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Integra Quadratic - Acer XP905 Pro Irons - Lynx BC Pro Hybrids

MGP

Clubmaking Ho
Supporting Member
Apr 21, 2007
1,996
24
This is kind of a catch-all review since I finally got to play the new clubs I've acquired over the past winter and early spring.

Background

I've been getting more seriously into clubmaking the last 3 years. Other than re-shafting the "tough clubs" like some Titleist and Callaway drivers, there's not too many clubmaking tasks I can't do for myself now. I find it highly rewarding and relaxing as well as being able to assemble some top-notch clubs at a reasonable price. It's allowed me to try a lot more different kinds of clubs than I'd be able to if I was buying "off the rack".

The sad fact is that I am getting older (I'll be 48 in a few days) and I just can't do things with a golf club I used to in my younger days. Back then, I had a handicap index as low as 2.8 and played around 3 for a 5-6 year stretch. Over the years work responsibilites and the effects of age have taken their toll on my game. I finally came to the realization a couple years ago I needed to re-make my clubs to better fit my abilities.

By the end of last season I had put together a bag full of clubs that were quite playable and I started shooting in the mid-80's on a regular basis again. There were still a few areas I struggled with though and I hoped to clean those up and knock those last few strokes off my game.

Last year I tracked all my rounds with some nifty stat-tracking software. I found that two areas of my game were hurting me the most: Driving and hitting greens in regulation. Both of these are somewhat related, I think. I also realized, after playing quite a few rounds with Youngun5 (he hits the ball a ton) that the game really is easier if you hit it straight and long off the tee.

I've had a little OTT move in my swing as long as I've been playing the game. For many years it was well under control and just resulted in a baby fade with minimal distance loss and good consistency. Thanks to not having as big a turn, less lag and the resulting loss of swing speed my baby fade had turned into a bit more of a slice and a fair bit of distance loss. This I wanted to fix. My accuracy with my irons was also not as consistent as I'd like and while I hit them straight most of the time, I was occasionally pulling them or pushing them enough to miss a few greens per round I shouldn't have.

Where I Played


I played a local municipal course, St. Andrews Golf Club (Overland Park KS), that I used to play often 10 or so years ago. This past season they tore out 6 holes to make room for soccer fields in the adjoining park. They built 6 new holes on the other side of the property and in the process totally transformed the course! The 6 holes they removed were the most boring, flat and wide open holes. The 6 new holes were built along a winding heavily wooded creek with lots of elevation changes. Not a single one of the new holes is straight and most have fairly severe doglegs and elevated multi-tier greens. I had heard that new holes were great but I was just astounded how much difference it made in the course. Each and every hole required precise shot placement and the greens were some of the best I've seen on a public course.

We had a 9 o'clock tee time but as we got to the course, thunderstorms and lightning set in and delayed our tee time by about 50 minutes. The guy I played with and I had all day to play so we waited it out. When we started there were about 5 people besides us waiting to play. We literally had the course all to ourselves for the first couple hours. It was great -- we played at our own pace with all open holes in front of us and a couple open holes behind. The down side was no roll in the fairways, but at least they were firm enough that the ball didn't plug.

OK, enough background -- on to the club reviews!

Integra Quadratic Driver

A year ago I said I've never play a square driver. They are all fugly. I tend towards being a traditionalist when it comes to golf in general and square drivers are certainly not traditional. But I couldn't argue with all the great performance reviews of the excellent new square drivers out there. The FTi is pretty much king of the hill in that regard, but there was no way I was going to shell out 4 bills for one.

I finally relented after I just wasn't as consistent with my Maltby CT250 as I'd like. It is a great driver in almost every aspect but I was hoping to find something that did a little better job straightening out my misses off the tee.

Enter the Integra Quadratic. I got a great deal on the head and shaft and decided to give one a go. The shaft is a SK Fiber Tour Trac 80 Stiff. I had already used this shaft in two other drivers and it fits my swing speed and tempo perfectly. It's a heavier (80 gram) mid-kick shaft that plays to the soft side of stiff. It's also a steal at about $20. I love the feel of this shaft, it just feels smooth whether I am swinging aggressively or smoothly. It never feels out of control and I never feel ahead of or behind the clubhead with it.

I also discovered last year that because of my swing speed and fairly neutral angle of attack at impact, 11-12° loft heads give me about a 14-15° launch angle and moderate spin -- perfect for my 93-98 mph average swing. Ocasionally I'll get up to 103-105 mph if I really turn on one, but the vast majority of my swings are in the mid to upper 90's.
I decided on the 12° loft, as it turns out it was a great choice.

On the first tee I was little apprehensive. The club sets up quite square and didn't look abnormally large to me at address. I just told myself to swing easy and let the club do the work. Excellent advise as I blasted my tee ball dead straight down the middle with about 225 yds. carry. I got maybe 5 yards of roll. That brought a smile to my face as it was exactly the shot I had envisioned. For the first tee on a cool, damp morning I couldn't have asked for anything more. As the round went on, the look of the club at address started to grow on me. I may have to take back all the bad things I've said about the looks of the FTi.

