eric61

I hope that Titleist’s next iteration of fairway woods — GTi or whatever they are — has something that’s in between the current GT1 and GT2 shape, especially in the higher-lofted woods. I have a GT2 7 wood that I love, but compared to other fairway woods on the market, I don’t have to get too far out onto the toe before gear effect takes over and I get hooks. I’ve thought about trying a GT1 7 wood instead, but I don’t want it to be quite THAT big. I also don’t really want higher launch and spin; I don’t want to change anything about the performance, other than adding a touch more forgiveness. I’m hoping the GT1 3Tour ends up being an indication that Titleist knows it could make some relatively small but important tweaks to its fairway wood lineup.

For what it's worth, I have the GT2 7W in the bag and have tested the G440 7W. I found they both carried the exact same distance (215 yards for me on Trackman) but the GT2's peak height was about 15 feet lower -- 105ish vs. 120ish with the G440. On the course, I really like the trajectory I see from the GT2. I do wonder if I turned the G440 down to 20 or 19.5, if it would rein in that peak height some and give me about 5 extra yards. Something I'll experiment with at some point when I have some trade-in credit.

The DYNAPWR Carbon 3 wood has earned its spot in my bag. I'm going to update my signature with it as soon as I hit "Submit Reply" on this post. I've loved feeling like I can swing it HARD, get more distance than I've gotten out of 3 woods in the past, and have no fear of losing it right (lefty here). The left start line and little draws I'm seeing from this club, even on mishits, is just so impressive to me. It's mostly a tee club for me, with use only on long par 5s where it's all green lights, room for the ball to land and run a bit. The 5 wood has a serious chance; I'm going to get it on a launch monitor soon and see if I can tweak the settings to dial back the distance just a little bit so that the gapping makes sense. After what I feel confident in saying was a true test, my time with the 4 hybrid has reached its end. I've talked a lot about it in previous posts, but I'll recap really quickly: Hybrid pros: -- Sound and feel are terrific. Really gives nothing up to any other OEM in this regard. -- The ball flight is really high from the 4 hybrid. I tend to deliver too little dynamic loft, and a 22 degree hybrid has been a struggle at times to elevate (that's why I've gone 7W into 5H in this part of the bag in the past). -- Relatively low spin, too, so the distance from the 4 hybrid was great. It carried farther than a Ping G430 4 hybrid I have turned down to 21 degrees. -- The sole works well. I didn't have any trouble getting the ball out of thick rough, and didn't feel it digging on cleaner lies. Hybrid cons: -- No adjustable hosel. I really hope Wilson will consider moving in that direction. -- Lie angle was just too upright for me, and face sat a touch closed. -- Relatively low spin, combined with the upright lie angle and closed face, left me really struggling with over-drawing the ball. I've now hit hundreds of shots with this hybrid, and come to the conclusion that this just isn't something I can control consistently enough to feel comfortable having it in the bag long-term. Wilson appears to see the Carbon line as more "players"-oriented ... although I'm not sure it's quite that simple. The Carbon line of fairway woods has been quite a bit more forgiving than I expected. I would love to see them launch a Carbon hybrid at some point in the future, bringing in some of the elements they've perfected with the fairway woods -- weight adjustability, adjustable hosel, flatter starting lie angle, more neutral face angle. I think that sort of product would be a home run, and is something I'd be in line to pre-order the first day possible!

I see Fujikura launched the Axioms in 95g and a 125g stiff option today. I'm already considering an impulse buy on the 125g stiffs. The GolfWRX crew or folks who followed this thread might remember -- I was a BIG fan of the demo club Fujikura built, Axiom 125X in a T100 head that now would be a couple generations old. The 105X won out in my fitting, but we considered the 125X and talked to the Fujikura crew about it, too. They were concerned in part about delays in getting 125X in stock. If a 125S had existed back then, it very well might have been my winner. The Ping i230/105X at a D4 swing weight combo has been so good for me, but I don't think I'm ever going to shake the curiosity about the 125g version! Hope the crew from that Fujikura trip is having a good summer of golf! @Puppetmaster @hammergolf @CactusGolf @knudson81

How did carry distances compare on all those?

