- Aug 20, 2005
- 7,786
- 2,336
- Country
-
United States
Good evening ladies and gentlemen of shottalk. Today was day 3 and the final day of the show. I have one more installment of the daily news from the show, but have no fear I will have some more reviews and information from what intelligence I gathered for you over the coming days and weeks.
Taylor Made: As soon as the show floor opened for business, I made my way down to the Taylor Made hitting stations to get a first hand experience with the new Burner and Superquad drivers. The first driver I put in my hands was the new Burner TP edition. There have been some questions regarding this driver so I found the nearest TM rep so that we could discuss their latest product. The Burner is one of the new high MOI designs (much like the Nike SQ and similar stretched out tear drop style heads) designed for maximum forgiveness. Coupled with the added forgiveness, TM put a 46 inch, 50 gram shaft into it designed to increase your swing speed and get you about another 10 yards over the Superquad. I believe the remarks that TM did not care about accuracy with this driver were aimed at the super long shaft. I had to grip down on the club in order to become consistent with my impact closer to the center of the club. Like most TM drivers, it is a really nice driver to hit. Long, boring trajectories off the face with a slight draw from my natural swing. I like the club, and TM is setting the price at $299 for the regular Burner and $399 for the Burner TP. The next club I hit was the R7 Superquad standard edition. I could not hit this straight as every ball was going left, but it felt better than the Burner when it came to feel transmitted up the shaft. This is a solid club and the new graphics are rather pleasing to my eye. Once the rep switched out the standard edition for the TP edition, the Superquad TP definitely became my driver of choice out of the TM line up. Long and hot with a slight draw. The Superquad is retaining the now industry standard of a 45 inch shaft, 65g weight, and is going to be retailed out at $399 for the standard edition and $699 for the TP edition.
Srixon WG-504 Forged Wedges: I went over to the Srixon hitting bay for 2 reasons. One, to hit a Srixon product and, two, to give the new Top Flight D2 a try with the wedges to check its short game feel. Both products were awesome. The Srixon WG-504 wedge is right on par with Vokey's and Cleveland wedges if not better. I hit both the 52* and 60* models and was hitting beautiful wedge shots right into the target greens at the Equipment Test Center. Every hit (even the miss hit I very nearly shanked) had a very pleasing feel to it. You knew right away whether or not you hit it dead center on the face or out towards to toe or heel. Visually, they are beautiful. Some black wedges do not suit my eye, but the Srixon's were quite stunning. As far as the D2 performance goes, it felt better than my 3-piece balls I have been hitting! I do not know if it was the wedge, the ball, or both but I hit some pretty good wedge shots with the combination and I was once again tempted to run right out and buy both products.
Private Golf Connections Inc.: I think these guys were a bit disappointed to find out after 10 minutes or so that I did not belong at Bay Hill, but the product they just introduced may help those shottalkers that do belong to a private club. PGCI provides a hook up service with over 4000 private clubs around the world for members of private golf clubs. If you join PGCI, they will hook you up with members from courses where you want to play so that when you travel or are looking to play a different exclusive private club they can match you up with a member at that club to play with. www.privategolfconnections.com is their web site, and if you use the promotion code 'PGC-PGASHOW-2007' before Feb 3rd, the first year of membership is free. After February 3rd, the only way to get a free year is to be the first member of your club to sign up.
Heavy Putter: There is no false advertising here, those putters were HEAVY. I thought my putters were heavy until I picked one of these clubs. Both the head and shaft have significant increases in weight that allows the balance point to stay put in the correct position rather than moving too close to the head or butt of the putter. Most amazingly, they had a 32 inch putter built to spec so I gave it a few rolls on the carpet. It performed well in doing what its concept set out to do. It keeps your hands and wrist quiet, so if your fighting a handsy/wristy putting stroke this may be your cure. The only downside to the putter is if you happen to walk more than you ride and carry your bag rather than use a pull cart or trolley. Its that heavy.
Simpac: I always end up getting back to these guys because they were my favorite clubs at the show. Today I went back to their hitting bay to really give their fairway woods another look after hitting the TEE CB2 (must be short for Canadian Buyers version 2
.....Rock, you were right so they named it after you.) As much as I loved the TEE CB2, the Simpac's have me really astonished at their performance, easy to hit and very forgiving. The Simpac rep kept on handing me the different fairway woods and the last one he put in my hand had me hitting this long penetrating ball flight. When I asked what it was he said it was a 1 wood at 11 degrees. Now mind you, its not any bigger than the 3-wood. It looks just like the rest of the fairway woods. Since their bay was at the end, he had me turn toward the center of the bay and hit it down the hitting line. Even with the longer run to the net, the ball kept increasing in height along the slowly climbing boring trajectory. A fairway driver! Gentlemen, I struggle with a 15* 3W off the deck, but I was launching this fairway driver like no body's business. I can not wait to see what these clubs go for when they hit the market. You can compare the size of the 1 fairway wood with their driver in the photo below.
Well, thats it for the daily updates as the show closed 50 minutes ago. I hope you all enjoyed a quick glimpse into the 2007 PGA Merchandise show and that I answered all of your questions to your satisfaction. I will have some more reviews in the days to come as I sort through the ton of information I have in my hands, but this will be the last of the daily updates.