The rest of the round went similarly. It got windier and cleared as the round went on. Hitting into the wind didn't seem to matter much. I was hitting it consistently 220-230 carry and the ball had no tendency to balloon into the wind. On a couple downwind holes I got an extra 10-15 yds. of carry, thanks to a decent launch angle. The big thing was I didn't even come close to slicing a tee ball -- the most I saw all day was a gentle fade of maybe 5 yds. It showed in the stats for my round too, I hit 10/13 fairways and one that I missed was by about 3 ft. as I ran one just past the edge of the fairway on a dogleg. It was actually great position to go after the flag though.

One shot was truly memorable. Late in the round I hit a tee ball and I knew right away I didn't get all of it. It carried right at 200 yds but was dead straight. When I looked at the ball mark on the face, it was on the very upper corner of the toe. I missed the sweet spot by close to 1.5" and still hit it 200 yds. and straight. That just seemed incredible to me -- with my Maltby CT250 that would have been a weak, 180 yd. fade.

I know one round is not enough to judge a club but after playing the Quadratic, I think it will take a lot to move it out of my bag. Very forgiving and very straight. It was also every bit as long as my Maltby CT250. I'd definitely recommend this head to anyone looking for straight and forgiving.

Acer XP905 Pro Irons

Wow. That's all I can say about them. I built them with the same shafts I have in my Golfsmith P2's at the same length and swingweighted the same. The only difference is that the XP905's are about a degree more upright. Based on how I hit them, I think that's a positive change.

http://www.shottalk.com/forum/equipment-talk/19087-shout-out-lyle-acer-xp905-pro-irons.html

From the first swing these irons were comfortable. The first iron I hit was a 6i layup on a par 5. I picked a spot based on the yardage from my GPS to give me 135 yds. to the center of the green. I likely would have not laid up if it weren't cool, wet and a hole I'd never seen before. The shot was 155 yds. to my spot and I put a nice smooth swing on it. Solid contact, perfect trajectory... it landed within a few feet of my aim point. Sweet! My next shot was a full 9i and again, I struck it cleanly and dead at the pin. I landed about 15-20 ft. short of the pin in regulation adn was quite pleased.

I can totally agree with Lyle that these irons are really easy to hit. The XP905 Pros have very little offset so someone coming from a "player's iron" would likely find them comfortable. The top line is a bit thick but I didn't find it to be a distraction at all. The cavity back design is obviously quite effective as these may be the easiest to hit irons I've ever played. Overall, the feel was very solid, not harsh in any way. I like these irons a lot.

For the rest of the round I kept hitting dead straight shots. They are workable though -- on one of the few fairways I missed off the tee, I had to hit a low screaming hook about 160 yds. around a fairly large tree guarding the left edge of the green. The pin was on the left and there was no way to go over the tree and still stop the ball on the green. I told the guy I was playing with what I intended to do (on the off chance I pulled off the shot, lest he think I was BSing him :laugh:). I pulled the 5i, played it back in my stance and hit a low screaming hook about 20 ft. high that drew around the tree and ran onto the front half of the green. Another GIR from a tough spot.

I hit these irons well. Not too high, not too low. I had no problems spinning the ball with them and landing it softly. They have a nice look to them and the finish is very good. They are cast from 431 stainless so they should be durable but still reasonably soft. They do look an awful lot like Callaway X-18's. Just a lot less expensive at $7/head. Another club that I would recommend to almost anyone.

Lynx Black Cat Tour Hybrids

These heads are beautiful. Tim posted some pictures of them and they are very nice. I built a set of three (16°, 19° and 22°) since I got the heads on sale for about $22 ea. I shafted them with TT XL Lite shafts tipped between stiff and regular. They swing very nice and have a solid feel to them. The faces seem pretty hot and the ball jumped off them for me. I hit them a little higher than my TM Rescues Mids, but that makes sense since the TMs are shafted with TT Dynamic Gold shafts.

Distance was similar to my TM Rescues Mids, maybe 5 yds or so longer. I honestly didn't get to hit many shots with the Lynx hybrids -- maybe 6 total during the round. I think because of my good driving I actually had mostly shorter irons into a lot of the greens rather than my normal long irons and hybrids.

The jury is still out on these but so far I like them.

Long review, if you made it this far congratulations! I did something I've never done before -- played a round of golf with all new clubs in the bag except one (Adams RPM LP 4W). Interestingly, that club is going out of the bag and the TM V-Steel 3W is going back in. I just hit it longer and more consistently. I like the Adams head but not the Prolaunch Blue shaft.

In case you want to see what the round of a mid-cap hack looks like, here is a link to the stats of my round. I actually was quite happy with the round as I was in the hunt for par on almost every hole. It was a very consistent round and I never felt like I was in danger of a "blowup" hole. All in all a very satisfying day on the course.

