Boccieri Heavy Fairway Wood Testers Thread

Hey everybody I just woke up from my coma of a nap after having my tooth pulled, I had a nice email waiting for me and the answer is the face angle is suppose to be Square but there is a 1*+ or- tolerance, so i could very well have one thats 1* open. Thought I would share this before I take my pain meds and hit the bed again, cant wait to get back out and play this club.
 
Hey everybody I just woke up from my coma of a nap after having my tooth pulled, I had a nice email waiting for me and the answer is the face angle is suppose to be Square but there is a 1*+ or- tolerance, so i could very well have one thats 1* open. Thought I would share this before I take my pain meds and hit the bed again, cant wait to get back out and play this club.

Thanks for the update bud, that really clears things up. Hope you get to feelin better too.
 
Hey everybody I just woke up from my coma of a nap after having my tooth pulled, I had a nice email waiting for me and the answer is the face angle is suppose to be Square but there is a 1*+ or- tolerance, so i could very well have one thats 1* open. Thought I would share this before I take my pain meds and hit the bed again, cant wait to get back out and play this club.

Thanks 10Yard, appreciate that bit of info.
 
Alright, wanted to post up a quick writeup on my range session and league play tonight.

We've had a few questions about how the Boccieri Heavy Wood preform out of the rough, so I took part of the range where it's overgrown, and put it to the test.

Rough Test: Prior to today, I had hit the Heavy Wood from the rough once during a round, and was impressed by my results. But decided to put my one shot results with the 3W to the test to see how it would do.
Rather than just tee the ball up in the rough, I simulated a typical lie, with it sitting in the tall grass, rather then just fluffed up on top of it. Usually with a 3W (In my case, TaylorMade Superfast 3W), I have a difficult time hitting out of the rough with it, I believe the cause of that to be the size of the face/head, and getting caught up in the grass before making contact with the ball. With the Heavy Wood, the smaller face and club head felt as if it cut through the rough with ease, and make solid contact with the ball. Obviously, having less surface area to hit grass, would make for better contact with the ball. Hitting out of the rough, there was a significant loss of distance, which is bound to happen, but I was still seeing some great shots. Of course, I had a shot or two that was "chunked" but that was to be expected.

One of the most consistent things I noticed, was that I was getting a "pop up" launch on the ball flight when hitting from the rough. It was thick, so I felt that even though I was making decent contact, I was still getting under the ball. Although it was popping up, it was getting out of the tall grass very nicely, and was pleased with the performance of the club.

Typically, for me, when in the rough but still need good distance, I would hit my TM Rescue Mid 3 Hybrid. I hit it a few shots with my 3H, and found that rather than hitting my 3H, I was having more success hitting the Heavy Wood at about 3/4 swing, and the distance from the Boccieri at a 3/4 swing out of the rough, was longer than my 3H at a full swing in the rough. This was a great find, and really, really impressed me.

Overall, I was impressed on how the Heavy Wood preformed out of the rough lie. The smaller face/head of the Heavy Wood was easy to get through the thicker grass, especially compared to 3W's I have tried in the past. I am not overly concerned with the pop-up I was noticing, as I was still getting good distance with a straight ball path. Knowing that I can hit a 3W out of the rough at a 3/4 swing rather than really trying to crush my hybrid is something that, for me will really benefit my game in the future. In my experience when trying to swing a wood/hybrid too hard in the rough to get more distance, will usually result in a huge divot, and a poor shot.
 
Guys I just wanted to say that I've really been enjoying this testing. I happen to be pondering 3W's and this thread has my interest peaked. All of the testers have been doing a great job and giving me lots of food for thought. Thanks:cake:
 
Hit some more balls at the range, and it seems like the slice is gone, at least for now. It appears that the pronounced fades/slices I was seeing were just me, not because of the clubs design since it doesn't have an open face. My first shot with the heavy 3w was a hook. Then I got back to thinking smooth and easy, and hit some very nice shots, straight, or with just a touch of drawspin.

I then did a head to head out of the rough to see how the Boccieri 3w fared against my FL. The result was that I hit more good shots with the Boccieri than I did with own club. I hit 5 shots with each and had 3 out of five good ones with my club, while the heavy 3w produced four out of five good ones. All of the "good ones" I hit with the heavy 3w were higher than the ones I hit with mine. I still hit my 3w better overall, a tad longer and straighter from the fairway and off the tee, but I found the Boccieri easier to hit from the rough. The smaller head allowed me to hit shots from thicker rough than I could with mine as well. The head just glides through the rough, without losing a ton of distance, or getting caught up in the grass and twisting.

