kurisu

They make the F2 in 16.5º ? I'd be really interested in that. Here in Japan I can only find 13.5º, 15.5º and 18.5º. (edit: just checked titleist.com and can't find a 16.5º option. Can they do custom even on fairway woods?)

I hit both the 710 AP1 and AP2, I ended up buying the AP1s. The AP2 felt great as well but clearly not as forgiving as the AP1. Even though the AP1s are cast iron, I really like the feel and didn't think the AP2s felt that much better. I'm not skilled enough yet to appreciate the better workability of the AP2s, but when I hit a nice shot with the AP1s it goes exactly where I want it to, and at my level this gives me confidence. The not so perfect shots still go very straight but don't go as far. I agree with Dub , the AP1s are mid-level irons that happen to be quite user friendly: they reward you when you hit great, they'll let you know very clearly when you mishit, but won't punish you too badly.

Here's my instructor's take: As we haven't worked on using woods yet, it'd be foolish to choose one vs the other (as in hybrids vs woods) already. One thing is clear, he says there's no need for me to challenge myself with a #4 iron at this point. Once my abilities increase, perhaps I could reconsider, but not now. He however strongly believes in hybrids, thus he suggested that I bring a couple of hybrids with different lofts next time we meet so we can see how it goes. So I guess that once again, like everything in golf, patience is of the essence Thanks all for the input. I'll keep this thread bookmarked so that when the time is right I can bump it up and continue the conversation.

Thanks all. I guess the #3 wood is unavoidable. I'm having my next lesson this Sunday, I'll try to rent those hybrids again and hit them in front of my instructor and discuss it with him. I guess what'd be optimal would be to have 2 hybrids to serve as long irons replacements (as opposed to short woods replacements ). Considering the loft on my #5 AP1 (25º) and that the extra #4 is 22º and the #3 is 20º, that my ball flight with my #5, #6, #7 is reasonably high, what could be a sound choice for 2 hybrids below my #5 iron ? 24º and 21º ? (btw, looks like the Japanese made AP1s have a slightly different loft config than the US models : http://www.titleist.co.jp/htm/news/2009_ap1.shtml scroll down for the table)

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I'd give up distance for accuracy any day. I hit my irons quite straight, with a slight draw (although I am also guilty of the odd slice from time to time when i don't concentrate), and as I said, at the moment, the distance I hit with #5 is pretty similar to my #6 and #7. I do realise that this will probably change (I hope so too!), but the frustration of not reaching further was replaced by some small confidence in at least not sending the ball only left or right. Every single time I've tried hitting woods, all the balls visited a place called banana town… Of course I do know that I will have to get over it and work on using them… but after hitting the 909H, the fact that the shaft can be the same as my irons, the length is similar and that it's easy to hit, makes it very tempting to actually minimise my "wood exposure"… I'm learning a good deal from you guys, so keep the information coming :) it's very interesting to hear different takes on this subject.

Hello everyone, Been lurking for a little while, and finally decided to post 3 replies to gain my title of "mini-golfer" (title which couldn't be more fitting at the moment…) I like this place! Hope I'm not going to get killed immediately with my first question, but here goes: (but first, a little background on my golf history) Being in Japan for the last 10 years, I've been pushed quite many a time to start playing golf, but I've resisted because I didn't want to give up my hobbies (photography and playing guitar). Then I met my current girlfriend, who's been playing for 6~7 years, and was patient enough to finally convince me to give golf a go. I've been taking lessons on roughly weekly basis for the past 5 months with an American guy who's a PGA instructor here in Tokyo. He's great and I feel my abilities slowly and steadily improving. I started with an old set of clubs from my company's president ('94 models King Cobra Oversized with regular flex graphite shafts), which I had to give back a month ago. They were great to start with, though I always felt the shafts were a little flimsy. I tried many different heads and shafts, and finally got the 2009 AP1s with NS950GH S shafts (with a 40% discount) and my distance and consistency have improved since, so I'm quite happy with my choice. Now, you may already know where I am going with this… I have yet to pick woods, and my longest iron is a #5. I hit it ok, though I have to admit my #5, #6 and #7 roughly go about the same distance at the moment (140~145 yards on average). Ego has been pushing me to get a #3 and #4 of the AP1s, but I've resisted thus far, because I'm always reminded by my #5 that I ain't that great with it (yet) I recently have hit the 909H hybrids at the range and was very surprised that it was so easy to hit. I've read a lot of threads in these forums about hybrids in general, and most people seem to have, say, a driver, a #3 and #5 wood, a hybrid, and their irons. But I'm wondering if anyone has ever considered to use a driver, then #2, #3 and #4 hybrids instead ? Would there be anything weird/wrong about this setup? As a side note, I'm very bad with woods right now, be it a driver or a fairway. The shafts are so long (yes I've tried different lengths), it kinda throws me off, and my instructor wants to concentrate on my irons first. And I do like the idea of having long(er) irons (I'm intending to get hybrids with the same shaft as in my AP1s) Looking forward to an interesting discussion and your comments! Christopher