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As we had mentioned in the Future of Forum Testing thread we want to better educate the current and future testers on what THP, the companies, and your fellow readers are looking for when you test equipment. I have asked the loyal forum members to send me examples of posts they felt were educational, informative, and something they would like to see done again.
I want to stress that this is not a thread to tell you how to do your testing but merely an example thread to show you what people are looking for to better help you be a superstar tester. I do not want to see people copy and paste what they see here and just put their own info, I still want to see individual creativity but maybe have these posts as a reference.
Anytime you see a person who makes a post in a testing thread that you think deserves recognition, FIRST always post in that thread and tell them. The more feedback we give the testers the better job they will do, which in turn makes THP and the companies happy and only helps promote future testing. After you comment in that thread come in here and share that thread with us so current and future testers can see what you are enjoying.
One thing I want to stress about being a tester is that being a 'good' tester means having a solid balance of both quality and quantity posts. Meaning you should be posting often with detail in each post. Not "I played 9 today, the clubs are great/terrible". Also, NEVER be afraid to dislike a club, they are not going to be for everyone. All we ever ask is that you offer honest, clear, detailed reviews.
Now to the examples. I will put them in spoilers to make them easier to see.
Example 1:
Video update: still trying to load video from earlier today. YouTube has completed 75% twice then died and Photo Bucket got to 13% and stopped. Trying YouTube again now. Video is about 5 minutes long and 375 MB (HD). I will place video in this thread as well as my first post in this for ease of finding as soon as it decides to upload - my apologies for the delay.
RANGE SESSION 1 UPDATE:
Hey everyone, just got back from my 1st range session with the new irons. Overall, I am fairly pleased with how things went - about as I expected with no big surprises. Entire session was hitting straight into a 10-15 MPH south wind.
Initial Impression throughout set:
- These clubs look amazing. They are sleek with what is for me a very minimal topline compared to what I am used to.
- They look so good that they instill confidence and you feel like you are going to hit a good shot.
- The shafts (especially towards the grip) are noticeably thicker in diameter than what I am used to.
I started off hitting about 5-7 PW shots with my old clubs to get a sense of feel, trajectory, and distance. I then moved onto the Nike's. My first thought is "these feel great". Very smooth through impact with similar trajectory to my old PW but they are about 10 yards shorter on average. I expected this going in because of the loft differences (the VR Pro Combo's are about 3 degrees weaker through the set than my Cobra S9's).
I then moved onto the 7 iron and did the same thing, hit old club first and then the Nike. I saw a similar distance loss of approximately 10 yards. The ball climbed very quickly for me - but did not balloon. It just climbed and carried at that height for what seemed like awhile. I am already a high ball hitter so this was not a surprise to me either. After watching the trajectory, I made a concerted attempt to hit more of a punch shot with a 3/4 swing and was able to do that with ease. When I mishit a shot with these split cavity irons, I immediately knew it and could tell by the sound and vibration through my hands. When I would catch a shot "flush", I felt none of that.
I then proceeded to jump down to the 4 iron. I hit my old one first and then the Nike. This is where I really started to notice a different in ball flight and line. Every swing with my old club was either straight down the range or a fade (not to the slice point yet). The Nike was DEAD straight but about 10 yards left of the middle of the range. I did not notice it as much with the higher lofted clubs but did more on the 3 and 4 irons. I got curious about swing weight (which I do not know much about) and balanced each 4 iron in a hand and determined that the balance point on the Nike is about 1 inch - 1 1/2 inches further up the shaft (towards the grip). Does that have something to do with the ball flight/alignment? The ball flight was lower than my Cobra but now low by any means - probably getting up to about 120 feet at max height.
I do not even have a 3 iron in my old set but decided to go ahead and hit 3 iron off the deck which I have not done in a LONG time. Mixed results here - hit the first few fat and then got into a good rhythm and was hitting some very straight (but still left of middle of range) and carrying about 190 or so. One thing I did notice is that on the long irons I was consistently hitting the ball off of the toe but still seeing good results. On the mishits, I felt it here more than any other club in the set. Not only was there a harsh vibration in my hands but the ball got up to about 25 feet in the air and carried about 100 yards.
Overall thoughts after 1st range session:
- Love the responsiveness of the irons. I immediately know where I missed it on the club.
- PW gives a great high launch and I could tell I was putting some spin on that bad boy - I think it will be my favorite club in the bag when all is said and done.