I see the $-Tapers as a $28.50 upcharge on Carl’s Golfland. Carl’s and 2ndSwing seemed to be plugged into the same system that determines shaft upcharges, and they’re typically a little less than other sites.

How did the ball flight and forgiveness compare between those two?

I'm pumped for the T250 Launch Spec review once you have those in hand! When you say the i240s were not as long as you expected -- can you throw out an average 7 iron carry distance? As a long-time listener, I think I have enough context to translate how that compares to other irons!

Did you get any data? Very curious how launch/height, spin and carry compared!

I’d be really eager to hear from @knudson81 on whether the i240 or the T250 Launch Spec are more forgiving and spin more. I think he has both!

Yeah, these two posts get at exactly what I mean. The difference will be very small compared to the i230s. But I thought, compared to the i210s, that the i230s struck a terrific balance. My concern isn't really the minor difference in a single generation here -- it's more of a directional issue, as a big fan of the i2XX line who's interested in what comes in the future, too. I thought the i230 struck exactly the right balance and hoped Ping would stick with its launch and spin characteristics. I was hoping the changes would be more along the lines of beefing up the long irons (getting back to i210 size, since they shrunk the long irons in the i230s, and potentially dropping their center of gravity in a progressive sort of way, though I didn't really want to see it dropped in the entire set) and offering a design that would blend seamlessly with the Blueprint S irons. I do agree these are incredibly popular on the LPGA Tour, and it seems a lot of Ping's changes in this generation of releases are aimed at answering an LPGA Tour demand for higher launch. They mentioned that around the launch of the G440 hybrids, as well -- about how LPGA players were asking them for slightly higher launch.

Thomas was always great in those 2ndSwing videos. I'm glad to see him playing good golf! He always admittedly struggled with fairway woods -- I'd love to hear how the Elyte 4W wound up in his bag and what he likes about it.

I also listened to Marty Jertson on the Proving Grounds podcast today, as @KnoxvilleReb noted. He said some of the same things @knudson81 noted above, about spinning more (off clean lies) and launching higher. Marty also said they'd shifted weight around so that more is low and in the heel and toe weights, resulting in more forgiveness, and tweaked the elastomer, resulting in a quieter sound. Those changes would explain why BK found them softer and forgiving. I really appreciated their insight. But I'm not quite sure those changes would be what I was looking for vs. the i230s. Softer? Awesome, nobody would complain about that. But higher and more spin? I don't know, I thought the i230s were already among the higher-launching and higher-spinning options in their sort of category, and thought they struck a great balance. I totally understand that the differences between just one generation are likely to be minimal, though. As an obsessive gear junkie and GolfWRXer, even with these reservations and hating the carbon badging, I'm still gonna buy them anyway at some point. I love that I don't have to go through a club builder -- Ping can consistently nail my specs, offers Axiom shafts and Gripmaster grips and can build to D4 without any trouble.

I asked @knudson81 on his Instagram Q&A today about how the i240s compare to the i230s. He said he had the i240s on the range recently. “The new 240 flies higher and has a softer feel than the 230s. It definitely spins just a touch more. It’s not fast, though. I was kind of a little bit shocked at the distance I was getting — it was a little bit shorter than I expected," he said. He said his comment about distance was compared with the P770, 3DP Tour and Ai150. Still, he said, the i240 is "stupid consistent, very forgiving, and a much better sound and feel.” Somebody else asked him if an i240 review was coming up soon. (Sounds like it's a possibility!) He said in his response he was "very impressed with the height of shots, the consistency, the forgiveness." But he noted he was "a little taken aback they didn't go as far as I thought they were going to go."

Modus 125X in the Ping iDi 3 iron? Whoa.