Demo Day Requests???

[gas_can]

Sorry about the short notice, but I just found out about a demo day tommorow with Ping, Titleist, TaylorMade, Nike, and Cobra.

Anything anyone's curious to see? I hope Titleist will have the new products there, but if they do it's likely going to be very crowded, so no promises there. I do plan on trying out the new Nike Pro Combos, Titleist 670's, and Ping S59's as well as Tour weges. I'll be leaving by 11:00a.m. so is there anything else from these manufacturers you guys want a report on.

Ping is having an exclusive demo on Tuesday, so expect to see something written up on the blog about that.

Again, sorry about the short notice.

[iacas]

I'm good to go. My golf dome had a big "demo week" two weeks ago, and I checked out the new stuff. It does get crowded, though, so "check out" often means "look at other people hitting and then go home."

[mediaguru]

The new Titleist driver I suppose. The new TM irons. Hmm....any new hybrids or woods.

[gas_can]

Here it is from top to bottom:

Callaway
No X-tours which is what I really wanted to hit.
The BB 454 was unimpressive, muted sound, very light weight in the head. I've never been a big fan of their metalwoods at address, I can't get used to seeing a club without a hozel.

Nike
The new pro combo tour and oversized irons both looked very nice and finally have dynamic gold shafts instead of the old proprietary nike shafts they used to have. Nice solid feel, the tour versions have a very thin topline and clean lood at address. OS is a bit bigger, but still very bladelike in apperance. The forgings are a lot like Titleists' in terms of feel, not too soft, but still very responsive.
Their Spin Velocity wedges are a nice upgrade, flat milled faces and tons of spin, they're getting closer to the major manufacturers. Now if they could make a good putter . . .

Ping
The biggest surprise for me. I finally got to try the S59's and was blown away. Incredible feel and ball flight from a cast club. I'd say they're noticeably better than my 690MB in terms of feedback and performance. Also with WRX it's a lot easier and cheaper to get custom options. I've pretty much decided this is my next set of irons.
They also introduced the DOC in a 12.5 which is a pretty nice size. The putter's quite effective, and now it's in a much more svelte package.

TaylorMade
Nothing too revolutionary here, same stuff that's been on the market for a while. Their drivers still feel the hottest of any club I've tried.

Titleist
Had all the new clubs. This is the second time I've hit the 905 drivers, and I'm still not sold, they don't feel anything like the old Titleist drivers, really tinny sound, but not quite as much as TaylorMade drivers. The T spun the ball like crazy, but I got a nice ball flight off the S with lower spin. The faces don't feel hot, but I was still getting good distance off them. I grilled the rep about reshafting and the aluminum sleeve in the hozel, and he admitted reshafting will have to be done by Titleist since they aren't selling sleeves to any accounts and he didn't see that changing in the near future. Also I heard mumblings about a Diamana shaft upgrade, but he said it wasn't approved yet.
The 904 fairway woods are fantastic, I placed my order for one, and it should be here by the end of the month. Nice flat bottom and a great mid/high ball flight off the deck and very easy to pick up. The head is weighted nicely and really sits nice and square at address. It's a big improvement over the 980's.
The spin milled wedges are pretty nice, but I had a hard time telling any difference feel or spin wise from the regular Vokeys. We'll have to see what iacas thinks when he gets to play them.

That's about it, I didn't spend much time with Cobra or Ben Hogan, so I left those two manufacturers out.

[Ben]

We're having a Ping demo here today. Hit a 7* G2 with the grafalloy pro launch S shaft. Only hit three, but I cranked each one. Nice crunch feel off the clubface. The shaft felt just perfect for my swing speed, good thing that's the shaft coming in my Mizuno MP001.

[gas_can]

We're having a Ping demo here today. Hit a 7* G2 with the grafalloy pro launch S shaft. Only hit three, but I cranked each one. Nice crunch feel off the clubface. The shaft felt just perfect for my swing speed, good thing that's the shaft coming in my Mizuno MP001.

Ping definately did some things right with the G2, it's really hot. That and TM's R5 are the only 450cc drivers where I can really close the head. The only thing I don't like about it is the crescent alignment aid, its just a little too much. Of course it's not on the tour versions.

[iacas]

The 904 fairway woods are fantastic, I placed my order for one, and it should be here by the end of the month. Nice flat bottom and a great mid/high ball flight off the deck and very easy to pick up. The head is weighted nicely and really sits nice and square at address. It's a big improvement over the 980's.

I've got a review of the 904...

The spin milled wedges are pretty nice, but I had a hard time telling any difference feel or spin wise from the regular Vokeys. We'll have to see what iacas thinks when he gets to play them.

... and the SM Vokeys coming up. Y'know, in about six months when all this friggin' snow disappears. Grrr...

The 904 is an odd little beast, since it looks so much like the 980. There's very little visually different, but it's got a tungsten sole-weight and a flatter sole. And a white mark instead of a black one. And, uhh... yeah. that's about it.