I recently got my driver regripped and the golf repair shop owner asked me to try out this driver of his while he regripped it. It was a Ping knockoff.
It had an Aldila Longwood graphite shaft in it. REALLY long, maybe 50 inches or so. I not only was hitting the ball much further, but I was hitting everything with a 5-10 yard fade and down the middle every time. Had probably 5 300+ yard drives that day, one was even 340 as we measured it using hole distance minus distance left to green.
Anyhow, has anyone heard of this shaft and have any pros/cons you could add to getting this installed on my driver? I have a Taylor Made R5. Nothing spectacular, but I hit it pretty long, but for some reason I don't have near the control with it as I did with the Aldila. My swing speed is around 115 so I think I can go with Stiff on the longer shaft and get away with it. I think extra stiff will probably cause me to put too many out to the right.
Here's the shaft and specs:
Flex Reg, Stiff & X-Stiff
Bend Point Low-Mid
Color Dark Burgundy
Length 50 inches
Torque 4.5
Weight Reg-50 Grams Stiff & X-Stiff-55 Grams
Tip Diameter .335 Parallel
Butt Diameter .600
IndyFrisco wrote:It had an Aldila Longwood graphite shaft in it. REALLY long, maybe 50 inches or so. I not only was hitting the ball much further, but I was hitting everything with a 5-10 yard fade and down the middle every time. Had probably 5 300+ yard drives that day, one was even 340 as we measured it using hole distance minus distance left to green.
Anyhow, has anyone heard of this shaft and have any pros/cons you could add to getting this installed on my driver? I have a Taylor Made R5. Nothing spectacular, but I hit it pretty long, but for some reason I don't have near the control with it as I did with the Aldila. My swing speed is around 115 so I think I can go with Stiff on the longer shaft and get away with it. I think extra stiff will probably cause me to put too many out to the right.
Lemme get this straight. You are hitting this shaft longer and straighter and you are wondering if you should use it?
:?
"Once upon a time, dinosaurs didn't have families. They lived in the woods and ate their children. It was a golden age."
—Earl Sinclair
"I do have respect for authority even though I throw jelly dicks at them.
I know I'm getting a new shaft. I'm would just like some of the opinions from likes of Qbert and Master of All Things Dinsdale. Especially on the flex. Normally, with a 115 mph swing speed, you go extra stiff. I'm a little wary of doing that with a shaft that is 4" longer than the one on my Taylor Made.
if you have them build you a new club to match the one you hit...you won't know if the clubhead has the same weight, shaft trimmed the same, etc.
on 2nd glance
you do know that 50" shafts are illegal "in competition"....right?
my components catalogs seem to be missing "Longwood" shafts...they "might" be discontinued...(so, if you REALLY want it....get it soon)
stiff v. x-stiff?
@ 50 inches with your clubhead speed--->get the X and don't have a second thought about it.
at that length and speed--->the shaft bends DOWN. picture yourself taking the club over your knee (face of club square to target)...and bending it down.
result is a lot of TOE balls...if the shaft is too flexible.
get the X shaft...in the Shaft listed in this Post!
the other shaft is lighter (too light for your clubhead speed...yes) AND has a lower kickpoint--->high SPRAY Shots for your clubhead speed.
also remember, the knockoff that you hit was a 460 cc Head---->bigger than your r5! (more forgiving!)
prognosis--->buy the knockoff that you "hit"...and, have fun with it.
and reshaft your r5 with a Penley Stealth 70 stiff...45.5"....and be 290/straight/and legal for competition.
thanx for letting me spend $200 for you! enjoy your 2 new Drivers!
Unfortunately, I did not get to buy the actual club I was hitting. He wanted $180 for it. The Longwood shaft I have found online for $46. The same clubhead I have found online for $50. I was going to make it myself. I couldn't believe the local guy would try to turn a 100% profit on me.
Anyhow, what is the legal limit on a shaft? Most of what I see are 46" in my components catalogs. I really don't want to be illegal. However, my golf partner is 6'9". He uses a 50" shaft so he can reach the damn ball. Do you have a link to confirm the equipment regulations? I'll start looking in the PGA Rules handbook.
Unfortunately, I did not get to buy the actual club I was hitting. He wanted $180 for it.
???WTF???
does the guy operate a Bukkake salon on the side too?
The Longwood shaft I have found online for $46. The same clubhead I have found online for $50. DO It!!!
I was going to make it myself. I couldn't believe the local guy would try to turn a 100% profit on me.