- Mishits throughout the set are immediately felt. While I lost distance on mishits in my long irons, I think that is a trade off where as a mishit in a hybrid for me did not stay straight; it was either right or left. Personally, I would rather be 50-60 yards short on a mishit than flag high and 30 yards right.
- After swinging the Nike's and then going back to the Cobra, one thought popped into my head - now I see where this "shovel" term comes from. That's how big the Cobra's feel after hitting the Nike's. While the width is the same, this is the impression given from the topline and cavity back that can be seen at address.
- Grips are good. Not great, but not terrible. I could see eventually swapping out the stock grips.
Keep in mind that I am coming from graphite shafts so I may feel mishits more than others moving to steel shafts. Hope the above is readable - page full of notes that I was trying to make sense of!
Questions - please ask away!!
Thanks again to THP and Nike Golf for this opportunity - these babies are my gamers and will be for a long time, just have to spend a bunch more quality time together. Below are a few pics from today on the range:
Iron Covers for my new babies:
7 iron impact area - hitting it where I wanted to:
3 iron impact area - everything off the toe:
3 iron at address - just wants to attack the ball!
Example #2
I want to stress that this is not a thread to tell you how to do your testing but merely an example thread to show you what people are looking for to better help you be a superstar tester. I do not want to see people copy and paste what they see here and just put their own info, I still want to see individual creativity but maybe have these posts as a reference.
Anytime you see a person who makes a post in a testing thread that you think deserves recognition, FIRST always post in that thread and tell them. The more feedback we give the testers the better job they will do, which in turn makes THP and the companies happy and only helps promote future testing. After you comment in that thread come in here and share that thread with us so current and future testers can see what you are enjoying.
One thing I want to stress about being a tester is that being a 'good' tester means having a solid balance of both quality and quantity posts. Meaning you should be posting often with detail in each post. Not "I played 9 today, the clubs are great/terrible". Also, NEVER be afraid to dislike a club, they are not going to be for everyone. All we ever ask is that you offer honest, clear, detailed reviews.
Now to the examples. I will put them in spoilers to make them easier to see.
Example 1:
Spoiler
Video update: still trying to load video from earlier today. YouTube has completed 75% twice then died and Photo Bucket got to 13% and stopped. Trying YouTube again now. Video is about 5 minutes long and 375 MB (HD). I will place video in this thread as well as my first post in this for ease of finding as soon as it decides to upload - my apologies for the delay.
RANGE SESSION 1 UPDATE:
Hey everyone, just got back from my 1st range session with the new irons. Overall, I am fairly pleased with how things went - about as I expected with no big surprises. Entire session was hitting straight into a 10-15 MPH south wind.
Initial Impression throughout set:
- These clubs look amazing. They are sleek with what is for me a very minimal topline compared to what I am used to.
- They look so good that they instill confidence and you feel like you are going to hit a good shot.
- The shafts (especially towards the grip) are noticeably thicker in diameter than what I am used to.
I started off hitting about 5-7 PW shots with my old clubs to get a sense of feel, trajectory, and distance. I then moved onto the Nike's. My first thought is "these feel great". Very smooth through impact with similar trajectory to my old PW but they are about 10 yards shorter on average. I expected this going in because of the loft differences (the VR Pro Combo's are about 3 degrees weaker through the set than my Cobra S9's).
I then moved onto the 7 iron and did the same thing, hit old club first and then the Nike. I saw a similar distance loss of approximately 10 yards. The ball climbed very quickly for me - but did not balloon. It just climbed and carried at that height for what seemed like awhile. I am already a high ball hitter so this was not a surprise to me either. After watching the trajectory, I made a concerted attempt to hit more of a punch shot with a 3/4 swing and was able to do that with ease. When I mishit a shot with these split cavity irons, I immediately knew it and could tell by the sound and vibration through my hands. When I would catch a shot "flush", I felt none of that.
I then proceeded to jump down to the 4 iron. I hit my old one first and then the Nike. This is where I really started to notice a different in ball flight and line. Every swing with my old club was either straight down the range or a fade (not to the slice point yet). The Nike was DEAD straight but about 10 yards left of the middle of the range. I did not notice it as much with the higher lofted clubs but did more on the 3 and 4 irons. I got curious about swing weight (which I do not know much about) and balanced each 4 iron in a hand and determined that the balance point on the Nike is about 1 inch - 1 1/2 inches further up the shaft (towards the grip). Does that have something to do with the ball flight/alignment? The ball flight was lower than my Cobra but now low by any means - probably getting up to about 120 feet at max height.
