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Bridgestone J40 Review - THP Demo Day - Full Line

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THP Experiences
While at the 2012 THP Golf Outing & Demo Day, equipment was available from almost every club manufacturer around. A big part of the Ultimate Weekend of Golf is to be able to try things out both at the demo day as well as take them to the course for the weekend and see how they work for you.

Bridgestone was kind enough to send over their full line of equipment for people to test out. Here are the products that were on the range as part of the THP Demo Day.

J40 Driver
J40 FW
J40 Hybrid
J40 Dual Pocket Cavity
J40 Cavity Back
J40 Wedges

Looking forward to all the great feedback from everybody that got a chance to test these out.
 
oh man, I spent a lot of time with the cavity back irons. it put me in complete ponder mode. I LOVED how they felt! I also was hitting the PX 5.5 shafts, which are my new shaft of choice.

The J40 wedges got a lot of action from me, I am completely on the fence about them, they are much heavier than I was used to. They will take some getting used to.

I gamed the J40 driver all weekend and the more I gamed it the better I got with it. I did hit a 290 yard drive...but there was LOTS of helping wind, and I cut a corner...hahaha. I love the sound off that driver, it is a very muted sound but not too muted that you cant tell how you hit it.

I also spent some time on the range with the woods and hybrids. I do think I found myself more impressed with the hybrids, but...I was getting lessons at the time I was hitting the 3 wood. It is a solid wood with a lot of pop
 
PX 5.5's huh? Tell me more Overton. Did you just feel like you could get more out of them with a smoother swing? I also think those CB's are stunners. You thinking about going with those? Sorry for all the questions.
 
Oh snap!!!

J40 Hybrid:
Absolutely mashed this hybrid! Mid flight and just straight as an arrow. I was tellign War Eagle I couldve just gone stock on this and not missed a beat. It was forgiving on the toe (a theme to my misses) and I didnt get that dreaded pop up fat shot. When I did hit it fat, the club did its beast to keep the ball at a decent height and while I lost a lot of yardage it wasnt as bad as my current hybrid. The best hybrid head I hit all weekend in terms of overall package (looks at address, forgivess, sound.feel and ballflight).

J40 FW:
Another one that just blew me away. last time I swung the 4w was when I got to test an iron set and JB let me game the FW and Driver. Did not hit them well then but man, demo day was another story. A little bigger head than Im used too with the 3+ but man... off the turf, a nice mid/high ballflight that is straight and never moved for me. I dont know how far I hit but I didnt care, it was straigh, predictable and just a masher. Im anxiously awaiting my delivery and after hitting this at demo day, glad I went with all three. I could see all of them deadly off the tee and off the turf. I rarely tee a FW up if Im demoing and when i hit it off the turf it felt like I had tee'd it up. Forgiving across the face as well. I didnt pop one up so I cant speak to that but one of the easiest FW's I hit all weekend.

J40 CB's:
I had to take these out on the course for 4 rounds. initially I was thinking, man I wish Hadnt talked so much crap so I could game the DPC (after hitting them) but after hitting and gaming these.... Im sold. Sure you're not going to have ultra forgivness but honestly, if you had me hit them blind I wouldnt be able to tell a difference. Now they feel different at impact and sound different but thats about where it ends for me. A nice mid flight that rarely leaves the line you put it on. Soft almost not feel and sound on a good shot and boy do they rip through the turf with ease. Fat shots and thin shots are not rewarding but Ionly saw just a bit more distance loss than the i20's or ZStars. Off the toe it wasnt fun but I can live with a 10-30 yard loss as long as Im niot shooting over water haha. One thing I was worried about was the club twisting at impact on a toe shot and saw none of that. The perimeter weighting helps and man do these look awesome!
 
T the PX 5.5 and CB might be the iron... I saw you rip some nasty shots with these!

I guess I should talk about the driver?? Lol more when I get back from break!
 
TC said:
PX 5.5's huh? Tell me more Overton. Did you just feel like you could get more out of them with a smoother swing? I also think those CB's are stunners. You thinking about going with those? Sorry for all the questions.
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no problem, I saw a little higher ball flight with a very slight right to left flight. I didnt feel like I had to muscle up to get the ball to go. I was just making nice smooth swings and was getting great results. Tina got to witness all of this.
 
I was a big fan of the Bridgestone J40 irons at the demo day. I picked out the first 6 iron that had a Bridgestone logo that I could find and took some swings....high, straight ballflight, and really nice feel off of the clubface. I turned the club over after a few swings and I was swinging the CB! I couldn't believe it. I also hit a number of balls with the DPC iron and kept coming back to it. The Bridgestone guys that play the DPC irons in the Morgan Cup are going to be in for a real treat. This was also my first time hitting irons with the Project X Flighted shafts....for me, they performed so much better than the regular Project X, which feel awful in my hands. The pairing of the shaft and clubheads, especially in the DPC irons, are a great combination, and I hope that more people get to hit these irons in the future.

