Joey's Golf Bag

This afternoon, I picked up my Tom Wishon Golf Technology 525GRT Driver that I was fitted for last month. After consulting with TWGT on my clubhead speed, swing characteristics, launch angle and spin, TWGT selected a 9.5° driver head with an actual 10.5° loft and a 0.5° closed face. TWGT also recommended to use the TWGT InterFlexx high-launch graphite shaft in stiff flex. Dave built the club to 45″ in length (since I hit the test club in the center of the clubface with this length) and swingweighted it to D-0, which is the swingweight I prefer in drivers. He gripped it with a Golf Pride Dual Duometer midsize grip, which is my preferred grip for drivers.

Some photos:

My lower back pain is nearly gone, so I’m off to the range tomorrow (weather permitting).

This afternoon, I bent my new Tom Wishon Golf CX Micro Satin Wedges for loft and lie. I also bent my TWGT 770CFE pitching wedge loft to 48° from 49°, to make it a few yards closer in distance to my 9-iron.

Here are the specs for my TWGT 770CFE irons (3-PW) and TWGT CX Micro wedges (GW, SW, LW):

With luck, my lower back will be better and I’ll be able to hit balls this weekend and maybe even play nine.

I completed my new Tom Wishon Golf Technology 949MC Fairway 4-wood that I began constructing on Sunday. I built the club to 42 inches with a swingweight of D-1. Instead of the Dual Duometer midsize grip I’d planned, I used the new Golf Pride DD2 midsize grip.

TWGT 949MC 4-wood with cover.

TWGT 949MC 4-wood.

TWGT 949MC 4-wood back.

I completed the Tom Wishon Golf Technology CX Micro wedges I started building on Sunday. The only thing left to complete is to bend them to 66° lie angle and then test them on a lie board to ensure that the lie angle is correct. I’ll bend them tonight, but testing on a lie board will have to wait until my back is better.

Specs:

TWGT CX Micro Satin Wedges, 52°, 56° and 60°.

TWGT CX Micro Satin Wedge, face.

TWGT CX Micro Satin Wedge, back.

I’ve been unable to play or practice (except for chipping and putting) due to lower back pain, so I decided to build some new clubs in the meantime. I’ve been hitting my 5-wood (Wishon Golf 915HL fairway wood with a Wishon Golf Series 7-SUL-55 shaft) pretty well, but I want that club to be a bit longer. I decided to build a 4-wood to replace it. I chose the Wishon Golf 949MC fairway wood, 16.5° loft, with a Wishon Golf Series 7-B2P fairway shaft, built to 42 inches in length. The 949MC fairway wood is the first shallow-faced fairway wood with a coefficient of restitution of 0.830. I epoxied the club together this morning and will swingweight it to D-2 and put on a Golf Pride Dual Duometer midsize grip tomorrow after the epoxy sets up.

I’ve been loving my Wishon Golf CX Micro Platinum wedges, but I’ve been having a problem hitting the wedges fat. My theory is that the clubs are too light compared to the Cleveland 588 wedges I’d used previously; more weight should serve to slow down my tempo. When my tempo gets fast, I tend to hit fat. So, I decided to build a new set of CX Micro wedges, using True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts, which are about 15g heavier than the Wishon Golf Series 5 steel shafts I used before. I also decided to go back to the Golf Pride New Decade Multi-compound midsize grips I used before. I am also simplifying the wedges by making them all the same length (36 inches), total weight and swingweight, so all three wedges feel and play the same. I epoxied the clubs together this morning and will finish them up tomorrow and bend them to my preferred 66° lie.

I’ll post some photos of the new clubs tomorrow after I finish them.

Earlier this week, I built a new putter using a Tom Wishon Golf S2R Model 3 putter head. I used the Tom Wishon Golf straight putter shaft (no link I can find) and a Tom Wishon Golf V-Series putter grip. The club was built to 34.5 inches in length and has a swingweight of E-4.

I have not hit my new putter on a putting green yet, but I’ve been hitting some very nice putts on the carpet and am very pleased with the sound, touch and performance.