I also tried some shots choking down on the grip(as suggested by a reader), and from some mild side hill lies, with great results. The club swings and feels, when gripping down, just as good as it does with a normal grip. The side hill lies, ball about 4-6" above my feet, produced the expected draw to a mild hook. The back weighting did not seem to have any Ill effects when gripping down, nor was it even noticeable. This club handle whatever I throw at it, thus far.

I have to admit that pulling my 3w and using the Boccieri on the course kinda had me concerned that I might be struggling with a slice, but it's good to know that I won't be giving up anything by doing so. I was also concerned that the different swing feel of the heavy 3w might negatively affect me with my other clubs, again, no worries, it fits right in. A smooth controlled swing gets the best results for me using the heavy 3w, just every other club in my bag at the moment.
 
I got to the range last night before lights off and did some testing to try to respond to the forgiveness question that was asked a few pages ago.

In short, the BGHW is forgiving, however, I wouldn't say it is as forgiving as my friend's Cleveland FL but definitely more forgiving than my older Callaway X. If you go back to BamBooBender's post #99, you can see that the FL appears to be a bit larger and this comparison holds up in person. The FL seems like half of a driver compared with the more compact BGHW. The FL has more area to miss and be forgiving to you.

Of course all of this is purely subjective with no launch monitor to prove otherwise. For this little post: Good swings are on plane, nice tempo, etc. OK swings are a less than that, like a good tempo, but the swing place might be off. And a bad swing, is ... well, we all know what a bad swing is. Contact I'm referring to how well I have the club head going through the ball (not open or closed). And this is only the second time I've swung my friend's FL, so please take that all into account.

Good/OK/Bad Swing, Bad Contact: This is a big ball of suck. No amount of forgiveness can help this over-the-top, out of balance, overly open or closed club face scenario. :nono:

OK Swing, OK Contact: Again, I felt the FL had more usable forgiving space, I had more space to miss and still get a good result with the FL before I got to the extreme toe or heel contact. However, with in the confines of the smaller head of the BGHW, the ball flight was still pretty tasty with little drop off compared to on-center hits.

Good or OK Swings, Extreme ends contact: On the extremes, I did notice something interesting. If I was able to close the club face in time, extreme toe hits on the BGHW had this weird top-spin type flight. Like an Agassi forehand (or Nadal for you new schoolers). The ball looked like it was flying well, but then just plummeted to earth significantly short of what the ball flight suggested. I never saw that with the FL. It flew shorter than normal, but didn't look like someone shot a duck at the end. On the extreme heel, the BGHW had shorter than normal flight. The FL performed a little better for me on the heel. In both scenarios I preferred the feedback from the BGHW.

Good or OK Swing, Great Contact: Both performed well. I think the FL had a little better distance with the OK swing/great contact scenario and the BGHW did better when I put a Good Swing and Great Contact together. I did feel like the FL had some still left in the club.

CRUSHED IT: I had a hard time connecting with a 100% swing with the BGHW. When I did, I didn't really feel the result was worth the extra effort. However with the FL, if I put one together, great swing and hit it flush, wow. Just. Wow. The ball whizzed through the air after being hit. I thought the ball landed a good 10 yards longer as well. For me, swinging like this usually ends up with hitting trees and a very sore back the next day.

All in all, I'd still take the BGHW in a head-to-head competition. I feel, connected, to the BGHW when I swing. It is still early, and maybe this early dating stage will end disastrously, however, that back-weighting tech of Boccieri Golf does help me swing both more efficiently and consistently. It makes me want to get my hands on the Boccieri Golf hybrids and driver.

I hope to get on course soon and hopefully with another SoCal THPer.
 
played 18 last night, I have the exact details of the 3W at home but wanted to give a quick update now and will try and post the results from my phone later.

Played the front 9 with my current 3W...UGLY, was hitting them thin off of the tee, just bad bad bad
PLayed the Boccieri exclusively on the back 9, hit it way better than my Burner. While I wasnt pounding fairways, my misses were close. There were no big banana slices that I had experienced off and on before. The downside was that my distances seemed short yesterday, as I was getting anywhere from 215-225 off of the tee. The shots I had to take on the back 9 didnt really allow me to hit from the deck as I found myself in rough most of the night.

All in all, in a otherwise gllomy round in which I did seemingly nothing right, the Boccieri was the positive I could take from the round.

I'll try to update the details later
 
I enjoyed the thoughts on hitting the Heavy out of the rough. I know it's a different club, but I love the hybrid out of the rough. The idea of hitting the fairway out of it when you need a bit more distance is pretty intriguing guys.
 
CRUSHED IT: I had a hard time connecting with a 100% swing with the BGHW. When I did, I didn't really feel the result was worth the extra effort. However with the FL, if I put one together, great swing and hit it flush, wow. Just. Wow. The ball whizzed through the air after being hit. I thought the ball landed a good 10 yards longer as well. For me, swinging like this usually ends up with hitting trees and a very sore back the next day

Good stuff D! I find that trying to rip one as hard as I can often results in wasted effort as well, with any club. I need to get some custom swing thoughts bands that have the golfers KISS principle on them (Keep It Smooth Stupid!)

