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Equipment advice

• JohanTV 213 Posts

  Sat, Aug 12 2017 3:41 PM

  Hi,

  I am now at level 91 and struggling along.

  The top equipment is now at least one (or two) years away since leveling up will need loads of XP points from now.

  For myself I decided to save up credits to only buy the best equipment when it comes along.

  After looking at all the top equipment it seems Callaway is the only brand that brings top equipment and at a uniform meterspeed of 4.2, so this seems the way to go for me as I play with standard WGT balls.

  CURRENT EQUIPMENT:

  PUTTER: L55 Rossa

  IRONS: L75 Speedblades

  DRIVER: L79 SLDR

  WOOD: L81 Ping

  WEDGES: L60 Ping 54 | L60 Ping 60 | L39 ATV 64

   

  REQUIRED EQUIPMENT:

  PUTTER: L98 Odyssey Sabertooth (almost all topplayers use it)

  IRONS: L97 Callaway steelhead XR (has the 4.2 speed so TMO prevails the L100 apex)

  DRIVER: L100 Callaway Fusion (same meterspeed, (L96 BB) and L103 TM are competitors)

  WOOD: L99 Callaway Fusion (same speed and 250 yrd, although med/high)

  WEDGES: L95 Callaway 56 | ??? 60 | ??? 64

   

  From the required equipment the 64 degrees wedge is the only club I can now purchase.

   

  At this moment most topplayers are using the top Clevelands at L76-L78-L80. Some use TaylorMade ATV and a minority Max Meter.

  Some players have recently replaced the L76 Cleveland 56 wedge with the L95 Callaway Mack Daddy 56, so this seems to be the better 56 wedge to cover 100 yrd.

   

  So what can you combine with the L95 Callaway Mack Daddy 56 100 yrd wedge?

  1) L78 and L80 Clevelands so you have 100-80-60 yrds set up but with different meterspeeds as the Cleveland would than be the only 3,5 meterspeed clubs.

  2) L96 Callaway 60 75 yrd wedge (same meterspeed 4.5) which directs you to a 100-75-50 setup and could be combined with either

      2a) L91 max 64 (same 4.5 meterspeed)

      2b) L89 ATV 64 (3.5 meterspeed)

   

  So If I now want to buy a 64 wedge (which I want to do) TMO there are only 3 options:

  1) L80 Cleveland 588 60 yrd (most accurate but different meterspeeds as the rest of the wedges)

  2) L89 TaylorMade ATV 50 yrd (also accurate, less spin and also different meterspeed)

  3) L91 Max Meter 50 yrd (same 4.5 meterspeed but even less spin to stop)

   

  I have read some threads already on these 3 top 64 wedges but I am wondering how those new L96/L95 Callaway Mack Daddy's are changing the possible (preferred) combinations.

  Anyway, I hope to hear your opinions.

  Johan

   

   

   

• Kenher01 1,151 Posts

  Sat, Aug 12 2017 7:58 PM

  Hi Johan,

                  The L 90 Taylormade RSi 2 Irons would be a very good "stopgap" till you get to L97 to get the Steelheads

  Ken

• K7JBQ 1,468 Posts

  Sat, Aug 12 2017 8:23 PM

  Johan,

  I use the 56 and 60 Mack Daddys and the 64 Max Meter, and the combination works fine. The Mack Daddys replaced the 56 and 60 Meters, which were excellent wedges, but the Mack Daddys are just plain better.

• Woodie312 671 Posts

  Sun, Aug 13 2017 6:07 AM

  Johan,

  Let me first off say that I have not tried the Mack Daddy equipment, not for dislikeing it just  becase I already had my irons and wedges when it was introduced to the site a few months back.

  When I first started playing on this site, I scrimped & saved to equip my bag. The first positive paying (read stroke saving) purchase I made was to improve my wedges. I made the decision early on to go with the TaylorMade ATV wedges. Maybe because I like them in real life & maybe because they were available at an earlier tier. I hung in there with them all the  way up thru the ranks to the mid 70's where the steps get real big. At that point I was having trouble with yardage at the low end of the iron scale. The ATV wedges had so much dist that they were on top of my PW, so I dumped some credits on "temporary" Cleveland wedges which had a nice even 60/80/100 spacing that fit the low end better. I figgured I would go back to the ATV wedges when I could rack up 10 more huge levels.

  I have racked up those levels and more now and would not trade these Clevelands for any wedge out there. It took me about a month to get used to and be able to accurately control the spin (Yes there is that much differance in spin between them). These are the most consistant yardage clubs on the site in my opinion. If I want to hit the ball 55 yards I can hit my 64 deg 91% and 999 times out of a 1000 the ball will come to rest between 54 & 56 yards, even with an off ding shot.

• phred952 2,714 Posts

  Sun, Aug 13 2017 2:04 PM

  Johan,

  You need almost 500K XP's to get to L95 and around 700K to get to L96, where you can unlock the Mac Daddy wedges.  That's almost as many as you have accumulated since you started playing.  So "Top level equipment" is a long ways off.