Anyhow, what is the legal limit on a shaft? Most of what I see are 46" in my components catalogs. I really don't want to be illegal. However, my golf partner is 6'9". He uses a 50" shaft so he can reach the damn ball. Do you have a link to confirm the equipment regulations? I'll start looking in the PGA Rules handbook.
i'm sure you can pull it up on usga.org but, my feeble memory recalls that anything over 47" is taboo.
good luck indy....trust me on that Penley Shaft for your r5. buddy of mine has about the same swing speed and reshafted his r7 with it.
it works a lot better than the grafaloy blue that he was fitted for off of taylor made's launch monitor.
The new rule regarding club length became effective January 1, 2004, and included a one-year grace period for those clubs which were already in use and/or marketed that would otherwise be considered non-conforming. As a result, any club, other than putters, exceeding the limit is now considered non-conforming.
Figure 1 in Appendix II provides a basic diagram demonstrating our measurement method. A more detailed protocol is available at the following link:
Ok, I canceled my order with Best Buy Golf Supply on the Aldila Longwood shaft. It's been a month and it could take a couple more. They've been blasted on ripoffreport.com. Fuck them.
I ordered this. I am going to throw a grip on it and hit it just for fun at 50", but I am gonig to cut it down to 48" to make it legal.
Penley ETA 50" Long Drive Shaft
On October 5, 2002 at Ridder Farm Golf & Country Club in Whitman, Massachusetts, hitting the PENLEY ETA shaft. Eric hit a 353 yard bomb into the wind to hold off Carl Smith of Orlando, FL. Eric put on a fabulous display hitting 6 out of 8 balls in the grid in the finals. Under better conditions earlier in the day, Eric hit a 374 yard drive.
"Winning moments come from confidence in your abilities and equipment. Penley's ETA shaft gives me the confidence I need to perform to the best of my ability. The ETA delivers great power to the ball and gives me tremendous accuracy. The ETA is a superior shaft and gets the results I'm looking for!", said Lastowka
I just got the XS. Shipped today. Can't wait to use it. I'm playing Victoria National next week. It's a golf course built on old coal mine property so I'll probably be teeing off with the Nickent Hybrids all day with OB left and right on every hole.
Did you not see my post above? I e-mailed the USGA to find the allowable max limit on length of club. I am going to cut it to 48" and it will be legal. I have no desire to "cheat".
Here, again, is the USGA's response to my inquiry.
The USGA has adopted a club length limitation rule of 48”, not including putters (see Rule 1c, Appendix II of the Rules of Golf available on line at):
The new rule regarding club length became effective January 1, 2004, and included a one-year grace period for those clubs which were already in use and/or marketed that would otherwise be considered non-conforming. As a result, any club, other than putters, exceeding the limit is now considered non-conforming.
Figure 1 in Appendix II provides a basic diagram demonstrating our measurement method. A more detailed protocol is available at the following link:
Got the Penley cut down and the club itr put together. DAMN 48" seems long for the shaft. I am worried I might snap the shaft. Don't want to pay $100 more. I'm starting to think I need to cut it down to 47".
Won't get to test drive it until Sunday, unfortunately. I will have my report back Monday morning.
Yesterday evening, I found myself on a hacker 9 holer(round here, we call it a "hacker course." You apprently call it a "country club.") (btw- sup McKay Creek, sup Derron, sup I'm sure Jane would say "hi," if I in fact had said "hey, Derron says hello," except I didn't do anything of the sort, since that would have been pretty...weird, since I don't know you and stuff. But the guy I went with is an old friend of hers.)
Anyhoo, the first tee is a little shorty par 4, but has that annoying "OB/hazard to the right" thing going on. So, in one of my rare moments of golf pussiness(almost the only time I'm ever intimidated by a hazard is on the first tee, before I'm "warmed up"), I kept the Scorekiller (that's my driver) in the bag.
So, a 4 iron it was. Just get it in play, because a two-poke is a two-poke, right?
And lately, with my improving flexibility, the increased club speed that's come with it has tended to make my irons fade, something that's rarely been a problem before. So, I made sure I got that face closed, and made sure I didn't slice/fade it OB.
So naturally, I yaked her into the trees on the left.
Then I thought, "hey this would be a perfect time to try out that punch-fade thing Indy Frisco gave the tutorial on." And damn, what a stupid thought thast was. I'm now thinking that the range, or the backyard or somewhere like that might have actually been a better place to try it out..ya think?
It didn't really fade. It didn't really do much of anything, except dribble into the same clump of trees. But with the new lie (now sitting 2, nowhere near the same zip code as the green), I had a view where I could use my Old Reliable, the punch-hook. While not the most skilled golfer in the world, I've always been able to hit a low punch/hook with reasonably predictable results, or as predictably as you can reasonably expect a "trick shot" to go. I can usually keep them straight too. But for some reason, my punch-hook ended up being my straight-punch, and I found the lone bunker of the hole. But at least it was right on a funky lip of the bunker, so my 4th shot ended up...in the same bunker. But hey. at least I had a "real" bunker-lie this time, and found some dancefloor.
