So, this happened. This week a beautiful box arrived from Wilson Golf that contained a gorgeous set of FG Tour 100 blades to put in my bag. As much as I would love to dote on them, for 99.9% of people out there, there are better options for irons, so I won’t… too much. You see, this move pretty much contradicts everything I’ve been posting on my blog, but it was a needed move as I plan on playing some pretty major tournaments next year – or at least the qualifiers for those tournaments – and there was a very good chance that the grooves on my FG49 irons would not qualify for play under the 2010 USGA ruling that went into effect last year. See what you miss when you’re away from the game?
This bag, with the exception of the driver, which may or may not make the cut into next year, should be my gamer heading forward. I may end up dropping the 4 wood out and grabbing a stronger driving iron, but at this point, the bag is looking very strong. Starting out this year just picking up the game to spend some time with my dad, I never dreamed that my game would come back so quickly. In just 12 rounds, I’ve gone from a mid-80’s shooter to a low to mid-70’s shooter. If I’m able to squeeze in some additional putting practice and start dialing in clubs quickly, I don’t see any reason why next season can’t start in the 60’s at this point.
Back to the irons though, since this is all about my new toys, or tools, or sticks. The FG Tour 100’s are much like my original 1989 Fluid Feel Irons. I’m going back to the books on the 1989 thing since it seems as if my irons were “made in 1988, but were an 1989 model.” With a larger amount of weight moved to the bottom of the club, the ball flight is much higher, but it looks like they will stop it faster as well. They don’t have quite the playability that the FG49’s did, but that’s to be expected as the 49’s were crazy thin tour blades.
Despite the incredibly high ball flight, my yardages still appear to be about 10-15 yards longer per club. This is mainly caused by the modern manufacturing technique of dropping the lofts of clubs 3-4 degrees. The 9 iron on my FG49’s was a 47° loft, but that loft matches up with the PW on the FG Tour 100’s. By de-lofting the irons, consumers get the feel that they are longer hitters than they really are, which makes them like the clubs more. I’m not a big fan of that personally, but if it sells more clubs, I guess I can see why the manufacturers are doing it.
I am beginning to jockey the clubs in my bag around slightly, which is going to mean some changes to the bag over the winter, but the equipment that I am carrying is all set. My M3 Driver is currently dialed in a 9° and has a great ball flight and an average summer drive of almost 280 yards. The 4 wood, a 17° M3 fairway wood, probably won’t make the cut unless I can really start hitting it consistently. Venturing down into the irons, With the delofting of the irons, I will carry the 3-PW and skip the 1 iron for now. The 3 iron carry distance looked to be within 10 yards of the 1 iron and I didn’t have a mis-hit on the range with it – at all. That decrease in loft did bring a serious gapping issue between the PW and my 56° PMP wedge. I’m hoping to solve this with a custom 51° PMP wedge, but we will see once it arrives if my plan works.
The one piece of equipment that I have yet to decide on is which ball will go with me on my journey. Thanks to the amazing folks at Wilson Golf, I have a few samples of various balls to test out and see what works best for me. I don’t really have a serious issue with the performance of the Zips, but I’ve been told over and over again that the Zip may be losing some distance on longer shots and may be able to be out performed by either the Duo Spin or Duo Urethane models. So, next round, One of those guys is going in the bag, I just haven’t decided which yet.
Overall, I couldn’t be more thrilled with my current bag. We will see how that 51° wedge fills the gap in my short irons, but other than that, my long irons look fantastic, my short irons look very accurate and my putter is behaving beautifully. My accessories, like my bag and shoes are dialed in and ready for work. Now, it’s time for me to layout a competitive schedule for 2017, or at least it will be as soon as the dates are posted for next year.
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