St. L Golf Expo: Rogue! / TE leftless hybrid / TM twist

[WUTiger]

Shirley and I did a quick Friday trip to the St. Louis Golf Expo at St. Charles Convention Center. My brother Sam drove in from Jefferson City and joined us. This year I basically popped in without my usual pre-study of new stuff; just a busy spring overall. Here's what I saw:

Rogue Iron Testing

Got to try all three versions of the Rogue irons. Here are the head and shaft combos. Note: My impressions are strictly based on feel and eyesight view of launch. None of the hitting stations had launch monitors.

Rogue X was iron model used for the GolfTEC swing analysis. The 6i had the KBS Max 90 shaft - rather odd looking with the Rogue sky blue colored label, not a touch of KBS red. The club felt smooth, but the shaft was just too light - I had to almost baby it so as to not overswing. I would like to try it with a heavier shaft.

Rogue (standard) felt better. Head has moderate but not glaring offset. The 6i with XP95 stepless felt smooth and lively, similar to the feel of a KBS Tour 90. I got good launch with it, and a lighter stiff was easy to handle. I next tried a 7i with the PX LZ 105 shaft. This felt borderline harsh, although not as robust as the PX 5.0 shafts I had formerly in my X20 Tours. Don't know if the lighter LZ would work better once my swing was in shape.

Rogue Pro with felt best. Head had very modest offset, which helps me due to my handsy swing.  XP105 stepless felt lively and solid; was really surprised how well a stiff felt. It launched just as high as the Rogue combos. If I got the Pro version, I would need some launch monitor comparisons on possible shafts. I would also like to try these with Recoil shafts.

Callaway rep said the tests would tell if I needed Rogue Pro heads throughout, maybe with 4i and 5i softstepped, or I would be better with same shaft flex, but standard Rogue heads for 4i and 5i.

TE Hybrid Doesn't Turn Left?

Tour Edge rep Dave Jacobs, AKA "Jake", made the Expo again this year. He's trying to convert me to a TE bag, as I sometimes play the XRail FWs (see below).

The discussion shifted to @onthehunt526's search for bridge clubs in his annual bag rework. Jake said OTH would really like the CBX hybrid. These were designed with input from the Champion's Tour, and are engineered to tease out left misses (you can play a draw, but the head design reportedly works against unwanted left, a major fear of OTH).

These new TE hybrids have taken a page from revived Hogans. CBX heads come in 16°, 17°, 18°, 19°, 20°, and 22°.

Jake also reminded me that CBX FWs were winning distance contests against competitors. And the CBX FWs and hybrids are fixed loft. TE decided that the 25 gram weight of the adjustment cogs was throwing off the clubhead dynamics.

At PGA Show 2016, XXIO had announced a move to all non-adjustable woods and drivers, going instead with a set matrix of shafts and heads. 

TM Twist

TaylorMade was in a strange undercover posture. No tent, just bags and test clubs between the Callaway and Ping canopies. I got a look at the M4 driver with the twist face to correct mishits. Holding the head in my hand, I could see the different look of the face. I didn't bother to hit it - the less loft on low left and the extra high toe loft would make my miss patterns even worse.

My brother Sam had already been fitted for the M4-D version driver. At the expo, he decided to buy the M2 3W.HL (17°) to replace his historic bubbleshafted TM Burner 3W and 5W. Even second-gen M1 and M2 FWs are getting price cuts now.

Hope everyone had a good Groundhog Day. Later!

[onthehunt526]

On 2/11/2018 at 10:04 PM, WUTiger said:

Shirley and I did a quick Friday trip to the St. Louis Golf Expo at St. Charles Convention Center. My brother Sam drove in from Jefferson City and joined us. This year I basically popped in without my usual pre-study of new stuff; just a busy spring overall. Here's what I saw:

Rogue Iron Testing

Got to try all three versions of the Rogue irons. Here are the head and shaft combos. Note: My impressions are strictly based on feel and eyesight view of launch. None of the hitting stations had launch monitors.