Those type of shots leave me with an aching back as well, which is one of the things that I really loved about the Ultralight series from Cleveland, much less strain on my aging back. The funny thing is the Boccieri 3w doesn't bother my back either, despite the fact that it weighs more. I don't think the back weighting was meant for for that, but it's a nice bonus.
 
played 18 last night, I have the exact details of the 3W at home but wanted to give a quick update now and will try and post the results from my phone later.

Played the front 9 with my current 3W...UGLY, was hitting them thin off of the tee, just bad bad bad
PLayed the Boccieri exclusively on the back 9, hit it way better than my Burner. While I wasnt pounding fairways, my misses were close. There were no big banana slices that I had experienced off and on before. The downside was that my distances seemed short yesterday, as I was getting anywhere from 215-225 off of the tee. The shots I had to take on the back 9 didnt really allow me to hit from the deck as I found myself in rough most of the night.

All in all, in a otherwise gllomy round in which I did seemingly nothing right, the Boccieri was the positive I could take from the round.

I'll try to update the details later

Maybe it's time to bench your 3w? Interested to see if the Boccieri 3w can help you out of your current funk. It is I believe advertised to help out a persons swing overall.
 
I enjoyed the thoughts on hitting the Heavy out of the rough. I know it's a different club, but I love the hybrid out of the rough. The idea of hitting the fairway out of it when you need a bit more distance is pretty intriguing guys.

Hitting a 3w from the rough may not be for everyone, an upright swing helps. I have no reservations about hitting a 3w from the rough, and the Boccieri 3w makes it even easier I think. From the rough, for me, it plays like a really strong 5w. Pretty handy way to make up some ground when I hit a poor drive on a par5.
 
Guys I just wanted to say that I've really been enjoying this testing. I happen to be pondering 3W's and this thread has my interest peaked. All of the testers have been doing a great job and giving me lots of food for thought. Thanks:cake:

Thanks Chunky, I will be slacking until this weekend since having my tooth pulled from it being so infected but plan on being back in full force by Sunday with a update. I think you should quit pondering and order one up, you wont regret it. I have also found the Heavy Wood to be great with a 3/4 swing out of the rough, I actually think its better when the ball is sitting down in it a little and not sitting up nice and high where there is a possibility of going under it and popping one up.
 
Typically, for me, when in the rough but still need good distance, I would hit my TM Rescue Mid 3 Hybrid. I hit it a few shots with my 3H, and found that rather than hitting my 3H, I was having more success hitting the Heavy Wood at about 3/4 swing, and the distance from the Boccieri at a 3/4 swing out of the rough, was longer than my 3H at a full swing in the rough. This was a great find, and really, really impressed me.

Overall, I was impressed on how the Heavy Wood preformed out of the rough lie. The smaller face/head of the Heavy Wood was easy to get through the thicker grass, especially compared to 3W's I have tried in the past. I am not overly concerned with the pop-up I was noticing, as I was still getting good distance with a straight ball path. Knowing that I can hit a 3W out of the rough at a 3/4 swing rather than really trying to crush my hybrid is something that, for me will really benefit my game in the future. In my experience when trying to swing a wood/hybrid too hard in the rough to get more distance, will usually result in a huge divot, and a poor shot.

It will be interesting to see how this goes for you bud, I have done that for a long time now. How deep of rough would you say you are comfortable hitting the heavy 3w out of?
 
Guys I just wanted to say that I've really been enjoying this testing. I happen to be pondering 3W's and this thread has my interest peaked. All of the testers have been doing a great job and giving me lots of food for thought. Thanks:cake:

Thanks Chunky! That means a lot coming from you. I have tried, and sometimes bought, clubs based on your reviews as well some other excellent testers on THP.
 
It will be interesting to see how this goes for you bud, I have done that for a long time now. How deep of rough would you say you are comfortable hitting the heavy 3w out of?

I really wish I could have taken pictures, but it was raining pretty good off and on and didnt want to soak the 1 day old camera.

I was hitting from some thick stuff, I would say it covering the top of my golf shoe. Obviously, I could still see the ball, but tried to simulate a rough lie as it would be from a tee shot, not just placed on top.
 
I really wish I could have taken pictures, but it was raining pretty good off and on and didnt want to soak the 1 day old camera.

I was hitting from some thick stuff, I would say it covering the top of my golf shoe. Obviously, I could still see the ball, but tried to simulate a rough lie as it would be from a tee shot, not just placed on top.

