Nick 2008

[Nick Davis]

Like many here I'm an inveterate tinkerer when it comes to my clubs and theres been quite a change in the bag from this time last year. Enough change to warrant a new WITB post from myself.

The bag itself hasnt changed....still a Callaway Org14 in plain black and silver. A superb bag for a leccy trolley... well stable and plenty of easily accessible pockets.

OK so...whats IN the bag then???

Driver: TM r7 CGB max 10.5* with stock regular flex shaft... so recent an addition to the bag that I've not been actually able to put it into play yet....though its spanked an awful lot of range balls!!! This replaced an SMT Indio 12.5* with an Accuflex Evolution shaft. Despite me thinking that the Indio was pretty well suited to me I was astonished at how much further I hit the r7 and I gained some accuracy at the same time.

3-wood: TM r7 steel 15* with an Aldila NVS 65 stiff flex shaft. An even more recent addition than the driver. Basically its an experiment with a very shallow faced 3-wood for picking the ball off very tight fairway lies. Still not found a 3-wood as good as my V-steel original but that has been rested for a few weeks while I get to grips with this...the NVS has come from my V-Steel....if the experiment doesnt work out then the NVS and V-Steel will be reunited.

Rescue1: 21* Ping Rapture in stiff stock. Simply one of the best rescues i've hit....been in the bag for about a year now.

Rescue2: 23* SMT Avocet with a reg flex Accuflex Acculaunch....if any club goes during this season then it will be this one....I like the nice deep face which allows shots from thick rough without risk of the club disappearing under the ball but I do have a tendency to pull it occaisionally. Considering putting the 4iron back in the back or replacing it with another Rapture.

5iron-PW: a set of TM RAC LT's with regular flex Nippon NSPro 950's kindly spined and flo'd by rgjusa. Rebuilt by myself a little bit shorter than conventional wisdom (i.e. OEM's) usually make...but I cant remember how much shorter!!!

Wedges: Cleveland 900BRZ's 52,56 and 60*. Discovered this long out of production wedge when I was sold a selection of Cleveland wedges by a "tempter of men" on this forum. Was hooked immediately by its soft feel and glamourous looks and proceeded to spend much of autumns and winter buying the worlds supply of new and nearly new 900 BRZ's so I'd have some spares when these get worn out!!! It was allways going to take something special to oust the SMT Durometers from the bag but these Clevelands really are something else!!!

Putter: Dave Hicks iXi mallet. Custom fitted. 31.5" long and 67* lie angle (4* flatter than most OEM's standard). allways wanted to try a DH putter and had developed over the preceeding two years a taste for centre shafted mallets. When one came up on ebay in very good condition the BIN button was pressed. After playing with it for a couple of months I resolved to get one custom fitted for me...now putting feels so much more natural.

Pics... (note the iXi is the original one I had...the only difference to the new one is that the new one doesnt have the white alignment lines...only the red....I actually prefer the old ones styling)...

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p70537024-4.jpg

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p406605245-3.jpg

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p418097030-4.jpg

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p795313966-3.jpg

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p835227124-3.jpg

http://nickjdavis.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p1032188865-3.jpg

[Colossus]

Those Clevelands do look very nice Nick. Nice bag.

[sevenfourate]

3 simple words:

GREAT LOOKING BAG !

Tell me more about the wedges (Im rapidly becoming a wedge freak !)...and those aren't helping my fetish :p

Are they a manganese bronze head or something ?? They look a little light in colour for berylium copper ?

Bet they feel scrumptious ;)

[Nick Davis]

3 simple words:

GREAT LOOKING BAG !

Tell me more about the wedges (Im rapidly becoming a wedge freak !)...and those aren't helping my fetish :p

Are they a manganese bronze head or something ?? They look a little light in colour for berylium copper ?

Bet they feel scrumptious ;)

Aluminium Bronze.

They replaced the old BeCu Clevelands several years ago and are damned hard to find in good condition. Trouble is....when they tarnish slightly they look absolutely awful in photos...looks like the entire finish is peeling away. I've bought several via eBay and theyre allways better than they look in the pics.

They do feel really nice and soft....they might not have the latest in groove technology but they certainly deliver spin in spades.

[Foxholer]

3-wood: TM r7 steel 15* with an Aldila NVS 65 stiff flex shaft. An even more recent addition than the driver. Basically its an experiment with a very shallow faced 3-wood for picking the ball off very tight fairway lies. Still not found a 3-wood as good as my V-steel original but that has been rested for a few weeks while I get to grips with this...the NVS has come from my V-Steel....if the experiment doesnt work out then the NVS and V-Steel will be reunited.

Wedges: Cleveland 900BRZ's 52,56 and 60*. Discovered this long out of production wedge when I was sold a selection of Cleveland wedges by a "tempter of men" on this forum. Was hooked immediately by its soft feel and glamourous looks and proceeded to spend much of autumns and winter buying the worlds supply of new and nearly new 900 BRZ's so I'd have some spares when these get worn out!!! It was allways going to take something special to oust the SMT Durometers from the bag but these Clevelands really are something else!!!

Putter: Dave Hicks iXi mallet. Custom fitted. 31.5" long and 67* lie angle (4* flatter than most OEM's standard). allways wanted to try a DH putter and had developed over the preceeding two years a taste for centre shafted mallets. When one came up on ebay in very good condition the BIN button was pressed. After playing with it for a couple of months I resolved to get one custom fitted for me...now putting feels so much more natural.



Nick,

Don't be surprised if the R7 3-wood fails to shift the V-Steel. You'll be in with the crowd as one of the best FWs TM made (I have one of the others - the Tour Smoothie). My R7 15* was a tad disappointing and I traded the V!

Cleveland wedges seem to have declined recently. I never got on with a 58* 900 but the 588s were lovely - even liked the 64*! Didn't have the BRZs though which are softer than the one I had.

BeCu no longer made because highly carcinogenic!


I have a couple of DH putters too. The TM1 is quite similar to the iXi (slightly less wierd) but the DH1 seems to work best - about 5 inches wide with weights at either end so minimises my wrist flicks! Was one of them that BIN one?

Interested to note your 'improvement' with a 'proper' driver - even with a stock shaft! Maybe the big companies are more than just Marketing. The Accuflex shaft I tried (thought it was the Evolution but not sure) seemed prety good - smooth Ozik-like laggy kick.

Ross

[Stu-Pid]

You've got to love the Cleveland BRZs... Just a shame that I was too lazy to keep mine looking that gorgeous!

Still, good to know that my laziness (and advanced sales skills...) eventually lead to Nick falling in love with them. :)