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What's up with the L79 Bladez?

• neilecramer 106 Posts

  Tue, Oct 15 2013 11:41 PM

  Everyone was telling me these clubs are the cat's meow so I picked them up 2-3 weeks ago. Now that I'm used to the meter speed and can ding pretty consistently, I expected it to be a pretty straightforward process to get the yardages dialed in. Wrong!

  I spent much of this weekend on BPB 10 and 11, used 3 sleeves of balls patiently mapping all the clubs out with various spin levels(none, 1/2, 3/4, full)...then I go out and play a few rounds and much to my surprise, yardages were wrong 90% of the time..usually way wrong.

  Overall, yardages are just so inconsistent with these clubs that all I've come up with is a yardage range that the club will usually fall into. IMO that range is much wider than it should be with 4.5 dot precision clubs in repeatable conditions. That range is about +/- 10 yards for long irons, +/- 7 yards for medium irons and +/- 4 yards for short irons. And that's as good as it's getting. Anytime I think I've got a particular iron nailed( ie 7 iron 155 +/-2 with 3/4 BS) I get three or four shots in a row that over shoots or under shoots by 5-6 yards. 

  I loved my L59 G20s.  When my game was on, I was knocking flagsticks down left and right. Just not seeing this with the Bladez, which are supposed to have a full dot better precision. I'd argue that the precision is worse.

  Were my expectations too high? I'm considering melting them down when I get to Level 83 in favor of the G20s.

  Bladez Quick Review:

  Pros: Spin, Trajectory, Long iron distance. Stick to greens like velcro. Meter is manageable with a 3 dot feel ball. They look nice!

  Cons: Rated yardages are off. Yardages wildly inconsistent. Much less forgiving than the G20s on slight mis-dings. Not as precise(left/right) as I would have expected.

   

  On edit: The Cleveland Wedges are even more amazing than I expected. The precision circle seems to be about +/- 5 feet. I'm rarely more than 3 yards away with them. Maybe I expected the same thing out of the Bladez?

  Edit 2: Played another nine at BPB and had 100% GIR and 6.1 DTP.  A couple 0 yard wedge shots helped the avg! Did nothing different except fbs all downwind shots and 1/2 bs on into the wind shots.

• Jimbog1964 8,378 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 1:42 AM

  Cleves

  Glad you like them.  3 yards away will be about tops with the 100 yard once they are fully dialed in:)

  Bladez

  Just throwing ideas out.....What spin are you using? If FBS into a wind (any tiny amount coming at you) high level equipment means flightyness. They should be showing better results than you are getting, but they will apply spin exactly and with your ball tiny adjustments in spin will make huge differences - and I mean tiny.

  As for not being forgiving, sadly that is their downside especially with the wind.  Miss by half a micron there and it's anywhere time.  I was going to say make sure to miss wind side - I had varying success with that one. 

  EDIT: Just seen your edit.  Maybe you are getting things worked out. That 1/2 BS (max) into the wind is the way to go:)

• oneeyedjohn 9,581 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 6:13 AM

  Any type of spin into a headwind is foolish, more spin , more deviation and less predictable distance.

  The better the ball u use, the more the above will apply.

  I used the forerunner to ur clubs the level 79 Burners ,and they were damned good, so it shows how good the R11's are when I can see a difference.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 6:24 AM

  oneeyedjohn:

  Any type of spin into a headwind is foolish, more spin , more deviation and less predictable distance.

  oneeyedjohn:

  Any type of spin into a headwind is foolish, more spin , more deviation and less predictable distance.

  Good enough to say twice.  :-)

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 6:24 AM

  Ugh, one post was enough.  

• SafariMan62 222 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 6:39 AM

  I use the blades at times and I don't see much problems.  That being said, as you are a legend, you should read up on that issue the top guns here call "VEM"....

  I really don't understand that jibberish, but it may have merit to your problem..

  Johnny

• IRISHPUNK 4,019 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 7:29 AM

  You didn't read my post about them.  I didn't like them and continue to think they are vastly overrated by many in the forums.  It wasn't a distance issue with me. I like to think the formula that I use works.  

  My issue was that missing the ding by one pixel would cause the ball to shoot wildly off line. In comparison to the lvl 81 Pings, the Bladez are garbage.  My opinon!  Being that I trust my formula, I hit nearly every iron with full b/s so the "lack of spin" on the Pings was never an issue.  If I had it to do over again, I would have just stayed with the lvl 81 Pings.  Hang in there, the top R11's will be in your bag soon enough.

   

• lonnieskinner 1,677 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 7:46 AM

  Neil, try using as little spin as possible. As it has already been said (John, Jim), the more spin the great the deviation. With the nikes you are using it should not require more than 1/4 back on all shots except long irons (3,4,5)irons and high elevation shots. Give them some time. Have fun.

• fatdan 3,379 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 8:55 AM

  Mine are acting up too...I think the wind if off more than the club.

  I have been allowing 1/2 the stated wind the last couple of days under 12mph...

   my cl wedges are all hitting 2-3 yds long too...

• Wheels65 744 Posts

  Wed, Oct 16 2013 9:26 AM

  I'm not more than a little above average. That said, I use the Bladez, have done so for ~5 months and think that they are fine (with the exception of the 7 iron - which seems to go where it wants). They are consistent. +- 3-4 yards. On the rare occasion that the ball "takes off", when I think a bit - it is normally because I screwed up (wrong club, wrong shot, figured the wind wrong, etc.)   I use FBS on nearly every shot and back off power to shorten range (yes - into the wind or with it).  I do this because I trust my  "mapped"  club ranges & it seems to work for me.

  The other part of the formula is using 1 ball (L33 Cally) and resist the temptation to jump to other balls.  My mapping was with these balls & I'd be nuts to expect any other ball to perform the same way.

  Keep in mind that WGT seems to change game conditions (wind, fairway/green speed behavior, etc) daily.  Your first few shots with your irons and putter should tell you what has been changed and point to the proper adjustment for the day.