Rogue X was iron model used for the GolfTEC swing analysis. The 6i had the KBS Max 90 shaft - rather odd looking with the Rogue sky blue colored label, not a touch of KBS red. The club felt smooth, but the shaft was just too light - I had to almost baby it so as to not overswing. I would like to try it with a heavier shaft.

Rogue (standard) felt better. Head has moderate but not glaring offset. The 6i with XP95 stepless felt smooth and lively, similar to the feel of a KBS Tour 90. I got good launch with it, and a lighter stiff was easy to handle. I next tried a 7i with the PX LZ 105 shaft. This felt borderline harsh, although not as robust as the PX 5.0 shafts I had formerly in my X20 Tours. Don't know if the lighter LZ would work better once my swing was in shape.

Rogue Pro with felt best. Head had very modest offset, which helps me due to my handsy swing.  XP105 stepless felt lively and solid; was really surprised how well a stiff felt. It launched just as high as the Rogue combos. If I got the Pro version, I would need some launch monitor comparisons on possible shafts. I would also like to try these with Recoil shafts.

Callaway rep said the tests would tell if I needed Rogue Pro heads throughout, maybe with 4i and 5i softstepped, or I would be better with same shaft flex, but standard Rogue heads for 4i and 5i.

TE Hybrid Doesn't Turn Left?

Tour Edge rep Dave Jacobs, AKA "Jake", made the Expo again this year. He's trying to convert me to a TE bag, as I sometimes play the XRail FWs (see below).

The discussion shifted to @onthehunt526's search for bridge clubs in his annual bag rework. Jake said OTH would really like the CBX hybrid. These were designed with input from the Champion's Tour, and are engineered to tease out left misses (you can play a draw, but the head design reportedly works against unwanted left, a major fear of OTH).

These new TE hybrids have taken a page from revived Hogans. CBX heads come in 16°, 17°, 18°, 19°, 20°, and 22°.

Jake also reminded me that CBX FWs were winning distance contests against competitors. And the CBX FWs and hybrids are fixed loft. TE decided that the 25 gram weight of the adjustment cogs was throwing off the clubhead dynamics.

At PGA Show 2016, XXIO had announced a move to all non-adjustable woods and drivers, going instead with a set matrix of shafts and heads. 

TM Twist

TaylorMade was in a strange undercover posture. No tent, just bags and test clubs between the Callaway and Ping canopies. I got a look at the M4 driver with the twist face to correct mishits. Holding the head in my hand, I could see the different look of the face. I didn't bother to hit it - the less loft on low left and the extra high toe loft would make my miss patterns even worse.

My brother Sam had already been fitted for the M4-D version driver. At the expo, he decided to buy the M2 3W.HL (17°) to replace his historic bubbleshafted TM Burner 3W and 5W. Even second-gen M1 and M2 FWs are getting price cuts now.

Hope everyone had a good Groundhog Day. Later!

John, I ordered my irons and 4-wood yesterday (I'll order my magic club pretty soon).

I'm not from St. Louis but I did hit the Rogue Pro 7 iron and Rogue X 6 iron you described. The Rogue X irons have a swingweight of C8. Your also talking about 24° 6I/41° PW. I guess the shafts are "slightly longer" on the Rogue X than standard. But the swingweight being 2 to 3 points lower than I'm used to, really screwed me up. (Don't get me wrong a 200 yard carry with a "6"-iron is nice... But we all know it's really an SGI 5-iron with a 6 stamped on the bottom.)

The Rogue Pro on the other hand is in one sentence. "A great feeling iron that a good player (6-20 handicap) will enjoy." I got similar numbers to my that of EXi 7-iron. (I always take my current club with me when I test new clubs.) I wouldn't run out to replace my EXi's with the Rogue Pro (I went a with a different type of iron as you know, John). But if I had an older iron like the XCG-3 or EX-1 or something. I would consider it.

Edited February 15, 2018 by onthehunt526
Forgot to close my parenthesis