05/22/2008 - St. Andrews Golf Club (Blue) - 82

Check out #15. I played the hole perfectly as a 3 shot par 5. The hole has a 90 degree dogleg out at about 250 yds. I hit my tee ball center fairway in perfect position. I decided to layup since the rest of the hole was uphill and there was a creek in front of the green at about 220 yds. Short was dead. I hit a great layup and left myself 135 yds. to the pin on the upper tier of a three tiered green. I hit a perfect 8i, dead straight. The ball landed right on the crest of the third tier and had a ton of spin on it. It backed all the way down both the other tiers to the very front edge of the green. My first putt was 84 freakin' ft.! So even though I three putted that green I didn't feel too bad about it (the bogey put was a tap in). I was a foot away from having a 6 ft. or less birdie putt and instead had an 84 ft. putt up two tiers of the green. Gotta love the game of golf! :laugh:
 

VtDivot

SLIGHTERED
Supporting Member
Apr 16, 2005
7,154
32
Great review.

That stat software looks pretty cool also. Where did you find it and how many pesos?
 
OP
MGP

MGP

Clubmaking Ho
Supporting Member
Apr 21, 2007
1,996
24
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #3
Thanks. The software is called Scorecard and you can download a copy at the following link and try it. If you like it I think it's $30 to register it. I ended up getting a license for free since I did some beta testing on it.

Cynical Peak Software - Scorecard

It's easy to use, it takes me about 2 minutes to enter a round after I play once the course is added to the course list.

Edit: I was thinking that there might be a discount code for the Scorecard software. You might try the coupon code "SANDTRAP" and see if it still works for a 20% off discount.

Scorecard Software Thread
 

Eracer

No more triple bogies!!
Oct 31, 2005
12,405
8
MGP, that was one superb review. Long, but very informative. Well-done!
 

BrandonM7

Well-Known Member
Nov 23, 2007
1,156
2
Cool review man - thanks for taking the time. In my opinion the longer the review the better, so I dug the crap out of that one.
 
OP
MGP

MGP

Clubmaking Ho
Supporting Member
Apr 21, 2007
1,996
24
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #7
Excellent review.

Our bags are earily similar.

I was thinking the same thing when I read your "I'm back.." thread. I really like the XP905 Pros. They are probably the best playing irons I've ever had, at any price.

I'm going to try and force myself to stick with the Quadratic all of this year. I couldn't find anything I didn't like about it. Any bad shots I hit were the result of a terrible swing, anything resembling a decent swing was great.
 

RickinMA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Feb 3, 2007
1,845
27
I hit 2 tee shots today with a 12* Quadratic with a Mercury Performance shaft that I built for my sister. - I'm very impressed. Both were pretty poor swings but you'd never have guessed that from the ball flight.
The first one, I was expecting a bit of a draw (normal ball flight) and it went straight through a slight dogleg - one of my longest drives ever on that hole (wind was behind me a bit so the 12* of loft put it up there and let the wind have it's way with the ball)

On the second one, I felt contact out near the toe and said "son of a" before I ever looked up - when I looked up I saw a nice high straight ball splitting the middle of the fairway - absolutely amazing. - I may look to pick one of these things up for myself

I'm not sure I like the headcover though - kinda weird - but all in all, much better than I expected for the price ($55 for the head, $10 for the shaft)
 
OP
MGP

MGP

Clubmaking Ho
Supporting Member
Apr 21, 2007
1,996
24
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #9
I hit 2 tee shots today with a 12* Quadratic with a Mercury Performance shaft that I built for my sister. - I'm very impressed. Both were pretty poor swings but you'd never have guessed that from the ball flight.
The first one, I was expecting a bit of a draw (normal ball flight) and it went straight through a slight dogleg - one of my longest drives ever on that hole (wind was behind me a bit so the 12* of loft put it up there and let the wind have it's way with the ball)

On the second one, I felt contact out near the toe and said "son of a" before I ever looked up - when I looked up I saw a nice high straight ball splitting the middle of the fairway - absolutely amazing. - I may look to pick one of these things up for myself

I'm not sure I like the headcover though - kinda weird - but all in all, much better than I expected for the price ($55 for the head, $10 for the shaft)

Yeah, the headcover is kind of weird but I like the colors and graphics on it. It always feels like I am putting a diaper on the head every time it goes back in the bag though... :laugh:

I have missed maybe 4 fairways my last three or 4 rounds with my Quadratic. I can honestly say I've never hit a driver straighter in my whole life. It's a fairway finding machine. I like being able to stand on the tee now, look down the fairway and actually know where the ball is going. :D
 

LyleG

gear head
Aug 10, 2006
6,388
28
Country
Canada Canada
I like being able to stand on the tee now, look down the fairway and actually know where the ball is going. :D


This takes a while to get use to doesnt it? I mean that in all honesty. I find it hard to trust myself, like I am always one swing away from the wheels completely falling off LOL.
 

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