This week the 2014 PGA Merchandise Show is in Orlando, Florida. The show moved up the days of the week on the time table. Typically, Demo Day has been on Wednesday with the first day of the actual show on Thursday and the final day on Saturday. That moved up in the future with Demo Day starting on Tuesday and the primary day at the Convention Center on Wednesday.
Tuesday I arrived at the Convention Center at nine:30 and took the trip over to Orange County National. This is the same as it's far each Demo Day, the entire Orange County National driving variety has tents nearly every rectangular foot across the range. I noticed Martin Chuck, the inventor of the Tour Striker.
Martin?S new product is the ?Smart Ball?
This is an inflatable ball that has a strap that may optionally be located across the golfer?S neck. If the golfer desires to do a drill where they paintings on retaining their elbows closer together within the swing, they could use this. It also can be utilized in a variety of special drills wherein the golfer may also use a ball like this one. And it is able to be deflated so the golfer can use it in the event that they want to do a drill like maintaining it under their armpit even as they swing. It can connect to a golf bag and since it can be deflated, it can be without difficulty saved in a golf bag.
After that I went across the variety as soon as and right here were some things I take a look at out:
Axis 1 Putter – The main design feature I see with the Axis 1 putter is that it is almost the opposite of ‘face balanced.’ We know with face balanced putters that if we balance the shaft on our finger, the face will point towards the sky. With the Axis1 putter, the toe will be pointing straight towards the sky…essentially the face is in-line with where the hole would be when it is balanced on our finger.
Out of the Axis1 putters, I favored the Eagle version.
Fourteen Golf – They make a really nice looking and good feeling driver head. Unfortunately they have a stock shaft that is 47.5 inches long. So I could hit it well about 20% of the time. Put a better fitted shaft in there and I think it’s a helluva driver.
Utility Irons - I had hit the Titleist utility irons and this time I tried Callaway and Pings. I found them very easy to hit off the tee. I think a lot of this leads me back to the old debate of hitting driver versus 3-wood off the tee. The data of Tour players shows that they were surprisingly more accurate and consistent when they hit driver versus 3-wood in 2013 Pro Golf Synopsis. The big debate centered around the 3-wood head design. Because the 3-wood had more loft, it would be more difficult to tilt the ball’s spin axis which would make it more difficult to curve the ball and make the 3-wood, logically, more accurate. But my feeling is that because the 3-wood’s head is much smaller (roughly 3 to 3.5 times smaller than your 460cc driver), the MOI of the head around the sweetspot is less. My feeling is that great reduction in head MOI outweights the extra 4 degrees of head loft that will make it more difficult to tilt the spin axis. It would be interesting to see if Utility irons are more difficult to tilt the spin axis than a driver.
Either way, they Utility Irons I have attempted have all felt good and quite smooth to swing.
Nippon Shafts – I spoke to a rep from Nippon as I had to ask about their shafts. The Modus shafts are constant weighted. Because of that, both their taper tip and parallel tip versions come in at different lengths for each iron. Typically, parallel tip shafts are all the same length and then they have specific trimming specifications. For instance, you may get a few parallel tip shafts that are all 41” long, un-cut. With the 3-iron, it will tell you to trim the tip 1-inch, then trim from the butt section down to the length you want the club. But with a 9-iron, it may tell you to tip trim the shaft 2.5” and then trim the butt to length.
With Nippon?S parallel tip shafts, they will are available at distinctive lengths and you still have tip and butt trim in line with their specs.
I asked about how after trimming the Modus a hundred and twenty shaft it came out to approximately 109 grams as opposed to my Modus one hundred thirty at 119 grams. The step pattern at the shafts are one of a kind so there?S more weight on the tip section inside the Modus a hundred thirty. However, the step sample used within the Modus 130 normally makes for a very tip stiff shaft, but Nippon became capable of melt the top with that step pattern. Thus generating a shaft that is heavier after trimming, however not too tip stiff.
