dbwood

Just some food for thought: Not sure how to post you tube links so if this doesn't work it's a Roy Nix clip called "Driver Fitting School - How weight is used in fitting".

Many private, and some public course have that rule. Often the same clubs will have a rule about wearing your hat forwards and keeping your shirt tucked in. Not much bothers me on the golf course, although I'm really disappointed when I have a good round going and out of nowhere I shank a 15 yard chip.

No offense, but you've been playing golf 4 months and you know who is supposed to be playing what equipment?

Cutting it down 3/4" will make it feel somewhat lighter, not a crazy difference but you'll probably feel it. The secret grip with the 17 gram disk in it, (which is the way it is usually supplied) will weigh 107 grams, so that's adding 57 gm to the club over the stock grip weight. The club will then feel heavier, but it will also move the balance point quite a ways up towards the grip. So it will have a considerably different feel than stock. A friend of mine did exactly that (cut 3/4 off + secret grip)with an Adams 9088 UL and hated it, I hit it a few times and it was OK, but I didn't really care for it. I put a 90 gm shaft in a RBZ cut to play at 44.25 with a secret grip on it and absolutely loved it for a few weeks but it felt pretty heavy and got to the point that I found myself swinging too hard with it. So I put a standard weight grip back on it and it feels great. Bottom line? Back weighting feels different to different people. You won't "mess it up" or make it unplayable, if you don't like it, put on a regular one, it's just a grip.

There's an easier way. http://www.tutelman.com/golf/design/swingwt4.php#sw_scale It's quite accurate.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/100165680?langId=-1&storeId;=10051&catalogId;=10053&N;=5yc1v&R;=100165680#.UcecGRaz5FI

Bang, Geek, and SMT all make 6* and lower loft driver heads. All 3 are high quality, they're not cheap, but they're not too high priced either.

I stand at least partially corrected, from Nike Golf: "Different elements of each club come from different parts of the world. The heads are forged in Thailand, China and Japan. The shafts are made in the United States, Japan and China. The grips are made in the U.S., China, and Taiwan. Everything is assembled in plants in the U.S., Japan, and China." Regardless of it's country of origin, it will be built to proper spec and subject to Nike QC. Nike clubs always seemed high quality in fit/finish but overpriced to me, and I never saw them marked down very much. However about the time of Tiger's misadventures I started to see better deals on them. At the first of the year I picked up a VR-S 4 wood new for $50. Alas, Nebraska winters can be frustrating for golfers. I've only had it out for 2 rounds and was dressed heavily, so far it feels like a good fit.

Nike's forged stuff is made in China and Thailand, and it's very good quality.

OK, I was just speculating on a mechanical factor that might explain the smash factor and spin numbers at the same time. But that throws that out. Assuming a positive or neutral AoA and near center contact, then I would try a stiffer tip shaft as others have suggested. I don't know what shafts and heads you have access to, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to find a combination that would give you better numbers than that.

Just a couple of thoughts. Your swing speed / ball speed works out to a smash factor of 1.33, that's not where you want to be and could indicate that you were missing the sweet spot by some. Were you using impact tape? You said you were going after a low tee? Were you coming into the ball steep with a negative angle of attack? If you were going down after it you may have been getting under it and catching the ball high on the club face where the face roll would make the initial launch angle much higher than it would be with a center hit. If that's the case the neg angle of attack with essentially "skying" the ball could give you very high spin and a deceptively good launch angle. Before changing anything else you might try it again with a more comfortable set up and tee height.

I'm not sure why Golf Works says not to tip the Phenom for fairways. Aldila's web site says to tip the RIP Phenom 1" and butt trim to length after that for fairway woods. Before I went gluing anything up I'd give Aldila's customer service a call and double check.

A friend of mine just got the Rockballz Max irons w/graphite. I hit the 8i and it's fine, nothing spectacular one way or another. The fit and finish is very good, pretty clubs. As to what else you should consider, try them all. Everybody makes good irons. There's no reason not to go with TaylorMade if that's what you like. I like my G-15s in graphite, my G-5s w/CS steel, and my Adams A4 forged.

