allowing for a higher or lower ball flight as wanted.

The standard G30 model is set up neutral, with the weight and balance designed to be playable for everyone. The G30 SF-TEC model is designed with the weight port shifted towards the heel and a lighter swing weight (D1 compared to D3) to help chronic slicers straighten out their tee shots. The G30 LS-TEC model is the low spin version of the standard G30, and I’m told by Ping that the LS-TEC driver reduces backspin by 400 RPM over the standard G30. This model will appeal mostly to higher swing speed players that generate too much spin. The G30 and G30 LS-TEC are available in 9 and 10.5 degree lofts. The SF-TEC version is available with 10 or 12 degrees of loft.

Ping offers a few self-branded stock shaft choices and several more brands as custom options. The standard shaft is the Ping TFC 419D. Upgrades include the Ping Tour 65 and Tour 80 shafts. Ping is one of the few companies that still sells their own shafts, and I believe this gives them an advantage because they can better control the quality and performance of their clubs if they also make the shafts that go in them. While they offer many well known brands as custom options, I would recommend choosing one of their shafts. Most players will fit into the TFC 419D shaft, and stronger players will love the Tour 65 and Tour 80 shafts.

Performance

So what does all this technology do? In the right hands, it hits golf balls far. The tester I got was a standard Ping G30 with the Tour 80x shaft and 9 degrees of loft. Some initial testing was done at the driving range on an Ernest Sports ES14 launch monitor, but most of my testing takes place on the golf course because I prefer real-world testing in real, variable conditions. To supplement my on-course testing, I used GAME GOLF to gather data about every shot hit to compare clubs. I put the G30 up against my old gamer (2013 Adams Super LS, 8.5 degrees w/ UST ProForce VTS Black 75x) for comparison.

My initial testing with the launch monitor confirmed my suspicion that the aerodynamic turbulators on the club’s crown wouldn’t do much to deliver more clubhead speed, but they look cool I guess. In 20 swings with the Adams driver I averaged 110.75 MPH of club speed. After 20 swings with the G30 I averaged 111.25 MPH. The G30 averaged 0.5 MPH more than the Adams, but I don’t think this slight improvement is statistically relevant. Similarly, ball speeds (167.5 to 165.5), launch angles (12.025 to 12.775) and spin rates (2253.5 to 2571) were also very similar. Since total distance on the ES14 launch monitor is an estimated figure derived from launch data, I didn’t include it. (See note below) Instead I used the more accurate real-world data from my rounds on GAME GOLF (more on this later) Bottom line: The Ping G30, when properly fit to the individual golfer, is about as long as any other driver on the market. In this case it’s as long as the Adams Super LS and TaylorMade SLDR 430. (The SLDR 430 and G30 were tested on-course by me and another play tester in a separate test.)

This hard data shows that even a two year old driver can deliver the same performance as a new model. It also contributes to my theory that equipment performance has hit the limit and companies can’t get any more distance out of clubs and balls. There is of course, one factor I haven’t mentioned yet – Accuracy.

Note on distance data: The ES14 launch monitor data showed my hits using Adams Super LS driver averaging 300.75 yards, compared to the Ping G30 at 296.75 yards. While this is a nice ego boost, those numbers are unrealistic because of the way the ES14 estimates distance. Meanwhile, the actual on-course, GPS-measured data from GAME GOLF shows that I really average 289 yards with the Adams and 291 yards with the Ping G30. The data from GAME GOLF also validated the launch monitor data that showed that both drivers were within 4 yards of each other in total distance. Four yards may be huge for the marketing department at company X that’s trying to sell you a driver, but in reality there are just too many factors at play to make an accurate claim on distance. The launch monitor tells me that the Adams Super LS is longer, but the real-world data proved otherwise. The data I got from playing over 30 rounds of golf with both clubs shows that the difference is much smaller. I think this helps to show that since club technology has hit legal limits, driver distance will once again mostly depend on swing speed, solid contact and course/weather conditions, not club technology.

Accuracy & Forgiveness

Launch monitors and wide open driving ranges can’t give you the whole picture about how straight you hit a club. That’s why I prefer to play as much as possible with a club before writing a review. I use the GAME GOLF platform to track my shots and club performance with their excellent built in stats. But don’t take my word for it, go check it out for yourself!

I’ve played at least 15 rounds with the Ping G30 since I got it (I put it in the bag right away as my gamer), and I had been playing with the Adams for almost a year before that. Armed with 15 rounds of actual golf data on multiple golf courses in varying weather conditions, The Ping G30 is almost 30% more accurate off the tee than my old Adams Super LS. I hit 62% of fairways with the G30 compared to 48% with the Adams. Thirty percent is a significant number!

My golf swing didn’t change during the testing period, and the difference in average distance shows that I wasn’t “taking something off” drives with the G30. The Ping G30 driver is a very accurate golf club, because it is very forgiving on off-center hits. Don’t take it from me though, take it from our friends at GolfWRX who said “Hands down… The most forgiving driver in golf.” or the equipment testers at Golf Magazine who called the G30 SF-TEC “The top-rated model in the test”.

Conclusions

When I get new clubs to test out I always try to get them into the hands of a few buddies to get their thoughts. Most of the time, they hit 10 to 15 shots and can tell me if they like it and want to hit more, or dislike and hand it back to me. With the Ping G30, my playing partner hit 5 balls on the range and half a dozen tee shots on the course and immediately ordered one for himself.

What it comes down to is simply this – I hit the Ping G30 in or around the sweet spot more often than the other drivers I’ve played in the past 10 years. Solid contact means more distance, better accuracy and greater consistency. The numbers don’t lie. I’m hitting almost 30% more fairways with the G30 – without losing any distance. That is why the G30 went right in the bag and will stay there for the foreseeable future, and that is why you should go try the Ping G30 yourself. It’s the best driver I’ve hit in the last decade.

April 20, 2015