I do not even have a 3 iron in my old set but decided to go ahead and hit 3 iron off the deck which I have not done in a LONG time. Mixed results here - hit the first few fat and then got into a good rhythm and was hitting some very straight (but still left of middle of range) and carrying about 190 or so. One thing I did notice is that on the long irons I was consistently hitting the ball off of the toe but still seeing good results. On the mishits, I felt it here more than any other club in the set. Not only was there a harsh vibration in my hands but the ball got up to about 25 feet in the air and carried about 100 yards.
Overall thoughts after 1st range session:
- Love the responsiveness of the irons. I immediately know where I missed it on the club.
- PW gives a great high launch and I could tell I was putting some spin on that bad boy - I think it will be my favorite club in the bag when all is said and done.
- Mishits throughout the set are immediately felt. While I lost distance on mishits in my long irons, I think that is a trade off where as a mishit in a hybrid for me did not stay straight; it was either right or left. Personally, I would rather be 50-60 yards short on a mishit than flag high and 30 yards right.
- After swinging the Nike's and then going back to the Cobra, one thought popped into my head - now I see where this "shovel" term comes from. That's how big the Cobra's feel after hitting the Nike's. While the width is the same, this is the impression given from the topline and cavity back that can be seen at address.
- Grips are good. Not great, but not terrible. I could see eventually swapping out the stock grips.
Keep in mind that I am coming from graphite shafts so I may feel mishits more than others moving to steel shafts. Hope the above is readable - page full of notes that I was trying to make sense of!
Questions - please ask away!!
Thanks again to THP and Nike Golf for this opportunity - these babies are my gamers and will be for a long time, just have to spend a bunch more quality time together. Below are a few pics from today on the range:
Iron Covers for my new babies:
7 iron impact area - hitting it where I wanted to:
3 iron impact area - everything off the toe:
3 iron at address - just wants to attack the ball!
Example #2
Spoiler
OK THPers. I received my Yonex EZONE Hybrid, 19 degree stiff in the mail this past weekend. Since receiving it I have hit about 50 balls with it at the range and played 36 holes with it in the bag. My initial thoughts are below the pics.
Background information: I firmly believe that in order for a review to be effective, readers must be given candid information so that you may know how my experience with the club could be biased, specific to my swing, etc etc. I have had a hybrid in the bag for about 6+ years. For a significant portion of that time I have played Adams hybrids. With hybrids, I prefer a mid to high ball flight and a club that is versatile in various situations.
Looks: A- I really like the looks of this club. The head is compact enough to appear that it can be used in various situations, yet big enough to make you feel you have the freedom (and corresponding forgiveness) to put some umpff behind it on a par 5. The head has an appearance to it that makes me feel it will perform best off the tee and in the fairway (see below for actual performance). I like the red shaft and how it pops with color. While I like the top part of the head cover, I am not a big fan of the sleeve section (hence the A-). I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the silver section extending onto the crown, but after playing with it, I grew to like it and, actually, think it may encourage good swing characteristics.
Feel in Hand. B+ The club feels fairly light in hand, yet the shaft feels stable enough to provide some confidence at setup. The grip is fairly standard rubber grip, which is a personal thing, but not my favorite. The club is a bit shorter than I am used to and, due to the lightness, encourages me to be a tad late in my release. This was simply something that I needed to get used to through the first range session. After about 20 balls I got the hang of it, but I was still thinking about it when I was at setup. I have a feeling that when I update this in future sessions, I will be more than comfortable with the shorter shaft and lightness.
Sound. A+. I love the sound of this club. You know it when you connect, and it is beautiful.
Feel at Impact: A Same as above. Feels great when you hit it in the center of the club face.
Performance on Tee: A+. On the course I used this off the tee on 4 holes and hit several shots on the tee at the range. I loved its performance on the tee. Nice mid to high ball flight (and could hit stinger if wanted). Great distance and was going pretty much where I wanted it. It was very predictable and that is exactly what I want on the tee.
Performance on Fairway: A. Thought it performed well on the short grass. I took two approaches with my swing from the fairway: 1) iron swing and 2) FW swing. The fairway wood swing saw good and predictable results. The shot shape was desirable, but I couldn't get the ball quite as high as I would typically like. The iron type swing provided a much higher ball flight for me, but due to the steeper swing and bit less release, I had a slight fade with this swing. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it was getting great distance and holding the green.