Long way, but I hit a pretty darn nice lag, resulting in a tap-in.
So, I guess what I'm saying, is...
Thanks for contributing to my freaking SEVEN on a 300 yard par 4, Indy.
Asshole. Thanks for nothing. In the future, the only thing I'll be attempting to "stab with an icepick" is your freaking eyeballs.
OK, J/K.
But nothing like starting your round on an easy course with a 7. Kinda takes the wind out of the sail early.
But I made up for it by only doubling the next hole. Step in the right direction, if you ask me.
Freaking pasture-links course has three par 3's and 3 par 5's, too....should be easy scoring out there. The three par 4's are marginally drivable for the Big Boys, as well.
And daaaaamn, did I stink it up. Should be able to tear that place a new one, but the few times I've played it, it's never worked out that way. At least I always kill on the short 465 yard par 5...even though the green is pretty tough.
Derron -- you played that place recently? Now that the trees have grown a little, it's not quite the artillery range it was years ago...not tooo much better, but the trees knock down a few of the errant drives that are the trademark of the hackers that play there. But damn...they did something with the green. Not sure if it's in response to flood damage, but those things were lightning fast...by Killarney-Family-Bump-and-Run Hacker-Course standards, anyway. Suckers were shaved pretty good...for McKay. The grass was pretty sparse, but they had it shaved tight. Enough contour to those greens that it wasn't quite the same "aim it at the hole and pound it hard" place I remembered.
Sorry it didn't work out for you. It's definitely my #1 savior when in the trees, and where I play now, I tend to get into the trees a lot since there are so many of them, and big ones to boot.
But, like you said, test it out on the range and you should get the hang of it. Having shots like that in your bag is nice.
One question though... If you needed a punch fade and just dribbled it, why did you then need a punch hook? Doesn't make a lot of sense...
First, let me start with an obligatory response...
IndyFrisco wrote:where I play now, I tend to get into the trees a lot since there are so many of them, and big ones to boot.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sin,
Dins and Derron
But, like you said, test it out on the range and you should get the hang of it.
Yeah, that's kinda become my new thought on the matter. Should have seen me hit that wormburner punch-fade later...unfortunately, it was with a sand wedge that I was kinda trying to loft and land softly at the time. Nothing like showing off the 200+ yard sandwedge to the onlookers. I believe this is sometimes referred to as "cooning it," if'n I'm not mistaken.
One question though... If you needed a punch fade and just dribbled it, why did you then need a punch hook? Doesn't make a lot of sense...
Probably doesn't make much sense from where you sit (along with most of my other posts), but it was the particular alignment of the trees that dictated the shot. I needed the fade to get through "the window" and back to the fairway. Once I advanced it all of a couplefew yards, I actually had a line on aiming right of the green, and hooking it back towards the green to the left. It was kind of a matter of barely getting it past the tree that dictated the fade shot. But, as I said, it worked out more like a dead-straight punch into the front-right greenside bunker...on the bright side, I hit it perfect distance, which was probably pushing one-fiddy, which is decent distance control for a desperation punch-imo.
Coupla things...not that I really want to talk about golf much, after Sunday's performance....although I had about the worst ball-striking day in Dinsdalian History, and through some miracle, kept it under 100. Not that anybody who plays more than twice a year should ever be bragging about keeping it under 100, but damn...the wheels done come off the cart that day...you guys know what I'm talking about....even my "good" shots didn't go where they were supposed to...oh, well, that's what "next time" is for, I guess.
But anyhow, the coupla things:
First, props to IndyFrisco. One of my golfing buds now chuckles as he says "damn, you really cooned that one. Where the hell did that come from again?"
"Nevermind...I forget...just heard it somewhere. I think it's a Texas thing" is my response....as I chuckle too.
But anyhoo, maybe QBert can shed some light, since he seems to be Master of All Things Golf Equipment -- It's not what I was really looking for, but I just had a Taylor Made Tour Driver dropped in my lap. As I explained to my friend who sold golf stuff...must have been about ten years ago..."No, it's not the Burner, I think it's the one right before it. No, it's not the Firesole, either...but it looks about the same as those two clubs."
Anyhoo, the (outdated) driver has the Taylor Made Bubble Shaft, I believe it's a "TS100 Plus" (not sitting here in front of me at the moment.)