I tried the Nippon Regio motive force shaft. It is meant to be designed in step with the Modus shafts. I didn?T think it changed into a horrific shaft, however just too stiff for my swing. Thus, I didn?T find it in line with the Modus shaft, however that doesn?T imply a player with a one-of-a-kind swing would no longer actually just like the shaft.
Wilson Golf – I didn’t take any pictures and I have not seen any on the internet, but Wilson Golf’s new wedges have a different wedge grind design. It’s more of a C-Grind and something you would see more from a Miura, Edel or Scratch Golf wedge than your typical OEM wedge design.
Edel Golf – Edel comes into the show each year with great new ideas and designs. The ‘think tank’ at Edel also plans very well for the future instead of presenting the same product each year. There was discussion of possibly coming out with woods in the near future that would, of course, have that customized Edel fitting experience. As the guys at Edel told me ‘if we try it and think it stinks, we will just junk the idea.’ While David Edel is a master craftsman, people often forget that he was an accomplished teaching professional and was certified in The Golfing Machine. So unlike most designers, not only can he play golf, but he has an advanced understanding of swing mechanics and club fitting which allows him to use all of those to make the clubs he makes. The same goes for other top people like Bobby Dean and Mike Adams, an experienced wedge grinder for decades who discovered his students didn’t play with enough bounce and came up with the idea of fitting wedges by bounce (and other factors) and creating a wedge design with higher bounce (which I will get into in part II).
Edel has made a few tweaks to their wedge layout. I personal a brand new 52* wedge that I use as a Sand Wedge (no fifty six* wedge, just fifty two* and 60*). If you like the Edel wedge head appearance, I can't honestly see a difference. I simply know that the fifty two* wedge is precisely what I became looking for?A club that I ought to nicely yardage hole from my PW, but I can also use around the inexperienced by means of barely fanning the face open if I wished a little extra loft. And the primary time I tried it out of the bunker, I jarred it.
With that, Edel has changed their iron designs a chunk on the way to decrease the charge point. I hit this iron at Demo Day.
I additionally hit the Cavity Back model
I thought each felt and appeared remarkable. The massive component is that the club head and turf interplay is what separates Edel from the rest. It feels specific. It feels smoother and quicker and it doesn?T placed strain on your palms, wrists and forearms.
In reality, what I discovered humorous became that Edel had the excellent vicinity to hit from because the alternative hitting regions for other corporations have been packed with large divots.
Kenny Giannini Putters - I had heard some nice things about these putters and wanted to give them a try.
I determined these had a exquisite experience as far as touch is going. I asked about them and that they said that the slot design had lots to do with it.
The slot is not designed for noise, however to help with the weighting and to create more MOI around the candy spot. They additionally include PURE Grips putter grip. It has a pleasant sense to it, possibly similar to the old Anser setting grip. I will say that I did like the texture, however I am curious if that sense might stay once the grip gets a bit more worn down.
YONEX TC FORGED IRONS – This to me was the surprise club of Demo Day. I had hit the EZone Blade and really liked it. So I tried this blade and the ball really just flies off the face. They had a launch monitor and when I flushed one, the 6-iron went 174 yards into a 2-club wind. This was extremely noticeable.
They informed me that the design is a blade, however inside the inner of the club (you cannot see it), they took out the steel and inserted titanium in its place. This might offer a blade with higher perimeter weighting. Whatever it was, I notion it become exceptional. Unfortunately, I do not see any snap shots of it anywhere on the internet.
I became approximately to depart round midday. The winds commenced picking as much as the point where one of the Cleveland tents flew off its hinges and actually appeared like a bull at Pamplona geared up to gore any individual. One poor girl was dead to rights and the tent at the final second propelled right over her. As humorous as it could sound, watching it occur I notion she became going to be seriously harm. And I had heard that another tent flew off on every other side of the range and did injure any person.
As success might have it, it commenced raining as I was heading to the trip and that consisted of a 1-hour wait within the rain for the travel. I didn?T get back to my car at the Convention Center until 3pm and had but to each lunch and then had to visit the Open Forum 2. Overall, the Demo Day was now not thoughts blowing, but it turned into a respectable displaying given the brand new products accessible.
3JACK
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