Sounds good, that's about as deep as I would normally ever go with a 3w. Just messing around at the range, when no one else was there, I tried some shots out of some really deep, like 8" rough, with mixed results. Not something I would be likely to do on the course, but I was able to advance the ball doing that, lost a lot of distance from the really deep stuff though.
 
I enjoyed the thoughts on hitting the Heavy out of the rough. I know it's a different club, but I love the hybrid out of the rough. The idea of hitting the fairway out of it when you need a bit more distance is pretty intriguing guys.

I need to give this a try and see if the heavier club rips through the rough better than my current one. Irhg tnow if its a decent lie, I hit 3W all the time, if not, then its 3H. But if this 3Q can cut through decent rough, then I welcome the extra yards
 
Well I was able to get out to the range as well yesterday. I actually took some video too which I will try to upload later (can't from work computer) and honestly seeing my swing is very embarrassing! Regardless, the range session was interesting. I did a quick stretch and jumped right into it with the 3w.

Honestly at first swing of the day if you don't think about it, I barely if at all noticed the Backweighting myself now. Its odd to me. I really think the Heavy name is deceptive and could turn off some just on preconceived notions. I hit 25 shots in a row off the deck. Being that I'm trying to fight an Over the Top move I pull faded quite a few, but after about 5 swings I found it VERY easy to make "Solid" contact. When I made solid contact the club just sounds awesome! As with 3wood off the deck I was trying to just pick the ball, and when solid contact was made the launch seemed pretty much middle of the road to me. Not high at all, with a nice arch and peak with just a touch of roll out at the end. According to range balls, range markers and internet golf I was consistently carrying 220 yards and rolling what appeared to me about 15-20 yards short of the 250 sign. So forgiveness is absolutely up there for me, with the pull fade I was probably ranging in dispersion across a about a 30 yard wide area. If it wasn't the pull fade, the dispersion was only about 5 yards wide. The ball flight all in all off the deck was very consistent though in regards to launch height and roll.

Off the tee, was a revelation for me. I teed it up to a couple different heights, what I call 1. short iron height; where the top of the tee is the only part above ground, what I call 2. long iron height; top plus a little. Of course as to be expected, this dramatically effected the launch angle. At this point I also played with the ball positioning in my stance just a little too.
1. Even with it barely teed up the ball launched absolutely at a high angle to me and landed much softer with little to no roll out. I was still able to carry about 210 I think max but obviously this is a very useful shot. I hit about 12 balls at this height and was much more consistent at the small fade with a dispersion of still about 10 yards left to right. But the difference in flight arch was pretty interesting.
2. With the ball tee'd up to this 2nd height, I found myself losing a lot of distance and the ball just being popped up more often than not. About 170 yards on average with backspin it seemed. If I brought the ball closer to center in my stance this started to flatten out a touch but I stopped teeing it up to this point after about 10 balls. The clubface being as small as it is and my affection of hitting most 3woods off the deck I'm sure doesn't help.

Of course with only having worked with the club 3x in this first week the jury is still out and I'm in the mixed category. I thought the backweighting would be noticeable as I transitioned to different clubs in my bag and that longterm this might be a good training tool or range swing groover while still being able to play it. At this point I've almost forgotten that the backweight is in there in a good way if that makes sense. I thought I might pine to have that system in place in my other clubs, particularly the longer Irons and metal woods.

"Our backweighting system will improve your body mechanics and increase the consistency of your stroke." I really like this thought process and I hope I'm not overthinking it all from my OTT swing to the backweight to tempo.

Ron, MileHigh, Niwotian and I are getting together tomorrow for a round and I'll definitely put this club in play... I'll try even more so on the tees where I can and long 2nds from the rough.
 
Nice update Spiff, I really feel like the weighting of this club helps maintain that smooth, consistent, tempoed swing through out the rest of the clubs.
 
Agreed, great update. I'm really starting to like the sound of this club. The backweighting really intrigues me. How do the other testers feel about noticing the backweighting? If it isn't noticeable then I'd love to give this club when it's available for lefties just to see how it affects my swing/ball flight. Great job testers!


---
- I wish golf was as easy as Tapatalk.
 
I'd have to say for me the backweighting is a non-issue. The club just feels "different" when you swing it and that is only for the first few warmup swings. Not heavier, not unbalanced.....just different in a positive way.
To me it feels as though it makes me put a better swing on the ball. I wish I could video my swing with my old 3w and the BH 3w and compare them. I would be willing to bet there is a difference.
The BH 3w doesn't slice or hook as much as my old 3w, more of a draw or fade instead. I attribute this to the more fluid, relaxed swing I can use with the BH. There's no need to try to "kill it" because if you do, there's not much advantage to it.
Hope that makes sense...
 
Back
Top