Just before one of the contests, I got a chance to hit the J40 16 degree fairway wood. I struggle to elevate fairway woods, so I like a nice 4 wood. I had no trouble at all getting this club in the air off of the deck, and the distance didn't seem to be lacking either. I'm not sure if the high flight was more due to the clubhead or the shaft (I think it was a PX 5.5 or 6.0?), but this would be an intriguing club for second shots into par 5's for me.

J40 wedge: Got to hit some short shots around the greens with this wedge, and then used the 54 degree model in the par 3 challenge (100 yard shot). The black finish is awesome, and the weighting with the DG Spinner shaft is good. I did struggle with some chunky shots with this wedge, but I think that is user error rather than the club. On the 100 yard shots, I missed all 3 shots to the left, which I'll also blame on myself instead of the club, but it was good to see that the club matched my distance with other wedges in that loft.

One thing about the entire Bridgestone line: if you are not into gaudy features on clubheads or lots of colors on your clubs, and you want a lot of performance packed into a classy package, these are the clubs for you.
 
One-T said:
no problem, I saw a little higher ball flight with a very slight right to left flight. I didnt feel like I had to muscle up to get the ball to go. I was just making nice smooth swings and was getting great results. Tina got to witness all of this.
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How would you compare the CB/5.5 distance to your J38/6.0 distances?
 
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I will start with the DPC Irons. I thought they might have been the best irons at the entire demo day (and that includes almost every iron on the market). They have just enough forgiveness with the perfect weighting to create a club that helps in so many ways. The flight is not too high, but just high enough to give me the perfect carry. The leading edge is just sharp enough to not bounce, but not too sharp and helps prevent digging.

I thought that these were some of the best irons out there and I know most of the people at the demo day felt the same way. What they offer is the total package in a game enhancement iron that still offers quite a bit of forgiveness.
 
TC said:
How would you compare the CB/5.5 distance to your J38/6.0 distances?
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not sure bro, I had no idea what the distances on the range were
 
One-T said:
no problem, I saw a little higher ball flight with a very slight right to left flight. I didnt feel like I had to muscle up to get the ball to go. I was just making nice smooth swings and was getting great results. Tina got to witness all of this.
Click to expand...


I did witness dude. Playing a softer flex would help you just be able to smooth the ball and if you're smoothing the swing its not gonna matter if you hit a 5i or 7i, you're gonna be hitting the ball better.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk
 
Aaargh, I wanna hit these bad...
 
JB said:
I will start with the DPC Irons. I thought they might have been the best irons at the entire demo day (and that includes almost every iron on the market). They have just enough forgiveness with the perfect weighting to create a club that helps in so many ways. The flight is not too high, but just high enough to give me the perfect carry. The leading edge is just sharp enough to not bounce, but not too sharp and helps prevent digging.

I thought that these were some of the best irons out there and I know most of the people at the demo day felt the same way. What they offer is the total package in a game enhancement iron that still offers quite a bit of forgiveness.
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see, I have to agree. although I loved the CB's I honestly dont want to move away from the DPC's. and in all honesty, I will go DPC with the 5.5's
 
arydolphin said:
I was a big fan of the Bridgestone J40 irons at the demo day. I picked out the first 6 iron that had a Bridgestone logo that I could find and took some swings....high, straight ballflight, and really nice feel off of the clubface. I turned the club over after a few swings and I was swinging the CB! I couldn't believe it. I also hit a number of balls with the DPC iron and kept coming back to it. The Bridgestone guys that play the DPC irons in the Morgan Cup are going to be in for a real treat. This was also my first time hitting irons with the Project X Flighted shafts....for me, they performed so much better than the regular Project X, which feel awful in my hands. The pairing of the shaft and clubheads, especially in the DPC irons, are a great combination, and I hope that more people get to hit these irons in the future.

Just before one of the contests, I got a chance to hit the J40 16 degree fairway wood. I struggle to elevate fairway woods, so I like a nice 4 wood. I had no trouble at all getting this club in the air off of the deck, and the distance didn't seem to be lacking either. I'm not sure if the high flight was more due to the clubhead or the shaft (I think it was a PX 5.5 or 6.0?), but this would be an intriguing club for second shots into par 5's for me.