Maybe or maybe not, backspin and launch angle are related. He said a 13* launch angle and 3000 backspin. If he only had 2500 backspin he might need to increase the launch angle to 15*, to get the same distance. The lower your launch angle the more spin you need to keep the ball in the air.

It doesn't matter, that's the short answer. It's the reason aficionados of the single length iron system are adamant that their idea is superior, or at least as good as. For the rest of us, the reason the 5i is longer than the 9i is that the added shaft length helps us generate more club head speed and the lower loft helps us take advantage of that speed to hit the ball further. Dave Tutelman goes into his experiments with a single length iron set at some length on his web site. tutelman.com It's a good read if you're into that kind off technical stuff.

Low bounce 50 GW, but that's a target shot and there's a lot of variables. Green running away, how much to work with, clean fairway or rough in front of the green. Might be a 54 SW or a PW.

+1 Someone should have informed his host so his host could handle it before the round. Once the group is off, the deal is done.

I'll throw something in. The general idea is that you stand somewhat closer to the ball when using your 8i than you do when using your 5i so the length and lie of your clubs are designed accordingly, and your not awkwardly upright or hunched over when addressing the ball. There are companies that make single length irons so your idea of having the 4i, 5i, 6i the same length isn't crazy. The lies on the clubs will have to be bent the same to help you make proper contact. You said that you have 1” extensions in the clubs, they probably came from the factory at D0 swing weight according to Ping's website. That means they are now about D6. If you remove the extensions from the 4i and 5i they will be back to D0. That's not a problem if your comfortable with it, lots of people like their clubs to get heavier and or stiffer as they get shorter. The way club makers compensate for irons getting shorter through the set and keep the weight and feel the same is by manufacturing each head 7 grams heavier than the last, (ie. 6I 261 grams, 5i 254, and so on). So if your not comfortable with the SW jump than the clubs will have to have different amounts of weight added which in turn can affect the shaft flex, (again, not a problem if your comfortable with it). If you need the flex and SW matched to live with the irons than your club maker is going to have spend some time monkeying with the components to get it right. What you'll end up with is a seriously non-typical set of custom irons, and that could be cool, or not. With all that said, if I were you I'd consider just seeing a teacher/coach and try to figure out why I wasn't hitting my 4i/5i right and work on my swing. Maybe consider swapping the i20 4i/5i for G20 irons or hybrids or whatever. Just some thoughts.

I voted no, and I vote to lock the thread.

I've read that elsewhere on the net and I don't think that's right. I think it should be 40 inch pounds, not foot pounds. 40 foot pounds would be about right for a 7/16" stainless steel bolt. I have a torque wrench at work, if I remember I'll check my TaylorMade tool on it.

Are you sure it's the same head that you sent in? I'm wondering if they didn't send you a whole new driver.

Whoa guys, he said R11 woods, the only thing you need to change a shaft on an R11 is a torx tip screwdriver. There are a lot of R11 and R9 shafts with tips already on them for cheap on ebay. My local golf shop has three R11 shafts from demo clubs on their used club rack for $40 a piece. An R9 shaft tip will fit right into a R11 head no problem.

Uniflex shafts are often on the stiff side of regular. In other words if 4.5 is reg and 5.5 is stiff than a uniflex might be around 4.8. If you post whose uniflex shaft your asking about someone might have a better answer.

I haven't tried them but they what may be a sleeper deal right now are the Cobra S3 pro forged. Good reviews on the internet, (I know, I know).

That being the case, I think I'd go to the range and try choking down different amounts until I found a length that felt comfortable. There's nothing written in stone that says you can't have your PW- 4i .5" over or what ever feels good and your wedges standard. For that matter you could go with 5/8" between clubs instead of the standard 1/2" and end up with a standard 9i and a 5/8" over 4i. After that if the length is right but they feel too light you can wrap lead tape around the hosel to get it to a weight that feels right. That's the fun part about customizing clubs. You can always cut more off. What to do depends somewhat on wether your doing the work or having someone else do it.