Last time I practiced on May 1st, I managed to tweak my lower back. On Friday, I finally felt good enough to go to my long delayed driver fitting with Dave Murray. Dave’s shop is at Spring Creek Golf in Plano. I wanted to see which of two Tom Wishon Golf clubheads would fit me best, the 949MC or the 525GRT.

I warmed up on the range with my 7-iron, striking the ball cleanly, but with a big hook. I was puzzled as to why I was hooking the ball (my dreaded reverse pivot wasn’t evident), but Dave took one look at my swing and saw I wasn’t driving my right knee toward the ball on the down swing. On my next swing, I drove my right knee toward the ball, and it went straight. Hmmm… nice to get a little lesson along with the fitting.

First, I hit the 949MC 460cc clubhead with a 10.5° loft, which Dave had fitted with the ZT shaft in regular flex. I didn’t get enough spin with the driver, so we moved on to the 525GRT at 9.5° with a high-launch Interflexx shaft in stiff flex. I needed about 0.5° more loft to get my ideal launch angle. My best swings had a 230 yd carry with this club.

I also hit my current SasQuatch Lucky 13 driver, and it showed a launch angle of 17° and a spin of 3500 rpm, which he said causes me to lose distance because the ball will tend to fall out of the sky and not run after hitting the fairway.

We decided to go with the 11° loft 525GRT head with the mid-low Interflex shaft in regular flex, instead of the high-launch shaft, to compensate for the fact that the loft is slightly more than I need. Length was set to 44.5″, as I hit the club better when I choked down on it about 1/2″ (he had built the club at 45″). So, I ordered the club and should have it late next week. I’ll visit the range and give a report shortly thereafter…

I built three new wedges using Tom Wishon CX Micro Wedge clubheads with Platinum-Nickel finish. I used Tom Wishon’s High Flight Wedge Shaft and Tom Wishon’s TacTrac oversize grips. Specs are as follows:

Below is a picture of the full set of wedges.

Closeup of the three wedge clubheads.

Closeup of the face of the 60° wedge.

Closeup of the back of the 60° wedge.

I’m heading out to the range this afternoon to give them a workout, and plan to play a round with them tomorrow. I’ll have a review then.

And make sure Tour Tempo is on it…

This afternoon, I had a spare hour to hit balls, so I ran over to the Golden Bear Golf Center to try out my new 5-wood and 3-hybrid. Unfortunately, I forgot my iPod, and boy, did I need it today. I never did get in sync with any club, except for the driver (and only barely).

I warmed up hitting pitching wedges, and it took me about 5 or 6 balls before I hit one that wasn’t fat. Really fat. Digging a trench fat. And when I’m hitting the ball fat, you can bet it’s because I’m rushing my downswing.

After I finally hit a good shot with the pitching wedge, I got out the new clubs along with the 6-iron and driver. The driver I struck decently today, though I did have some high fades to start out. I never had my swing going well enough today to give an enthusiastic thumbs up on the new clubs, but I also didn’t hit any terrible shots as I tend to with my 3-wood or HALO hybrids. So, at least from a forgiveness standpoint, the new clubs are a rousing success.

I just wish I’d swung the clubs better today to give them a real tryout.

Remind me not to forget the iPod tomorrow…

I’ve always had difficulty hitting a 3-wood consistently. I’d been thinking shortening my Nike SasQuatch 3-wood, since shortening my Nike SasQuatch driver by 0.5" to 44" was such a success. Cutting 0.5" off the 3-wood would leave it at a playing length of 42.5", and so my 5-wood would need to be 1" shorter. So, I decided to construct a 5-wood with that specification and then run a competition between the two clubs for the place in my bag as the club following the driver. I also went ahead and shortened the SasQuatch 3-wood to 42.5" and swingweighted it to D-1.

Today, I completed the construction of my new 5-wood using the Tom Wishon 915HL clubhead, hand-selected for square clubface and 18° loft. I used a Tom Wishon Series 7-SUL-55 Super-UltraLight Graphite Shaft, R flex, tipped 2″ and trimmed for a final playing length of 41.5". I also used an oversize Tom Wishon V-Series Composition Rubber Grip with 3 wraps of tape so the final diameter is oversize by 1/16". I swingweighted the club to D-1.

I’ll give the club a workout this afternoon.