J40 wedge: Got to hit some short shots around the greens with this wedge, and then used the 54 degree model in the par 3 challenge (100 yard shot). The black finish is awesome, and the weighting with the DG Spinner shaft is good. I did struggle with some chunky shots with this wedge, but I think that is user error rather than the club. On the 100 yard shots, I missed all 3 shots to the left, which I'll also blame on myself instead of the club, but it was good to see that the club matched my distance with other wedges in that loft.

One thing about the entire Bridgestone line: if you are not into gaudy features on clubheads or lots of colors on your clubs, and you want a lot of performance packed into a classy package, these are the clubs for you.
Click to expand...


Ary I felt the same about the non flighted PX but once I got into the right flex non flighted PX it felt so much smoother.

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And like Amol said, the simplistic designs and aesthetics are modern, but classic. Great looking lineup of golf clubs right here.
 
If you look at the specs, the CB's have a bit more bounce than the DPC's. I felt the CB's dug less for my swing.

The wedges were great from the 10 swings I took. Freddie had me hitting it high, straight with no movement. Loved the thump at impact.

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I hit the J40 14° fairway wood, and both sets of irons - CB and DPC.

I honestly didn't love the fairway wood. It's just a little more club than I can really handle. Seeing some others hit it showed me that the right swing could work some magic with it, but I just hit some poor shots with it. I will say that JB was cracking it it farther than I'll probably ever hit a driver.

The second irons I hit on demo day were the J40 DPC's with the PX 5.5 Flighted. Hard not to really like these irons. The dual pocket was smaller than I expected. They really just looked like little indentations to me. The blade was slightly oversized and I don't recall much in the way of offset. Ball flight was mid/high (for me) and distance was right where I'd expect. Loved the shaft/head combo for both ball flight and feel.


On Saturday afternoon I shared the J40 CB/PX 5.5 combo with Yoccos for 18 holes. Have to say that these were a top iron for me. I was able to use them for what would end up being my best round of the weekend. I thought they were extremely smooth swinging, soft at impact, and just about a perfect ball flight to my eyes. I didn't feel like the shaft was something I was forced to hammer on to get results. Also found some nice accuracy (for me). I'd play these in a heartbeat. They may not be as forgiving as the DPC's, but I thought they were easy to work with. Amazing looking iron too. Out of all the irons I played on-course over the weekend (3 sets), these were my favorite and I hit them the best. I also hit Tmex's i20/Modus combo and the results weren't close for me.


As a side note - I watched 3 different Bridgestone staffers with their J40 drivers during golf rounds and all of them were getting some awesome results. Tmex's Saturday afternoon driver performance was legendary.
 
I focused mostly on wedges during the demo day since my current 52 and 58 are a couple years old. I'd heard a lot about the J40's and had chipped with them once back in December with Freddie.

After hitting full shots, pitch shots, chips shots, bunker shots, and a bunch of in between shots from Friday to Sunday afternoon, I am in love with these wedges. The head has got some weight to it, which makes it easy for me to continue moving through the shot. The grooves are either really aggressive, or the DG Spinner shaft is adding several hundred extra RPM to the ball or both? I was hitting touch shots that were doing exactly what I wanted instead of what I was hoping would happen. The only two bad shots I hit with the wedge were user error and misjudging distance.

The only "complaint" I had was I grabbed the satin one instead of the black oxide. That's not too fun in the Florida clear sky when the sun's right above you.
 
I currently game the J40 DPCs, but I like them so much, I hit them again at Demo Day. Love those irons!

I took some swings with the CBs, I think Yoccos was watching me do some work with them. Let's just say I have better results with the DPCs.

The J40 Driver was without a doubt one of the top 2 drivers I hit. I was hitting it very well, and for me to hit a straight shot with a driver is a miracle. But the J40 kept them straight and long, with a penetrating ball flight. Wasnt the highest ball flight, but that's not typical of me anyway. Really liked the driver, and seeing as how I played several rounds with Bridgestone MC Staffers, watching them bomb this thing was quite impressive as well.

J40 wedges, beautiful. Love that it comes stock with the DG Spinner. For the Par 3 Challenge I went with the 54* J40 wedge. It was just over 100 yards, and I went with a 75% swing. Cut through the turf with ease, and just had a great feel. Results on that contest for me were solid, 2 hit the green (not close enough to the pin to win), and the 3rd shot was pin high, just left of the green. I gamed the 54* and 58* J40 wedges throughout the weekend, and having the 58* to use out of the bunkers was great. Had comfort with opening the face from the bunker to get out of some of the deep ones and still land soft. Probably the best I have ever played from the sand was with the J40s.
 
J40 Driver and I made a lot of progress over the weekend. For the most part I hit it very well. Distance was good compared to other clubs on the market. Really like the sound when hitting it.