Enjoy,
ualtim
Taylor Made: As soon as the show floor opened for business, I made my way down to the Taylor Made hitting stations to get a first hand experience with the new Burner and Superquad drivers. The first driver I put in my hands was the new Burner TP edition. There have been some questions regarding this driver so I found the nearest TM rep so that we could discuss their latest product. The Burner is one of the new high MOI designs (much like the Nike SQ and similar stretched out tear drop style heads) designed for maximum forgiveness. Coupled with the added forgiveness, TM put a 46 inch, 50 gram shaft into it designed to increase your swing speed and get you about another 10 yards over the Superquad. I believe the remarks that TM did not care about accuracy with this driver were aimed at the super long shaft. I had to grip down on the club in order to become consistent with my impact closer to the center of the club. Like most TM drivers, it is a really nice driver to hit. Long, boring trajectories off the face with a slight draw from my natural swing. I like the club, and TM is setting the price at $299 for the regular Burner and $399 for the Burner TP. The next club I hit was the R7 Superquad standard edition. I could not hit this straight as every ball was going left, but it felt better than the Burner when it came to feel transmitted up the shaft. This is a solid club and the new graphics are rather pleasing to my eye. Once the rep switched out the standard edition for the TP edition, the Superquad TP definitely became my driver of choice out of the TM line up. Long and hot with a slight draw. The Superquad is retaining the now industry standard of a 45 inch shaft, 65g weight, and is going to be retailed out at $399 for the standard edition and $699 for the TP edition.
Srixon WG-504 Forged Wedges: I went over to the Srixon hitting bay for 2 reasons. One, to hit a Srixon product and, two, to give the new Top Flight D2 a try with the wedges to check its short game feel. Both products were awesome. The Srixon WG-504 wedge is right on par with Vokey's and Cleveland wedges if not better. I hit both the 52* and 60* models and was hitting beautiful wedge shots right into the target greens at the Equipment Test Center. Every hit (even the miss hit I very nearly shanked) had a very pleasing feel to it. You knew right away whether or not you hit it dead center on the face or out towards to toe or heel. Visually, they are beautiful. Some black wedges do not suit my eye, but the Srixon's were quite stunning. As far as the D2 performance goes, it felt better than my 3-piece balls I have been hitting! I do not know if it was the wedge, the ball, or both but I hit some pretty good wedge shots with the combination and I was once again tempted to run right out and buy both products.
Private Golf Connections Inc.: I think these guys were a bit disappointed to find out after 10 minutes or so that I did not belong at Bay Hill, but the product they just introduced may help those shottalkers that do belong to a private club. PGCI provides a hook up service with over 4000 private clubs around the world for members of private golf clubs. If you join PGCI, they will hook you up with members from courses where you want to play so that when you travel or are looking to play a different exclusive private club they can match you up with a member at that club to play with. www.privategolfconnections.com is their web site, and if you use the promotion code 'PGC-PGASHOW-2007' before Feb 3rd, the first year of membership is free. After February 3rd, the only way to get a free year is to be the first member of your club to sign up.
Heavy Putter: There is no false advertising here, those putters were HEAVY. I thought my putters were heavy until I picked one of these clubs. Both the head and shaft have significant increases in weight that allows the balance point to stay put in the correct position rather than moving too close to the head or butt of the putter. Most amazingly, they had a 32 inch putter built to spec so I gave it a few rolls on the carpet. It performed well in doing what its concept set out to do. It keeps your hands and wrist quiet, so if your fighting a handsy/wristy putting stroke this may be your cure. The only downside to the putter is if you happen to walk more than you ride and carry your bag rather than use a pull cart or trolley. Its that heavy.
Simpac: I always end up getting back to these guys because they were my favorite clubs at the show. Today I went back to their hitting bay to really give their fairway woods another look after hitting the TEE CB2 (must be short for Canadian Buyers version 2
.....Rock, you were right so they named it after you.) As much as I loved the TEE CB2, the Simpac's have me really astonished at their performance, easy to hit and very forgiving. The Simpac rep kept on handing me the different fairway woods and the last one he put in my hand had me hitting this long penetrating ball flight. When I asked what it was he said it was a 1 wood at 11 degrees. Now mind you, its not any bigger than the 3-wood. It looks just like the rest of the fairway woods. Since their bay was at the end, he had me turn toward the center of the bay and hit it down the hitting line. Even with the longer run to the net, the ball kept increasing in height along the slowly climbing boring trajectory. A fairway driver! Gentlemen, I struggle with a 15* 3W off the deck, but I was launching this fairway driver like no body's business. I can not wait to see what these clubs go for when they hit the market. You can compare the size of the 1 fairway wood with their driver in the photo below.
Well, thats it for the daily updates as the show closed 50 minutes ago. I hope you all enjoyed a quick glimpse into the 2007 PGA Merchandise show and that I answered all of your questions to your satisfaction. I will have some more reviews in the days to come as I sort through the ton of information I have in my hands, but this will be the last of the daily updates.
Enjoy,
ualtim