  My advice would be to buy the Clevelands now, as they will make a huge difference in your short game now.  Since your speedbladez have a 3.0 meter speed, you might find the Rsi2 L90 irons work well for you, since the meter is the same.  

  The L86 Cally Driver is better than your current L79 SLDR, but the TM R15 driver is even better, if you again think the 3.0 meter will be OK.  

  Should you be leaning that way, the R15 full set would be an option, which would give you the 3W, and a useless hybrid you could sell back.  The complete set is available on the free rental, so the 10% discount would apply.  The full set is 6795 credits.  Just something to think about.

  Good Luck,

  phred952

• JohanTV 213 Posts

  Tue, Aug 15 2017 10:59 AM

  Hi,

  Thanks for your responses.

  During last weekend I played with the L90 RsI set and they are pretty good. Unfortunetely (except spin) not that much better than my L75 speedblades, so I will stick to my Speedblades.

  I also tried the suggested drivers again. The L86 Fusion has a really nice meterspeed but is not that much an improvement to my SLDR. The L90 R15 is somewhat better although a faster meter. So I will stick to the SLDR and wait till higher levels to upgrade.

  For the wedges I tried all wedges and decided to first go for the 64 degree wedge.

  I liked the L91 Max meter a lot (perhaps a little more spin). The ATV L89 (like my L39) has a speedincrease I personally liike less as meterspeed excellerates just before the ding, so I miss the ding.

  I bought the L80 Cleveland 60 yrds as it fits best with my current Ping 54/60 wedges which are 105 and 85 yrds and have great precision. The meterspeed of the Cleveland is even, so its easy to ding. The precision is pretty good. Probably the spin could have been a little less. So keeping my pings and adding the 64 Cleveland seemed best.

  So most credits are gone now and I have to save for the L95+ equipment :-)

   

• phred952 2,714 Posts

  Tue, Aug 15 2017 1:10 PM

  Glad things worked out Johan.  You will have to play with that 64* wedge to learn to control the spin.  Practice on several different greens, like Kiawah #1, which is fairly flat.  

  But also try one on Merion, like #4 or #5, so you can really see how the BS makes the ball run off the front of the green.  You will find that many shots have to be made with a fair amount of top spin to stop the ball from rolling back off the green.  Once you learn it, that club is deadly, especially on punch shots.

  Enjoy!!

   

• flatstick96 213 Posts

  Wed, Aug 16 2017 9:28 AM

  I'm in a similar boat now, at L91.  It will be a long time (and a lot of credits) before I can appreciably improve on the "second generation" of gear presently in my bag.  

  IMO, at this level it becomes more about the balls than anything else. I'm too cheap to shell out for expensive balls, so I've plateaued - and I'm OK with that.

  FWIW, my present gear (I like the 3.5 meter speed):

  Driver: L88 BB

  3W:  L81 Ping

  Irons: L83 Ping 

  Wedges: L39-42 ATV/Gorge blend

  Putter: L55 Daytona

  Balls: Tour-SD

  I'm pleased with all of these purchases. I do wish the irons had a little more spin, but since they did away with Nike there were no 3.5 meter irons with more spin than what I have.

  I've looked at "upgrading" the wedges several times, but just can't make up my mind.  I've gotten quite accustomed to the ones I have, and that familiarity counts for something.

• phred952 2,714 Posts

  Wed, Aug 16 2017 12:09 PM

  FYI, the Nike's are 4.0 meter speed, except for the L100 (reduced to L95) which are 3.5.  The L85 and L97 Callys are 4.2 and 3.7 for the L100 respectively.  The only irons available to you with more spin would be the Cally L85's with 3.5 spin and a 4.2 meter.  The TM Rsi2 L90 have 4.5 spin and a 3.0 meter speed.

  The Rsi2 set are great irons.  I played them for a while and made Legend with them.  Then I started having a swing timing problem due to a vision issue.  So I eventually went back to my L85 Nikes.  

  You might have to consider a ball with some slight + meter speed to compensate for the faster meter.  The GI-SD @ 112 credits would be 1 choice, as would the Srixon L11 @ 180 credits.  Once you reach Legend there are some WGT balls for Legend+ players that also might work.

  Better wedges might help your short game a lot, once you learned them.  i went from the L39 range ATV's to the top level Clevelands and the change was dramatic.  Once you learn how to play the spin they are great.

   I just rented the Mac Daddy wedges over the weekend, and while I noticed they might be a bit more accurate for me, I'm not sure it's enough difference to justify my purchase and going though the learning curve again.  Especially my swing timing is hit and miss some days.

  If you putt well with your Daytona, keep it.  Touch in a putter is very suggestive.  I've been using a Max Control Master+ putter for at least a year, as I like the meter choices.  It works better for me than both the L70 Versa and the L77 Nike.

  Just my experience, your results may vary.  LOL.

  Good Luck,

  phred952

• flatstick96 213 Posts

  Wed, Aug 16 2017 12:43 PM

  All of that is helpful, thanks.

  I thought I played against someone recently who had L85 Nike irons with a 3.5 meter speed, but I may be mistaken.  Wouldn't be the first time.