J40 Wedges - spent a boatload of time with these over on the par 3 and around the green. I'm more than ready for Bridgestone to take my order, the black oxide will be in my bag. Really liked the feel I got from them around the green and on those 35-40 yard pitch shots. Out of the sand I used the 58 and it was alright. I will need time to get to a good comfort zone with them. Tough to tell spin when you are using range balls, but with the spinner shaft I think they offer a good amount.

J40 DPC's - still near the top of my iron list and this demo day confirmed it. Was using the PX 5.5 flighted shaft, and while it might not be the shaft I end up using in the MC, I think they are paired nicely together. The club has some forgiveness and great weighting and produces a strong high ball flight.

J40 CB - Yoccos I would consider these for my bag, even if Cookie tells me I can't play them hehe. Really I was surprised by these, the last time I hit them I didn't care much for them. But hitting them off the turf just after the rain shower I saw some good results. Could I carry those results throughout a full round, I'm not sure. But when you hit these good they feel great.

J40 Hybrid - my first time ever trying it and I must say I'm dying for mine to arrive. I was real comfortable hitting it. While the ball didn't jump up in the air for me the way other hybrids did, I thought the results were very good with it. It was pleasing to look at and set up nicely. Really looking forward to spending more time with these in the very near future.
 
Hawk said:
I hit the J40 14° fairway wood, and both sets of irons - CB and DPC.

I honestly didn't love the fairway wood. It's just a little more club than I can really handle. Seeing some others hit it showed me that the right swing could work some magic with it, but I just hit some poor shots with it. I will say that JB was cracking it it farther than I'll probably ever hit a driver.

The second irons I hit on demo day were the J40 DPC's with the PX 5.5 Flighted. Hard not to really like these irons. The dual pocket was smaller than I expected. They really just looked like little indentations to me. The blade was slightly oversized and I don't recall much in the way of offset. Ball flight was mid/high (for me) and distance was right where I'd expect. Loved the shaft/head combo for both ball flight and feel.


On Saturday afternoon I shared the J40 CB/PX 5.5 combo with Yoccos for 18 holes. Have to say that these were a top iron for me. I was able to use them for what would end up being my best round of the weekend. I thought they were extremely smooth swinging, soft at impact, and just about a perfect ball flight to my eyes. I didn't feel like the shaft was something I was forced to hammer on to get results. Also found some nice accuracy (for me). I'd play these in a heartbeat. They may not be as forgiving as the DPC's, but I thought they were easy to work with. Amazing looking iron too. Out of all the irons I played on-course over the weekend (3 sets), these were my favorite and I hit them the best. I also hit Tmex's i20/Modus combo and the results weren't close for me.


As a side note - I watched 3 different Bridgestone staffers with their J40 drivers during golf rounds and all of them were getting some awesome results. Tmex's Saturday afternoon driver performance was legendary.
Click to expand...


Hawk you hit the hell out of the CB's. Seriously and I thought you hit them with a good flight and smooth swing. You were dailed in and more time wouldve allowed you to find the right distance.

Man, the J40 and DI-6 combo is the best feeling and probably the most accurate driver I've hit. You can slice it but if you put a smooth swing or hard swing and get the ball going on a line it doesn't move. I like being able to go after the ball or not. Just can't be lazy.

I'm not sure its the longest or highest launching driver I've hit but there is only one driver that I'm even considering up there with it.

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Dean, all joking aside if I can have awesome results 4 rounds with the CB's.. Then you can too. I rarely had a bad shot and really only missed because I didn't have the distances nailed down. No joke and its outing approved feedback.

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These irons opened my eyes to the PX flighted in a big way. What a great combo. They blew me away, especially compared to the irons I gamed Sunday.
 
Yoccos said:
Dean, all joking aside if I can have awesome results 4 rounds with the CB's.. Then you can too. I rarely had a bad shot and really only missed because I didn't have the distances nailed down. No joke and its outing approved feedback.

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Hawk said:
These irons opened my eyes to the PX flighted in a big way. What a great combo. They blew me away, especially compared to the irons I gamed Sunday.
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why are you guys doing this to me??? haha
 
Yoccos said:
Dean, all joking aside if I can have awesome results 4 rounds with the CB's.. Then you can too. I rarely had a bad shot and really only missed because I didn't have the distances nailed down. No joke and its outing approved feedback.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk
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well when I warmed up with you for Saturdays round I hit them good on the range. I won't lie, it's made me do a little more thinking than I planned on doing. Though watching WE hit the DPC irons Sat afternoon may have swayed me back to the DPC
 
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