My question for QBert, since I can't seem to find this info -- what would the flex of this shaft work out to, in more "everyday" terms? Thing seems stiff as a board, but I'm thinking Taylor Made didn't put XXX shafts in off-the-shelf clubs. Seems awfully stiff for something sold to Johnny Q.
Not too important, I was just kinda curious.
As an aside -- that sucker doesn't have much of a hitting/target area, and the sweet spot is pretty small, but daaaaamn...that's one hot club. I know the huge heads are all the rage(sup Barry Bonds), but dang, the ball really seems to scream off of that sucker. Certainly not what I was shopping for, but the price was right, for sure. Might have to play with the sucker for a while, and see if I grow to love it (like my relationship with my Big Stick is ever going to be anything but a love/hate relationship...you guys know the drill...not swinging for a crap...not scoring for a crap...not putting for a crap...BLAME THE DRIVER, AND GET A NEW ONE!!!!...because that is how us golfers roll...somehow, a new driver will solve the putting problem...makes perfect sense).
On 18, since the wheels fell off, I decided I was going to set a new world record for swing speed. Naturally, I didn't even come close to getting it clean. Matter of fact, I just barely managed to clip the ball off the toe. Drive got all of about 10-12 feet off the ground, with a slight hook. And I'll be damned if that sucker didn't end up about 310 out. My fellow players at the time all said "how the hell did that work? That was one hell of a piss-poor hit. That must be one hell of a hot club you've got there." Couple holes before that, I just skied the crap out of one...full-on put a new skymark where the face meets the top of the club...had to wait about 5 minutes for it to come down...and that sucker went about 245...in the short stuff, no less.
Might have to hang on to this sucker for a while...never had a sky-shot off the top of the club go more than about 150 yards before. And if these really crappy hits are going that far, I can only imagine what's going to happen should the day ever come that I put the right part of the club to the ball...it makes my head spin just thinking about it. And who knows, maybe next time out, I won't blow the scorecard out of the freaking water on the first hole, and I might actually try to put the ball down the middle, rather than try to drive the par5s in one...you never know. But, once that triple is logged on Hole 1...show me the green I can't drive (in my delusions)....kind of a running joke amongst my golf crew. "Uh-oh, Dins just tripled the first hole...SHOWTIME!!!!" It generally goes downhill from that point.
Qbert wrote:Taylor Made Super Steel...if your Clubhead is Orange.
It's that kinda orange/copper metalflake color, including the face. Pretty darn sure it's all titanium...but it's not right here. Fairly certain it's titanium, actually.
Pretty much looks just like a Burner, for the most part.
TS-100 = X-Tra Stiff
Is a TS100 'Plus' any different, or were they all called "plus?"
Once again, not that it really matters, just kinda curious. I'm kind of a trivia/knowledge freak, and since I started leaning about outdated Taylor Made stuff, I might as well go the whole 9 yards. Once I get started on something, I tend to go overboard learning as much as I possibly can...if only I could have applied that to something useful, rather than "everything you ever wanted to know about the Hudson automobile."
nice find--->get some "pop-up Tape" too!!!!!
You're a wise man, Mr. Bert.
And since it's a lower profile, heck...I might even try teeing it lower...sounds like a good idea, eh?
But, the sweet spot on this club is lower, so I figure that a lower tee-job is in order.
I'll experiment with it, anyhow. Of course, I'm not nearly smart enough to experiment at the range or anything....not my style. I'll experiment on Tee #1...because that is how I roll.
Pic might not even show, since in between last weekend and now, Taylor Made must have changed their site, and it asks for passwords and such, but I'll try --
Not sure that's the exact model, but pretty close.
I don't know the demographics of the grounds crew of the courses you play in Oregon, but in Texas, well, let's just say they all swam there.
That being the case, a cooned driver is referred to as a Mexican Butt-Fucker. Those drives that don't get more than a few feet off the ground but go about 200+ yards. A perfectly cooned MBF into the wind is usually a blessing in disguise.
Oh, and Dins, I've always heard the useful life of a graphite shaft was 7 years. If that club was made in '98, you may want to get a new shaft on there.
IndyFrisco wrote:I don't know the demographics of the grounds crew of the courses you play in Oregon, but in Texas, well, let's just say they all swam there.
Same smell.
Funny stuff.
Actually, the groundskeeper at my favorite little 9-hole hacker is named...are you sitting down?.....Yup, you guessed'er -- Jose. Does a damn fine job, too.
And I know the origin of this club(somewhat), and it was played very little(didn't keep it from getting some skies on it, though). Don't know if actual chronological age affects it, but hasn't been swung all that much.
I was just informed that Crenshaw or somebody won the Masters with that same driver...or Lehman won the Open with it...or somebody won a major with that exact driver. Whoopie.