Performance in Rough. B. On the first cut it performed similar to the fairway performance above. In the thick rough I got best results when the ball was laying in the middle of the grass (neither laying on top or imbedded in the rough). In those situations I was able to easily hack it out with good ball flight and distance. If the ball was low in the grass, I had much difficulty getting the ball to carry far, but I got significant roll out. If sitting high on the grass, I was hitting quite high on the face and not getting as much distance. This may be due more to me being unfamiliar with the club at this point.
Specialty shots: A+. I used this from a weird spot about 20 feet of the green on very short cut grass leading up to the green. I used it for a "hybrid chip" and rolled it to about 4 feet from the pin. I tried it again and rolled it to about 5 feet from the pin. I also tried the same shot with a putter, wedge and 7 iron. The hybrid definitely got me the closest to the pin.
Third party interest: A-. At the range and course, numerous people asked me about the club. Some wanted to know more about Yonex. Others specifically mentioned Monty, Ryo, etc. Was pretty fun and interesting to hear people's thoughts on the company.
Background information: I firmly believe that in order for a review to be effective, readers must be given candid information so that you may know how my experience with the club could be biased, specific to my swing, etc etc. I have had a hybrid in the bag for about 6+ years. For a significant portion of that time I have played Adams hybrids. With hybrids, I prefer a mid to high ball flight and a club that is versatile in various situations.
Looks: A- I really like the looks of this club. The head is compact enough to appear that it can be used in various situations, yet big enough to make you feel you have the freedom (and corresponding forgiveness) to put some umpff behind it on a par 5. The head has an appearance to it that makes me feel it will perform best off the tee and in the fairway (see below for actual performance). I like the red shaft and how it pops with color. While I like the top part of the head cover, I am not a big fan of the sleeve section (hence the A-). I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the silver section extending onto the crown, but after playing with it, I grew to like it and, actually, think it may encourage good swing characteristics.
Feel in Hand. B+ The club feels fairly light in hand, yet the shaft feels stable enough to provide some confidence at setup. The grip is fairly standard rubber grip, which is a personal thing, but not my favorite. The club is a bit shorter than I am used to and, due to the lightness, encourages me to be a tad late in my release. This was simply something that I needed to get used to through the first range session. After about 20 balls I got the hang of it, but I was still thinking about it when I was at setup. I have a feeling that when I update this in future sessions, I will be more than comfortable with the shorter shaft and lightness.
Sound. A+. I love the sound of this club. You know it when you connect, and it is beautiful.
Feel at Impact: A Same as above. Feels great when you hit it in the center of the club face.
Performance on Tee: A+. On the course I used this off the tee on 4 holes and hit several shots on the tee at the range. I loved its performance on the tee. Nice mid to high ball flight (and could hit stinger if wanted). Great distance and was going pretty much where I wanted it. It was very predictable and that is exactly what I want on the tee.
Performance on Fairway: A. Thought it performed well on the short grass. I took two approaches with my swing from the fairway: 1) iron swing and 2) FW swing. The fairway wood swing saw good and predictable results. The shot shape was desirable, but I couldn't get the ball quite as high as I would typically like. The iron type swing provided a much higher ball flight for me, but due to the steeper swing and bit less release, I had a slight fade with this swing. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it was getting great distance and holding the green.
Performance in Rough. B. On the first cut it performed similar to the fairway performance above. In the thick rough I got best results when the ball was laying in the middle of the grass (neither laying on top or imbedded in the rough). In those situations I was able to easily hack it out with good ball flight and distance. If the ball was low in the grass, I had much difficulty getting the ball to carry far, but I got significant roll out. If sitting high on the grass, I was hitting quite high on the face and not getting as much distance. This may be due more to me being unfamiliar with the club at this point.
Specialty shots: A+. I used this from a weird spot about 20 feet of the green on very short cut grass leading up to the green. I used it for a "hybrid chip" and rolled it to about 4 feet from the pin. I tried it again and rolled it to about 5 feet from the pin. I also tried the same shot with a putter, wedge and 7 iron. The hybrid definitely got me the closest to the pin.
Third party interest: A-. At the range and course, numerous people asked me about the club. Some wanted to know more about Yonex. Others specifically mentioned Monty, Ryo, etc. Was pretty fun and interesting to hear people's thoughts on the company.